55. Stage 'Taraz, Kazakhstan'

Today was another very interesting day. The weather was good, the roads were good, and the landscape around me was wonderful. These must have been the reasons why I managed to reach Taraz today without any effort. The day began with a truly nice event. At a traffic light, a car drove up beside me, which I don't really like. The driver opened the side window and said something about 'for gas and oil and from Kazakhstan', and handed me the equivalent of 10€. I was completely stunned and embarrassed. I couldn't convince the man that it wasn't necessary without offending him. Upon arriving at the hotel at my destination, I was approached by an older lady speaking German, or rather perfect Swabian. She wanted to know where in Germany I was from. As our conversation progressed, it turned out that the lady was born in Taraz as a so-called 'Russian German', grew up there, and went to Germany with the dissolution of the Soviet Union. She is here with her three adult children, whom she wants to show where she used to live. Later in the evening, we met again and continued the conversation with her children. A really interesting day.