Topic: Europe
The Caucuses, I can't even spell them, let alone tell you where they are. Three small countries jammed between two huge mountain ranges, surrounded by three of the worlds historical great powers.Throw in three distinct, languages, religions, and alphabets , what could possibly go wrong. It may surprise you to learn that they all have had turbulent histories. I the brief moments of time when the Otermans, Russians or Persians were not invading them, they were slaughtering themselves, or their neighbours. God knows why, but I'm spending three weeks here, If I survive that long.
Twenty two hours via Doha is Baku. It's the capital of Azerbaijan, and I am pleased to find they have an airfield here, along with a modern terminal building. Already they get more brownie points than Cuba or England. Always nice to find a bloke with a sign holding your name at the airport. A Nice freeway runs past a couple of huge olympic stadiums lit up in pulsating colours. Giant office buildings built by some of the world's best architects glow in the twilight. The only building that seems derelict is the 40 story Trump tower. It has no lights on and stands in the middle of nowhere. Apparently it's even caught fire a couple of times recently. Presidential stocktake any one.
My driver, who thinks he is Ayrton Senna, speaks Azerbaijani, me english, we settle for Russian. У тебя есть кошка? Do you have a cat? My russian is not very useful. When we get into the middle of town it's a bun fight as several of the main roads have been closed off. The place looks civilised, and my hotel is not bad in a sort of golden soviet style. Of course they haven't got my name, or the name of my companions on the desk but a quick whatsapp call sorts it all out. Mick emegers like a bear with a sore head from an afternoon lagar frenzy,to rescue me.
What do I know about Azerbaijan. It was once part of the Soviet Union, and it has gas. Lots of gas. There is money here. Doha has money but Baku has style as well. It a bit Parisian, with a nice old town, and a whole pile of new flashy buildings. Rested, we all meet up for breakfast then start our tour. We have a nice mercedes van with a driver and our guide Naira. The traffic bun fight from the night before is from the Formula one that has taken over the center of town. We head up to the Flame towers for a view of town, a walk around the memorial park, and a brief history lesson. In a nutshell after a brief fight with Russia in the late 80's the three, states went their own ways. After a couple of days of peace they got bored and started fighting with each other. Armina which stayed close to the Russians, but is divided from russia by Georgia and Azerbaijan, helped Nagorno Karabakh of Azerbaijan become an independent state aligned with Armenia, which only they and the Russians recognise. The Russians, who were pissed with losing out, founded another two independent states in Georgia which only they recognise. The whole lot, which flares up from time to time, is kept oiled by plenty of Russian weapon sales to all sides. All of them are adamant they are in the right. There, is it clear as mud now.
After the avenue of the martyrs, we wander around the old town, The maiden tower, and various other old buildings that all seemed to have some gruesome history. A couple of Church / mosque / synagogues for good measure. Lunch then free time. There are lots of nice bars, cafes and restaurants. Baku boulevard runs along the beach, and is normally a must see, but unfortunately the race has cut it off from the rest of town. We have an introductory dinner tonight so we make the mistake of eating way to much at lunch. A few beers, dinner, followed by food coma. The great thing about private tours is you can change things up. We swap a couple of days around so we can watch the race. The Four seasons has an all in drinks, seafood deal with a view of the race, from it's roof. There is a big screen opposite and Tv's in the bar. After that we go out clubbing till two, the result is not good.
Next day with thick heads we start the tour for good. Bubbling mud, flaming mountains and the obligatory COD (church of the day), or two, or three. We check out life in an traditional village, nothing fake here. Life is hard. The locals are pressing cow pats mixed with straw against the wall to dry for winter heating fuel. We eat a beautiful traditional lunch, Babushka cooked, in a crumbly old village house. There is a small Museum in town full of stuff from the Soviet times. Ah the good old days. Like everywhere the kids are on their phones. We stop at an old quarry where there are some of the oldest petroglyphs in the world. The soviets thought they made excellent road base. Now they are appreciated for their tourist trap potential. Now I now know more about petroglyphs than most anthropologists. Every night time Maria finds us a spectacular restaurant to eat at. The local potato dumplings, and khachapuri are cheap and magnificent, but not low cal. We spend most of the days trying to make room for more food. A couple more of days of churches, palaces, restaurants, and I'm feeling like I'm being made into foie gras. For our last couple of days we head towards the Georgian border and "Sheki" Naira's home town. The market is a highlight, they have everything except shoes in my size. Naira's mum even sells us some socks. The next morning we say our goodbyes to the guides, and walk across the border. We push our way through the Canadians filling out visa forms, and trying to get Minats out of the non functioning atm. They must of upset someone, because we don't need them. A quick stamp, Georgia here we come.
Click the pic for more, or try the slide show.
Posted by bondrj
at 12:01 AM EADT
