My journey to Tashkent
The city of tasty pilaf and sincere smiles. Saniya Ussabekova talks about the city where it is easy to believe in a fairy tale.
SU
Saniya Usabekova
Mon, 05 Jun 2023
Sunny and warm Tashkent is a city of peaches and pomegranates, delicious pilaf and real smiles.
I’ve been there multiple times in different stages of my life, as a student on vacation, as a postgraduate with friends for the weekend with my first salary, and as an adult and a mature worker.
Upon arrival in Tashkent the last time, we were invited to taste Uzbek cuisine at the famous authentic restaurant "Karavan", the restaurant is located in the city centre near the airport. The place is famous for its interior, which is made in traditional and national motifs, and the atmosphere takes the guest to 50 years back.
The cuisine is chic: delicious pilaf, kiima kebab, achuchuk salad, tandoor samsa - will not leave anyone indifferent.
The market is the most atmospheric place of any eastern city. It is all about a noisy concentrate of haggling people, spicy aromas and bright goods.
Chorsu one of the largest bazaars in Uzbekistan and Central Asia - is located in the old part of Tashkent on Navoi Street in the Almazar district. The Chorsu bazaar was known in the Middle Ages and had great importance on the Great Silk Road.
Here you can buy souvenirs, hand-painted utensils and dishes, national chapans and hats, spices and dairy products.
There is also a fruit market, where an abundance of figs and different varieties of peaches, grapes and pomegranates are impossible to resist. The colour of the east is impressive.
For show and entertainment lovers, it is important to visit Tashkent’s Disney Land – Magic City, which opened this year.
In a large area in the city centre, each house or object is made in the architecture of a certain country, for example, the London house of Sherlock Holmes or Egyptian buildings.
The narrow streets remind me of Europe, where you can buy some clothes, because different brands are represented, have dinner or drink coffee with a view of the main castle, where, in the evenings a show of the singing fountains to music begins - a very beautiful and impressive sight. For married couples and children, there is a large place with attractions, food court and a separate aquarium where you can observe the underwater world.
In general, Magic City is a new town full of history and magic, here we visited Registan and took a couple of pictures that reminded us of Samarkand and Bukhara.
Then we moved through the narrow streets to the shops full of tourists, had a delicious dinner in a Turkish restaurant and watched the evening fountain show. We will definitely visit Magic city again!
Our trip was related to work in medicine and exchange of experience with colleague-doctors in the Miracle IVF clinic. There is a medical town in TashiMI district which was formed in the USSR. It is widely known as “Med Town” where many different city and private hospitals and clinics: multidisciplinary, oncological, IVF, specialized in traumatology, etc. are located.
You can spend your free time or weekend in water parks or complexes. Due to the hot and sunny weather, there are a lot of water parks and swimming pools in Tashkent.
One of the largest water complexes – “Sea” opened in June 2021 and located in the Mirzo Ulugbek Park of Culture and Recreation (Telman Park, Toshkent).
Water slides, a spacious swimming pool, children's pool with slides, a food court and a restaurant, several bar areas and a unique water bar, as well as a stage where incendiary performances of DJs and pop stars will take place. The "Sea" is a place where you can relax with your family or friends, celebrate a birthday or hold an unforgettable party.
I love leisurely walks around the city, where you can explore the city in more detail, observe the city like locals. Tashkent is a very green and beautiful city. There are many fountains in the city centre on Amir Timur Street, the coolness of which becomes an oasis for the traveller in hot weather. The abundance of delicious food, parks, museums and theatres attract guests of Tashkent.
We managed to visit several museums. One of them was the Museum of Applied Art (15 Rakatboshi Street) – if you don't have time to visit the ancient capitals, just look here.
Here you will be able to touch the heart of Uzbekistan – its ancient needlework practices: weaving, gold embroidery, ceramics and even folk instruments. Various master classes on applied art are often held here. Entrance to the museum – € 0.5.
Right across the street from Central Park is an Eco-park (Hamid Olimzhan Street).
There are no attractions here, but a bike path, tennis and volleyball court and other areas for active recreation and sport. It doesn't matter if you don’t have sports equipment, you can rent everything here.
In the eco-park, we visited - "Aladdin". It is the only puppet theatre in Central Asia. This theatre has been playing wonderful performances based on Eastern and Western fairy tales, for the second year. Obedient to the slightest movement of threads, and at the same time incredibly mysterious, and so similar to us, dolls give children and adults the opportunity to see a real fairy tale and believe in it for a while.
Treat yourself to a trip to sunny Tashkent and sweet memories will warm you for a long time!