Thursday, January 25, 2024

Azerbaijan then Georgia

We did some more Baku, Azerbaijan exploring today before heading on to the next stop in the Mike and John Excellent Adventure 2024 journey.


I carefully wrapped up my pomegranate wine for travel. Lugging them around this whole trip was unfortunate but worth it.


Hotel room check





I thought this fancy magazine cover was funny because we were at this location yesterday.



We took a tour that was supposed to include a cool geological site but the road was too bad and the van couldn't make it. Instead we continued on to Qobustan, a UNESCO site covered in rock drawings.





SNAKES!







The site's oldest petroglyphs date from the 38th millennium BC.















Our guide was funny because he had a British sort of accent. He was making fun of me a bit for asking for "wader" because I wasn't saying the "t" correctly. Like you people can't say the "r" in water so lets agree to disagree.

He also said that Azerbaijan could never join the EU because there's too much corruption.





"Pomegranate is a vegetable in our cooking".



Gutab is a popular Azerbaijani street food of crispy, half-moon-shaped pastries that are cooked on a cast-iron griddle called a saj. The dough is rolled out thinly, filled, folded, and then fried. Gutab can be made with a variety of fillings, including meat, tripe, herbs, and more. 


Here people drink black tea but they put a sugar cube in their mouth first.



I had a funny interaction at a supermarket. They had these fun dried persimmons that I wanted to bring home with me, but they were all tied together with a plastic string. I yanked on them fruitlessly until a worker saw me and handed me some scissors. 





I liked the style of the election advertisements that were posted everywhere.





















We did a walking tour of the city with a hip younger guide with long bushy hair named Gani. He explained that invaders had to travel through water and fire to enter the city because they had two moats. The first was the normal watery type and the second would be filled with oil and set alight. Toasty.

Gani also mentioned that the minimum wage is 350 manat a month, and the government supplied this to people who couldn’t work during covid, such as tour guides. This is about $205 US.





The Maiden Tower is one of the symbols of Baku and the country. There seems to be unclear history surrounding the structure and lots of legends.









Baku City Hall







We then said goodbye to Azerbaijan and hit the aiport.



I took Mike with me to the airport lounge and he was impressed. It was very funny and endearing because this particular lounge was awful by world standards. He’d probably have a medical emergency if I showed him the Etihad first class lounge.





We landed in lovely Tbilisi, capital of Georgia and city that loves me in particular.




I was intimidated by how squiggly the Georgian written language is. This is intense.





Mikhail was waiting for us at the airport, surprisingly when we got to the parking lot his car was really nice. He said in his intermediate English “I am hotel owner”. We had a nice chat with him about what we wanted to see in Georgia and we mentioned the wine. Turns out he makes his own wine, like a 1000+ bottles a year.





So instead of going to bed we sat and drank two carafes of a nice dry white while we chatted a bit and the hotel man gave us recommendations. He said he’s owned the hotel for 5 years



It said in the guide book that you can toast your friends with wine or booze, but toasting with beer is reserved for your enemies. Mikhail confirmed this factoid.



The hotel was named after wine and was covered in wine related artwork. I'm starting to get the impression that wine is important around here.



I stayed up long enough to have a nice chat with Ernie baby when he woke up.