Tajqurghan

Tajqurghan was a mezmorizing district about 2 hours from Mazar-e-Sharif.
We spent the day there in my uncles orchard. And yes, this was the pomegranite/grape/fig orchard that I wanted to see really badly, but unfortunatley, only the grapes were ripe. Pomegranite season is around the end of August begining of September.

It was beautiful nontheless. You would take a grape vine path to a nice seating area that had a river beneath it. Swimming in the cold fresh water then coming back up to warm kababs and juicy melons was something else.

The pictures I took at the garden had family members in it...so I will upload pictures of Tajqurghan itself...on the roads instead. The first picture, however, is of the river in the orchard. Tajqurghan is filled with multicolored mountains, vast valleys, clear rivers, and fruits orchards.

If you come to Afghanistan, especially Mazar-e-Sharif, come out to Tajqurghan for a day, you will love it!

Bagh e Babur

Bagh e Babur is a large historical park located in Kabul. It is said to be the last resting place of the first Mughal emperor Babur. The gardens are thought to have been developed around 1528 AD, when Babur gave orders for the construction of an "avenue garden", in Kabul. This was described in some detail in his memoirs, the Baburnama.

Like many tourist attractions in Afghanistan, you have to be searched thoroughly before you enter the park. You then enter a beautiful wide open space with bazaars, a rug store (which was gorgeous, however, we were not allowed to take photos of it), and jewelry stalls.

You go a little further, through another security check point (an old man in uniform, a large rod/stick, who sits in a chair and looks at your tickets), to enter the actual park. everything is uphill from there, literally, you climb a beautifully landscaped mountain to the top of the park which has an open white marble masjid (mosque), and a grand restaurant and museum. There are green feilds of fruits trees on both sides of the pathway, and all you can see is families having picnics and old men laying under the shade of not so ripe pomegranite trees and ripe mulberry trees.

Bagh e Babur is a must see attraction in kabul.

Food!

One of the best parts of going to Afghanistan was that we were always invited to different houses and ate different kinds of food. Most of it was really delicious, and some it made me really sick.

The dastar-khan, is the traditional floor mat that Afghans serve their food on. The biggest difference between Afghan food in Canada and Afghanistan, I found was that they served it differently. The taste was almost identical if not the same. The breads were the one food that tasted significantly different. In Canada, we serve fruits, and dessert seperate from the actual meal. In Afghanistan, everything is served together - which makes it good presentation wise, however, you get too full to eat dessert, then later on when you have room for dessert, they generally don't bring it back out. After dinner, it is just tea and dry fruits.

The ice cream there was delicious as well. It was called sheer-yakh, and another type was Jzhaala. At first it was too heavy and rich for me, but soon I got used to it, and my uncles would drive us out every other night to get some. The best sheer-yakh was the one with Qai-Magh - a type of creamy milk layer that is slowly gathered off the top boiling milk.

Another great food/fruit found only in Afghanistan was the Kharbooza ( green melon ). Because of the heat, they were extremely soft and sweet. Afghans can substitute a meal with kharbooza and delicious fresh and warm Uzbeki bread.

Some of the houses we went to had outdoor fires in which they slow cooked their meals on. That was pretty awesome as well. From the noodle dough to yogurt, everything was home-made.

Here are some pictures of the dinners I went to.

Blue Mosque

The Blue Mosque, otherwise known as the Shrine of Hazrat Ali, and Rawze-Sharif in Farsi, is one of the pinnacles of Mazar-e-Sharif. It is one of the reputed burial places of Ali, the cousin and and son-in-law of the Prophet Muhammad (pbuh). It is this building that gives Mazar-e-Sharif its name - which means "tomb of the exalted".

You have to take off your shoes at the entrance, and no, not the entrance of the actual shrine, but the place itself...we came at noon and were practically skipping on the white stone floors because of the heat. Other than that, it is a magically beautiful place. We weren't allowed to take photos of the inside, but this little old man who made dua for everyone and read Quran saw my camera and how I was dying to take a picture and he said to me "quickly take a few pictures" I looked around and the other elder men nodded in approval and I quickly took some pictures. Those are the orange stone pictures below. I secretly took a video as well... I'll see if I can upload that later on.

Also,  if you do decide to go, make sure to have lots of change on you because people will be asking for money.