Back in the USSR (well sort of)

So we made it, completely uneventfully, back to Dushanbe. The flight from Munich was pretty empty so we each had our own row of seats to stretch out in. The seats and the seatbelts were still barely functional but I was tired enough to ignore everything and just sleep. After my marathon session waiting for luggage last time, I packed lightly enough not to check a bag, my traveling companion checked one though but this time there was no wait. We got to our new apartment a little after midnight and collapsed into beds.

When we got up on Sunday we met a friend who lives here for lunch and then went to the botanical gardens for a walk. I am not sure exactly what I was expecting from the botanical gardens. I didn't exactly expect what one sees in the US - a variety of plants ranging from the mundane to the exotic all carefully labeled with factoids about their care or climate - but it was basically an overgrown wilderness/wooded area. It was about 80 and sunny with a light breeze so it was a beautiful place for a walk but I think one of us would have had to be a bontanist to really get anything out of the assortment of plant life.

After our walk we headed back to the apartment to review notes and prepare for our week of interviews and then out to dinner at the Armenian restaurant which is considered the best restaurant in Dushanbe and is quite good. We asked our companions for the name of the restaurant which was something like Cafe Bar - creative I know ;) There is a trend here of stating the obvious when naming things, for example since the last time we were here the first book store in Dushanbe has opened - its name "Book."

-A. Monkey