The Last Day of 2019; hopefully, but cautiously, anticipating 2020. 12/31/2019

“Yangi yilingiz bilan” from Tashkent (on our last day here)… or… Happy New Year from Tashkent… and arrival in Samarkand (the drive).

We began our last day in Tashkent (we head to Samarkand tomorrow morning–January 1, 2020) and the last day of 2019 with a good breakfast and our usual walk to the Metro station (which is about a half-mile from the hotel). Along the way we stopped, ever so briefly, at the Monument at Mustaqillik Maydoni. After Uzbekistan’s independence in Fall 1991, the former Lenin Square was renamed Mustaquillik Maydoni, which means “Independence Square” in English. The monument to Lenin was dismantled, and a new sculpture was erected – a globe and later a sculpture of a woman with a baby in her arms (motherland) was constructed and set at the base of the globe. This is also a memorial for the close-to-400,000 Uzbeki soldiers who died in World War II.  We’ve passws by this square every day as we headws to the Metro. There is an arch at the entry to the square called the Arch of Humanism (Arch of Ezgulik). The “square” is more of a park and is surrounded by many official buildings, most of which look like typical Soviet formal institutional structures.

On this day, we decided to spend several hours taking the metro to random stations and getting out to walk around different neighborhoods. We also stumbled on several amazing subway stations along the way, so we often got out of the train to photograph the stations and then get back onto the train. Our journey took us to the far end (last stops) of several of the metro lines. The weather was gray which didn’t help our assessment of these more distant neighborhoods. But it did look a bit like what Queens (NY) might have looked like in the 1950s. There are many buildings in unfinished states and sometimes it’s not clear if the building is on its way up or on its way down.

One station brought us to a  very vibrant supermarket (which we checked out) and a sort of mini Chorsu Bazaar — selling every possible kind of food. The area was bustling. One thing, I can say confidently, is that food seems very available – everything including pineapples and bananas (which come from Ecuador). There’s an abundance of meats, and cheeses, and vegetables and fruits. There’s also typical packaged goods, including Oreo cookies! The only American fast food that we’ve seen is KFC (which seems to be located in many spots in Tashkent).

Eventually we made our way to the Tashkent TV Tower which is about 1,200 feet (375 meters) tall and they say is the 11^th tallest tower in the world — but not before stopping at Plov Center, a restaurant that only has plov, salad, and bread. There are a few different plov dishes at the center, but naturally we got there toward the end of the lunch hour and so our choices were limited. The one waiter who spoke some English said the one that was remaining was “the best and often served at weddings” (good salesman). Plov is a little like rice pilaf… a rice dish with some vegetables and also some fruits (apricots in ours) and different meat. The waiter asked which meats and we said lamb; he asked if we wanted horse meat too, saying it was tasty, but we declined. At the Plov Center there are tables and chairs for about 850 people in one room, with about 700 seated on the main floor and the remainder on a balcony that wraps the room. The ceiling height is about 30’. They cook the plov in giant cauldrons just outside the restaurant and if you can speak Russian you can chat about what you want in your plov (I think).

The entry to the TV Tower which is located just about 100 meters from the Plov Center (as the crow flies) but is about 5 times that distance because you have to walk out into the street and around and up and down stairs to find the tower. Anyway, as you walk to the elevator which takes you to the viewing floor, you walk past models (not too well made) of other towers around the world, including the Empire State Building and the Hancock Tower in Chicago. The view from the top is not too impressive since Tashkent is so flat and mostly because it was so hazy you couldn’t see very much.

We then walked about a mile (Mike complaining that there aren’t enough benches in Tashkent to rest as you walk) to the nearest Metro Station and headed back to the hotel where we would spend New Years Eve (and my birthday). By the time we reached the hotel, preparations were in full swing. We went to the restaurant for our reserved table at about 9:30 and most parties were already seated and the entertainment had already started. Loud! Mixture of rock, 80s disco, local folksy Central Asian tunes played on old instruments, and a little bit of Christmas… oh and also some Frank Sinatra! Food was fine, lots of alcohol – champagne, wine, cocktails, etc.  About 30 minutes in, they announced my name although I didn’t really hear it clearly — and they brought over a tiramisu cake with candles to our table. They also said something at the mic, but it was in Russian so I’m assuming it was just Happy Birthday (always complicated to be a New Year’s Eve baby).

 Dancing began as well and there were a few big circle dances (a little like the Horah that is danced at Jewish weddings) – I actually participated. Most everyone in the restaurant spoke Russian and the event was all done in Russian. Apparently Russian is still the official language for all transactions, menus, and everyday work, while Uzbek is spoken at home.

A few minutes before midnight, everyone left their tables (we followed) and headed to the deck adjacent to the restaurant. There everyone was handed cannisters that twisted and out popped glitter (many of the women wore dresses with sequins and other sparkly things — once again, I was probably a bit underdressed, although I did not wear a turtleneck! But I did wear boots.) At midnight they all started to sing (without accompaniment) the national anthem, which I assume they did in Uzbek. From what we could tell, about 60% or more of the guests were Uzbeks from Tashkent area; there were some Uzbeks from other parts of the country; there were a few foreigners (we know one table of about 8 people were from Istanbul) and there was us. They assigned a waitress to us who could speak some English and she seemed to pop up frequently to check that we were OK.. and to replenish our wine (probably too many times).

At about 1 am we headed to the lobby lounge to get an after dinner drink – it was nice and quiet and we could actually have a conversation.