Tashkent, Uzbekistan

Tashkent was very different from the other two cities I traveled to while in Uzbekistan. Tashkent is the capital city of Uzbekistan. There are not as many tourist destination to see yet I still found it very interesting to walk around. I especially loved the metro stations! Each metro station is unique, spacious, and beautiful... but it is against the law to take photos inside. We were checked for our passport and visa when entering metro stations. (One metro station was filled with chandeliers! Another one was decorated with mosaic pictures throughout the station.)

Exploring Tashkent:

Funny enough, I took the photo above during my first day in Tashkent. I had walked down this street in hopes of finding "the secret shop" that my friend, Donna, had told me about - saying it had cool clothing, jewelry, and bags. Sounded great! ...It really was "secret" though, as I could not find the shop.

A week later, as I returned to Tashkent for an evening before flying out early the next morning, Donna took me to "the secret shop" and it was this place shown above!! Hahaha.

The door had been closed when I was there the first time. The windows are all blocked and covered.

The door was closed again... but Donna went up to it, knocked, waited... and then someone came and opened the door for us! Sure enough - the secret shop was open... you just have to know about it.

Advertisements on the side of a building:

Mmmmhmmmmm. Lovely cappuccino and macaroon cookies!

Jaime and I really enjoyed going to Bon Cafe - there were two near to our hotel in Tashkent. This cafe was spacious with plenty of seating and lovely coffee. I couldn't find good coffee during the rest of the trip - in Samarkand or Bukhara. I knew it was a tea country... but I really missed a nice coffee each morning.