An early morning start, parking down in Al Raha outside Annie's friend house and across the way from the airport so that we dont have to pay through the nose for taxis or payment at the airport parking. A little nervous about it being parked there for a long weekend collecting dust, I hope its not shipped off anywhere. Although I am not sure why I am worrying, there are abonded cars everywhere in the UAE left for months if not years before being collected.
We were expecting a little to no queue for the airport check in (same as Oman really) only we were mistaken... boy were we mistaken! the queue was ridiculous, because of course ther are about 12 Wizz Air flights all departing early morning around the same time and these budget people like to carry 101 cases with them per family whilst also not understanding the concept of queuing, checking in, providing all the necessary documents or that people are fed up and you should have your s*** together if you have been stood watching the process for the last hour and half.
We hadnt cut it so fine that we could miss our flight (so we thought) but given that we were stuck in a queue for 1 hour wihtout hardly moving, I started to panic a little before hearing a man shout 'Samarkand' this way, I legged it to hold a spot in the queue that was around the back of the other 20 check in desks and that was just opening, lucky that I ran and didnt have 101 cases because we were about 5th in the line and this helped us to not miss the flight.

Security was all lovely being a new airport, always there is a fiasco at the security belt though, 'oh you told me with pictures and verbally that I have to get all this out and take all of this but what about my watch and my belt? .... YES.'
This older man was a grump and taking his time, the security guard asked Annie to go around him and boy did he kick off, to which point I was in this old man's ear almost saying 'Well if you learnt how to use the security line we wouldnt have this problem, hurry up!!' he tried to trump my dirty look... it didnt work. For once it was me loosing my cool and not Annie, even Annie looked at me like Woah... where did that come from! haha.

At this point I was very tired after driving to Abu Dhabi so early and stressing that we were going to miss our flight, hot and bothered and needed a cup of tea. We headed to Costa Coffee, no time for a 5AM wine time this trip I'm afraid! We pretty much headed straight to boarding and sat on the plane.

Again, you hear the stewards saying 'please sit in your own seat for take off' another 2 hour journey. These Uzbeks I can already tell have zero idea how to act and deal with sitting on the plane or obiding to rules. Funny loooking angry men, flat backs to their heads and squishy mongolian / chinese / turkish faces... strange.

Of course they wanted to change seats with my aisle, 'No.' and I shut my eyes to ignore them, Annie drew the short straw she had half of the nightmare party next to her trying to move about between her, again I almost stepped in. Late taking off becuase the a*******s wouldnt sit down and threw their toys out the pram. Not like the flight is only 2.5 HOURS and everyone just wants to go and sleep. Nightmare.

How we did not catch germs or illnesses on the plane I do not know, smelly, dirty and no hands over mouths from coughing. YUCK. Get me off the plane and out into the fresh air!
Samarkand was gloomy and dull, we had a little currency on us (USD) and changed it to Uzbek at the airport with the delightfully resting b**** faced woman. This is going to be the tone for the trip I think haha. Taxi to the hotel with Yusuf, not expensive as a given and the place was quiet, maybe because its so early in the morning that there is no one really on the roads, the roads are wide and big with cream like buildings either side, the odd tacky block of flats but mainly grand sand coloured stone buildings you find in the posh end of London. Very nice. It gave a sense of poverty yet we have money vibe. Couldnt quiet work it out. Getting a bit sweaty that this hotel would be in a suitable place on the map from what I found and that it looked as it did in the photos, thankyfull it did and was especially very grand!

Couple of young kids trying to check us in and then telling us we couldnt because we were too early and then we had to pay for early check in. Until we refused and left our bags, waiting for Annie to go out the big boss came and spoke to them in their language before saying to us that we could check in no problem, kids! The bedroom was very plush, newly renovated I would say. The heat for sure was coming out of the bathroom the radiator and the under floor heating was boiling! We couldnt turn it down either so the sweat box it will have to be on our return later on.

Time to do some sight seeing and walking whilst we were at it! Annie wont know what she is in for haha. We found the flag pole to start with then headed over to the statue of Amir Temur the founder and conqueror of Uzbekistan and a big leader in the Ottoman Empire and an aligh of Prophet Mohamed. Then we stumbled onto the Amir Temur Mausoleum (where he is buried along with his wifes/grandson/son). Lovely architecture as always! All very blue aswell.

We wlaked past the Registan Square, through the back streets, I am not sure annie was comforatble but good to see how people live! Before Registan square we bypassed and headed to the Siyob Bozor and walked down the 'popular' Tashkent Street, found a lovely review of a restuarant overlooking the mosque. It was inside with huge windows looking out onto the mosque. Acceptable to drink a few beers whilst overlooking one? Probably not but we did it anyways. Turns out we were in there a whilst because the service of food was very poor given that we were the only two in their eating and drinking aside from a social media influencer having her photos taken and doing instagram talks or something. There is always one... proves for great people watching though!

Everything is all blue still, very intrigued to know why? Maybe because of the flag having blue and green in it?
No, I was wrong because I asked the waitor. Blue is a traditional islamic colour and signifies the depths of the universe and the turquoise is thought to have mystical qualities. A signature colour of Uzbekistan also.
I like. Very Nice.

We had 4 beers maybe, but we didnt check the % until the end, these boys were stong and it was cold and fresh outside so the bets us feeling a littler squiffy once we headed outside was highly likely haha.

Annie discovered a great idea... Not.
Of driving bicycles but with park bench seats, who put the effort into driving? ME. Of Course. I was bloody nackered drunk driving them on the empty square, we must of looked like right baboons! A little bit of spontaneous fun! Before we headed to Registan Square, the famous mosque and school for islam in Uzbekistan. Again, all blue but fantastic mosaics and finishings to the whole place. A fair few IG models wanting to get their perfect photo with the huge flowing dresses (they must have been freezing! aswell as looking like plebs.)

The place was very quiet, maybe because it was about 4PM now so it was closing shortly. We got spotted by a bunch of 'stans' wanting a photo with us, probably because I am blonde and we look like westerners. Didnt want one with the flowy dres girl did they. HA! Trend setted us!

It was starting to get very cold now and the sun (behind the thick clouds) was setting, we headed back to the hotel on the other side of the city a bit sharpish as we didnt want to be wondering the streets in the dark, it was very quiet around here. Gave me freaky creepy horro movie vibes with the abonded push chair and old rusty playground with grass as high as trees around it. I checked the map (and although I was preying I was cutting the corners in the right direction without having to do a U turn or detour) I was hiding my nerves and unsureness from Annie rather well. Luckily we cut off about 30 minutes of walking time by not following the walking trail from Google Map and going through the park and over the fly over and through a office building ground back to the big huge flag and then were only down the road from were needed to be with it still being light! Phewwwww.
We did go back to put a few more layers on before going out to have something proper to eat and explore what was again a popular place with the tour blogs 'Pup Street'. Popular but cheaper and half the price to what the other place was we were in today.
Annie had a steak and it was aobut 4 pound haha.
We had a few 'dodgy' USD notes, so we had to belt it for the door before they disregarded our money and wouldnt let us pay with it.
The bill came to a staggering 16Pound at the Green Bear Bar, was lovely in there aswell with cosey ski chalet vibes and big grandad leather chairs. Our trek back was up hill, hoping that this time Annie wouldnt fall over her feet and avoid bouncing into the small fur trees haha! First fall of the trip!

As expected the hotel room was boiling so I opened the balcony door for a little while to try and allow some fresh air in. Couldnt wait to sleep, feeling tipsy but also nackered from the long day of travel and exploration. What a great adventure for the first day!