Salam Azerbaijan!

Questionable border procedures, three days of rain, muddy showers from passing trucks and the clouds hanging so low that we could only see a few mountain peaks - our start into a new country could have been better.

However, people immediately took much care of us when we arrived totally soaked through and dirty in a motel or hotel. Maybe because we're looking so pitiful?

Apropos pity, 'Piti' would not become our favorite Azerbaijan dish. Fatty lamb meat cooked with chick peas in a soup stock in a large mug simply wasn't ours. At least we learned how to eat it in two courses. And the dining room had a cosy fireplace where we could heat up.

It can hardly be overseen that national pride and Heydar Aliev are omnipresent in Azerbaijan: Giant flagpoles, all sizes of flags, houses in national colors, oversized placards of and streets, parks, buildings and companies named after 'him'.

Although the border control felt a bit like chicanery (from one gate to another, paperwork here and there, panniers off and on and a 'Good Luck' in the end), we still feel welcome in this country. We earn "Salam, salam!" from all sides, children with their mothers are waving, smiling and practicing their English with us or following us on their mountain bikes. Some people stop by and give us fruits, nuts and sweets and are curious. And others rip us off when we're buying pomegranates. Which was actually the first time on our trip, we believe :)Read more