Beautiful Tashkent

So this was my plane for the flight to Tashkent

  - well at least my drawing of it ;), you know Russian airport, no photos etc… ;)

Uzbekistan Airways… yeah I didn’t expected to much, but I could have. Because the flight was really good. Refreshments before start, peanuts after start and a really good meal somewhere over Kazachsstan. But I can add one funny experience:
Before Boarding, I went to the toilette (bad start of a story,.. anyway). I saw a man taking out brass knuckels out of his pocket, together with some earphones. Well, he took the earphones and put the brass knuckels back. Would do you think? He is an security, well he is light-armored, fine. I was thinking that too. Until I saw him bringing me my food 2 hours later ;).

Btw… Russian Airport Domodeovo got Body Scanner and all fancy stuff!

After about waiting one hour for my baggage, I left the airport and heard a fancy “Peter” from the nice IAESTE correspondent Zumrat, here in Tashkent. Together with another IAESTE student (guess where she is from…) we have been taken to our homes. I live here now – as I said – with a young couple and the student from Switzerland, who will leave in one week. Zumrat, the nice woman who picked me up said he is speaking a lot… and indeed!  If you are wondering how young is a young couple in Uzbekistan… Well, I posed myself this question ;)

Breakfast had been nice, some bread-kind stuff with Hawla (similar to butter) and a lot of fruits. Then I went together with Gijom (the swiss student) to his work and afterwards made a little walk across the city… Damn it’s HUGE!!! At the city maps, everything seems quite reachable, but in fact…  visiting Moscow was so easy ;). And car driving must be really interesting here,… I hope I can try it once. Traffic lights doesn’t count, speed limit is somewhere near Highway and to cross the street by foot… oh there is just one rule: be BRAVE and FAST!

When I managed it somehow to came back, I installed myself in my tidy room:

my room                           the kitchen                                           clothes oriental style

I don’t have internet in my apartment, so I try to write something regularly and just add the dates. All these before happened on Thursday. Today is Sunday, and I will remember for you the most important things… like the police presence in Tashkent. The so-called “cucumbers” are everywhere, but mostly in the metro stations where they controlled me already 3 times. Just show your passport, speak the 5 russian phrases to the questions (Who are you? What do you do? Where do you life? Why the hell? Piss off!) and it’s fine.

I walked around the city, visited Bazar and the most important Amir Timur (national hero!). One important advise, if you want to travel here: US-Dollars is still the most-taken Money, so have It with you. I just got it for a crazy commission and then I changed it to the local Money – 100 USD  to a lot of Sum, get this picture:

If you look closely, you’ll see that music is on: Vangelis – Conquest of Paradise!

Even if the package of money looks quite nice, it’s not that big. Life is here is not as cheap as expected, everything is about the half price as in Austria (grapes, rice, шашлик,…). For the bus drive or metro it’s everytime 500 SUM (=0.2€), but as you have to use them a lot to get somewhere,… the package of money thousands is decreasing rapidly.

The IAESTE Organisation is quite good here. By now I know that the head is kind of family business of the head of the university, but there are a lot of members, for example

Hurshid – the nice guy how takes care that I don’t get lost here

He took me to a mosque (you see it in the background) and I also have been in there, which wa quite nice to see. I asked him about Hiking in the east of Tashkent and he was quite eager to organize a little trip. I was not sure what he understand by hiking but it was definitely not the same as I do. We left yesterday (saturday) at about 5 p.m. with a private driver and a friend of him to go to Chimgan.  It’s getting a more and more touristic area, with Skiing, Hiking, Rafting and almost everything you have as activities in Europe. Anyway, we haven’t been driving for 5 minutes, and I had to find out that I will be driving for about 3 hours in a typical “Prolettenschleuder” (sorry for all non-german speakers, I can’t translate that..). Daewoo Mantis (as are about 90% of cars here), additional speakers at the back with a big lack of quality at high volume (awful sound!!!). Well,… I had to adapt, that’s ok. Additionally I found out, that you actually here 3 songs all over the world (at least Vienna, Moscow, Uzbekistan): Wave the Flag, Alors on dance  and We no speak Americano.

We had a nice evening with a lot of meat and beer, I found a true chess player (1:1) and had a lot of fun. In the morning we left for a good uzbek soup (very strong!!!) and then the great  hiking experience: Get up to the mountain with an overaged soviet ski lift, make a round and go back. Well at least, we had a nice view:

Afterwards, we drove to a big lake in the mountains: Charbak. There is just an uprising tourism resort with everything you need… also Jet-Ski. Because of previous experiences on Jet-Ski, I haven’t done that ;).

now it's Monday, about 18h in the Lobby of the Grand Mir Hotel

This morning I went to work as an typical Europeen is used to. 9 o'clock, I was ready at the given place but well... it's not Europe ;). So I waited comfortable (without any stress!) for one hour, looking at the local students. They almost have uniforms, everybody with black trousers and white shirts (i have neither of them ^^). Working wasn't too hard. I have been presented to different people, listening to them speaking less german than I speak russian. When the talk came to work, I discovered that they have (as often with IAESTE) almost no idea what to with me. Additionally, my correspondent speaks also little english and so it's difficult to talk about math. Well... I still hope that I can somehow manage to get a topic and go home with an entire Bachelor Thesis ;).

After 2 hours, we left for lunch, walked trough the city and then I tried to find an internet cafe with WIFI, so I can use my laptop. Not so easy. For the first one, I had to pay a lot of sum, so I tried to sit on a nearby bench and use it... well there is a trade off between distance&hiding to connection... so I couldn't go so far and I had been discvoered after a few minute.

Now I'm in the pleasant and luxurious hotel Grand Mir and after a nice chit chat with the hostress, she aggreed that I don't need to drink the 2500SUM Tea... (well it's 1€, but in Uzbek it's a meal ^^)

I'm looking forward to the next days here and now I will... don't know what I will do know ^^. Best greetings from Uzbekistan and I'm trying to sent you some sun!!

Helpful advices

• for learning numbers: pushups and speak the foreign numbers ;)
•   USD is still the one and only money in country like these
• at hotel lobbys you may use WiFi for free (even if you don't live there!)