So, after leaving a very hospitable to us Ganja, we headed straight to Baku. For that purpose we took a bus, which traveled for around 5 hours, and costed 6 euro. On our way, we haven't seen anything particular interesting for a tourist, except maybe a suspiciously high number of furniture salons along the highway. The prices for the petrol were also majestically low.
We arrived at the main bus station of Baku and had to wait for our friend Orkhan to pick us up. Meanwhile, we wondered around for a bit. The bus station also serves as a big market place, which means lots of traders, buyers and active bargaining. The majority of products are from Turkey and Iran.
In a while, we finally met Orkhan and his friend and headed to their students flat. As the bus got closer to the center the city was really changing on the way - from soviet buildings, streets and lifestyle to the ultramodern city with palm trees, glass buildings and modern technologies implemented.
We immediately decided not to waste time and headed to the center, where we met my friend Gunay, who both with Orkhan made us an excursion across the city center, telling interesting stories about Baku and lifestyle here. We saw the Caspian sea, as well as took a funicular to a higher spot of the city, where a beautiful sight opened. Near Kaspian sea it was really cold, even the temperature was kinda not to low - around -5, but the breezy wind did its work. What also impressed us were the three huge towers with animation, also known as "Flaming towers". Accept flaming, for which they are called so, they also show Azerbaijani flag, a man waving it, etc.
Funny thing happened to me in the same day. I wanted to withdraw some money from ATM in VTB bank (my Armenian card bank), and took 20 manats (20 euro). The next day I realized that the commission for that transaction was 26 euros! The more funnier thing was that my whole road trip and meals took me round 70 euros. I was financially punished for using Armenian card. However, good news came to me in Armenia. After almost two weeks after the trip, I received approximately 22 euros back.
We managed to come near the biggest flag in world. As we were told 42 marine soldiers carried it. It really looks fantastic, and explains a lot about politics of the government - the way of promoting culture and Azerbajani image. It is also manifested of renewing of pantheon of heroes, construction of museums to traditional carpet and a special song. I really appreciate such stuff.
However, there is also other side of promotion, by using well-known brands. In our case - football teams. Players of Manchester United were paid quite a big amount of money to promote national mobile operator. And Atletico Madrid team was given around 13 mln. euro for wearing Azerbaijan as their t-shirt title. But is this the right way? When lots of Azerbaijani people live on the edge of poverty?
Due to the fact, that we have never been to the Muslim (I refer not to the state religion, but a religion of majority of population) country before and we were surprised with absence... of toilet paper in some bathrooms. However, that was due to lack of knowledge about such stuff. More about this can be read here.
Again, which is very common to this region, we met very hospitable people, who where happy to chat with us.
For me it also seemed hard to orient in subway, mainly because its only in Azerbaijani language, and sometimes there are stations with two trains, which quite confusing. Luckily if one knows Russian it would be easier also to ask people for assistance.
Old city, I guess, was recently reconstructed with lots of embassies being situated there. One can also go there shopping for souvenirs or tasting local or specific cuisine.
Having spent two days in Baku, and again, lacking time, we had to departure to Georgia and Armenia. We took a direct and comfortable bus to Marneuli (which also goes to Tbilisi) for around 11 euros.
Azerbaijan, and especially Baku did a great impression on me, and I would for sure want to return here again. I will also put my efforts to try to at least promote peace in the region and mutual understanding within young people towards tolerance and friendship.Our "Operation Caucasus" ended with the trip to Yerevan. In 6 days we managed to cover around 1700 km, visit 3 capitals, and spent nearly 60 euros each on travel and food costs. To summarize it was a success, and more trips to come for sure. Hopefully next stop - Balkans.
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