Global Wanderer

21/11/23 – 24/11/23

After a hefty breakfast, I headed out to meet with my friend Sabrina and her sister, Parvina. We met up at a coffee shop not far from the old town, and had a lovely time catching up. Sabrina headed off to university, but Parvina and I had something else planned for her – we picked up a bunch of flowers, and I had brought with me a Christmas sweater for her, something she really wanted! We then rocked up at university, and left the goods for her with the doorman to surprise her on the way out (she texted me when she got them, she was incredibly excited).

After that, I said goodbye to Parvina, and headed off for a wander through what I like to call new Bukhara, the Soviet city built around the old town. Given I’d had a long day of travel the day before, I ended up eating early, at the Old Bukhara restaurant in the old town. Fantastic manti and a lula kebab later, washed down with a pint of Sarbast, I headed back to the hotel for an early night’s sleep!

Back in Bukhara!

The breakfasts at Kavsar are insane in their size, and are cooked up to order! Once I had eaten mine, I got ready, and headed out into New Bukhara – looking for a bank that would exchange some British pounds that I had on me. A nearby branch of Ipak Yuli Bank was more than happy to take my GBP, which was helpful, and at a very decent rate at that.

I then headed back into the old town, and plonked myself down underneath the opening of a madrassah, and pulled out my camera. Time to watch the world go by! I decided to take a walk further into the old town, and visited the shops that I’d met Sabrina in last year – felt like a bit of a throwback! I spent some time wandering the back streets and taking photos, something which sounds very *plain*, but in reality can be absolutely fascinating. When the rain started to fall, however, I decided to call it quits, and headed back to the hotel – an early night for me!

I headed out this morning to meet up with Parvina. The café she’d told me to meet her at was closed, and so we jumped a cab to Bon Bon café, and settled in for a coffee and an English lesson.

That evening, I set myself up in front of the Kalyon Minaret to watch the sunset, and took photos of the tower as it lit up (as well as some shots of the moon, because a lack of light pollution means it is so much clearer!).

My last whole day in Uzbekistan was quite a busy one for sure! After getting up and eating my breakfast, I headed out to the University to meet up with Sabrina and her friend. One of their classes had been cancelled, and so we decided to all go and get lunch together at the café underneath the Bukhara observation tower. We had a wonderful time talking, me in English, and Sabrina and her friend in the most fascinating DIY language mix I’ve ever heard – Russian, Uzbek, Tajik, English, French, and the occasional Spanish word. I am not kidding, Sabrina was fairly certain nobody else would be able to understand them, and I would agree with that! I suppose that’s what happens when you learn a bunch of different languages at university!

Once we had said our goodbyes, Sabrina and her friend headed off, and I headed to the train station to take my Afrosiyob train back up to Tashkent. 4 hours or so later, I was back in the Uzbek capital, with a night to kill.

Luckily, Mathilde had offered to catch up with me, and so we met up at what turned out to be a hilariously fancy wine bar (with a not-so-fancy name). After one glass, Mathilde decided we should go and look for somewhere with beer. What ensued was one of the crazier adventures I’ve ever undertaken – we went to FOUR different pubs, with a response of either ‘we’re closing soon’ or ‘we don’t serve beer’. I think it got to about 11:30pm before we finally ended up at a brasserie near to where Mathilde was living that DID serve beer and was open all night. Finally, success! We had a good night, but we decided to call it at around 2am, as Mathilde was going on a hike the next morning, and I had a midday flight to catch. All in all though, it was a wonderful night, and a great way to end my time in Uzbekistan. I headed back to ART Hotel, stopping for a quick bite to eat from Moscow Pizza on the way, and headed to bed. Little did I know that this would be my last night of feeling well for a week!

Since my last visit in 2022, the metro station names have changed from Cyrillic to Latin!