Somehow this morning was even worse than yesterday. Millie woke up at 2:30 in the middle of another nightmare. She got into bed with me and Nick got into her bed. It took her a while to calm down and she would only stay calm if she had full contact with my entire body, preferably lying directly on top of me. She woke up every time I tried to transfer her off, so I was wide awake taking one for the team until about 5:00, when I finally passed out.

We got up at about 9, all tired and groggy and unrested. We had another pleasant breakfast downstairs at their Turkish throne-style table.

I think as a result of both tiredness and just general protest, Millie had a really rough time getting ready and out the door for the day. Brushing hair, teeth, and getting shoes on were all a struggle (putting it lightly) and ultimately resulted in no iPad for the train ride tomorrow.

We did eventually make it out and took a short walk to Registan Square. Millie cried and whined all the way from our hotel room to the ticket line, until a woman gave her a candy and she immediately switched to being jolly. Our life would be so much easier if we were willing to orchestrate her behavior with candy or screens.

Like yesterday I was amazed by the style and scale of these buildings. Why don’t billionaires recreate this for their mansions? Why are there so many boring farmhouse style multimillion dollar homes and not these?

I thought of a new retirement / bucket list item: learn how to make my own tiles and glaze, and then have an intricately tiled room or outdoor area.

We spent a good couple of hours exploring the complex. We stopped for a very strong Turkish coffee on the second level. I sat in the shade and almost fell asleep. Millie danced around in the mosque while we people-watched. It felt nice not to be in a rush to go anywhere else.

When we felt like it, we walked on to visit the mausoleum of Temur, who ruled over the empire here. Millie (and me too if I’m being honest, though I’m better at hiding it) was OVER IT by this point and let us know. So we did a quick walk through while Nick attempted to explain Ghengis Khan to her, and then we left.

We stopped briefly to refuel with some juice, bread, and hummus before heading to a playground in the mall. This was an offering to Millie after we realized it wasn’t very fair that she gets dragged to so many historic sites.

We walked through parks to get there and they played a game where they try to grab the ribbon from each other. It gets her running and keeps her busy, which means we arrive places quickly. This side of the city, the Russian neighborhood, feels like a completely different world than the older side. It’s green and shaded and has wide pedestrian walkways, vs the old side which has no sidewalks, open gutters, and sandy roads.

Our phones barely work here so it took a while to find the mall. Once we were in, I attempted to take Millie to the bathroom. The two stalls were locked so we were waiting when all of a sudden a woman came running in, grabbed a bucket from the corner, and then did what I think is medically known as “blowing ass” into the bucket besides us. It was quite an experience. We slowly backed out of the bathroom and found another one.

If the shit bucket incident wasn’t enough of a hit to our immune system, we found the indoor play area and let millie loose to collect new regional kid germs. Between all the vaccines we got before leaving, and now the amount of global germs we have interacted with, we might turn into super heroes when we get home. Or mutants.

From the mall we walked back to the park to stop for a light dinner at a cafe we had passed. When the waitress brought the menu it was all in Russian. She didn’t speak any English so we did our best to translate it with our barely working phones. She brought us mystery beer snacks, and Nick ordered insanely. A skewer of salty lamb fat, pickled onions, and a dumpling (?) where the outside is meat and the inside it cheese. He ate almost the entire thing and as of this writing is still alive.

Despite the Russian roulette style ordering, we had a good time. We headed home as the sun was setting and finally got to bed at a more reasonable hour. We all need the uninterrupted (please god) sleep.