We are embarking on an adventure across the Caucuses and start with a flight to Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan. We fly through Frankfurt on Lufthansa and thankfully the flights work out well and we arrive on time, albeit after midnight and so it’s straight to bed!!
Next morning we start with brekkie and I try the kuku which is an omelette with greens – mostly dill! Our hotel is within the walls of the medieval “Inner City” and close to Maiden Tower, where we start our day exploring town.
We buy a ticket and climb the steps inside where there’s lots of info about the tower. It’s from the 12th century and is a UNESCO world heritage site. That’s enough to know!
From the top of Maiden Tower there’s a 360 degree view of the city. The view of the Flaming towers is particularly clear on this beautiful sunny morning.
We continue walking through the old city to the Baths, which we can enter with the ticket we purchased. A lady with really good English gives us a personal tour as we’re the only people there. I’d love a good hamam visit if I could fit one in!
We see some interesting street art as we continue walking from the double gates. This house is fantastically painted and apparently has become a bit of an insta spot (surprise surprise!!)
Next we visit the Palace of the Shirvanshahs which was a royal retreat during the 15th century. There are multiple rooms, an old mosque and burial chambers to see. It’s very impressive.
We have lunch nearby at a restaurant called Kurban Said. We have a light salad, some pickled vegetables and lamb dumplings. It’s very nice and the restaurant is in a very cool building that is fitted out like a museum. As we’re leaving I get chatting to the lady who owns it and she explains that Kurban Said is a writer who wrote a very famous novel called Ali and Nino. It’s historical fiction set in Baku and I reckon I’m going to have to read it.
From here we walk to the seafront, passing “Little Venice”, where you can get a gondola (seems ridiculous to me!) and we see the famous Carpet Museum.
There is a giant shopping centre on the water and it has a really cool reflection of the carpet museum building.
There’s another iconic building that we want to see but it’s a few kms away so we jump in a bolt (which costs about €4) and travel for 15 minutes or so to the Heydar Aliyav centre. This building was designed by Zaha Hadid, the famous Iraqi-British architect. She was known as “Queen of the curve” and it’s evident when you see her designs.
We don’t go into the building as it’s a museum to the President, we just wanted to see it from the outside. So it’s back into another Bolt and time to climb to the top of Highland Park to see the flaming towers up close….
…..and to get a view of the city and beyond…
Up here we also visit Martyrs Lane and the monument dedicated to those killed by the Soviet Army during Black January 1990. Btw, Azerbaijan gained its independence from the Soviet Union in 1991. There is very little of a soviet hangover here.
From up here we can also see the giant flagpole and the arena that was built in 2012 when Baku hosted the Eurovision Song Contest!!
We climb the two hundred or so steps back down and stop off in a quirky little bar for our first Azerbaijani beverage. I try some pomegranate wine which is really good and feels like there’s barely any alcohol in it! [side note: there is!!!]
When we come out for dinner later in the evening we see a beautiful moon between the Flaming Towers, which are now lit up.
We take a short walk and have a delicious meal at Qala Divari. We order lula (lamb) kebab, sturgeon kebab (yep, the fish that caviar comes from), Gutab (a very thin stuffed flatbread), crispy aubergine and of course some of their famous bread with a garlic dip… When we walk in there’s a man singing and I’m certain Shane has taken me to a karaoke bar but this just seems to be part of the entertainment in the restaurants here!!
We wash our meal down with some very nice local Cab Sav after I tried the pomegranate wine which wasn’t nearly as good as the one from earlier.
Next day we are taking a group tour to see some of the highlights of Azerbaijan that are accessible from Baku. As we head south from the city, we see lots of oil rigs and then we notice that there is no oncoming traffic on the main road and there’s a policeman every 500m… for several kilometres. It seems the president is moving around and the road has been closed. It’s quite bizarre. After a little over an hour we arrive at Gobustan State Reserve and straight off one of the group insists on a group photo!!
The views from this protected archeological park are impressive and we can see all the way to the Caspian Sea (which is actually the largest lake in the world).
The highlight of visiting the Gobustan State Reserve is to see the rock art. The carvings and petroglyphs that we see are really clear considering they are from 5,000 to 40,000 years old!
Next we are off to see the mud volcanoes. We change cars to a soviet SUV, i.e. a lada and our driver tackles the off-road adventure like a pro!!
Azerbaijan has hundreds of these mud volcanoes which form when pressurized underground gases (like methane), water, and fine sediment push up through Earth’s crust. It’s fun to watch, and hear them bubbling away. I put my hand in to feel the silky muck and can confirm it’s cold.
Back in the mini bus – it’s a Mercedes and we are travelling up front so have the best view in the house – we continue back towards Baku and visit Bibi-Heybat Mosque. I swore after the last time I went to a mosque that they just weren’t for me… too many rules for women, it really pisses me off. Anyway here I am again, covering myself up completely so that my shape cannot be seen!! Oh and also we were told no smiling or laughing.. seriously!!
The last stop before lunch is to see the first industrial oil well in the world. Back at the turn of the 20th century Azerbaijan was the largest producer of oil in the world and they continue to produce oil as a large part of their economy.
We have a good lunch of rice, chicken, pickled salad, soup and of course bread and then we drive to the other side of Baku to visit Yanar Dag – the fire mountain. This is quite fascinating – the ground has been on fire for years and it never goes out, even in rain or snow. It’s due to methane in the ground and is quite bizarre to witness as it’s like standing in front of a gas heater!
In case you can’t see it….
As we drive to our final destination on the tour, we see so many oil wells along the side of the road, all pumping away… I’ve never seen anything like it!
Our last stop is The Baku Ateshgah or the “Fire Temple of Baku”. It’s a Zoroastrian temple which had a natural flame until 1969. No surprise as we are on the Absheron peninsula which oozes oil and gases (the previous photo being case in point). We are guided around the main temple, which sits in the middle and is surrounded by a number of rooms used for various purposes by the Indian people who lived there.
After the tour and a brief rest back at our hotel, we head to Hillside Wine Boutique, which we spotted when we arrived. We do a tasting of all the wines they have – for free!!! We settle on a bottle of red to buy because we couldn’t leave with nothing!!
Shane has picked a really nice restaurant for dinner tonight. I have a dish called Leaf Khinkal which is minced beef served on large flat noodles and served with sour cream and what seemed to be a blue cheese dip. Shane has a bowl of offal and potatoes (he loves that!!) and we also have a beautiful tomato salad and a camel gutab – yes camel, and it’s very good. The only downside to this restaurant is it doesn’t serve alcohol!!! No harm for one night I suppose!!
We head back to our hotel to admire the light show on the Flaming towers from our terrace and we may have had just one glass of local wine. Such a nice way to end our trip to Baku.
Next morning we are picking up a car and heading northwest to Sheki. Read all about that in Part II.
odohertyelaine 
Brilliant
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