Tashkent (Day 12 to 14) - diverse capital city

It started with a chaotic train ride from Samarkand to Tashkent. While we received paper tickets at the Khiva train station, the Samarkand train station only accepted printouts of online reservations. At least that's what we were told in English at the ticket counter using the Google Translate app. The reason for this became clear on the train: the seats reserved online were either occupied by other passengers or not available at all. The online system's seating layout did not match the actual one. It took the train attendants about 20 minutes to assign us to vacant seats. Of course, these seats were not together as we had booked. Total chaos, what a mess! Luckily, the train ride was only about 3 hours long. We were in a 4-person compartment with two Korean (or maybe Mongolian) neighbors. Jörg couldn't sleep - despite being very tired - because the headrest of the first-class seat squeaked with every slightest movement... So we spent the time reading and writing blog posts. By the way, asking locals at the Samarkand train station was very helpful in finding out which train from which platform goes to Tashkent. The digital display board only showed the general schedule of all trains. Our train departed from platform 3, which could be reached underground by stairs (there were no elevators).

Upon timely arrival at Tashkent South train station, we continued our search for a taxi. Oh, the abundance of taxi drivers... By now we were experienced and had carefully chosen suitable taxis and drivers. We also tried stopping two passing cars, but their drivers were not willing to take us to our hotel. Perhaps our behavior reduced the fare? Maybe. This time we stayed in apartments at the 'Art Apart Hotel'. They were very generous in terms of space and the facilities were excellent. After arriving, we fell into bed out of exhaustion and slept through the night restfully :)

On Thursday, breakfast was first on the agenda. It was good, but the cake selection we enjoyed at the hotel in Samarkand remained unmatched. At lunchtime, we started sightseeing: first, we went to the Cosmonaut monument at the metro station of the same name, then through a nearby park, and later via the Broadway alley to the equestrian statue of Amir Timur, which is located in the center of the large roundabout in front of the Uzbekistan Hotel. In the parks and along the roadsides, we witnessed an incredible waste of water... the sprinklers were sometimes not directed at the lawn or flower beds but instead sprayed water on the sidewalk. And they used way too much water per area, causing huge puddles, even small lakes to form. All this in a country where many people suffer greatly from the decline of the Aral Sea... The statue of Timur was also of great magnitude. The cult around Amir Timur as a new national hero began with the promotion of tourism in recent years. He is generally considered the founder of Uzbekistan (in terms of uniting the local tribes and khanates); previously, there was a statue of Karl Marx in the same spot. Many people took photos in front of Timur's statue, in such great poses with defined subjective gracefulness, for the family book, or whatever. But it should be remembered that he was ruthless and historically proven to be a mass murderer.

Jörg tried to take a photo of the statue and the Soviet colossal Hotel Uzbekistan without any people. Despite waiting for minutes, he was unsuccessful. After an originally planned stop that took much longer due to the slow service at the café, we went to the Photo Museum. There we found a small but fine exhibition (free and air-conditioned!). Then we went to a bazaar (the smaller Alay Bazaar, not the Chorsu Bazaar). In the shopping mall in front of it, Jörg bought some bottles of water in a plastic bag, which burst within a short time due to the weight of the two plastic bottles... What a mess! At the bazaar, we had a little competition (one-sidedly conducted) to see who could get the cheapest offer for a medium-sized assortment of nuts and dried fruits! Jörg preferred the straight-forward question-answer tactic with sunglasses, while Janina used the "let me try the delicacies first" tactic. In the end, the offers differed in price significantly. Jörg was allowed to buy two of these medium-sized snack assortments for 25,000 SOM each :)) Yes, what you wouldn't do for €2.50.

Then we went to the monument for the victims of the 1966 earthquake in Tashkent and, after passing the museum, to the Olympic glory (which closed at 5 pm, and we arrived there at 4:40 pm, too late) at Navruz Park. There, we saw miniature versions of the sights of many Uzbek cities. The park was also appealing with lots of greenery and a Ferris wheel. We decided not to take a ride on it, even though the sunset time was approaching (romantic!). Instead, we headed further north towards the Anhor Lokomotiv amusement park. Unfortunately, most of the rides were closed, sometimes the lights were still blinking, but no tickets could be bought. It was a bit sad, as we like visiting amusement parks. However, our main destination was the white Minor Mosque. We reached it just in time for sunset, and neither flooded sidewalks nor crowds of men rushing into the mosque or the washroom could stop us. The mosque and its courtyard were beautiful to look at, even if something turquoise was missing ;-))

In the evening, we went to the 'Pottermania' restaurant for dinner. A restaurant designed in the style of Harry Potter in terms of decor and menu. It was a fantastic experience! We were even allowed to take photos in appropriate costumes... We drank Butterbeer and poisonous potions, and there were green and blue-colored burgers to eat, both vegetarian, and a Snitch for dessert. We ate until we were full. In the end, we could just about pay the bill (except for 5000 SOM) because the restaurant didn't accept dollars... Nevertheless, we added some dollars as a tip because such a recommendable restaurant deserved it! It was quite funny to find such an authentic Harry Potter-themed restaurant in Tashkent!

On Friday, Jörg's last day in Uzbekistan, we first took the metro to Chorsu Bazaar. The decorations in the metro stations were on par with those in St. Petersburg and Moscow. The plastic metro tokens were the real highlight for us, as well as the small 100 and 200 SOM banknotes and the 100 SOM coins :) We received them as change in larger quantities. When we arrived at Chorsu Bazaar (at lunchtime), we first went to the well-known two-story building with the dome. Stand after stand lined up, practically selling the same edible goods on each floor. We also noticed the numerous pigeons that settled on the food here and there. Not cool. Even outside, the offerings resembled those we had already seen yesterday and elsewhere. So, despite the delicious smell, especially in the bread corner, the bazaar did not convince us overall, mainly because of the many pigeons.

Then we made our way to the Teleshayakh Mosque (or Tillya Sheikh) and the accompanying Barakhan Madrasah, which belong to the Hazrati Imam complex. The journey was somewhat adventurous as another new, huge mosque was being built next to the mosque complex, requiring numerous residential buildings to be demolished. As a result, the surroundings were messy and occasionally impassable. When we arrived at the Teleshayakh Mosque, we met Team DUS and Team FRA. How small Tashkent is! As now well known, we liked the mosque and the madrasah with their blue-turquoise patterns and domes from the outside, and inside, there were the usual souvenir shops selling handicrafts. In addition, in the library of the Muyi Muborak Madrasah, which also belongs to the complex, a Quran dating back to the 7th century could be admired. Unfortunately, Jörg was very grumpy that day, not because it was the last day of the vacation but because he had been having digestion problems for a few days. Janina was able to cheer him up a bit and encourage him to visit the Railway Museum. The Railway Museum significantly improved the mood: Janina and Jörg climbed onto different huge locomotives and took photos of each other. Really cool. And a real contrast to the mosques.

Afterwards, we went to the Human House, a sustainable store selling local products. Since time was running out and the store was about to close, we tried hitchhiking! One, two, three drivers stopped, but refused to drive us to the destination we showed them on our phone. The fourth attempt was successful. However, the driver somehow couldn't navigate with our phone's GPS. So we first drove in the opposite direction, then in circles, and so on... Only with joint gesturing between the driver and the co-pilot did we eventually arrive at the Human House. The wild taxi ride was definitely worth it. We practically emptied half the store with our purchases ;-) We especially liked the opportunity to browse around undisturbed, without being approached from the sides! Interestingly, we met a Russian couple who spoke German to each other, and in the course of the conversation, we found out that they also lived in the same German city... Not only Tashkent, but the world is small! In the evening, Team Moskvitch had dinner at the recommended Mona Restaurant. The other teams ate at Jumanji or Pasado, which were also recommended.

On Saturday, we took it easy and relaxed. Jörg's departure time to 'Tashkent Airport' was 1 pm; he still had a business trip in the Far East ahead of him. After a long and heartfelt hug, we had to say goodbye to each other - for the next 6 days. Janina continued her exploration and first visited the Museum of Applied Arts (25,000 SOM), which was located close to the apartment. It was quite nice, especially since it was rather empty and we could look at the exhibits in peace. Of course, there was also a handicraft/souvenir shop inside, like everywhere else. However, overall there wasn't much new that experienced travelers to Uzbekistan didn't already know. As three tour groups' buses arrived just as we were leaving, we quickly moved on! We passed the White House (Islam Karimov) Museum and headed to Independence Square (large but nothing special) and then to Memorial Square with an eternal flame and the statue of the grieving mother for the soldiers killed in the war. The names of all the soldiers were listed in a sort of book, sorted by cities. A few benches invited us to relax. We continued past the fancy new National Library to the flea market near Broadway Boulevard. There, we were able to buy a few more souvenirs until we had spent almost all of our SOM (nearly). The flea market is also highly recommended for paintings, drawings, badges, and other Soviet stuff. After a final Uzbek dinner at the Mona Restaurant with Team DUS (Team FRA had already flown home early Saturday morning), we made one last attempt to get postcards in Tashkent. Surprisingly, this was much more difficult to accomplish than in the previous cities! Finally, Janina found some on Broadway, which only came to life in the evening: It turned into a kind of fair with various smaller amusement, food, and souvenir stalls, live music, lots of colorful lights (some made in China), and many people, young and old. In between, there was also a stand, where you could weigh yourself on a scale for 500 SOM (5 cents). Was it worth it? To bid farewell, the Hotel Uzbekistan also illuminated in all colorful lights. After a short nap, the return journey began for 'the last teams standing' at half past 1 am.