Of all the places we had planned to visit on this trip through the Stans, I was most excited for Samarkand, a city in Uzbekistan that is one of the oldest continuously-inhabited cities in Central Asia. I knew very little bit about it other than what I could glean from the pictures we had looked at in the travel brochure, but man-oh-man, those were some pictures.
Our first introduction to Samarkand when we stepped off the train was provided by this group of "musicians," a word I use loosely here. It sounded more like really annoying and really large insects buzzing in my ear than it sounded like music:
Things got better after that. Here is the tropical courtyard of the train station:
"Welcome" in English!
