Day 2
This day we had been scheduled to fly to turkmenabat early in the morning, but apparently when the president flies somewhere it means the airport shuts down completely. Was good for us, we had time to rest in the morning, sean came down with a cold so extra rest was much appreciated.
Apparently its very cheap to fly so everyone does instead of driving hours. So we were at the airport yet again, except this time it was just one gate, and at the gate we could see these amazing mountains that are 10,000 feet in elevation. I wanted to take pictures but if i had i would have been suspect to be a terrorist so i decided against. anyway, we got to turkmenabat it reminded me so much of travels in northern romania, especially the part where i felt constantly cold and all the old ladies only had a head scarf and light jacket. I am such a wimp. But the buildings architecture and the old style buses and the general vibe is soo similar. They had us play at a place called the American Corners, this is where they teach english some kids get to go to US as an exchange student, they are all really smart and eager to learn. one kid wore his NY sweatshirt to represent. It was a very nice show, acoustic and we got to speak english and people actually understood us.
we left there and headed to our next show which was at this beautiful palace. It was huge, its adored in gold. the theater had red chairs and huge chandelier and was set up for beautiful acoustics it was gorgeous. The house was packed with lots of young people very excited to see us. at the end we received 3 huge bouquets of flowers and signed autographs and took pictures, people we chanting to sean and i as we left "Sarah, we love you" and "We love you Sean" so funny!! It feels so funny to have complete strangers to say that to you. What do fans really mean when they say that? do they really love me?
Anyway, our night was not finished we had to eat dinner. we went back to the place that we had lunch and not one person was there, same as when we had lunch but this time they had strobe lights and house music pumping! No one was in there?!. We walked in and apparently they were out of food so we couldn't eat there but they stopped us because they said there was a problem with our lunch bill and we had to pay more money!
Anyway, on to the next restaurant which was awesome. It was called Tractor. We were greeted by two ladies which we promptly gave our bouquets to and made fast friends. The one lady look like she owned the bar but apparently she was a singer who wore a button up jean suit jumper and wanted to thank us for the flowers so she sang it;s a wonderful life complete with the louie armstrong voice, a voice that is only gotten by a woman who smokes at least a pack of cigarets a day. it was really just like louie singing with a russian accent! in the back of this place there was karaoke and lots of young people perhaps having dates. it was a great place to relax and have a drink before getting on the plane back to ashgabat.
We got back to the airport and waited for our plane. Sean got out his guitar and wouldn't you know it a group of gypsy playing musicians came up and started singing with him. It was a beautiful moment. They may be coming to the deputy of missions house tonight for a dinner with us! Now that is cultural exchange!
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