"Everyman" at the National Theatre: Worth Seeing For Chiwetel, But Disappointingby Randi / July 14, 2015
I first went to Madrid, Spain about a decade ago. During my study abroad year (in Florence), I took a whirlwind 18-hour trip to Madrid to visit one of my best friends from high school. All I had was a spare Saturday night in the middle of my insane solo spring break tour of Spain (it was insane because it was solo, not because I went clubbing in Barcelona because I didn’t) and so hopped over to Madrid for dinner with my friend, then sleep, and then a first-in-line sprint through the Prado.
This year, I visited for the second time, and luckily was able to almost triple the length of time spent in this glorious city! That is, a regular weekend. We were there for two main reasons: to see Audra McDonald in concert (can’t break my 15-year streak of seeing her live every year!) and to eat at a Michelin-starred restaurant. (The latter will come in the next post.) But Madrid is such a fun, cosmopolitan, modern city that we barely had enough time to cover the basics.
This year, I visited for the second time, and luckily was able to almost triple the length of time spent in this glorious city! That is, a regular weekend. We were there for two main reasons: to see Audra McDonald in concert (can’t break my 15-year streak of seeing her live every year!) and to eat at a Michelin-starred restaurant. (The latter will come in the next post.) But Madrid is such a fun, cosmopolitan, modern city that we barely had enough time to cover the basics.
This time, we went in the middle of winter, which in London is blah, nothing really compared to the East Coast blizzards, and so we assumed that Spain of all places would be even warmer. Well. It was not. I think it was colder than our trip to northern Sweden. Okay it probably wasn’t but it felt like it because it felt so wrong! I mean you think Spain, you think Peeny Lopay in shorts and sunglasses. Oh man it was cold. Anyway, we had a short list of must-check vegan-friendly spots, museums, and churreria. (That’s the word for a place that sells churros! We learn so much on this blog!)
First thing, I must confess that whenever I am in Spain (or around Spanish speaking people, or watching Episode 2 of ‘Community’), this is playing on a loop in my head:
First thing, I must confess that whenever I am in Spain (or around Spanish speaking people, or watching Episode 2 of ‘Community’), this is playing on a loop in my head:
(Crying.) ME LLAMO ELLIOTT! HOLA JUAN. HOLA ESTEBAN. DONDE ESTA LA BIBLIOTECA?
One of my favorite things about European cities is that almost all feature some random adorable statue or site. My favorite in Madrid is this bear statue (it’s the BEAR show!) and the bear is kissing a tree. I mean. IT’S SO CUTE. Here I am in front of it trying to open my eyes in the freezing wind. (It took a lot of shots to get one where my eyes are open. Who knew I’d need ski goggles in España.) Apparently this statue is the most famous symbol of Madrid! Didn’t know! Cool! It’s called El Oso y El Madroño (The Bear & the Strawberry Tree), and the bear is actually eating the strawberries, not kissing the tree, but I like my interpretation better because I am a treehugger. Cute little bear! You can find this statue at Puerta de Sol. Ha yeah right. Sol.
I was delighted to see a poster for a demonstration against the use of animals in the circus — I think I’m reading that correctly. Unfortunately, it was more than a month past, but cool! Good job Madrid animal activists!
Now, everyone will tell you to go to the Prado Museum when you are in Madrid. I am okay with that. The Prado is a very nice museum with very important arts. However, I’m pretty sure you should stop there. The Reina Sofia made me angry. With a name like that, I expected refined arts, but it was more like insane modern arts. There was one room that was all computer keyboards and equipment and stuff. Just like out on tables. I don’t get. Reina Sofia does have Picasso’s Guernica, so that is worth seeing, although it’s kind of horrifying.
Among the museums we visited, I was struck by some truly haunting works. I don’t normally condone taking pictures in museums (even if it’s allowed, it’s still weird. Like, better pictures exist than what you are taking with your phone), but I had to remember some of this weird stuff and discuss how weird it is. Also, I took pictures of all the paintings with puppies, because you can’t stop me. My comments are in the captions.
Now, everyone will tell you to go to the Prado Museum when you are in Madrid. I am okay with that. The Prado is a very nice museum with very important arts. However, I’m pretty sure you should stop there. The Reina Sofia made me angry. With a name like that, I expected refined arts, but it was more like insane modern arts. There was one room that was all computer keyboards and equipment and stuff. Just like out on tables. I don’t get. Reina Sofia does have Picasso’s Guernica, so that is worth seeing, although it’s kind of horrifying.
Among the museums we visited, I was struck by some truly haunting works. I don’t normally condone taking pictures in museums (even if it’s allowed, it’s still weird. Like, better pictures exist than what you are taking with your phone), but I had to remember some of this weird stuff and discuss how weird it is. Also, I took pictures of all the paintings with puppies, because you can’t stop me. My comments are in the captions.
This worm guy who is all nose is DOBBY THE HOUSE ELF, correct??? 
Creepy pedo is like “LOOK HOW LOVELY MY FOOT IS!” And Charlie (of the Chocolate Factory) is like gimme a break, dad. 
100% this is the creepiest f-ing guy to ever be in any art, ever. What a creepster! That face is the face of an unapologetic felon. |
JANE FONDA WITH AN ADORABLE LITTLE PUPPY!!!! I was staring at this one for like an hour. PUPPIEEEE! With JANE FONDA! WTF! 
Little doggy!!!! 
“Check out this tiny lamb sitting on the book on my shoulder.” “Sorry, I’m a little distracted by the one-foot-tall priest between our feet. Did you invite him?” |
What was my favorite piece of art that I saw in Madrid? Obviously the Bob Esponja poster! Husband and I are still saying ‘Bob Esponja!’ much too frequently. Also, is Antonio Banderas the voice of Spongebob??? That can’t be. So what is he doing with top billing? So confused. No, not confused. Intrigued.
Honestly? With only two real days in Madrid, all we had time to do was a bunch of museums (of which you have been treated to their masterpieces above), a lot of cold strolling, and some great food. The next two blog posts will cover two restaurants specifically, one basic (I mean that in the current use of the word. I think. I don’t really get it.) and one epic, but let’s look at a few treats now.
Honestly? With only two real days in Madrid, all we had time to do was a bunch of museums (of which you have been treated to their masterpieces above), a lot of cold strolling, and some great food. The next two blog posts will cover two restaurants specifically, one basic (I mean that in the current use of the word. I think. I don’t really get it.) and one epic, but let’s look at a few treats now.
First, if you are vegan, you want green juice, right? Because that’s all we drink! No but I love green juice. So we stayed at the Hotel Preciados at Plaza Santo Domingo, which was very nice but our room was tiny. Like tiiiiny. But they had green apples at reception which is okay. I don’t like green apples but I do like free apples. The best part of this hotel was that right next door (well next 4 doors) was a juice bar! Whee!! It was called Juicy Avenue and the menu unfortunately hyped the greener juices as the ‘Juicy Detox’ section, but I will give them a soft pass for maybe a language barrier. Lord knows i have one. So the juices were pretty good! The lady working the morning shift didn’t speak English and couldn’t help me with translations but I think we did okay. It helped that the names seemed to be in English, while the ingredients were in Spanish. And most words are easy to figure out. Yay juice!
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Next, if you have ever heard Spanish words, I’m sure you have heard of patatas bravas. I’m pretty sure it means brave little potaters. This staple dish consists of fried potatoes in a spicy tomato sauce. As is, it is usually vegan. Hooray! And it’s also addictive. Who doesn’t love spicy fried potatoes? You can get these at most tapas places. There are a few big food markets around Madrid, mostly with fish and meat vendors, but I always managed to find someone selling patatas bravas.
It was also pretty easy to find vegan snacks in random storefronts. We randomly found these delicious empanadas and some sort of stuffed bread that were marked as ‘vegana’ in a deli we stopped in to buy water. It was called ‘deliGatessen’ and was such a treat to discover!
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Lastly, the most important thing to eat in Madrid/anywhere in Spain/anywhere you are is churros! Fried dough sticks! Churros themselves are usually vegan. I mean, it’s sticks of dough deep-fried in oil and then covered in sugar. That’s as vegan as it gets. Madrid’s most famous churreria is Chocolateria San Gines, and it’s worth paying a visit. It’s always packed, I think open round the clock, and they have fast service down to a science. As best as I could communicate, I figured out that their churros are vegan. However, as is usually the case, the chocolate sauce is not. Churros doused with cinnamon and sugar are usually pretty good though. DOUBLE however, if you go to San Gines, make sure you know how to ask in Spanish for no chocolate sauce but YES sugar and cinnamon. You have to specify; I did not know. I got plain fried dough. No sugar. It was really sad. (And made me feel very sick and icky!)
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Churros? More like Sad-o’s. I’ll work on it. |
Sooo, that’s pretty much how we spent a weekend in Madrid, minus the most important parts. As we already discussed, the major reason was seeing Audra the Queen of Everything in concert. QUEEN. Oh crap, now every time I say the word ‘queen’ I hear Jada saying it. Here is a picture of me in my balcony seat at the gorgeous Teatro Real.
No, the cold wind wasn’t blowing in here as well; it’s just that 9 pictures out of 10 my eyes will be closed. Life.
The OTHER major reason for our weekend trip was to eat at a super-insanely-special restaurant that will be posted soon! Make sure to check for that because it was epic. And make sure that, if you go to Madrid, to go for more than 18 hours or just one weekend because it is a great city. And the more time you spend there, the higher your chances of seeing Peeny and Javy.
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24 Hours in Washington, D.C., if You Can Stand the Company
Okay so I actually only had 20 hours in D.C. recently but ’24 hours in x place’ is like a thing so we’re going with that for the title. As an east coaster by birth, I’ve been to D.C. several times, but not for several years and never with such a prime opportunity for a trendy-sounding blog post. 24-ish hours in this vibrant city* full of incredible museums, even better hotels (that’s clearly a biased opinion from someone who values sleep above all), great vegan food, and people actively destroying our lives and our planet? SIGN ME UP.
*Washington, D.C. is a big city but it is also, as you know, a federal district that’s the capital of the USA (USA! USA! no not really) and is also treated as a state and a county for census purposes so it’s just like this fun lil enigmatic city-state-county-district-capital-effervescence jawn that had its street layout designed by a goddamn psychopath who enjoyed everyone getting the wrong mail and getting lost while he stroked a white cat and went ‘wheeee this is fun I’m having fun! four of you will have the same address!’
If you aren’t a fellow east-coast American, you probably haven’t been to DC for a school trip when you were a yoot and so you’ll need to see all the required aspects of a true DC tour when you first go: the U.S. Capital building, the National Mall, the Monuments Washington & Lincoln, the Library of Congress, the Smithsonian (the one with Dorothy’s ruby slippers, the best one), things like that. If this is true for you, you will need mmm more than 20 hours in DC. But that’s cool, because then that means you could have more than one night in the bed that’s now on my Top 5 Beds of All Time list! I KNOW! (More on that later.)
If you are like me and all been there, done that about a governmental system that you thought was secure but haha isn’t, and you have one night and barely a day to see something interesting, then this is the post for you, friendo. We have time to do one interesting thing, eat two meals, and have an amazing night’s sleep. I know you’re like “this is what former prime minister Neville Chamberlain called ‘barely a travel guide'” (comment if you get the reference) but it’s a nice (and rare) departure from our full-on travelogues that take you days to read, isn’t it?
DO
There’s a newish (in the scheme of things) museum in DC, and it’s such a must-see that it’s your only-see if you only have a day. The National Museum of African American History and Culture, a Smithsonian museum, is absolutely your activity for the day if you haven’t been yet. Although it opened a few years ago (you didn’t think it opened under this regime, right), it’s still talked about like it’s DC’s hottest club (‘it has everything’) because it’s so hard to get into. It’s free, like all Smithsonian museums in DC, but you have to book tickets in advance, and those tickets get snatched in a hot second. We looked so far in advance but they were gone, gone, gone. Luckily, a friend alerted us to their walk-up system. Trying to find accurate information was confusing – is it just on Wednesdays? just Wednesdays of certain months? is it all weekdays after 1pm? We found websites that supported each of these ideas. To be safe, we went on a Wednesday AND after 1pm, and we got in! Now the website is clearer: during peak season (spring and summer), walk-ups are allowed weekdays after 1pm (for off-peak (fall and winter), it’s after 10am). There was actually no line, which was a surprise, but there were literally thousands of school kids on class trips. Hooray for learning and noise!
The museum, called the African American museum for shorthand since the acronym NMOAAHAC or whatever it is isn’t the most convenient, is astounding. If you follow me on the soshes (that’s cool speak for social media, links on this page), you know I complain sometimes about how much time we spend in museums. It’s a lot, I get tired. But this one, this one is different. It is altogether fascinating, depressing, infuriating, and riveting. The collection spans in great detail the entire African American experience from the start of slavery, through the civil war and segregation and the fight for civil rights, to LGBTQ issues and the Obama administration. There’s a special section dedicated just to Emmett Till (one of the saddest rooms you’ll ever be in, just absolutely heartbreaking so prepare for that), including the casket originally used. There are clothes worn by Rosa Parks, James Brown, and Muhammed Ali. Chuck Berry’s red Cadillac is on display, along with a bible owned by Nat Turner and the handcuffs used to arrest Henry Louis Gates, Jr. in 2009.
The experience, which I’m sure you understand by now is super heavy, begins way below ground level, as you learn about the slave trade’s beginnings while trapped in dark underground rooms. On display are maps showing all the various routes for slave ships, information about life on the plantations, and all kinds of torture and control devices used on slaves. You can spend hours in these early sections, and we did. As history progresses through the various wars and movements, your tour moves upstairs to more seemingly endless halls of incredible displays. There are five stories below ground and five above, and you need to devote time to all of it.
If it sounds like an untenable amount of historical and cultural artifacts trying to explain hundreds of years of an entire culture, it’s because it is, except the museum is designed so extraordinarily (except for bathrooms, where are they) that it all moves smoothly. You just need to devote a least an entire day to it. We had about 4 hours, and we barely started the above-ground floors. Some people have recommended several days. I don’t know if I would be able to handle that, but if you can, by all means, plan for it. You won’t be disappointed (but you will be absolutely devastated afterwards).
EAT
After the harrowing museum experience, you deserve a treat, so let’s talk about food! We were in town for one dinner and one brunch, so we went with a new trendy restaurant for one and a tried-and-true fave for the other. For dinner, we met DC friends at hotspot Indian restaurant Pappe, by Logan Circle at 1317 14th Street NW. Pappe had a well-marked menu – every dish says if it has gluten or dairy or nuts – and the server helped us choose some great vegan dishes. Living in east London, we get our share of amazing Indian food on a regular basis, but Pappe impressed. Unfortunately, their dals have ghee in them (you know me and beans), but there were plenty of delicious vegetable dishes that were gheeless. I’m looking at the Pappe menu and honestly cannot remember what we ordered but I’m going to go with what makes sense and say we shared the Baingan Bartha (open-fire grilled eggplant, tomato, onion, garlic), which was…bangin’ (I had to); the Bhindi Jaipuri (crispy fried okra (the best), mango powder, cumin, coriander); and I want to say the vegetable korma that they were able to make without ghee? I forgot to take notes but it was all good! Add in tons of rice and breads (the roti is marked with dairy but they just left it off) and we were gold. It’s definitely a nice option if you are meeting omnivores in Logan Circle.
As for my brunch/lunch, there was only one place in DC I wanted to go: my old fave Busboys & Poets. I know, you’re like ‘ya basic’ and you know, this time I’m okay with it. If loving Busboys & Poets makes me basic then throw a pumpkin spice latte at my face and call me Becky (please don’t really throw anything at my face though). B&P is the ubiquitous DC chain that has such a great menu for literally everyone, and has some great vegan options. It was really hard to order and as usual I ordered half-wrong because of pressure, but also half-right so it’s a good day.
I started with like fried vegan chicken bites? Which is VERY out of character for me but I was like ‘I should break out of my ordering patterns and not get something I always just make for myself’ but you know what, patterns can be nice. These were just like, chewy chicken bites with way too much sticky Korean barbecue sauce and that’s not my kind of thing! Other vegan starters on the menu include tofu bites, hummus, and mac & cheese, but I was like “I eat those things almost every day wah wah wah do something different they say” and it bit me in the ass. Never do anything different! I’ve learned that now.
But luckily I was smart with my entree, because when there is a tempeh panini on a menu, I will be GETTING IT. My obsesh with tempeh sandwiches is rivaled only by the obsesh with banh mi and reubens (not-fun fact, the B&P menu had a reuben and I am so spoiled with vegan options that I assumed for a second that it was vegan! it was not!).
THIS WAS SO GOOD! And it came with a side salad! That’s my perfect accompaniment to anything! Even a choral concert I’d be like ditch the piano my preferred accompaniment is a side salad.
SLEEP
Ah, we’ve gotten to the most important part, the part I know you’ve been waiting for. We stayed our one night in DC this summer at the Hamilton Hotel, at 1001 14th Street NW. There are lots of good hotels in DC, but none of them, NONE OF THEM, have a room like the one we stayed in at the Hamilton.
That’s because none of them have a VEEP SUITE!
That’s right, we stayed in the Veep Suite at the Hamilton and it was SPECTACULAR! I’m assuming you’ve watched Veep, because if you read this site you have to know pop culture, and if you know pop culture at all you know that the best, funniest g-d show probably in the history of television is Veep. And the best, funniest g-d hotel suite is this one. We were cracking up at every little detail: Selina’s books, her diplomas, hilarious photos from so many scenes, family photos with her daughter, campaign signs in the bathrooms? It was so well done, so fun, and so amazing. I believe that some of the furniture was designed from or came directly from actual set pieces.
I’ve put a video tour in my instagram stories (link at the top), which will stay in my DC highlights tab forever (FOREVER) so take a look when you can for a fun Blair-Witch-style video!
The only downside of the room was, they had all the DVDs of every season of the series in the living room…but no DVD player. We were so excited to stay up late watching a few episodes, but the front desk confirmed that there were no DVD players in the whole place. Quit playing games with my heart!
No but really, the real downside was that we only had one night here. It was such a blast to explore all the details. And the best was that, above all the cheeky references and funny pictures, the bed was actually incredible. It’s in my list of TOP 5 BEDS ever! (Yes, one day soon we will do a whole post about them.) Ugh it was incredible. I loved that aside from all the hilarity, it was still an ace hotel room in an amazing suite.
IT GETS BETTER! Outside the room, by our floor’s elevator bank, there was a whole Oval Office set up! We got to take pictures at the faux-resolute desk and pretend we were going to save the country. Oh it’s fun to dream.
SO MUCH FUN! What a great experience. I love nothing more than when all my interests collide, so combining traveling with some beloved television and a sick bed (not to be confused with a sickbed, not my fave thing) is a surefire way to make me happy.
To top it off (and to continue my every-hotel-gym reviews), the Hamilton had a very decent gym onsite.
I took one ridiculous photo because I didn’t want to get anyone else in it, but I wanted to remember how pleased I was that they actually had space on the floor! My home gym barely has any space! I need space! I jump all over! There was also a little corner with big balls, small balls, yoga mats, and water, everything you’d need. Huzzah!
So, it was a short but memorable trip to DC this go-round. Eat some good vegan food, visit an incredible museum, and stay in the best hotel suite in America if you are going anytime soon. And then there’s only one important thing left to do (in caption).
Nukus, Uzbekistan: I Finally Find Pretzels (And Also Interesting Art)
After our time in Khiva, we decided to stop in the tiny town of Nukus, Uzbekistan for one purpose: to see its art museum. Now, you might be wondering what kind of art a museum in the middle of nowhere might have to bring a person so out of their way. A rare Picasso? A beautiful Monet? (I know only the most famous artmakers apparently.) You crazy if you thought that; this is the middle of nowhere Uzbekistan. No, the Nukus Museum of Art houses the second largest collection of Russian avant-garde art in the world. I know it doesn’t sound great, but it’s a very cool thing and I’ll tell you why.
So once upon a time there was this man Igor Savitsky (“accordion genius, plays weddings at 7-years-old” anyone?), who was a Russian painter and archaeologist. Igor visited the Karakalpakstan region of Uzbekistan (where Nukus is located) in 1950, and somehow was like hey this place rocks/is dust I’m gonna stay. He moved to Nukus and started collecting all kinds of crap. After he amassed quite a collection of jewelry and artifacts and carpets and such, he convinced the place that they needed a museum to house all of it. They were like why don’t you keep all your crap in your attic like normal people and he was like just trust me on this and they were like I guess man. So the authorities established a museum and made Igor the curator, and once he had that sweet sweet position locked down, he started focusing on collecting the art of Central Asian artists and those whose work had been banned in the Soviet Union under Stalin. Igor specifically directed his efforts at finding these artists and displaying them in his museum in order to give them the representation and acclaim they never got to enjoy because Stalin was such a buzzkill at art too. Because the museum houses such politically important work, and so much of it (only St. Petersburg has a larger collection of Russian avant-garde), the Nukus Museum of Art – actually called “The State Art Museum of the Republic of Karakalpakstan, named after I.V. Savitsky” (yes the ‘named after’ is part of the full legit name omg) (and then also like is it named after him or not because it looks like the real name is The State Art Museum of the R of K right and if it was actually named after him it would be The Savitsky Museum am I right like you can’t just say ‘named after’ if it’s not actually named after??? how do words work) – has become a must-see attraction for tourists in Uzbekistan. And that is why we went.
the view from our car
To get there from Khiva, though, there’s not really good transit. We had to hire another car and driver through Sultan at Avantour tour company. He told us that the ride would take about 4-5 hours. So on our last morning in Khiva, we woke up at 6am, planning to leave about 7am, arrive in Nukus by noon, have lunch, and then have a few hours in the museum before our train that evening. Ahem. We left at 7am and got there at 9:45. JFC I could have slept for two more hours. JFC even more, we had to WAIT for the museum to open! Man alive. I guess it’s better than being in a car for longer but like come on guys get your facts straight. He didn’t even speed.
Our driver dropped us at the Nukus train station, where we stored our bags. The people looked at us like wtf are you guys doing here there is not a train until tonight (one train town) and we were like hayyy please don’t steal our stuffff. They didn’t give a receipt or anything for the bags but they said (without using words) ‘we’ll know this was yours, nerdy white people’. Then we went to the museum and it was pretty interesting. I thought it would be more political art, like on its face, but it was more regular art but by people who challenged authority. Or maybe it was challenging authority for its time, but nowadays we are used to much more blatant opposition and much more in-your-face offense so I couldn’t tell that these works were crossing a line since we are so far past where that line was 50 years ago. The line is a dot to you.
Pictures weren’t allowed in the museum and I don’t break worthwhile rules, so if you want to see some of the works on display you’ll have to go to Uzbekistan HA HA ARE YOU? There were guard ladies who were supes annoying, following us around the whole time. I didn’t notice if they followed others too but it was really uncomfortable. Maybe they chose us because we were the youngest and yoots usually cause trouble? There were lots of other visitors to the museum (a surprising fact, considering I thought we were the only people in the whole town) but they were all older and mostly in big tour groups. Anyway it was a pretty good museum, but oh my god we were so tired. This trip was catching up with us and we were getting a little delirious. We were still able to appreciate all the interesting art, but I was just laughing the entire time (not appropriate) as I do when I’m overtired.
The museum is actually in two buildings (second largest collection n the world and all that) and you have to check your bags, even wee purses, which is kind of lame. So much art!
After all the art, we walked around trying to find food. This was hard because Nukus is a tiny little desert town and there was not much happening. We passed a few important-looking buildings but no one was around for us to ask what they were, and I tried googling but to no avail. I’ll share the pictures of said buildings with you so you can also wonder forever what they are (or be better than I am at googling).
And yes I did try googling ‘jaslar awqami’ but it’s not helpful. you go look at all the stuff that comes up. I hope it just means public pool because awqami sounds like aqua-me. and also it would be hilarious if this super official nicest building for hundos of miles was just a pool with a capital p that rhymes with g that stands for go like let’s gooooo
Finally we found a place that sold non-fast food that was open. This very random Uzbek restaurant with a separate small Korean food menu (?) was called Sheraton but was unrelated to the hotel chain. It was full of those older tourists we saw earlier, I guess because it was ostensibly the only decent restaurant open. I was so excited to see that the menu had a variety of vegetable dishes! Also, one was translated as Pine Forest, which was the name of my camp, so that seemed like a good sign.
Unfortunately, most of the salads were dairy-based and/or covered in mayo, but I found one that seemed safe for vegans, translating roughly as garlic and greens. I was so excited to get what I expected was a plate of garlicky sauteed greens. I hadn’t had greens cooked like that in so long! I was so pumped.
My phone notes from this travel day literally just say ‘this country is complete bullshit’
Alas.
It was literally a plate of raw garlic, raw UNCUT spring onions, and lots of herbs. Oh and plus green bell pepper, the one vegetable I hate. COME ON UNIVERSE. I guess it was a companion piece to one of the Korean stews or something but like y’all should have SAID SOMETHING.
Sigh. What a disappointment. We had hours left before our train, to wander around and see all the sights (no more sights) and buy water for our 3 day train train (we’ll talk about that next post), so we wandered. It was very hot and dry and dusty, and the main road was destroyed with ongoing construction (as we expect everywhere in this country), so it was kind of harrowing to walk down it when like, suddenly there would be no more road and cars were coming. Luckily, there were lots of little convenience stores, and luckily, one had a nice babushka selling all kinds of baked goods in bulk – including hard pretzel sticks! I’d never seen pretzel sticks sold in bulk and I hadn’t seen pretzels in weeks so this was a dance dance dance moment. My pretzel babushka was the one nice person we came across in Nukus. Why is everyone there so mean? Is it because they are so bored and also had a real weird lunch?
So that was our day in Nukus! I know right. The Savitsky (I’m going for it) Museum was pretty cool and I’m glad we got to see such an important museum. But I was a little jealous of those old tourists who got off a big bus, saw the museum, and then got right back on the bus. If you go, make sure you don’t have too much time to spend wandering the town. After our too-much-time, we boarded our longest train in months – two nights from Nukus, Uzbekistan to Volgograd, Russia. It’s a doozy so look out for the next post!
