Samarkand, Uzbekistan

I really liked Samarkand. We stayed there just one night but had the better part of a day and a half. It rained the afternoon we arrived. We got soaked and our clothes/boots stayed wet for a good part of the remainder of our trip. The rain seemed to have let up at one point, so we tried to fit in seeing another mosque but then the rain came back with a vengeance! We stood under a tree until we were able to grab a taxi... then we had to attempt to describe how to get to our hotel that the taxi driver did not know about, and then we had to run the 50+ meters from the taxi to the hotel's front door! It was an adventure full of laughs. We camped in that night and made a dinner out of all the snacks we could conjure up. Thank goodness for Donna's sweet care package when we arrived in Tashkent - her biscuits and peanut butter were much enjoyed!

The old part of the city is very walk-able and the massive mosques covered in detailed designs of blue tiling are just incredible to see. Samarkand was a major stop along the Silk Road and has been an UNESCO World Heritage site since 2001.

Walking along a wall on the outside of the Registan:

Precarious scaffolding!

Awkward lunch where we are the only ones in the entire restaurant:

The restaurant served one 3-course meal.

We (obviously) went with that - it was tasty and cheap!

Attempting shortcuts in Samarkand:

Beautiful fabric shop! I bought a dress  : )

10-cent soft serve ice cream!

It was more like frozen sugar.

Ordering the ice cream was hilarious.

We tried ordering just vanilla but ended up with a rainbow mix of every flavor!

foggy foggy foggy frenchonionsoup!

Both Saturday and Sunday mornings were incredibly foggy last weekend. I took a photo to attempt to show... well... not much... there wasn't much to see!

That is the view from my balcony... the trees lining the street can just be made out... but the farm across the way seems non-existent... instead, there is a wall of clouds. Pretty cool - especially when I was planning on a comfy, relaxing morning inside my apartment anyway.

...It was the perfect, chilly weekend to make french onion soup in the crockpot and drink plenty of coffee while it cooked! Mmmmmmhmmmmm   : )

I then enjoyed the soup all week and, thankfully, the fog cleared up about mid-day each day.

The weather has actually been really nice lately... untillllllll this past week (since the foggy weekend!).

I haven't been checking the weather forecast - but Dad does for me!

Hilariously... I received the following email (entire email copied and pasted below) last Sunday evening from my dad, with the subject of: Weather:

Stacia,

It looks like your stretch of fabulous weather is coming to a horrible end!

Love.

Dad

Bahahahahahaha. Hilariously, and yet so sadly, true. The next day (Monday) it began to rain... and it didn't stop for days. Thankfully, I'm in Seville, Spain now (WHAT?! - YES!! I will blog more about that later... I am here for a conference and a school visit)... it did (ALSO) rain here earlier today but I was inside at that time anyway. When I went on a walking tour and then my own photo-ing tour in the evening, it was lovely outside.

Thanks for the heads-up Dad! It actually really helped me out -- both mentally (saying goodbye to the nice weather and being prepared for the not-so-nice), as well as physically (I packed my umbrella!).

Dad, I love you! I'll see you and Mom NEXT MONTH!!!!!!!!!   : D

rain and accidents...

Mom and Dad have arrived in Denver! They got in late Tuesday night... and yesterday (Wednesday) they brought the rain aaaaand a car accident. Thankfully, everyone is alright.

Mom and Dad always seem to bring rain to Denver... a place where it does not often rain. (They really brought the rain last September... and absurd amounts of flooding... for Lenny and Lexey's wedding. Yikes.)

It was not supposed to rain yesterday buuuuuut the sky clouded over, turned dark gray, and then poured. We were in Tony's Market during the worst of the storm and everyone inside was commenting on the rain. It was raining sideways; the wind was intense. After an hour or so the weather cleared up and the evening was beautiful - we had a lovely dinner on the back patio.   : )

...On to the 'accident' part...

Mom, Dad, and I were in Lexey's car (before the rain, actually), driving along Colorado Blvd. We were at a complete stop in a line of traffic but the car behind us came through the intersection at about 35 mph... then realizing the cars in front of him were at a complete stop, he (thankfully!) slammed on his brakes. He ran into the back of us. Dad saw it coming and kept his foot on the brake... but the car was still pushed about 5 feet forward.

It took a couple hours... the cops came, a report was made... the kid that ran into us was a bit shaken but very nice and apologized, saying it was completely his fault.

This is the first car accident Dad or I have ever been in. (Dad's comment to that is that he's a bit older than I am! True.)

Anyway - we are all alright and the car is too. There was surprisingly little damage made to the car and Lexey was incredibly understanding about the entire thing - happy that the three of us were ok.

Bizarre... but as we're on our way home (to safety!)... Mom, Dad, and I were stopped in a line of traffic (again - this time on Logan St.)... a car came to a stop behind us... aaaand then we heard a bit of a crash as a truck behind the car crashed into it. Seriously?!? Thaaaaankfully, the car behind us had enough room and did not hit us. Goodness. (I can only imagine what it would look like to the police and/or insurance companies that we were in two accidents - hit from behind - within a couple hours of each other. It would be like we were driving around the city trying to be hit!)

Dad woke up this morning with a bloody nose - probably due to the altitude and dry air... soooo... Welcome to Denver Mom and Dad!

double rainbow...

One day was quite rainy here earlier in the week... Mom and I came out of Trader Joe's in Pittsford and there was a gorgeously bright rainbow! ...Even a double rainbow...

I even like it through the car window:

the adventure continues! ...going to the reception, Denver, CO

Lenny and Lexey re-planned their wedding in a day...

They booked rooms at the Hyatt downtown... and the reception was at Maggiano's in Englewood, CO.

L & L provided lightrail tickets at the hotel for people to get to the reception by public transportation... perfect!

We went to the lightrail stop downtown, to find a sign that says this line was closed just this weekend -- of course!

Soooo... we walked back a couple blocks to catch a free shuttle bus to take us to the stop.

The bus driver told us that only one wheelchair could fit on the bus... and we had 3.

...All-in-all ...we DID get all 3 wheelchairs onto the bus to stick together on the journey. (Nothing like sneaking a wheelchair onto a bus! Haha)

On the bus to a working lightrail line:

We then made it to the lightrail stop. 

It's raining by now. Steadily...

Our train came... we all got on (including the 3 wheelchairs)... only to be told that the sign label on the front of the train was wrong (broken) and it was NOT the train that we needed to take us to Englewood!

All get off... still raining...

A few minutes later another train came along and this time (thankfully!) it was the correct one.

On the lightrail from Denver to Englewood for the reception...

Estimating, we probably rode the lightrail for about 30 minutes or so. My favorite was when Poppy asked, "Are you sure we're still in Colorado?!"

And another favorite... is that this was the first time everyone was able to get a view of the mountains! It had been about 3 or 4 days... and Uncle Bubby said, "I kept hearing all of this about there being mountains, but I was beginning to doubt that there were any!"

The adventure continues -- but we're making progress!

Crossing the highway from the lightrail stop to Maggiano's...

And everyone's in good spirits, laughing, and ready to party!  : D

Walking to Maggiano's got pretty muddy... 

rain... rain... and... rain...

The rain and flooding in Colorado while I was back for the wedding was unusual... and incredible. Incredibly bad for the most part.

The first photo below is on the day of the wedding... after the ceremony... thankfully not raining! ...But as you can see, the sky is scary-dark behind everyone...

On Sunday we took a ride up into the Rocky Mountains. It was many of my relatives first time in the Rockies! We went to Leadville to have lunch and see Sean's house... and then came back by way of Vail. It rained... but not as badly as some other parts of Colorado. We still were able to see the mountains surrounding us and we had a good day.  : )