Kosmonavtlar: Hands Down the Best Station of Tashkent Metro

Kosmonavtlar is a metro station in Tashkent, Uzbekistan. It’s the blue line (O’zbekiston yo’li) out of 3.5 active lines of Tashkent Metro. Taking photos inside the exquisite – often Soviet-era – metro stations in Tashkent was illegal until June 2018. Ever since loads of photos and videos of beautiful stations have popped up on the internet. However, I’d like to draw your attention to the best one: Kosmonavtlar (Russian: Космонавтов)—or ‘Cosmonauts’ in English. During the first 16 days I spent in Tashkent, I visited a lot of metro stations. But somehow I only found out about Kosmonavtlar a few daysContinue reading

The Cutest Nameless + Abandoned Observatory in Samarkand

One completely spontaneous find in Samarkand was this adorably small abandoned observatory in Central Park (Uzbek: Markaziy Bog’—Russian: Центральный парк). We walked past it one evening (19th of July) on the outside and I snapped some photos. Since the best restaurant for vegetarians – Old City Restaurant – in Samarkand is located a stone’s throw away from Central Park, I knew we’d be back. Here’s a Google Satellite view of the observatory where you can clearly see the observatory’s round metal roof: From the ground behind the fence, it looked much like an abandoned observatory, but I couldn’t be sure.Continue reading