Day 24 - Uzbekistan

Went for a bite to eat yesterday evening. I'm not sure it was the best place in town but I had two 'cow kebabs' with some salad and it was pretty good all in all. The salad turned out to be some pickled gherkins and some picked tomatoes. Yes, picked tomatoes. VERY interesting. Not had that before. Interesting but not entirely my cup of chai. I sampled and decided to send back to the pantry for somebody else to enjoy. It was a reminder that November isn't the time for salad, so pickled salad is all that's on offer. Fair enough. One tends to forget about the seasons in the UK these days. I also got talked into having a very large Uzbek vodka which had the effect of cutting the evening very short! The finger bowl in the shot below is the vodka. There was quite a lot of it.

Caught the midday train to Tashkent. Cost 37,000 Som which sounded pretty steep but I discovered that I'd booked a VIP ticket which explained things. Here's a shot of the VIP lounge at Samarkand station.

Here's the money shot of Samarkand itself. I wasn't in Samarkand long enough to get a real feel for the place but wanted to get to Tashkent ASAP so I can spend a bit more time in one place for a change. 

Got a bit lost in Tashkent when trying to find my hostel. When I finally arrived I discovered there's not a great deal around in this part of town. So had to make do with a dinner of bread, Dairylea, a packet of crisps and a Snickers for pud. 

Travellers Tip - When arriving in a new and strange city, it's probably not a good idea to watch three episodes of, 'The Walking Dead' back to back. Gave me the hebe-jeebies.