Oct 11, 2008 - Baku

10/11/08 Saturday We had some free time today and I passed on a visit to the Carpet Mueseum which I saw during my previous visit to Baku. I mainly rested to let the antibiotics do their work. This evening we had dinner at a nice restaurant in the Old City. The dinner included a performance by musicians and dancers dressed in native costumes and playing tunes with an assortment of curiously shaped instruments.

Oct 10, 2008 - Baku/Gobustan/Baku

10/10/08 Friday (Today’s photos and those from some of the previous and subsequent days were inadvertently taken at a high ISO setting resulting in a lot of graininess on many of the photos. I’m probably more disappointed about this than you are!) We started the day on the south side of the city at Martyr’s Lane, a memorial to Bakuvians who died during the 1990 invasion of the Red Army. The monument rises up a hillside to gardens that have spectacular views of the city and its bay. We made our way down to the Old City where we visited the...

Oct 9, 2008 - Baku/Naxcivan/Baku

October 9, 2008 Thursday – Baku/Naxcivan/Baku I’ve had a couple of days on this trip during which I have been confronted with obstacles and frustrations at every turn. I tend to forget that they are balanced out by days like today when everything clicks and you accomplish a great deal in a minimal amount of time. The group is doing a day trip to Naxcivan, an enclave of Azerbaijan that is detached from the motherland and entirely surrounded by Armenian real estate. There are a handful of interesting sites there but nothing approaching a...

Oct 8, 2008 - Sheki to Baku via Kudamir

October 8, 2008 Wednesday – Sheki/Baku via Kudamir We spent the morning exploring Sheki. First, we took a short drive to the former Khans’ Palace which, though small and compact, is an architectural delight. Two rows of nicely framed cloudy glass windows grace the central façade. There is window after window of world class stained glass on the interior. And, the walls, ceilings and floors of each room have Versailles-like craftmanship that are a feast for the eye. Before departing Sheki we took a walk down to the market which was buzzing...

Oct 7, 2008 - Tbilisi to Sheki, Azerbaijan

October 7, 2008 Tuesday – Tbilisi/Sheki In the morning we ventured a short distance outside of Tblisi to the open air Ethongraphy Museum. Spread across a couple of hundred acres, there are 50 homes collected from around the country providing you with a comprehensive view of the variety of archictectural styles that dot Georgia’s countryside. The woodwork craftmanship of architectural details is extraordinary as you will see in the photos. One of the larger structures is a bit like an 18th C. country inn that you find in the eastern United...

Jul 26, 2008 - Baku, Azerbaijan

The taxi driver who brought us back yesterday agreed to pick us up this am to take us to the minibus which will take us to the border(at train station). At 6:30 we left Nata Hotel but once again due to language we went 1st to the wrong bus sta. He understood we were going to Baku but not via the border. We tried 'train station' where minibuses to border leave, then 'chug chug, whoo whoo' which did it and by 7 we made the transfer and were off to the border...again. This time our only delay was that at each of the 3 chk points - especially...

Jan 23, 2008 - Baku / Qobustan

Baku es una ciudad petrolera. Frente al Mar Caspio, se esta renovando en buena parte gracias al precio del petroleo. La peninsula justo al norte de Baku era el centro petroquimico de toda la Union Sovietica. El centro antiguo de Baku es bastante bonito, con una citadela mas o menos bien conservada. Hay algunos edificios renovados muy bonitos, pero en los alrededores del centro se nota la influencia sovietica decadente, simbolizada mas que nada por los edificios gigantescos que se caen a pedazos. Hay un edificio gigantesco, que parece un...

Jan 19, 2008 - Shaki (AZERBAIJAN)

El viaje a Azerbaijan fue bastante "multimodal" pero rapido! Primero que nada, en la estacion de Tiflis donde fui no habia nada yendo a Azerbaijan. Tuve que averiguar a que otra estacion ir, y felizmente encontre una marshrutka (combi) yendo a un pueblo cercano a la frontera. Despues tome un taxi a la frontera, la cruce a pie, todo bien, y luego otro taxi al 1er pueblo de Azerbaijan. Ahi cambie plata y me subi en otro taxi al siguiente pueblo. Ahi por fin tome otra marshrutka, que felizmente salio al toque, a Shaki. Todo bastante rapido,...

Apr 25, 2006 - Nagorno-Karabagh

Note: I am inputing all this information without double checking my facts-when I get a chance I will check for errors. First of all, for all of you scratching your heads and making funny faces, Nagorno-Karabagh is a tiny(about the size of Delaware) self proclaimed autonomous state bordering Armenia and Azerbaijain. Being caught between a Christian and muslim country, Nagorno-Karabagh has long been a subject of significant contention. Karabagh has always had an Armenian majority. Pre soviet era this republic enjoyed limited autonomy-quite...

Mar 1, 2006 - Baku, Azerbaijan

Baku is great, it is my favorite city this trip. people are nice some even speak english a little. my russian is shit. the food is great and the old city is a lot of fun to get lost in. Kind of like stone town on Zanzabar. It"s an oil town with lots of money and the US is providing a bit to keep the economy stable and the oil flowing out of the caspian. I did a bit of carpet hunting and hagled my ass off. i managed two nice carpets for 250 US, but when it came time to ship them,(march 3rd) that was a different story. the post would not ship...

Sep 12, 2005 - avant le depart de Saki

A: Lundi matin superbe. Michel ets parti de son cote voir le palais que j'ai vu hier tandis que je viens en ville pour vous ecrire un mot. On part a midi pour Tbilisi mais par la route du nord, plus directe, en camionette avec chauffeur prive svp!! On a rencontre hier au B&B Panorama un voyageur de Londres venu de Baku avec son taxi et il a accepte de nous amener jusqu'a la frontiere + qq km, ou lui va rester et d'ou nous continuerons en autobus. Gentil bonhomme de quelques 25-30 ans. Nicole M. me pose beaucoup de bonnes questions et je...

Sep 9, 2005 - Premiere escale: Baku, capitale d'Azerbaidjan

Nous sommes a Baku depuis 2 jours mais c'est notre premiere entree faite d'un cafe Internet. Comme je viens de tout perdre ce que j'avais ecrit !!!!! je recommence mais plus brievement et j'enregistre souvent pour ne plus perdre: (P.S. il n'y a pas d'accent ici, car le clavier est mi-azeri, mi anglais et il fait une chaleur torride dans ce sous sol....) D'abord, tout va tres bien. L'avion sans histoire remarquable si ce n'est une rhume de cerveau (Andre) aussi violent que spontanne entre Montreal et Londres + 24 heures. Ensuite un hotel 2...