Did the good author put a little too much rum or bourbon into his eggnog this past holiday season? Are there in fact similarities between Estonia and Uzbekistan?
Uzbekistan is a landlocked nation in Central Asia. It’s adjacent to Afghanistan and is one of the five “stans” (“stan” means “land of” in Persian)—the other ones being Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Turkmenistan. It’s worth noting for cultural context that although Uzbekistan does not have an official state religion, 90% of the population consists of Sunni Muslims.
What similarities, then, might Estonia—a coastal nation in northeast Europe—and Uzbekistan have? As Elizabeth Barrett Browning wrote, let me count the ways.
If you like Tallinn’s medieval Old Town, you will love the three ancient Silk Road cities of Samarkand, Bukhara, and Khiva. Forget the capital of Tashkent (yes, your international flight will need to land there), you have seen plenty of skyscrapers and shopping malls in North American cities.
