Barnaul - getting things done

Yesterday we arrived in Barnaul and we've been super efficient since then.
Knowing we have limited time (we want to get to Kyrgistan as quickly as we can), we contacted a fellow traveller (Nikos Knudsen) who lives in Barnaul well in advance. Reason being: we REALLY needed some new tyres. Instead of just telling us who to contact, Nikos researched, ordered and stored the tyres for us! How sweet is that?!
So on arriving in the city, we simply drove up to his apartment where we were greeted by Kristina, his wife. She made coffee for us and offered us some fruit, we picked up the tyres and then even drove to the garage together to arrange the tyre change.
We can't thank the two of you enough and are only sad about the fact we couldn't meet Nikos personally as he was travelling!
Due to these pre-arrangements we then even had time to drive to the Toyota dealer who serviced and checked Hans then and there (while we were enjoying their massage chair). Hans is in great shape again. We still need to get a few smaller repairs done but as we want to travel further, we'll probably do that in Almaty.
Afterwards we drove to the city beach and enjoyed the beautiful view towards Barnaul over the river before falling asleep. What a beautiful feeling to be on the road again!
Today it's all about stocking up, filling up water and preparing for yet another border crossing. Kazakhstan tomorrow! (Hopefully ;-)).
While we didn't see much of Barnaul, the people we met made it feel like a super nice place. People were waving to us on the street, a few even asked us from their car about our journey. We felt welcomed and are super happy how quickly we got everything done.Read more