Baku

The turbulent weather of Caspian sea marked my approach to the city of Baku where my plane was shortly landed.

The immigration was quick and efficient and I spent a bit of time chitchatting with the sim card staff at the airport looking for the best prices. But nothing seems like a good deal to me. So I left without any internet connection on my phone.

After figuring out how to use the bus card dispenser machine I finally saw my bus which turned out to be on the other side of the terminal. The bus driver was kind enough to let me in although the next departure is still 30 minutes away due to the freezing cold weather of Baku while a pull over was the only thing I wore.

Started my first day walking around the bay of Baku only to realize that the COP29 is happening at that very city. United Nations annual conference addressing the climate change where more than 50,000 climate activist gather, in the upcoming days for two weeks. Meaning the accommodation prices is gonna rise, and boy I could not be more right. They did rise the prices, by a whooping 1000%, yes 10 times. I could not leave the city fast enough.

But I was quite grateful to be able to see Azerbaijan’s Flag Day and the fireworks after attending the Republic Day in Antalya, Turkiye. Seeing two countries national day in the same week, sure is quite a good luck for me.

I had to do a series of hostel hopping due to different places rise their price at different time. Although my stay turned out to be shorter that I wanted but I managed to made a few friends, an I was so thrilled of meeting Timor, a guy who fled Turkmenistan to marry an Indonesian girl he met in Turkiye. I would love to hear more from him, but we didn’t manage to spend enough time to know each other enough.

It was a lovely short stay and I couldn’t wait to take my night ride to the border of Azerbaijan and Georgia.Les mer