airports

Had a comment/question posted about spending time at the airport between flights ...

I think the reference was to Almaty's airport. It's a different experience, for sure. The airport is small ... but also a very different kind of terminal than I'm used to here in the States. Everyone waits in a central location until the flight is ready to board, then the officials open a door, where there's a mad rush to the front, where they check passports/tickets and you're off down a hallway to your gate. Announcements are in 3 languages, one being English (the others Russian and Kazak, I presumed). The departure boards are in 2 languages - one being English, which helps.

It's a bit confusing the first time. They also control the timing of who can get in to the ticketing area ... a certain amount of time before flights and they announce that you can go in ... maybe 1.5 hours ahead of boarding? I'm not sure. Then you go through passport control before entering the waiting area. Outside the ticketing area there's the luggage scanning area and shopping (also some shopping inside the waiting area).

Amsterdam, of course, is much, much larger and there's lots of options for shopping and eating and even leaving the airport for a tour of the city.

Hope that helps : )