Baku

Felt better this morning but we slept in a loooot.
No regrets cause we have had a great day. Lol
Firstly messaged tour man with my overnight decision. I said we want a one day tour, not two and i cut some POI’s off the list to make it plausible. I cut off their main mosque and yet somehow now it has made its way back on the list.
He will now magically make it work 😆
So we are going tomorrow.
Went walking and Will decided he would wear shorts.
Didn’t take long to notice the stares so we went home and he changed hahaha.
At first we just walked around. We went through the gates of old town. Pests everywhere annoying us because we stand out as obviously not Azerbaijani but not as bad as many other places AND it was better because they couldn’t switch to English when they needed to make their sale so they then left us alone yewwww.
One dude told us about his Resturant and we eventually went back to him because he could speak English. He took us down to the Resturant which was actually really lovely. Trees and benches covered in rugs/carpets and pillows and it was all just very bright.
English menu so that’s a win.
When I say English it’s like 3 words but I’ll take it.
The Azerbijan menu is like a paragraph explaining the food and underneath is “lamb with onion”
Either way very helpful and we ended up getting lamb and some bread things like naan and I got a salad. Not meant to drink the tap water and they would have washed the salad but I took the gamble. Pomegranate is big here so that was the dressings and it was great.
I fed some lamb to a cat. He was happy.
They treat the cats very much like the Turkish. 💕
Dogs not so much. They aren’t considered clean but we only saw 2 of them and about 1000 cats.
We then walked to the carpet museum 😆😆😆
The building is even in the shape of a rolled up carpet. Love their commitment to the museum and carpet.
English signs so yay.
Had to put my bag in a locker which has our passports in it because it’s law here they be on our person at all times. Did not like putting them in a local swimming pool quality locker but they survived.
It had some visual which I enjoyed because it helps my little brain see how it all works.
Some lovely carpets.

Copied and pasted this from a picture of sign i took. (new iPhone feature - when you read this back in years to come please note this is currently exciting and new for you. You will have forgotten this feature didn’t once exist on your iPhone 7 haha)
“In 2010 the traditional art of Azerbaijani carpet weaving entered on the UNESCO's Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity”

Some lovely carpets.
What else can I say about carpets? 😆

We then got some pics with the flame towers cause I need to do a Facebook 50 countries post, obvs 💁🏼‍♀️💅🏼
(Got better ones later but good to have options haha)
Walked along the boulevard on the way back towards fountain square. Some awesome buildings across the water. One like a donut.

Went to Starbucks for a drink and to steal Wi-Fi but Wi-Fi needed a code so just a drink..

Met our guide.
His name was Ziya. He was fabulous.
We were the only 2 for a while which I was nervous about because that means we alone are responsible for his tip 😬😬
But then another couple came so that helped. I would prefer many more to share the love because sharing is caring but we will take it.
Lucky he was such a good guide I’m not angry we have to give more money than usual.
We started outside the old town entrance at the 2 gates.
Baku wasn’t the original capital. Baku use to just be an old fortified little area - he showed us a picture of what it use to look like - an earthquake destroyed the old place so they had to move and I think they moved back then back again.
The gates use to be one in front of each other but one got moved so they are side by side.
He showed us some Arabic script which is very detailed and helpful to historians. Literally says when it was build, who by and who ordered it ro be built. Gosh why doesn’t everything old have such helpful details haha.

Talked about oil briefly here. They use to be right on the water and they would fill the moats if being attacked - they have reports where they would put oil in the water and burn everyone alive so they have to at least known about the oil since 12th century. Obviously didn’t boom right then.

F1 drives past here. Apparently locals don’t like the F1 coming, they think it costs too much money to have here.
It’s the only reason ANYONE has known where Azerbijan is so can’t be bad for tourism 🤷🏼‍♀️
Went in and he showed us an old bath house/ Hamam. We couldn’t go in but you could see the outline and the “chimney” I suppose you would call it.
Walked through what I think was the old royals gardens then we ended up at the Maidans tower which is the cities famous landmark.
We sat here so he could tell us a legend.

Basically king is a dick. Princess (other kingdom) goes and tells him to stop being a dick. He agrees. Princess and King marry (to make bond). They are in love. Princess now Queen dies birthing their baby. King blames baby and orders it to be killed. It is not killed but hidden. When baby is adult she handles a wild bird which happens to be kings who is in the area and she is invited to meet him. King thinks it’s his wife and falls in love. Realized its his daughter but doesn’t care and still wants to marry.
Daughter has secret boyfriend btw.
Stalls the marriage with king by asking for a tower.
Years pass with out the tower then suddenly there is a tower. She hides in it. Boyfriend and King go to find her in the tower. One is killed fighting the other in the tower. She cant see who - she thinks king/dad has killed boyfriend and is now going to make her marry him. She jumps of the tower and kills herself.

The end.

“There are many more romantic versions of this story like she jumps and was saved by the mermaids. You can’t tell a 5 year old about a Princess with Incestuous relations with her dad who then suicides.”
I laughed.

It was probably a watch tower but they don’t know.
Which is why so many stories.

There was a house for stray cats near by ❤️❤️😭😭

We then walked through the labyrinth suburban streets which I really enjoyed.
Only about 2000 people now. People have moved out. If you live with grandma and she needs an ambulance you are up the creek. Will have to carry her out yourself. No cars.
We saw Muhammad Mosque. It has the first minaret of Azerbijan. Not an operational mosque. Then walked up some stairs and could see the water and the oil boats out in the sea. 98% of oil comes from the sea not land.
Then arrived at the royals old residence which we plan to visit another day.
Got some hectic photos of the city. It has old school vibes in the foreground and then oil money in the background with the flame towers. 3 different animations on the towers at night - flames, the flag and then a person waving the flag.


Tour could have ended here but the next 2 stops were a happy hall or something. Which is a wedding venue which is a replica of another building in (I want to say Germany or Italy) and wife liked when traveling so husband built her her own one.
He was then killed invaders in his home and didn’t want to get in trouble so killed himself so “there was no happy ever after”….
Okkkk. Onto the next stop 😅

Another building (charity building) where some greedy dude paid for it it just to show everyone he wasn’t greedy for not paying his sons medical bills and letting him die. Son had TB and was $50,000 to fix but he has tens of millions cause he was an oil dude so no reason other than bad guy.

Tour ended at literacy museum with statues of influential Azerbaijani writers.
Tipped him 30 which is just under $30 AUD. Don’t know if that is good or bad so did a runner.
He deserved good money. I gave him a review so at least his employees know he did great and he gets more time slots.

Went to hard rock where I had planned to buy a jumper but they were sold out 😭😭😭😭
PLANS RUINED
and then they got my order wrong.

So sad.

Did washing at the hotel and skipped the queue and don’t even feel and about it. Whole foyer is taken up by a group of 20 Indian/Pakistani men who make me soooooo uncomfortable.
Went to ask for a bottle of water and they just stared at me so obviously even Will noticed.
Go away.
Our clothes still smell though so that’s a bummer.
Don’t even want to know the quality of water our clothes were washed with.

Haven’t had a hot show. Would like to ask reception but too uncomfortable to go because they are all watching me 👀😩

Bed time. Have to go to an ATM in the morning before we get picked up at 9.Read more