D is for Dushanbe

(note: blogger is not cooperating with photos today....I'll try to get them up for your viewing plelasure next time)


I almost titled this post "D is for depressing," but that wouldn't be an entirely accurate statement. I strive to report accurately, and I should not color my whole trip negatively because of one stripped-down former amusement park. (More on that below.)

Sunday I didn't have to work, and so spent the day wandering around Dushanbe. It's bigger than I thought, but definitely has that "small-town" feel. No skyscrapers, no towering buildings. Only 4 or 5 flights a day (one arriving around 8:30 in the morning, I can hear the rumbling of the engines from the kitchen in my flat), and that's a busy day.

It was nice and dry and hot and sunny. Got a little tan going, but also took care to walk lots in the shade. First I stopped at the main monument in the main square. I gave a policeman a heart attack by attempting to actually walk too close to the monument. *rolls eyes* If people were not meant to walk up the damn thing, why are there stairs there???

I wish I could tell you what the monument is to and what it means, but I have no idea. There were no explanations of anything I saw and photographed. So while I could appreciate their deisgn, structure, beauty, etc, I had no idea what it was meant to represent. I will ask one of my colleagues about them when we have some down time.

Behind this monument were several fountains (one of the four was actually working, and two boys were bathing in it) and a lovely garden. The designers made the lampposts look like flowers themselves. Nice touch. Mne nravilos' (I liked it).

Shortly after this square, I reached a park. The gates were padlocked the last time I walked by it, so I was pleased to see that the park was open. In I went.

My first reaction was that there weren't really a lot of people there, given all of the others strolling about on a lazy Sunday afternoon. Then I got a little further, and could see why.

Once upon a time this had been an amusement park. Now it was a Soviet-era junk heap. Many of the rides/stations had been stripped, but a few vestiges remained. A decrepit ferris wheel. Whirly-gig chairs chained together, still hanging from the spinner-thingie at the top. Some rusted-out go-karts, but no track. An old Soviet train car where I think people may actually have been living.

I don't know what was more depressing: the park itself, the people who were picnicing in the park, the men who had stationed themselves at the entrance with this filthy, 20+-year old giant teddy bear who would charge you money to take a photo with said bear, or the fact that the park abruptly ended at the other side by massive piles of dirt dug up by tractors (they're building a road there).

Now, this amusement park cemetary is on the main drag of Dushabe. We're talkin' Michigan Avenue in Chicago, or Independence Ave in DC, or Light Street in downtown Baltimore. Not the sort of thing that brings in tourists, yannow?

Perhaps the government decided to leave the dead park as a metaphor for past Soviet times. There is a statue of Lenin at the entrance, pointing straight ahead (a common pose for his statues--pointing for all to see and follow to a shiny, happy, prosperous Socialist happy ending). I snorted as I imagined Lenin pointing the way out of this place. Flee, ye! Get the hell out while the gettin' is good! Of course, he's wearing his vest and holding his little workman's cap. Power to the people, I'm one of you guys, and all that. Boy were those Soviet propagandists good with their symbolism.

Fortunately, the walk got much better as it progressed. I shall post more another time. Gots to crunch some more numbers....