So I'm in the process of writing out all the details of the itinerary for family and as I looked at the names of the hotels, I wondered about The Grand Orzu in Tashkent where I stayed in 2013 and will stay again in just a week and a half. Since it is decidedly not grand, I thought perhaps that finding the origin of "orzu" might be illuminating. Maybe it's derived from old Turkish for bad plumbing.
Orzu, according to wikipedia, is the name of two towns -- one in Romania and the other in Iran -- and I'm going with Iran since it is closer to Uzbekistan. Orzu, Iran is a village in the west, in the area of the Persian Gulf and the Iraq border. At the 2006 census, its population was 192, in 34 families. (The other Orzu is one of ten villages in the Negomir commune in Gorj County, Romania. Population unknown.) It's hard to imagine that either Orzu was the inspiration for this hotel all the way in Tashkent.
So after mulling this over, I used Google Translate and discovered that in Uzbek, "orzu" means "dream." So now it makes sense, The Grand Orzu: a little hotel with a big dream.
Orzu, according to wikipedia, is the name of two towns -- one in Romania and the other in Iran -- and I'm going with Iran since it is closer to Uzbekistan. Orzu, Iran is a village in the west, in the area of the Persian Gulf and the Iraq border. At the 2006 census, its population was 192, in 34 families. (The other Orzu is one of ten villages in the Negomir commune in Gorj County, Romania. Population unknown.) It's hard to imagine that either Orzu was the inspiration for this hotel all the way in Tashkent.
So after mulling this over, I used Google Translate and discovered that in Uzbek, "orzu" means "dream." So now it makes sense, The Grand Orzu: a little hotel with a big dream.
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