Snow in Astana!

     Here I am, freezy Astana!

Ready for the 16 floors jog! :D

     I had a nice trip from Chisinau to Astana through Wien. It's been a 1h 40 min flight from Chisinau to Wien    and another 5 hours flight from Wien to Astana. The time difference with Moldova and Romania is +4 hours, so it's 11 am here. The city is brand new from what I've noticed from the bus; it looks for me as a  much bigger Khanty-Mansiysk. Well, it's just a quick impression, so don't judge me too harsh- I guess I'll be able to tell much more about it in some days.

My room

     I've met almost all the team in Wien, they were flying from Bucharest (Carmen from Dusseldorf). I've met Alina only at breakfast (she arrived from Amsterdam through Kiev). I am very happy to be surrounded by chess players (most of them being friends) again. The atmosphere seems to be very nice in here. Though it's only -7 degrees outside, our rooms have got a special "sauna effect", I guess that the people in Kazakhstan don't like the cold weather :))) The hotel is pretty cool, everyone's got single rooms and they are huuuge! The only minus is that the wellness center doesn't have a free entrance. All we (the chess players) can get is a 50% disscount, which leaves a pretty high price anyways... What a pity! I guess I will just jog  from the 1st floor to the 16th :))) The internet seems to be a high-speed one, so I will be very active on the blog! (I Hope that I will be in a good mood to post too :)))
     Today is the arrival day- the 1st round is going to be tomorrow, at 3 pm local time. I plan to relax all the day long, don't think that I'll go for any walks, maybe only for dinner.

     What other news can I tell you? Well, I've found out that I'm going to play on the 2nd board, though initially it had to be the 3rd one- not that it matters too much- all the teams are strong and dangerous- no matter of the board order. I've had a "non-eventful" half year from the "chess point of view", so I have no idea how the tournament might go for me, but I hope I'll do well. It's important to feel comfortable and to enjoy the atmosphere and I've got it, so I think it should all go well.

Astana- view from the window

xoxo from Astana ;)