Family Journal: June 22, 2023

It was the end of an era on Sunday as we spent the final day in our home of six years in Tashkent. Our two eldest children are already living on their own in the USA, and our youngest who is a senior next school year, we are downsizing and moving into a much smaller home. It is still close to the school but in the Amirobod mahalla. We spent most of the day packing boxes to prepare for the move that will take place over the summer. We also packed our suitcases for our summer holidays. We departed Tashkent early Monday morning.

In the morning, we visited the Arca Mebel Markazi (Arca Furniture Market) to buy a sunshade for the back garden of our new house. We’ve seen incredible growth in Tashkent over the past 6 years and remember the difficulty of finding high-quality outdoor furniture when we first arrived. The Arca Market is basically a furniture shopping mall. I noticed Turkish and Russian furniture brands, and it has everything from bedrooms, kitchens, patios, and living rooms, etc. I thought the prices were quite reasonable, and we bought the shade in the photo on the far right for around $100. I recommend newcomers to Tashkent looking for furniture check it out. They offer delivery and set up, and by the afternoon, it was already on our patio.

Our flights so far have been very smooth. The Yandex driver was able to take all of our bags and us. Traffic to the airport and lines at the airport were light. Departing at 3:00 AM does have its advantages. Qatar Airways flights between Tashkent and Doha are running as scheduled. I noticed we flew around Afghanistan and Iran airspace, lengthening our flight by probably an hour. I prefer using Doha as a connecting hub rather than Istanbul. The airport is beautiful and not as sprawling as Istanbul. They literally have a forest in the center of the airport so we took the elevated pathway through the trees. American airports need to step up their game!