Caturday, May the Fourth be with you
I woke up for morning prayers then rested again before
dragging myself up to face the day. Day started out cloudy and it drizzled too
at some point. The sun finally came out around noon. I set off and walked along
Chuy Avenue to the Parliament, continued on to the State History Museum.
There’s another statue of Manas in front of the museum while a statue of
Vladimir Lenin stands behind the museum. I walked to the National Library,
National Museum of Fine Arts with Opera and Ballet Theatre across from it,
turned to Victory Square and all the way to the Central Mosque. It was an hour
before Zuhur when I reached the mosque so I didn’t stay for prayers. I turned
and walked back. Ala Too Square which is the main square was closed for
renovation so I walked on and on until I reached Osh Bazaar. Then I turned back
and returned to the hostel to perform prayers and rest. I wanted to watch the
Arsenal match but it wasn’t shown live. Day 2 in Bishek: walked 15.8 km or
22,576 steps so far today. Disappointingly, I didn’t meet any cat today despite
it being a Caturday.
I was about to sit down for my dinner when I checked my
email and found out that my flight for 08:00 the following morning had been
cancelled but that I could opt to join the 05:00 flight. I quickly replied
informing the affirmative and then contacted GoBus to change my departure time
for the airport. I quickly finished dinner then went to finish packing and
tried to get an early night.
Sunday, 5 May 2024
Woke up at the ungodly hour of 02:00 and finished
dressing and packing up in eight minutes, what a record! Left after I’d had
some drink and checked my social media and made my way to the bus stop at
02:23, feeling a bit apprehensive but then I saw there were still a few people
including groups of girls on the streets. The GoBus vehicle arrived at 02:39
and we arrived at the airport just before 05:00. I quickly joined the queue to
check in (chaotic, everyone was everywhere but alhamdulillah I saw the shorter
queue) then went in to the boarding area. I performed prayers in the nursery
(Alhamdulillah for nurseries!) then waited for the flight. Flight took off
slightly later as the airline had to get a drunk passenger off the airport bus.
Then some moron sat in my seat (honestly, couldn’t he tell that A would be
right by the window and his actual seat, B, was in the middle?! You gotta
wonder at the intelligence of these travellers) and I admonished him. We landed
in Osh after 06:00 and I killed time at the airport before taking a marshrutka
to the guest house (Gulshada, my hostess, informed me marshrutkas started
running after 07:00). Alhamdulillah, Gulshada allowed me to leave my bag there
(she had earlier informed me that there’d be extra charge for early check-in)
and she advised me to go to the bazaar today as it closes on Mondays. So after
joining her for breakfast and exchanging our brief life stories, I set off for
and walked all the way to Sulaiman-Too and climbed it. Spent some time at the
top before going down. I then walked to Jayma Bazaar which sits on the site of
a large market from the Silk Road days over two thousand years ago and browsed
the stalls and stores. It had started raining then and I was glad to seek
refuge in the bazaar. I walked from one end of the bazaar to the other end and
there are even layers of shops on both sides of the main artery of the bazaar.
The bazaar has also expanded to the new bazaar across the river. I finally
stopped to have lunch: some meat soup with bread. Then I walked out of the
bazaar and around the area before returning to the guest house. Today, I walked
14.9 km or 21,700 steps.
It actually rained early in the evening and lasted well into the night. There were also thunders but nothing as loud as what we have back home.
Monday, 6 May 2024
I left the guest house late today and made my way to the
city centre. First, I headed for the Mosque of Rabat Abdul Khan, allegedly the
oldest mosque in Osh and built as a tribute to 16th century Rabat
Abdul Khan. It’s just next to Oshskiy Oblastnoy Muzey Izobrazitel’nykh
Iskusstv, an art museum. I went into the mosque compound but was not allowed to
enter the mosque itself by a man who surprisingly could speak English. Then I
walked to Osh State University, entering its grounds. Earlier I saw some
graduates in their gown so there may be a graduation ceremony going on although
I didn’t see any more students in their robes walking around.
I walked on along Lenin Avenue to the Main Square (it was closed for renovation though) with another monument to Lenin. The city administration building is across from Main Square. I walked on to the nearby Toktugul Park before turning back. I also decided to change my remaining Kazakhstani Tenge into Krygystani Som (as I reckon a return trip to Kyrgyzstan with its parks would be more likely than a return trip to Kazakhstan); the rate was horrible but at least I won’t have excess KZT like I have Georgian Lari which I couldn’t sell outside the country.
I knew Gulshada said that the bazaar was closed today so
I headed to the new bazaar. Most stalls were closed but there were some that
were operating. I walked on before turning to find Globus Hypermarket. Then I
turned back to the new bazaar and walked on and on until I found a place to
have my late lunch. I had laghman again, this time with more gravy which is the
way I prefer it. It was so good and cost less than half of what I paid at Café Faiza in Bishkek! I also
bought some buns for the following day.
I then returned to the guesthouse and started packing
before resting.
Tuesday, 7 May 2024
Another early start today. I woke up at 03:45, freshened
up, performed ablutions and performed prayers. I had asked Gulshada to help
arrange a cab for me for 04:30 and the cab arrived at 04:35. I hugged Gulshada
and thanked her for hosting me then left. The ride took only ten minutes. There
were lines queuing up to check in and all seemed chaotic except for one row and
I headed for that. Then there was another confusion before we were allowed to
proceed to passport control because there was another early flight bound for
Moscow. After going through passport control and security check, I went in to
wait.
We were soon called to board the bus to the plane. The
time difference between Turkey and Kyrgyzstan had somehow slipped my mind and
it was during mid-flight when I realised it would be a five-hour-and
forty-minute flight. What a long flight! And I would be spending the whole day
in airports so it was a long day too!
We landed at Istanbul Sabiha Airport and I followed the
lane for international transfer. Then I sat down and cleared my emails and read
while whiling away the time. At 13:00, I went to the prayer room for prayers
before making my way to the gate.
We landed at Bologna Airport at 15:30v and as we were descending, I thought of how much I loved Italy. It took a while to disembark and then when we finally did, we had to queue for more than an hour to clear passport control! It was the first time that my bag was out waiting for me instead of the other way around. If you want to fill up your water bottle, there’s a water dispenser in the baggage claim area and another near RyanAir check-in counters.
I had visited Bologna before and while I wouldn’t mind visiting it again, I didn’t feel like dragging my bag behind me. I would also have to pay to use the washroom in the city and face problems finding a place to perform prayers (on my first visit, I performed prayers at the basement of a halal Indian restaurant). So I decided to just stay in the airport and only board bus no. 944 to Bologna Centrale at 00:45 to minimise the time I would have to spend at the bus station.
To be continued
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