Rygsækrejsen 2015-2016: april 2015

torsdag den 30. april 2015

Samarkand - time to relax

It was a bit late before Malene went to bed so we slept in and relaxed after the long city walk the day before.

Mikkel knew there is a bullet train going from Samarkand to Tashkent so he wanted to try to get tickets for us for the following day at 5 pm instead of going with the truck to Tashkent. We took our passports with us - you can't go very far without a passport here - and headed for the station. It was a very nice station, clean but with no people. You can only enter the station with your passport and a ticket. We went to the ticket counter and after a bit of fun watching 3 guys buying tickets...yes passports and loads of money....are they going around the world or just to Tashkent?? Well several hundred thousands in 1000 and 500 Soms bills. They need bills worth more here. Unfortunately we couldn't get tickets. Sold out. Or at least we think so.

On the way back we went to a small market. well we just have to check them out and they normally always surprise in one way or another. This time it was a Lada full of big pieces of meat in the trunk - no plastic in the trunk or around the meat - which a few guys unloaded to a trolley. What a sight. No wonder you get a bad stomach once in while. We're quite used to seeing the bad way they're handling their food in these kind of countries. Why use a refrigerator? Anyway it always makes room for a new laugh or a head shake.

We did buy some strawberries at the market which we and the others enjoyed at the hotel.

Suddenly there was a big thunderstorm and lightening in the afternoon so we watched that pass by before heading out for dinner. Unfortunately it was still raining so we couldn't sit in the nice court yard of the restaurant. But more entertainment inside...two pigeons had a nest in the corner. It probably wouldn't pass the Danish Food Authorities.

onsdag den 29. april 2015

Samarkand big city walk

We've kind of gotten used to them. The long city walks with our excellent guide – Jalal/Jolal/J-Lo. Great guy with many names. Our guide who knows everything and everyone. Got us on the road this morning at 9 driving through Samarkand morning rush hour with the truck. Had to do a detour due to some roadworks – and ended up in some neighbourhood at a dead end. So we had to go back and take the long way round the city. Reason for this is that Samarkand is one of those cities that have grown a lot in recent years but with very little planning. So there are limited roads connecting the different parts of the city.

First stop was an old observatory - The Ulugh Beg Observatory - where the local astronomers had done some very impressive observations of the stars and of the Earth's movement around the sun eventually leading to a fairly accurate estimate on the actual length of year down to being only a few seconds from the current known length of the year. We kind of felt proud being Danes at this location because there were several references to the Danish astronomer Tycho Brahe who had been involved in some of their research as well.

We moved on to the next part of the city to spend the most of the day walking in and out of mosques, tombs and madrassas. It is not that it is boring but it is difficult to take so much in in a few hours. The people of Uzbekistan lived here and had working cities with infrastructure, universities, palaces and monuments when we were still trying to make fire at home. They travelled, traded and conquered and had a rich culture. Though much of what we see today is reconstructed and renovated within the past ten years it is still impressive.

For lunch we went to a market and once again smelled the nice spices - which they don't use much of in their food though, mostly cumin - looked at the many breads with patterns, sausages and vegetables.

The highlight of the day was The Registan – three massive madrassas facing each other on a huge square. Of course equally impressive were the tombs and mosques at Shah-I-Zinda.

9 hours of walking and exploring in total so we were tired at the end of the day. Most in the group were tiled out after seeing tiles after tiles today - and after long sightseeing days in Khiva, Buhkara and Samarkand. But the buildings are impressive.

Mikkel wasn't feeling well after the walk so he stayed in the room most of the night while Malene had some drinks with the rest of the group. A few people are leaving this trip in Tashkent so they are kind of eager to party out while they still can.