Horse riding and eating horse ‘four ways’ – Wales fans do Kazakhstan

Some people have ridden horses, and others have eaten horses “four ways.”

Kazakhstan has been a unique destination even for the most seasoned “Wales Away” veterans.

Welsh supporters collectively sighed when it became clear that this campaign would include an 11th match between Belgium and Belgium in 13 years.

But at least there was a new opposition and a 7, 000-mile roundtrip, the furthest Wales’ men would ever have traveled for a qualifier.

In the Astana sunshine, Gwilym Boore, who has followed Wales for 30 years, declares, “We’ve been waiting a long time to come here.”

Some people are making other arrangements for this, but we are going to Almaty, which is meant to be a different beast from Astana, and then we’ll travel to Uzbekistan and Tashkent.

We’re hoping to reach the Central Asian Republic tournament’s final, which is currently underway, before visiting Bukara, Kiva, and Samaran. There is still some traveling to do. I’m not sure if the route we’re taking yet has been decided. It might be airplanes, trains, or even cars.

Boore is one of the more than 1, 000 fans of Wales visiting Astana.

Kazakhstan, the ninth-largest country in the world in terms of land area and extending across two continents, is a sizable nation.

Although this may be the first qualifying match for Wales’ men, the Red Wall’s men may have traveled that far, which has only seemed to have increased the appeal of this one.

“It’s just been absolutely amazing,” asserts Amanda Jones. We flew from midwales, spent the night in Bristol, spent four hours in Istanbul, and finally arrived on Monday morning.

“The people have been incredibly welcoming. From the moment we arrived, it has been lovely. With the bucket hats, there has been real interest, conversation stopped, and a welcome from the locals.

Try taking the train and bus instead of the bus, which is too difficult to travel by.

Over the past five weeks, another supporter, John McAllister, has been doing that.

“I’ve visited a total of 12 nations. He claims that I traversed Western Europe before moving on to Turkey, where I crossed Bulgaria, Slovenia, Croatia, and Serbia.

“I thought Kazakhstan, it’s as far and as foreign as we can get for a qualification game here in Wales.” It would be a really good excuse to do something a little bit mental, I thought.

“And of course Race Across the World is a very popular show right now. If I said something that didn’t give me a second thought, I’d be lying.

McAllister has undoubtedly enjoyed his time in Kazakhstan, despite the fact that the food is not as good as the food in the other nations he has traveled to.

He claims that the food was “absolutely unbelievable” everywhere he has been. Turkish cuisine is unmatched. Georgia is also in the same boat. If you enjoy food, heaven has the breads and cheeses.

“Although I don’t want to be mean, I had a very horsey dinner in Kazakhstan.” It’s only kind of a horse in four different ways, to be honest.

This week, Craig Bellamy and his players are unlikely to have horse lollipops on their menu.

The Red Wall’s recent sightseeing in Kazakhstan and the neighboring nations will not go as well; such is the nature of an international footballer’s life.

All Wales’ players and staff will see of this nation is a hotel, a stadium, and an airport, as is the case with almost all of their foreign assignments, aside from a pre-game stroll on matchday.

This is business for them. Wales are all hoping for on Thursday with their hopes of automatically qualifying for the 2026 World Cup in the balance.

They can rely on their enthralling supporters, who are fortunately more than willing to take their word on the tourism industry.

McAllister says, “It’s pretty impressive that we’ve taken the numbers that we’re taking.”

It speaks a lot about our support for football, I believe. We support our team, and we do a lot of traveling. And I would say that we are really happy everywhere we go.

We don’t “go around” and cause any trouble. So, in essence, I believe the locals are very interested in our visit and enjoyment.

The visiting Welsh supporters in the Kazakh capital city consistently enjoy the warm welcome from the locals in Astana.

Three hours away, Dave Fornell says, “We went horseback riding in the national park.” A wonderful day was had.