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.