Moscow’s best outdoor markets

by Neil Woodburn on

There is nothing quite like a Russian outdoor market.

Imagine a place where produce and goods from the largest country in the world come together in a bounty of pleasure. Throw in tastiness from the former soviet republics in Central Asia and the Caucuses, and you’ve got a veritable cornucopia of mouth-watering, eye-popping goods which make Moscow markets some of the very best in the world.

I’ve spent hours wandering through their spectacular array of eye candy, marveling over Siberian tomatoes, uzbek melons, dried fruit from Kazakhstan, hard cheese from Georgia, honey from Azerbaijan, and more. Man, it’s unfathomable how people ever went hungry in the former Soviet Union!

While most of these markets do not appear in your typical Moscow guidebook, they are most definitely worth a visit if you have the time. Just wandering around will give you a feeling for the breadth of the former USSR and the myriad of cultures and regional dishes spread throughout.

The Moscow Times has recently published a great article detailing Moscow’s very best outdoor markets and what one can expect when visiting. If you’ve got any type of palate whatsoever, reading through their description of goods for sale will make your mouth water up. As it did mine. Mmmm…

Kazakhstan Replacing Cyrillic Alphabet with Latin One

by Neil Woodburn on

One of the biggest challenges of traveling through the former Soviet Union is tying to decipher the Cyrillic alphabet. The unnerving thing is that it shares many letters with the Latin alphabet, yet they are pronounced very differently. Like a “B” having a “V” sound, for example. This makes it very challenging to find Lvov on a map when it is actually spelled “?????.”

Surprisingly, the Cyrillic alphabet is actually quite easy to learn and can be done so on your plane ride over.

But don’t spend too much time on it. Since the fall of communism, a number of countries have transitioned away from the Cyrillic alphabet and have replaced it with the Latin one, including Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan.

Most recently, Kazakhstan has announced their intention to do so as well. The government anticipates it will take 12-15 years to reeducate the public and basically replace every sign and official document in existence. Man! Imagine growing up with one alphabet and suddenly having to change it mid-life. That must be tough. But than again, Kazakhs have already suffered through this in 1940 when the Soviets forced Cyrillic upon them.

As for us foreigners visiting the country, travel will be just a little bit easier with a more familiar alphabet at our service.

Happy Birthday to Samarkand…Again

by Brett Atkinson on

Just two decades after celebrating its 2500 year anniversary, the city of Samarkand in Uzbekistan has just celebrated its 2750th birthday. Since the celebrations marking two and a half millenia, archaeologists have now discovered texts which show that the trading city on the Silk Route is actually older than previously thought.

The most recent birthday of the ancient capital of the empire of Tamerlane was celebrated in the imposing but beautiful square called the Registan. Local boy made good, Uzbek President Islam Karimov claimed “This is a city which you see once and dream to see again.”

Maybe that’s the case, but as security police lined the Registan, the good people of Samarkand were largely removed from the events celebrating their historic home.

News and pic via the BBC.

Awesome UNESCO Panos

by Neil Woodburn on

I’m a big fan of UNESCO World Heritage Sites and over the years have loved strolling through the official website to check out possible places to visit.

In the past, the website only had a handful of photographs to give you an idea of what to expect from a location. But now, they are moving with the times.

WorldHeritageTour.org has set up a few dozen Quicktime panographics where visitors can look up, look down, and spin around 360 degrees. Very cool! It really gives you a sense of what it is like to actually stand in front of an exotic location so very far away.

Click here to check out a world map of the locations they have shot so far. I particularly liked the ruins of Afghanistan, the Sphinx in Egypt, and lovely Samarkand.

According to the website, they’ve only completed 19 percent of “all 830 registered sites.” The site currently functions as a nonprofit, so if you like what you see and want to help them complete their job, be sure to make a donation.

Word for the Travel Wise (12/10/06)

by Adrienne Wilson on

Just about anywhere you go in Central Asia to eat you’re bound to come across this slightly greasy, yet appetizing and filling meal of rice, chick peas, and sometimes meat. I ate it plenty of times in Tajikistan and once you get past the greasiness of all the food this is one you can enjoy easily.

Today’s word is a Uzbek word used in Uzbekistan:

osh – food, rice pilaf

Uzbek is spoken by 18.5 million in Uzbekistan and across Central Asia. It is the official language of Uzbekistan and classified as an Eastern Turkic language in the Qarluq. Wiki has great background on the lang as usual where as you can find an incredible list of the most common Uzbek words at this Introduction to Uzbek Language site. In addition to the wordlist there is also a small section for pronunciation and grammar.

Past Uzbek words: arzimaydi, hojathona