The next day, we met up with Eli and tried to walk from The Registan to Afrosiab. Along the way, we stopped by the Bibi-Khanym Mosque and Shah-I-Zinda, or the Avenue of Mausoleums. Both of these stops were incredibly impressive, the Bibi-Khanym was simply massive and beautiful, and the intricacies of the Shah-I-Zinda were astounding.
Tag: Architecture
The Registan
The view from the top was amazing. We could see the foothills of the Pamir mountains in the distance, and all of the ancient buildings of Samarkand as well. We took pictures for a while, but I definitely put down my camera for a while to take in the view. It was the highlight of the trip.
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Portals of Bukhara
The relative shine and newness of the Kalon Minaret area was not present only a few blocks away at the Ulugbek Medressa and the painted Adbul Aziz Khan Medressa. These two massive schools have remained mostly untouched for the last 500+ years, giving a much clearer picture of what it might have been like to study the Koran there in 1417.
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Finally, the Rijksmuseum
I was so excited to be there both days, and to be back in Amsterdam, which might just be my favorite city in the world, that I purposely left my camera in my pocket simply to take it all in. Besides, it is nearly impossible to capture all that is the famous Waterloo painting, and better to take in the Milkmaid with your own eyes than in a digital rendition.
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The Astana Story
After watching the two other American students perform brilliantly talking about unique topics different than my own, I took the chair and started to talk about how the Treaty of Paris in 1947 was one of many treaties signed at the end of the Second World War that had to do with how the Allied Forces would divvy up the land that had been invaded by Nazi Germany. Within sixty seconds of complete bullshit, I realized that the two proctors had no answers in front of them and were not checking a single thing I was saying.
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Bangkok, I Shit Love You
The Temples and tourists were positively amazing, but the heat was overwhelming. We walked back to the train, where a very nice lady overheard us speaking in English, and after some conversation, hailed us a tuk-tuk to take us to China Town. We zipped through the city to a place where it's nearly impossible to walk down the sidewalk without bumping into someone, seeing some amazing (and hilarious) things for sale, and getting distracted very quickly.
