Officially the sightseeing portion of the day was done and I now had the rest of the evening until tomorrow noon as freetime in Samarkand before my tour resumed. The first thing on the agenda was a long anticipated trip to the music CD store.

The store was in the modern area close to my hotel. As this was my driver Anvar's hometown he suggested this would be the best place to buy all the cds I wanted.

They had a large selection of hollywood movies in Russian, other Russian titles and only a couple of shelves of local music. I didnt think this was the best selection but this is the store that had been recommended to me and I hadnt seen any other stores the rest of the trip.

There was only one pop cd that had about 186 songs on it in mp3 format. We played a few and they sounded ok. I also got an Iran pop cd as I felt like this wasnt enough of a selection. When I was in Xinjiang China I got almost a dozen ethnic Uyghar music cds and dvds.

A couple of traditional music cds were suggested for me as well, and a music concert dvd that was held in the Registan Square. My guide was quite curious if I'm actually going to listen to this kind of music and whether I would like it. I thought I would but turns out she was correct as most of them were not what I was looking for.

The total for six items came to 31,000 ($15.50) so on average $2.50 each. I only had 11,000 left in 1000 Som bills so Anvar loaned me the rest and I paid him back US dollars in the car.

My guide took a cab home and Anvar dropped me back at the hotel. I was told in addition to the main Orthodox Cathedral we keep driving past there is another one just behind my hotel. They were not sure exactly where in reception as they probably dont pay attention or have guests asking to visit but pointed me in the right way.

As a Westerner these were things more interesting to me and things we dont get to see. Many of the Soviet region tourists probably dont have any interest or goto the main Orthodox Church.

It was actually quite easy to reach just going a block after which the tall spire was visible. There was one person at the back running some kind of gift shop selling religious postcards and items. I said "tourist" and showed my camera. They indicated it was ok and I could take pictures.

The outside wasnt how I imagined as it was a simple brick exterior not plasterwork but the inside was a bit more traditional. I've only been to Serbian Orthodox Churches in Bosnia and there were some similarities and some differences.

It had a pale blue interior and a front partition wall with lots of individual portraits. In the Serbian Church there had been more gold paneling.

On the side walls there were more religious items, portraits of Saints and other artwork. A side corridor led to another room where they had a baptism pool.

It was a very interesting introduction for me to a Russian Orthodox Church. I still had to visit the main Samarkand Orthodox Church tomorrow morning and the Tashkent Orthodox Church when I returned there.

I now needed to get some food so was finding places to eat. Anvar had warned me to be careful as I was low on cash as there were some expensive restaurants here so to check prices first.

I tried going for a long walk in the opposite direction of the hotel and places I'd been. I kept seeing 'Aviakassa' which I thought was bank but was later told it was a travel agent. Why are there so many travel agents? I couldnt find any food so had to change direction

Coming down a different street there was a German style pub restaurant. I looked at the menu and saw a picture of Lagman but all the writing was in Russian so I didnt know which one it was.

They guy explained there were two sizes for 3500 or 4500 Som ($1.50-$2.25). I asked for the smaller one then he suggested I should get a half naan as well. I did ok ordering my first meal on my own I suppose even though its the same Uzbek food I get in Korea.

My total came to 4500 Som with the naan ($2.25). Leaving the restaurant I was actually on a street of quite a few restaurants now so good to know if I needed to come back. I was actually on the CD store street. It intersected at the hammam I had walked to on the first night so now I knew where I was and how to get back.