czech republic: prague

I got really lucky this year when it came to holidays during the school year. We had our 'spring break' at the end of February and beginning of March, (when it was not yet spring,) AND I got to have a short work week the next week. International Women's Day takes place every year on 8 March, this year it was a Thursday. I asked my director ahead of time if we got the Friday off school as well, and as soon as she said yes I booked tickets for another trip. In other words, I got a week off for spring break, then a 4.5 day weekend right afterward. YAY!

My schedule at school this year had Wednesday afternoons off, so I was able to head to the airport at lunchtime in time for a mid afternoon flight. Several hours later I landed in Prague, one of my all time favourite cities. Even though I've never lived in Prague, every time I arrive there it feels like I'm coming home.

My host sent an Uber taxi to pick me up, it didn't take long to get to the home of my host. I met Katarina when I lived in Kyiv, we became good friends during those years. I was thrilled when she moved to Prague with her daughter, I knew I'd come visit. Katarina and I stayed up late talking, catching up about our lives.

The next morning I woke up pretty early, as my body was totally confused about what time it was. (Keep in mind that less than a week earlier I was in Uzbekistan, which is a couple hours ahead of Moscow, and Prague is an hour behind Moscow in winter.)

Before flying Katarina had asked if there were any foods in particular that I wanted, so I told her about my all time favourite yogurt. She hadn't been positive with what she'd bought, and when I first saw it, I wasn't sure either. 

Howeva, when I opened the jar I realized the company had changed its packaging but the yogurt was the same goodness I remembered from before. Best yogurt ever.

That morning I went with Katarina as she dropped her daughter off at school. There was some sort of reception before class started, so I got to meet her teacher and see her classroom. It was nice to see that she fit in well with her classmates, and was doing well academically.

Then Katarina dropped me off in the city center, we arranged a time for me to be home later in the evening. She dropped me off near an area of the city called Mala Strana, which is basically at the bottom of Castle Hill. I walked through the neighborhood, making my way slowly up the hill. I looked in a lot of souvenir shops, looking for a specific keychain, and finally found it.

After the successful keychain shopping miracle, I walked back down the hill, and made my way over to the so called Lennon Wall. It isn't any great shakes, it's just a wall covered in grafitti. The wall became a thing when young Czechs decided to use it as a way to express themselves when the government was still very repressive. The current grafitti is painted over quite regularly, as far as I know there are no rules about it. Visitors love to take heaps of photos, Czechs in general don't think anything of it. (According to Mom, who had never even heard of the wall until I took her to see it during one of my visits.)

I walked across the Charles bridge and through part of the old town area, making my way toward one of David Czerny's works, a man hanging from a pole over a street. It's not immediately obvious, but you can always tell when people spot it for the first time, as they are quite concerned that a real person is hanging on for dear life.

Obviously, I looked into every church I passed along the way, as I always do. Churches in Prague are fancy, glorious, and numerous.

I walked through the old town square, it was crowded as always. I noticed there was scaffolding over the astronomical clock, which must've been a huge disappointment to many visitors. The clock was first installed in 1410, and is the oldest still operating clock in the world. During a previous visit to the city I climbed up the clock tower, the views around the area are lovely.

From there I walked to a mall to see another work by David Czerny, a guy sitting on an upside down horse. It hangs from the ceiling, eye catching to say the least.

I was hungry by that point, and instead of eating real food, I went for one of my favourites: a filled chimney. It's basically dough wrapped around a form and cooked to form a cone of sorts. I have no idea where the name came from. My favourite flavour is called berries, it is whipped cream and berries. So good.

I decided to walk along the river, to another iconic sight of the city: the so called Dancing House. It is actually a couple buildings designed to look as if they are a couple dancing. Very cute.

There is a bridge close to the dancing house, so I crossed the river and started walking home. On the way I stopped by yet another of David Czerny's works: the babies. They are huge, crawling babies with funny looking heads.

My walk took me out the back side of Castle Hill, I don't think I've ever walked that way previously. Then the most embarassing thing ever happened to me. I slipped and fell, ON A BANANA PEEL!!! I thought that only happened in movies, but I was wrong. It's a good thing I can laugh at myself.

I met Katarina and her daughter at a grocery store, where we picked up dinner ingrediants. We walked home through the campus of a technical university, another part of Prague I hadn't seen previously.

The next day was Friday, the daughter had to go to school again. She was up as early as I was, and was happy to spend some time reading while eating breakfast. My breakfast was another double serving of the best yogurt ever.

After dropping the daughter off at school, Katarina dropped me in another part of central Prague, near Cafe Savoy. I first walked up the rest of the short street (it is a dead end,) to a memorial I've seen before. This memorial honours the victimes of Communism and Fascism, using guant human like sculptures. I don't know how to say it other than it is intense.

I walked up the street, toward the more touristy section, to see if my favourite place in the city was open. Unfortunately, it wasn't. Vrtba gardens has amazing views of the whole city, from the middle of the city.

Even though I wasn't terribly hungry, I went back to Cafe Savoy and very much enjoyed another breakfast and tea.

After stuffing myself, I walked back to a bridge and went back to the old town side of the river. I got to the tall tower on one side of Charles Bridge and paid to climb up the stairs. 

The views from the top are great, its fun to watch all the tourists scurry back and forth across the bridge. There is also a small museum up there, with history of the city.

I went back down the stairs and walked through the old town area. I've gotten quite good at moving quickly through crowds, a talent sorely needed in highly touristed cities. I walked all the way to a public transport stop, where I was able to catch a tram that took me to the neighborhood where my mom used to live. I love the neighborhood, I really wish she'd bought her apartment instead of renting. That way I would've been able to stay in the 'family apartment' each time I come to visit the city. Oh well.

I got off the tram and went into a mall, where I used wifi to download podcasts. I also spent time wandering through the grocery store in the basement of the mall. (I can never resist a grocery store, even if I've been there many times previously.)

I took the metro back to the home of my host, where I stayed up way too late (again,) chatting with Katarina. We don't see each other often, but clearly have plenty to say when we do.

The next morning I continued my streak of waking up early, and ate breakfast. Then, just because I could, I went back to sleep. Eventually I got up for real, and got dressed to go for a walk with Katarina and her daughter.

Our walk actually started with a drive, to a parking garage closer to the city center. We made our way out of the parking garage and walked down the street that has the memorial I'd seen the day before, to the victims of communism and fascism.

Since we were in the area, I asked Katarina and her daughter if they'd seen Czerny's babies. It turned out they hadn't, so that's where we went. It was a fun chance for the two of them to have a photo together :)

We also took a look at the yellow penguins (modern art,) lined up along the edge of the river, because I think they're cute.

Then the three of us crossed Charles Bridge. The city/country is slowly cleaning all the statues on the side of the bridge, removing each one as they do so. There is a HUGE difference in how the clean statues look versus the 'dirty' statues look. I wonder how long it will take for the whole project to be finished.

Considering the number of people on that bridge on a Saturday afternoon, I'm pretty proud that all three of us made it off the other side of the bridge, together.

Katarina needed to exchange money, so we went looking for an exchange bureau that used a reasonable exchange rate, and didn't charge a huge commission. I had no idea how hard it would be to find a decent place! Some places charged a commission as high as 25%, others used a rate that was about 60% of the value a US dollar. Crazy.

We found a good exchange desk next to a mall. After getting the money she wanted, we went in the mall, to visit a toy store. Katarina's daughter had fun picking out a toy she had been promised.

We went to eat at a place in the old town that had good food and decent prices. It's been a while since I've had handmade Italian noodles. Yum. Even though I didn't need it, I got a chimney for dessert as we walked back to the car. Before getting in the car we went grocery shopping, who am I to say no to my favourite activity?

The next morning I finally woke up at a reasonable time, just in time for my last day of the trip. I got dressed and packed up, then took advantage of the good weather to go for a walk.

I started by going back through the campus of the technical university, appreciating the architecture. I practically grew up on a university campus, I love seeing how they differ around the world. 

Even though it was a university campus, I also spotted a religious statue on the grounds. Faith is never very far away.

I wound my way through the streets to a newish looking park with a pond in a corner. There was a playground which had some nifty looking jungle gym equipment for kids.

I kept going, walking to the very tippy top of castle hill. I made my way down the hill by using small alleys in between buildings. Some of the stairs were pretty steep, I'm happy I didn't trip over my clumsy feet.

I walked across the Charles bridge for one reason: my last chance to have a chimney. It was worth every step :)

I kept going, through the Jewish Quarter, across another bridge and up to Letna Park, where I took a few minutes to enjoy the view of the city. There is a giant metronome up there, replacing what used to be a statue of Stalin. 

I'd love to have a photo with the metronome, but it is always full of people, so the only way I'll get that is to get up super early during a future visit.

I followed the map on my phone, arriving back home in time to eat dinner, then catch a cab to the airport. It was a fantastic visit to a city I love, with people who mean the world to me. I'll definitely be back.

uzbekistan: tashkent

My taxi picked me up at 0530 to bring me to the train station. My train departed on time and arrived on time in Tashkent, at 0830. It was basically the continuation of the train on which I'd arrived in Samarkand, a couple days earlier.

It was raining as I arrived, which didn't make me happy, but hey, what can you do. I walked to the same hostel at which I'd stayed during my first couple nights in the country. I wasn't going to stay there overnight this time, but I knew I could stay in the common area during the day.

While warming up in the hostel (it wasn't warm rain,) I ended up talking with a woman from Estonia. She was in the middle of a longer trip through a lot more of Central Asia, I envied her. She and I ended up walking together into the city 'center,' then going our separate ways.

I continued walking, I wanted to see a few more mausoleums marked on the map. I was able to find one of them, but another was behind a security gate. The one I did see was quite small, and had a couple people offering prayers when I visited.

I kept going in the rain (argh argh argh,) and walked toward a Soviet style monument. Called the monument to courage, it memorialized the 1966 earthquake that destroyed much of the city.

Near Tashkent Islamic University I found trees of blooming cherry blossoms. Beautiful, though the rain made them less so.

Eventually my walk brought me to the Jama Masjid of the city. The Friday Mosque, the main mosque of the city. This mosque was far more modern, not at all like the other mosques I'd seen around the city and country.

Behind this mosque was a wide open platz, it was really big. Since it was raining I was able to take a couple of my favourite kinds of photos, those with reflections. At the back of the platz was another old madrassa, also with the vendors about whom I'd come to have such ambivalent feelings.

I found a cafe not too far away (across the street, actually,) and stepped inside for a late lunch. I ordered too much, but it was nice to be out of the rain for a while. I think I was the only foreigner in there, I felt everyone staring at me for most of the time I was in there. Thankfully, I'm used to the feeling, and don't mind eating by myself.

After lunch I found the nearest metro station and rode the train to the stop nearest the hostel. I walked to the hostel, and took time to get all of my stuff organized in my pack. There is a difference in how you want to pack your bags when you're traveling by train/bus vs. plane.

The hostel called a taxi for me, which took me to the airport. The driver tried to get away with not giving me change, I had to ask twice. Sadly, I'm used to this kind of scam, so I had the patience to deal with it.

My flight back to Moscow was easy and smooth.

I'd like to come back to Uzbekistan, though the next time I will be exploring completely different parts of the country. After this visit I've seen enough of the cities of the country, now I want to see the landscapes.

uzbekistan: samarkand

My train from Bukhara to Samarkand was modern and clean, and departed on time. An hour and a half later, we arrived on time in Samarkand, Uzbekistan. Since my arrival time was so early, and Samarkand was another city with an out of the way train station, my accomodation sent someone to pick me up from the train station.

Since my arrival was so early, and I already knew my departure would be early as well, I'd arranged with my accomodation to have breakfast my first and second mornings, and not the last morning. Breakfast was quite a spread, a buffet version of the meal I'd been served in Khiva.

Despite this being a proper hotel I realized that the wifi wasn't very good. It was basically the same as I'd experienced in both Khiva and Bukhara. 

In other words, wifi in Uzbekistan is not great as a whole.

Samarkand is an old city, a really old city. Historians have noted it was conquered by Alexander the Great in 329 B.C. During the heyday of the Silk Road trading route (that ran from the Mediterranean to China,) Samarkand was one of the more important cities. It was also a center of Islamic scholarship and theology, and those remains are what people remember most of Samarkand.

I started my sightseeing with a statue of Amir Timur, a conqueror from centuries ago. The statue is in the middle of a traffic circle, and is big. From there I kept walking along the street that takes visitors right next to the most memorble sights of the city. I walked right past the Registan, knowing I would be back later to explore more. I did pause for a moment at the viewing platform. The Registan has several huge buildings around an open square. 

As impressive as they are now, I can only begin to imagine what people back in the day thought as they moved around the city.

I turned onto a pedestrian road, which took me to my next sight. I stopped briefly in the Jewish Cemetery. The community is no longer as big as it once was, but the cemetery is worth seeing.

Further along this road was the mausoleum of Islam Karimov, the first president of the modern country of Uzbekistan. It looks far more modern than other mausoleums, but the style is similar to others of the city.

I walked all the way to an old observatory. It was originally built by Ulugbek, in the 15^th century. At the time it was considered one of the best observatories of the Islamic world. Modern visitors find it unique because most of the mechanics are underground. Granted, there aren't many remains of the observatory, and if you're somewhat scientifcally challenged like I am, it wasn't completely clear how the whole thing worked. Oh well. There was a small museum in the area, describing the guy who built it, and his interest in science in general.

The museum also sold postcards, of course I bought plenty. (Far too many, as it turned out.)

From the observatory, I walked around a long way to the entrance of a place called Shah-i-Zinda. It's a grouping of mausoleums, from as early as the 9^th century. There is an entrance fee, of course.

The entire area of Shah-i-Zinda is stunning. The direction of the sun makes a big difference in how it comes out in photographs. In front of each building is a sign that says who is buried there, as well as architectural things to notice of that particular mausoleum. 

The names didn't mean anything to me, and I only paid attention to the architectural notes in terms of appreciating the art of each building.

There is a LOT of blue tiling, in various shades. In each of the buildings you can see the tombs, or at least the covers of the tombs. The interiors were completely covered in tiling, in intricate designs. I could've wandered for hours, even though the area isn't huge.

I continued my walk by circling back around to the mausoleum of Islam Karimov. While I was there I realized prayers were being sung for him constantly, the melody was somewhat haunting. The actual tomb of the man is quite small.

A long city block away, I walked through the city market, a large area. Like other city markets I've seen, vendors were grouped by type. There was an area for produce, dairy, bread, etc...

I walked back in the direction of the Registan, again passing it by. I kept going and got to my last sight for the day: the mausoleum of Amir Timur. While I was exploring Uzbekistan, and reading information, I found several spellings for his name, so I'm not quite sure in what I've written.

As I think I've written previously, Amir Timur was the leader of an empire. He was born in the 14^th century, and eventually was the leader of military campaigns across a wide swath of what is now Central Asia.

The name of the mausoleum is Gur Emir, (wikipedia tells me it is Persian for Tomb of the King,) it's big, and stunning. As I'd already seen around the country, there was a heap of blue tiling in various shades, in various designs.

I paid my entrance fee (sigh) at the gate, then walked in. There is a garden area in the inner courtyard, from which you can appreciate the front facade of the mausoleum building.

I entered the main building, and was stunned. The entire room is decorated in shades of gold. There is a chandelier, which lights up the gold, making it even more memorable. Whoa. It's not a big room, but the way it is decorated makes it clear someone really important is buried there.

When I left Gur Emir it was right around sunset. I walked back to my hotel, picking up food along the way. It turned out to be too much food, but that's a lifelong habit of mine.

The next morning I had another fabulous breakfast, then started walking. This time I walked to the Registan, found the ticket office, and paid my fee. It's a large area, with three big buildings on the sides of the open platz. The fourth side is open, and is where every iconic photo is taken from.

The buildings on the platz are all old madrassas. When you see them it's easy to understand how geopolitically important Samarkand used to be in this part of the world. They're massive, with more intricate mosaic tiling for decoration.

Walking through the entrances of each building was a bit of a letdown. As I'd see in other cities, there were vendors inside the various areas of the building. The vendors sold similar items, and all of them being in there takes away from the historical value and looks of the building. I'm not sure where I would prefer all these vendors to be, but in the individual rooms of what used to be a religious school just didn't seem right.

In the middle of the middle madrassa was a stunning mosque. I walked in and actually said 'whoa' out loud. Another room with stunning decoration, blue and a lot of gold. Just wow. After wandering through the Registan for a while, I opted to go back to the hotel for a little while.

After a nap, I went out for another walk. This time I went to another large mosque complex in the city. 

This one was for Bibi Khanum (another name with many spellings depending on who is doing the transliterating,) who was said to be the favourite wife of Timur.

I had to pay another entrance fee, which was irritating me to no end at this point. I was not a fan of continually paying entrance fees, I'd rather a single ticket cover the entire city. Argh.

I wasn't able to go inside very much of this complex, so paying the entrance fee was even more annoying. This complex was originally built rather quickly (relatively speaking, of course,) and never held up as well as other buildings in the city. It went into total ruin for a while, and at least one earthquake caused more damage during the centuries. Wikipedia tells me some work was done to fix it up during the Soviet years, but I was less than impressed.

After leaving this complex I went back to the city market, as it was nearby. This time I walked through all the aisles, making some purchases. It took some time, and when vendors saw me they were calling out to catch my attention.

Some of those calling out for my attention were beggar women, all carrying children. At times I want to give them something, but if I do, I know the pressure to give more will never end.

On my way back to my hotel I stopped at a grocery store to see if there was anything I wanted, there wasn't. I also stopped for ice cream, with sprinkles. When is ice cream not appropriate?

The next morning a taxi picked me up and took me to the train station. Goodbye to the most visited city in Uzbekistan.

uzbekistan: bukhara

My frustration with the lack of public infrastructure continued when I was going from Khiva to my next city, Bukhara.

My guesthouse in Khiva had arranged for me to take a shared taxi between the two cities, and it picked me up on time in Khiva. From there we picked up another lady, then went to a shared taxi stand in Urgench, to wait until more customers came along. After about 30 minutes the lady said something to the driver, who then spoke to me. 

She had suggested that each of us pay double the price, and start driving immediately, rather than waiting for two more customers to fill up the taxi. I agreed, as it seemed that it could be quite a while before we got anywhere if we waited for random passengers.

The taxi stopped twice, though neither stop was long. One stop was for lunch, and another was for buying melons from a random roadside stall. 

Remember what I said earlier about Uzbekistan growing water needy produce, despite being a desert country? Melons are another item to add to that list.

Eventually we arrived in Bukhara, Uzbekistan, and the taxi took me right to my booked accomodation. I was able to check in, and relax a bit in my room. Part of the check in process at this place was tea service in my room, which was a nice welcome.

I started walking, I didn't have to go far to get to the city center. One of the major areas tourists visit in Bukhara is called Lyabi Khaus, I think. It's basically a big platz, people could come together back in the day, and now. There is a man made pool, which was a source of water for the local population. The guidebook told me it was also a source of disease, as the pool wasn't cleaned very often, and water circulation wasn't very good.

The platz is surrounded by what used to be the market, what used to be a madrassah, and what used to be a mosque. The area didn't look very nice while I walked around, it was mostly empty. The pool didn't have any water, or very little. There were a few souvenir vendors, but not many, I assume this was because I was traveling in low season. At least, I hope that is the reason. Otherwise the lack of people would just be sad. 

I went into the old madrassah, which has been turned into a market for tourists. Each room had a vendor, all selling pretty much the same thing. Basically, it was a disappointment, it didn't feel like there was anything to see. I did enjoy the blue mosaic decorative tiling on the front of the building, but not much else.

After wandering around for an hour or so, I couldn't help but think "is this all there is to see in Bukhara? Why do people rave about the city?"

I found a few back streets to wander, hoping to see something, but it didn't happen. I'm normally pretty good at finding something photogenic in the normal daily life of a place, but I wasn't seeing anything that day. Argh.

I ended up eating dinner at what I thought was a random cafe, as I was the only person in there. When I got the bill I realized the place normally catered to tourists, as it was higher than I expected. Lesson learned.

When I was finished eating it was dark, so the platz was lit up a little, and looked somewhat better. Even so, I went to bed that night without a lot of hope for the next day.

The next day I woke up and had the breakfast included in the price of the room. Tea, bread, blinis, fried eggs, a hot dog, and cottage cheese. Despite the amount of food, it really wasn't all that good of a breakfast.

Eventually I got moving again, heading into a different direction of the city. On the street I passed the ruins of an old madrassa, not at all blocked off from crazy people like me who like to climb ruins. The stairs to get up to the second level were quite steep, and falling apart, but I liked the views, so it was worth it.

Eventually I walked past a GIANT old madrassa, and finally knew why tourists come to Bukhara. 

The entire front was decorated with tiles in mosaic designs, it was gorgeous. Across the street was another building just like it. Around the corner was a platz with a HUGE mosque on one side, and a fully functioning madrassa on the other side.

Going into the old maddrassas that were no longer in active use as schools was nice, but the front of the buildings are the amazing parts of the buildings. The interiors are now filled with vendors trying to sell things to visitors, which I think ruins the ambience of what should be a gorgeous museum. I wasn't allowed to go into the still functioning maddrassa.

The HUGE mosque was really neat to see, and it was easy for me to walk in. I was clearly there when it was not prayer time, and I was there during low season for tourists, so it was completely empty. Wow, just wow. I read somewhere that this mosque can hold 10,000 people, it must be quite a sight when all those people are there.

Next to the mosque is the Kalon minaret, but I didn't find it very exciting. It was tall, but there was no coloured tile decoration, unlike the big minarets I'd seen in Khiva. Hmmm...

I found the womens' hammam and entered, to find that I was the only person there. I paid what they asked, though I have no idea if it was the correct amount, or if I could've bargained at all. Either way, I didn't care.

An hour or two later, after being scrubbed, heated, showered and massaged, I walked out of the hammam feeling like a new person. It was amazing. I truly felt like I was glowing.

Since I was the only person in the hammam at the time, I was on the receiving end of some 'advice' from the lady who took care of me. Our conversation was a mix of Russian, English, and a little bit of Uzbek. She told me to get married and have kids, which I took with silence, since there was no point in discussing my differing views.

After the hammam I went to visit two more old madrassas, and found out they had entry fees. I was running very low on Uzbek currency, so I went to an ATM, but it only gave me the option of withdrawing dollars, which was not what I wanted. Someone asked me if I needed help and I was able to explain what I needed. This guy then walked me to an exchange point, where I was able to get more som. The madrasses ended up being full of vendors, argh. 

For all the desire Uzbekistan has for tourists, putting vendors right in the middle of the sights is a way to ruin the sights and drive away tourists.

I kept walking, eventually getting to the citadel area of the city. It's a large fortress, with plane stone walls. By the time I arrived it was getting dark, and closing hours had arrived, so I had to wait until the next day. Argh.

I did notice that across the street from the citadel was what used to be a functioning water tower. It isn't used anymore, (that I know of,) and now has digital lights along the structure, so I was treated to a bit of a light show.

The next morning I had the same breakfast, but some of the food seemed reheated, so it felt even worse than the day before. Ugh. There was a single teabag used in the teapot so the tea was too watery, and not 'traditional.'

I started walking, making my way to what I'm pretty sure is the smallest mosque in the city. It was very very small. When I got there I noticed there was a fake bird nest on top of one of the minarets. The inside of this mosque was not impressive.

From the small mosque I walked to the Jewish cemetery. Waaay back in the day, Bukhara had a strong, internationally recognized Jewish community; it is no longer the case. 

Bukharan Jews are a special group of Jews in the world. Because they have a history in Bukhara, they have a separate cemetery. When I got there I realized the entrance gate was in good shape, but very little else was. Sigh.

After visiting the cemetery I looked for the local synagogue, and ended up finding it. I was hoping for a quick peek inside, a quick photo, and moving on. This is not what happened. 

I'd forgotten that that day was a Jewish holiday, Purim. In Bukhara, the Jewish community has a community meal and gathering at the synagogue, I accidentally stumbled into this. They invited me to join them, so I did for a little while. I'm glad I got to see it, but it was really difficult to communicate, since most of them spoke only Uzbek, while I speak English with just a bit of Russian. 

In the west I've been told that Purim parties involve costumes, but each area of the world has it's own traditions. Sometime during this 'party' they tried to marry me off to one of the men in the congregation. Ummm, no.

After the synagogue I walked all the way back to the Ark (the citadel/fortress,) to make sure I was there during opening hours. 

Even though it looked huge from outside the walls, the area that foreigners/tourists are allowed to see seemed quite small to me. I don't know if this is because parts of the area are in ruins and not safe, or for other reasons.

I got to see a mosque inside the walls, with a great ceiling. I got to see the old throne room, where the coronations of Bukharan khans happened. There was a museum of money, which I loved, while the museum of ethnology wasn't as interesting.

After the Ark I followed the smaller roads leading behind the walls to get to the zindon (jail.) It had an entrance fee, and was not the entrance fee. There were a few signs describing who was held there, and why people could end up in jail, back in the day. I saw a couple cells, as well as a pit where some were thrown for a while. It must've been very cold for prisoners at this time of year.

I followed my map to find the Friday Mosque of Bukhara, which is currently the most important mosque of the country. I arrived at a prayer time, so I saw all the pairs of shoes lined up in front of the entrance, as well as men running late to prayers. They ran, took shoes off as fast as possible, and ran into the building. I didn't get to go in, but the ceiling of the porch area was gorgeous.

I kept walking, and found a couple old mausoleums. They weren't open anymore, to tourists or locals, at least not that I could tell. I appreciated the blue tiling on the front facades, and appreciated the quiet of the area. I didn't so much appreciate the way some of the 'windows' had been boarded up with plyboard. Such a sad ending for what should still be beautiful buildings. 

At that point it was getting dark, so I found another cafe for dinner, then went home. I went to sleep early, as I had to get up super early the next morning. My train left at 0500, but the train station was not close to town. A taxi picked me up at 0400, the drive was about 30 minutes. Thankfully, the train was modern, and the boarding process was straightforward.