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Greetings from Uzbekistan - we are here again!

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We are back in Uzbekistan! We are here on a press trip with nine other journalists and travel bloggers. This time we are not only experiencing Samarkand, but also Tashkent and Bukhara. Fantastic fun and exciting!

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On a press trip to Uzbekistan

So we are on a press trip in Uzbekistan, which involves travelling around on a guided tour together with a group of other travel writers. For us, the trip started at Arlanda in Stockholm, where we met up with two other travel bloggers: Christian from Food and travel blog and Gunilla from 4000 mil. It was a great start to the journey and also a very good dinner at one of the new restaurants at Arlanda - we'll tell you more about this soon!

We flew with Turkish Airlines to Istanbul, where we met up with the rest of the group, who flew in from Oslo, Copenhagen, Helsinki and London. We (Helena and Peter) have been working on preparations for this trip since last autumn, including putting the group together. Finally meeting the whole group at the airport in Istanbul was an amazing feeling. And now we had only 4.5 hours left to Taskjent in Uzbekistan!

A great group

We are travelling with a really lovely group of people. Most of them we already know. Some we meet fairly regularly, and others we have met on one-off press trips around Europe. A few are new acquaintances - writers who have been recommended to us by others.

Everyone is amazing and incredibly dedicated to their thing, whether they work as journalists, write books or blogs. Wow, so inspiring to hang out with this group!

The whole gang on site in Samarkand
Group photo from Bukhara. Standing from left: Our local guide in Bukhara, Charlotte (Denmark), Helle (Norway), Christian (Sweden), Sverre (Norway), Peter (Sweden), Helena (Sweden) and Veera (Finland). Seated from left: Linda (Sweden/UK), Daniela (Sweden), Parastou (Denmark) and Gunilla (Sweden).

Exciting experiences in Uzbekistan

The journey started in the capital Tashkent and then continued to Samarkand (where we have been before) and Bukhara, where we are now. Finally, we will travel back to the capital Tashkent, where we will have another look around before travelling back home.

Our first experience in the country was a trip to the mountains, starting in Tashkent. It was certainly a long drive on winding dirt roads, but even though it was many hours in the car, it was an amazing experience. Absolutely incredible to see the snow-capped mountains and the blue-green mountain lakes! It was also great to meet the people in the countryside. Of course, we will tell you more about this trip in the journey soon!

We then continued to Samarkand by the country's modern and comfortable high-speed train. As Uzbekistan is a large country, this is a very convenient way to get around when travelling long distances.

Since we visited Samarkand last autumn, we have already written a guide on what to What to see and do in Samarkand. Going back was great fun! This time we enjoyed seeing all the amazing places again, and we also took the opportunity to take photos and videos with Peter's drone, for which we applied for a permit. It was also fun to see how our fellow travellers experienced Samarkand. Needless to say, they were fascinated and their cameras were running hot.

In addition to seeing historic buildings, there was a lot of good food and shopping for crafts, clothes and silk.

Veera from Finland and Charlotte from Denmark check out silk scarves

Best this week

Best thing this week? That we are in Uzbekistan of course! The best part for us is that we get to see some new places in the country, in the form of Tashkent and Bukhara. Or by the way, the most fun part is that we're here with this great bunch of travel bloggers and travel journalists!

Your turn ... What has been the best part of your week? (Big and small...)

A group of local women invited the women in our group to take photos of us together!

The week ahead

We'll be in Uzbekistan for a few more days, and we have an exciting programme ahead of us. It will be a little while before we can tell you more here on FREEDOMtravel, but you can of course follow the trip on Instagram at @freedomtravelnews. In the meantime, we've prepared some stories inspired by Sweden and Europe!

Did you miss the last Happy Friday? Read the Preparing for motorhome life and ready for the next adventure

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