It's a significant site for the people of Kabul: fought over by the Taliban and Mujaheddin during the 1990s, today it is the gathering place for families on a Friday afternoon. Here you can buy, and fly a brightly coloured kite, or have a pony ride on any one of a dozen decorated ponies, or buy chai from dozens of young boys running from one customer to another with a thermous full of green tea. The site of a large kite festival during Nauruz (New Year, which was last week) - today there are only a dozen or so, but it is still early they tell me, later the place will be packed as people, ponies and kites fight for space.
Down below, and in the distance, the green of the (Olympic) Stadium has a game of cricket in action. An ancient (destroyed) fortress, now home to international forces dominates the landscape, as does a white "unmanned airship" anchored to the ground as it's sister flies the skies above Kabul, watching.
As I drive through the city, signs of past war are evident; high, razor wired walls patrolled by soldiers in full gear are numerous; police road blocks and checks are constant - but the people are friendly, open and welcoming. It's quiet in Kabul this morning, it's Friday, but soon the gatherings will start as families and friends meet together in the parks and mosques.
On Chicken Street shop keepers are selling Afghan carpets, for only $10,000 and all kinds of other souvenirs. One of my overwhelming impressions is that there is a lot of blue! Lapis Lazuli is mined in Afghanistan and it is everywhere. The famous Herat Glass is coloured by it, lumps of it, polished and raw decorate shop windows, all kinds jewelry and containers are made from it, and of course the mosques are tiled in it. (Kabul too has a blue mosque.)It's a city of blue, of dust, of mountains and 5 million people - people who in the main are just hoping and praying for peace and a future. (Simplistic I know!) Afghanistan is a beautiful country.
