Astounding Astana: Kazakhstan, Georgia & more

[Daver6]

Great TR so far. I like your idea of how you got to HK...although not sure if I could do it. Flying airlines with less than stellar safety records concerns me too much.

 

[Mattg]

Berlin, Germany

After 3 days in Hamburg I jumped on a train to my favourite city, which some of you may know is Berlin.

There are no flights between Hamburg and Berlin, and with good reason. Hourly high-speed trains connect the two cities in just 1 hour and 40 minutes. This is something I appreciate as a regular commuter between Sydney and Canberra... it's roughly the same distance, but that train takes over 4 hours!

I had 3 days in Berlin before moving on to my next destination.

I've covered Berlin in detail in previous trip reports, and my main reason for visiting this time was to catch up with friends - not sightseeing. So I won't go into detail here about Berlin. But here are just a few photos from around the city during this visit... Needless to say, it's an amazing place and I definitely recommend visiting if you haven't already!!

 

[Mattg]

As always, lots of construction going on...



My favourite spot in Berlin, Tempelhof Park:



Free Sunday afternoon karaoke at Mauerpark:



The extension of the U5 subway line still hasn't been finished, so the U55 (which will eventually link up to the U5) continues to run as the world's saddest standalone subway line with just 3 stations. The line serves little practical purpose as it is, but they did recently turn it into an exhibition on Germany's reunification. They've put a vintage train into service on and you can learn about some German history while you ride between Hauptbahnhof and the Brandenburg Gate.

 

[Mattg]

Some street art...





The mattress reads "solidarity with the people in Hamburg"



These were advertisements for Fritz-Kola. The tagline is loosely translates to "people, wake up":

 

[Mattg]

I had a spare day at the end of my stay in Germany before starting the long trip home. So I decided to travel to somewhere else in Europe that I hadn't been before. The options were narrowed down to Copenhagen, Minsk and Belgrade. I was tempted to visit Minsk now that Australians can go to Belarus for up to 5 days without a visa. But I decided on Belgrade, the capital of Serbia.

To get from Berlin to Belgrade, I redeemed some Etihad Guest miles for a Business class seat on Air Serbia. Air Serbia is part-owned by Etihad, and Business class redemptions on this airline are great value. The flight from Berlin to Belgrade cost just 8,650 Etihad Guest miles and €31.30 in taxes for Business class. (Economy would have been 6,070 miles.)

The redemption process was somewhat painful. I had to call up and speak to somebody with an accent I could barely understand who did not seem at all interested in helping me. It took ages for them to work out how much the redemption would cost and to check if there were any seats, but after about an hour I had a confirmed booking.

JU355 Berlin (Tegel) - Belgrade
Departure time: 20:40 (Actual 21:27)
Arrival time: 22:20 (Actual 23:10)
Airbus A319
Business class



When I saw the check-in queues I was thankful that my Business class ticket came with priority check-in! This worked well, but I'm afraid my experience with Tegel Airport (which really should have closed about 5 years ago) went downhill from there.

I asked the check-in agent which lounge I would be able to use. Originally she said that I would have to pay an extra 36 Euros for lounge access. :shock: Upon further enquiry she thought that as a Business passenger I might be allowed in to the Air France/KLM lounge. That lounge was in a different terminal, but I had time so went for a walk. The lady at that lounge also wasn't sure if Air Serbia customers had access, but it turns out I did and I was welcomed in.

The lounge was basic but peaceful. The available food consisted of sandwiches, peanuts, chips, and for some reason frankfurters (but no hotdog buns or sauce). There was a decent range of drinks and wifi that worked well, but no toilets in the lounge and it was very hot - I don't think the air conditioning was working.



The grand entrance to the Air France/KLM lounge...





I was unable to use the fast-track queue for security and immigration, but something amazing happened when I got to passport control... something that has never happened before and is unlikely to ever happen again. The German immigration officer had a sense of humour!!

Boarding was a zoo. There was no priority lane and our queue was getting mixed in with the Hainan Airlines queue at the neighbouring gate.

 

[GarrettM]

I'm in! Of all the many great reports around her Matt I have to say yours continue to be among my favourites.

And I share your love of Berlin. It was my first major overseas destination and even though I've now been to many other great places, it holds a very strong place in my heart.

 

[Mattg]

I was looking forward to trying out Business class on Air Serbia because they had actual, proper Business class seats. Most European airlines fit their short-haul aircraft with the same all-Economy configuration as Lufthansa. But not Air Serbia... or so I thought.

Turns out that Air Serbia recently replaced all of the seats on its A319 and A320 aircraft with Recaro slimline seats - starting from row one. These are exactly the same seats that Lufthansa uses on their narrow-body aircraft. On one hand, this is disappointing as Air Serbia's short-haul Business product used to be better than pretty much every other European airline. On the other hand, I understand why Air Serbia would have wanted to do this from an economic point of view. I was the only Business class passenger on this flight, so they were able to shrink Business class from two rows to one, while adding several rows of Economy seats (which they're actually able to sell).

The reconfigured Business cabin:



While the hard product was disappointing, this was more than made up for by the soft product. As soon as I boarded, I was warmly welcomed and immediately offered a glass of prosecco & a (cold) towel.



I was also offered a blanket and handed a menu. There was a comprehensive range of drinks available and for dinner there was a choice of salmon or chicken.

In the "welcome on board" spiel, a special welcome was given to frequent flyers of Etihad partner airlines - including Virgin Australia. I thought this was interesting, given that Virgin Australia is not a partner of Air Serbia and you can't earn or redeem Velocity points with Air Serbia.

The inbound aircraft had arrived on time, and boarding was completed by the scheduled departure time. But as usual, TXL was congested and we were held at the gate for nearly 50 minutes by ATC. The flight was subsequently late, but this was not Air Serbia's fault.

I had a browse of the in-flight magazine, which included a special feature for its 90th anniversary and an interview with the airline's Australian CEO. I also came across this...



Dinner was served shortly after takeoff. A Serbian mezze plate was served as a starter, and I chose the chicken - served with vegetables and a potato rosti - for the main course. Dessert was a raspberry cheesecake. All of the food was delicious. (Sorry about the poor lighting in my photo...)



As the only passenger in front of the curtain, the service was very attentive. Almost too attentive, in fact! Drink top-ups were offered continuously.

I was also impressed with the attention to detail in the service. At one point, the flight attendant spilt a little bit of red wine on the tablecloth and immediately replaced the whole tablecloth!

The service on my flight was genuinely good and I would not hesitate to fly Air Serbia again. Next time, hopefully I'll get to try out their Belgrade lounge which I've heard is excellent.

 

[kevrosmith]

Exciting stuff so far... I'm in.

 

[OZDUCK]

Also enjoying it - and another fan of Berlin.

 

[Wanderlust_tim]

Loving this so far and can't wait for the Kazakhstan leg - it is somewhere I have been very keen to visit for a very long time.

 

[flightobserver]

Been looking forward to this TR!

 

[kermatu]

Delighted to see you get back to Berlin. My one and only AFF meet-up location!

It is amazing how small the world is. While I've not encountered a Queanbeyan connection in all my travels I am regularly seeing people who have a connection with some of my small Tasmanian connections like Hobart, Burnie, and even Penguin!

looking forward to more of your TR.

 

[tgh]

dragging my feet but a great tr.. subscribed...

 

[drron]

Delighted to see you get back to Berlin. My one and only AFF meet-up location!

It is amazing how small the world is. While I've not encountered a Queanbeyan connection in all my travels I am regularly seeing people who have a connection with some of my small Tasmanian connections like Hobart, Burnie, and even Penguin!

looking forward to more of your TR.

We'll have to meet up and talk about Preservation bay and Sulphur Creek.

 

[jastel]

Great report!
In post 22 is that the Russian War Cemetery?
Saw it in winter, looks a bit different with trees.

Having already done the "main" touristy things, last time I went there I did the cemetery, and also Templehof, Platz de Luftbrucke etc
I would like to do an inside tour of Templehof one day.

Another good tour is Berlin Unterwelten who tour old naz_ WW2 sites

 

[Mattg]

Great report!
In post 22 is that the Russian War Cemetery?
Saw it in winter, looks a bit different with trees.

Having already done the "main" touristy things, last time I went there I did the cemetery, and also Templehof, Platz de Luftbrucke etc
I would like to do an inside tour of Templehof one day.

Another good tour is Berlin Unterwelten who tour old naz_ WW2 sites

Yep, that was the Soviet memorial in Treptower Park.

I did the tour inside Tempelhof Airport back in 2014, which was very interesting...




I also did a tour of the brand new, yet-to-be-opened Berlin-Brandenburg Airport that same year.




Speaking of things that look a bit different in winter, I also once visited Tempelhof while it was snowing. Instead of the usual bikes and skateboards, the locals had brought along toboggans and snowboards!



OK, that's enough reminiscing about Berlin for me... back to the TR

 

[Mattg]

Belgrade, Serbia

This was my first visit to Serbia. In short, I enjoyed my time there and found Belgrade to be an interesting city with plenty of history.

I only had one full day in Belgrade, and it was stinking hot. From memory it was around 40 degrees. But with only a short time I joined two walking tours. The morning tour took in the main sights around the city centre, while the afternoon tour was a communism tour focusing on Serbia's history.

There are some lovely spots around the city. From a tourist's perspective, the highlight would have to be the city fortress.







Looking out from the top of the fortress



Other photos from around Belgrade...

 

[Mattg]

 

[Mattg]

Our 29 year-old guide for the afternoon communism tour explained that he's lived in 4 different countries without ever leaving Belgrade. When he was born, Belgrade was part of Yugoslavia.

As part of the tour we visited the Museum of Yugoslav History and the adjoining House of Flowers, which is where the mausoleum of Josip Tito (president of Yugoslavia from 1953 until his death in 1980) can be found.



The museum was interesting, but frankly, very poorly run. It was still 38 degrees at this point and it was not even possible to buy a bottle of water there.

To get to the museum we had to take a public bus. There was no air conditioning and we were packed in like sardines, but there is no metro in Belgrade so the city relies on buses to get around.

By the way, Serbia is a meat-lover's paradise! You wouldn't want to be a vegetarian there. Meat features heavily on restaurant menus, and everything I tried was delicious.

I enjoyed my time in Belgrade, although I feel like I only scratched the surface. I could have easily spent a few more days there.

 

[Mattg]

I was up very early the next morning for my 4am taxi back to the airport. I was heading to Kazakhstan!

As convenient as it would have been, there are no direct flights from Serbia to Kazakhstan. This meant I had to fly via Frankfurt again. I ended up with a 5+ hour layover in Frankfurt as well, so decided to leave the airport for a few hours and head into the city between flights.

LH1411 Belgrade - Frankfurt
Departure time: 06:15
Arrival time: 08:15
Airbus A320
Business class



Belgrade Airport has security at the gate (in a similar setup to SIN). After clearing security you're put in a holding pen not nearly large enough to accomodate an A320 worth of passengers. My advice if you're flying out of BEG is to remain in the lounge/terminal as long as possible.

This was another very pleasant short flight. The service was warm and I was consistently addressed by name. The lovely purser had a Manchester accent, which is not something I've encountered on Lufthansa before.

Breakfast was served promptly after take-off.



I was seated in the front row for this flight. Instead of having the tray table in the armrest, Lufthansa stores the tables in row 1 against the bulkhead. This means the armrests in row 1 can be lifted up.



We had some nice views flying over the Austrian Alps.





We arrived on time and I headed to the airport train station for a quick trip into the city.