Sheki

After a brief but good breakfast, Mazhar's father drove me to the avtovağzal ("bus station" in Azerbaijani). After a brief wait, the marshrutka for Sheki turned up and I took my seat and waited for departure, scheduled ad 09:00. The trip took a couple of hours, with the minivan filling to maximum capacity (which means everybody sitting plus a few standing). I also was among the one that had to stood at some point, for etiquette (older women, etc).

From Sheki's avtovağzal to the hostel it was a brief but uphill walk, and it was rather hot already. Once I arrived I quickly noticed I was the only one in the hostel, and I even bothered to get the private room. Thank you, Booking.com and your "only two rooms left" sign!

After setting in, I ventured outside. Sheki was an important waypoint in the Silk Road, linking Dagestan to the northern trade routes through the Caucasus. Sheki itself was an important silk producer and silk is still an important part of its economy.

For my lunch, I opted for the Caravanserai restaurant. Here is where merchant could stop, rest and sell their wares. It's a beautiful and pleasant stop, the weather was warm but windy and the food delicious. Piti (a common Caucasian dish) is very typical in Sheki, and I had it accompanied by some of the best dolma I ever had.

After a quick visit to the royal palace, I received a job request that made me return to the hostel, but not before stopping and buying another couple of local specialties: tembel baklavası ("lazy baklava") and the famous Şeki halvası (Sheki halva), both rather different from the more known versions.

The first isn't totally different from some typical middle-eastern confectioneries, but the second is a multi-layered sugary mayhem. Prepared in large pans, this is indescribable. You can feel the cinnamon, the orange, the nuts and yeah, the sugar. The preparation in lengthy and requires some manual skill. Here you can see a video of it, it's in Russian but you can guess most of the stuff. Praise to the cook, who manage to keep his cool despite the guy touching everything.

For the record, the guy also has a video for the tembel baklavası. Yes, he also touches everything here.

Back to the hostel I got to work and worked most of the evening. Freelance life. :)

Qabala

After Baku I hade some choices, most of them ending in Sheki, a mountain city. I discarded Shamaky, depsite its interesting landmarks, because it was impossible to find anywher to stay that wasn’t a 5 star hotel, and this solidified what I don’t really like about Azerbaijan: luxury. There is this display of luxury everywhere, probably due to a strong oil/gas-based economy and to Arabic influences. While in most Georgian town you can find several guesthouse and hostels, in Azerbaijan you’ll find at least three hotels even in ridiculously small towns, and maybe ONE or two guesthouses. In Shamaky I didn’t find anything, so I decided to skip it and go to Qabala, (where I booked a B&B), taking a mashrutka from Bakı Beynəlxalq Avtovağzalı (Baku Internationl Bus Terminal). The trip lasted three hours and a half.

Qabala (Qəbələ in Azerbaijani) is a city of roughly 13.000 inhabitants, capital of the Qabala Rayon.

Now, to be really honest I don’t know why I chose this town. There is mostly nothing of the things the traditionally interest me. I must have confused some other place, but in the end I kinda liked it. Once I arrived, my host Mahzar told me he wouldn’t be home, but their parents would, albeit they didn’t speak much English. Mazhar’s father welcomed me in, offered me some tea and asked me if I wanted to see something. All this with him speaking to his phone in Russian, and relying of Google translator to speak to me in English. Of course, because he doesn’t speak English he had no idea when the translation came up totally bonkers. He probably thinks he’s living in a Star Trek-like era, where these wondrous little devices do everything. "Thanks for phone!" he told me once. Yeah, thanks for phone...

Anyway, once I got refreshed, he told me he could show me around, and asked me if I wanted to take the cable car. I told him yes, and he could drop me somewhere and I’d come back by myself. So we went to the cable car station, he dropped me there and he left. One minute later I learned that the cable car was already closed. Dang!

So I decided to go back and find something to eat, as the man wouldn’t be home until 21:00. I walked back the 4.8 Km, slowly and enjoying the AWESOME weather there, much cooler than in Baku. And I understood because Qabala is such a popular resort. Even for me, not the biggest fan of such places, the sheer amount of green struck me. Everything was in order, everything was neat and clean.

Beautiful gardens, benches, roadside restaurants, pools, rivers and waterfalls. For once it was relaxing. This must be what other people do on their holidays... INTERESTING!

 

Once I arrived in town I found a restaurant, had my daily intake of dolma and went back. At home, me, Mahzar’s father and the phone got another brief conversation, before I felt the tirdness of the day knocking at the back of my head, and went to sleep.

Ateshgah, the Zoroastrian fire temple.

A few kilometres from Baku, in the suburban town of Suraxanı, lies one of the most interesting sight of my trip until now. Ateshgah means "abode of fire" (from Persian atesh (آتش) meaning fire, and gah (گاہ) "throne" or "bed". It's set on a former natural gas source, which caused the flames, but now it's exhausted (since 1969), having been restored for preservation reason.

The temple has been a site of worship for Zoroastrians, Sikh and Hindu travelers, as fire is considered sacred in the Indo-Iranian branches of Sikhism, Hinduism, and Zoroastrianism. Many of these travelers were connected with the Silk Road trade.

To get to this place, me and my friend Aytaj had to take a metro to Koroğlu station, then get a taxi who drove us there. No questions on marriage on either.

The temple itself is surrounded by tall walls. Inside further inner walls there is the main structure, cubical with vaulted ceiling and a central altar, from where flames sprout. Along the inner walls, there are several small cells for pilgrims and worshippers, now turned into small archaeological exhibits. Two more flame sources are situated in the courtyard and four atop the main structure, unfortunately not working at the moment.

It's a pity the Ateshgah closes at 18:00, where there is still way too much summer light. Such a place would be incredible at dusk, as the photos available online show.

On our way back to the metro, we discovered a bus goes there. On the bus I learnt that Azerbaijani insult each other by means of "cucumber" and "donkey", the latter being a particularly grave offense.

Baku

After settling into the hostel, I start making sure basic needs are met: having data on my phone.

There is a shop within earshot, so I boldly enter, only to discover that Azerbaijan is a bit less credit card-friendly than Georgia: I have to withdraw some money in order to buy a SIM card, but fortunately there is a bank across the road. Once I got some cash, I watch as the guy expertly fiddles with my phone, expertly navigating the custom menus (and even switching the language to Russian). During the whole operation, however, I'll be unavoidably distracted, by the dead cockroach in the background. You know, when you talk to someone and you can't concentrate on what they're saying, because they have a piece of food on their upper lip?

           

Once I'm connected, it's time to tend to secondary needs, like nutrition. Thanks to Leyla's advices I try Firuze, a delicious restaurant off Fəvvarələr square. Some dolma and a fabulous plov, accompanied by a glass of ayram are the best way to start the day. The waiter, upon knowing where I'm from, of course showed me his cellphone cover with some football playeUIKeyInputDownArrowr I was supposed to recognize. Mission failed, but I smiled like the Joker and he seemed satisfied.

The first stop is the İçərişəhər, or old city, dating back between the 7th and the 12th Century (historians seem to disagree). It's a walled district, where narrow streets and shops remind of north African medinas, though nowhere near as chaotic. Here, to be honest, the streets look nice, but every single shop and activity is touristy in a way that's way beyond the norm, so I limited myself to strolling around, enjoying the architecture and the weather, still pleasant.

The Flame Towers, maybe the most readily recognizable landmark of Baku, were sometimes visible between trees or buildings. They are truly marvelous, although, along with other building, they give the city that unmistakable we got oil feel, that usually causes glass skyscrapers to pop up from the ground like there's no tomorrow.

Among the most interesting sites is the Şirvanşahlar Sarayı (Palace of the Shirvanshahs), so called because it was built by the old rulers of Shirvan, and contains the main building of the palace, Divanhane, the burial-vaults, the shah's mosque with a minaret, Seyid Yahya Bakuvi's mausoleum, a portal in the east, Murad's gate, a reservoir and the remnants of a bath house.

Baku is definitely a pretty city. Thanks to it's rich oil and gas resources, it's unmistakably richer than Tbilisi, most roads are in perfect conditions and I really haven't seen many dilapidated building. I'm sure that the suburbs would still bear the memory of the Azerbaijan SSR, but the centre is pristine wherever you go.

In the evening, following a friend's advice, I went to a bar where a French musician was to give a concert. It was funny, thinking of it. An Italian, living in Georgia, attends a concert in Azerbaijan of a French, living in Lithuania. International AF.

Tomorrow I will visit the Ateshgah, the Zoroastrian temple of fire, located in Suraxanı, a suburb of Baku.

Night train to Azerbaijan

The train 37 Tbilisi-Baku departs at 20:35 from platform 1 of the Tbilisi central station. I have never been to Azerbaijan, so here we go. It’s a cold, rainy day in Tbilisi. I set in my compartment, which at the moment is empty, and wait for departure.

Night travels by train have a somewhat romantic feel, but it also means there is little to see outside. Once we leave, it is not completely dark yet, but photos taken from a moving train in scarce light conditions are what they are.

The first stop is Rustavi, a few kilometres southeast of Tbilisi. Here, an Azerbaijani woman joins me. She came to Georgia for her sister’s wedding and she is not returning to Baku. She speaks enough English for basic communication and seems nice. She likes Georgia and Tbilisi. In the next stop, which names I do not remember, a grumpy old man and a woman enter. They talk in Azerbaijani, and the man complains about something. I do not understand, which is good. After having settled their luggage, the man leaves the train (he was just accompanying the woman, which seems more friendly). With the help of the first one, I know that she is ethnic Azerbaijani, but lives in Georgia (she has a Georgian passport).

At the Georgian border, our passports get collected, one officer checks if I have the visa for Azerbaijan, then leave. He returns and gives us a declaration form, that we compile. It is in English, but a terrible one. There is a line where we are supposed to indicate where we are coming from and where we are going, but it says “Country of arrival/Country of destination”. Someone should explain them it’s the same thing, but for sure that won’t be me. I guess that the first stands for “Country of provenance”, and I fill it.

Other parts are also awesomely Monty Phytonesque.

 

After a long stop (roughly a hour) we get our passports back, and we depart, and I get ready for a more in depth-check at the Azeri side of the border.

Once we stop again, officers board the train. The first hilarious moment is when they get slightly pissed off at some brilliant German tourists, who decided they could already go to sleep after the first check. I understand that you’re used to Schengen, but come on! Some officers enter, ask some questions in Azerbajani to the other travellers, then ask me (in English) if it’s my first time to Azerbaijan, if I have ever been to Armenia (no reason to lie, so I say yeah, some years ago), then proceed to check my luggage. Once all is cleared, they start with the identification procedure. Taking turns, we get called in an otherwise empty compartment, where an officer with a computer file us, taking a photo with a webcam and checking the visa if needed. All in all it takes roughly another hour, then we depart again.

Once the bureaucratic part is done, the two women pull out food and drink and they kindly offer me all. We talk a bit of, I get of course asked why I am not married (“because I like to travel!” “You can travel with your wife!” “I like to travel ALONE!”), then seeing it’s already 01:20, we go to sleep.

I wake up at around 07:00, as I usually do when traveling. The landscape is rugged and flat, but the weather seems getting better, with a faint promise of sun on the horizon.

Visiting the toilet allows me to see more hilarious English, in the form of rules and regulations on the train itself. If this is how it is gonna be, I’m going to have some fun. Who have ever thought that it is dangerous for bursting to carry out bursting?

With a bit of delay, we finally arrive in Baku. The city looks way more modern than Tbilisi, as it belongs to a country with a strong oil and gas economy. The weather is pleasant, so I take a stroll to my hostel, where I am welcomed by a man whose rugged and raspy voice would make Tom Waits sounds like Farinelli. My Azerbaijani adventure officially begins.

Last Czech day

For my last day I booked a hostel in the centre, aptly called Downtown. I didn't want to share the room with anyone else, so I booked the single room and wow, the view it had! Sixth floor, overlooking the city in the direction of the Castle. Couldn't ask for anything better for my last day in this beautiful city.

During this last day I met with Kristýna, a nice girl from Nymburk, a town in the Central Bohemian region. We drank some coffee in cozy cafe, ate gelato and spent more time in the park, talking, which meant her desperately trying to change subject whenever we reached "bugs". A very pleasant afternoon, including the late run to make her catch the last train!

See you soon Prague! We will surely meet again!

Alchemiae Speculum

Prague always had a powerful reputation for the occult. The golem legend comes to mind, but alchemy and astrology especially, always occupied an important spot in the history of the city, especially under Rudolf II of the Holy Roman Empire, House Habsburg. Under his reign, people like Tycho Brahe and Johannes Kepler, but also John Dee and Edward Kelley were welcome court, so it's only natural that you'll find an alchemy museum in the city. And in one of the oldest building in the city, even, in the staré město (old town). The museum, in fact, is where an alchemy laboratory used to be. Now, the museum is almost completely reconstructed to look old, bit like Disneyland, but the guides make no secret of it, indicating what was actually found and preserved and what was remade, so it didn't feel like a scam.

The laboratory starts with a study room, complete with desk and all the classic items you'd expect from an alchemist room. A bookshelf full of volumes, weird stuffed specimen from all over the world, a globe, scrolls, beakers and jars. A chandelier is in the middle of the ceiling, channelling the energies of the four elements to the room below, where the magnum opus was being performed. To reach the room below, you have to twist a gargoyle in the library, which opens a secret passage that leads downstairs, where several rooms, each with a purpose, are found, since alchemy was popular with Rudolf II, but not with the pope, so he had to hide things.

  

 

  

  

  

 Other than the main laboratory, with the classic alchemic paraphernalia, there are rooms for glass blowing (alchemists had to make everything by themselves, for the same secrecy reasons), to dry herbs, plus some passages that connected the laboratory to the castle and to areas outside the former city walls.

  

  

In the end, it's a nice and interesting way to spend 40 minutes. The guides don't try to go for the camp/mysterious way, they explain clearly and neutrally how alchemy eventually became chemistry, when it was clear you couldn't transmute lead into gold, and paint an interesting picture of the XVI-XVII Century Prague and its culture.

You can even buy some souvenir at the attached shop, of course!