bukhara has a feel of faded glory. the simple streets of a developing country led to ornate and crumbling madrassas, mosques and minarets. while khiva is a museum city, bukhara feels alive. there are also a lot more tourists here although the city is less visually stunning than khiva. i spent all yesterday wandering its dusty streets from impressive monument to impressive monument and getting a feel for its tangled layout as children in school uniforms pushed past me.
this morning i arrived in samarkand, legendary city of beauty; capital of timur the great. i just got here, but already it is evident that this is much more of a soviet city than bukhara, with various old monuments scattered around the town between large blocky concrete buildings and wide modern streets. travel accounts from centuries ago talked about how green this city is, and that much is still true. all of the streets are aligned with trees here. people are less talkative here, but maybe i am just less in the center of things. this city is more spread out, so i am not sure if there really is a center in the same way as lyab-i-hauz was in bukhara.
i have been sitting in the internet cafe for a while. this is the first one i have found for a while with a decent connection. i've finally had a chance to answer all the email i blew off while in nukus, khiva and samarkand. the people here just gave me free coffee. uzbeks are very kind to foreigners. or maybe they're just happy that i've been here for so long. maybe i'll even try to find out what has happened in the world for the last week...
