This morning I had several hours freetime to explore Samarkand city by myself before my guide and driver would return at lunchtime. Nearby was a city museum and I was still hoping to goto the main Orthodox Church we kept driving by.

There was a brief blackout again when I woke at 7am. I was told this is for construction work to make electrical connections and they try to keep it brief. After breakfast I started my wandering around.

I saw something with Seoul Korea thinking this was a restaurant. It was actually a clothing store with a lot of wollen clothing worn by ajumas (old women) and ladies in Korea. There was actually a restaurant nearby with hangul writing that would have been nice to photograph but I didnt see it till later when we were driving.

Close to the hotel is a long park named Alisher Navoi after some famous poet. There is also a long pedestrianized street running opposite. I hoped it would be ok to take photos and no crazy reactions from the police like my first morning in Tashkent

Around the sides of the park were lots of local city government offices and provincial district offices. I made sure to take them from quite a distance and where no police officers were able to see me.

Many of them were quite interesting and ranged from Russian style architecture to various European style. Some were also Arabic style with domed roofs.

In the park were a couple of monuments, probably Alisher Navoi, but other than being a famous poet I know nothing about him.

Wandering around I seemed to have made a big loop, back to Hotel President where we exchanged cash yesterday, and back at the roundabout with the giant Timur monument.

There isnt an actual crossing to get to the statue so I had to wait for a break in traffic and run thru. The statue is facing a performing arts theatre opposite the roundabout.

The main street from the Timur roundabout is a wide boulevard with traffic running in one direction on each side with a long tree lined pedestrian park running down the middle from the statue.

I'm sure this would be a cool place to hang out in the summer with all the arched trees and there were several water fountains switched off for winter season.

There is a McDonalds type imitation restaurant that actually says Samarkand with the giant M at the front. There was also a fried chicken restaurant we drove past every day to the hotel but that I couldnt find myself when I was looking for food.