Epilogue
1419
Land of Fire - Azerbaijan
Enhance your read by playing this song by Eyyub Yaqubov. Words by famous poet Mikayil Mushfig...if I remember correctly...
"Azerbaijan, land of Fire,
Azerbaijan, land of Light,
I long for your oily sands, your warm winds, and your all-inclusive Hamam deals.", reads the poem I began to write on my flight back to London.
Azerbaijan is a great new holiday destination once you get bored of the the UK's rocky beaches and "sunny" summers.
It's not really "tourist friendly" so you'll need to befriend an autochton to show you round.
Indeed, once you get friendly with the locals, it's very easy to integrate azeri society...
One of the first things I visited were the 40,000 year old cave drawings in Qobustan. They insisted that Azerbaijan was the cradle of humanity, and with such evidence, I was easily convinced.
The view from Qobustan. As you can see Azerbaijan is very much a big desert.
As well as being a great desert, my host told me that Azerbaijan was a great industrial country. One can guess from the Baku's (the capital) tasteful and not so artificial architecture that it's centred around oil.
It was a bit foggy...but my host assured me that it was because of a sandstorm carrying sand and bad smell from Turkmenistan.
Actually Baku is beautiful...
By virtue of its colourful history it has very interesting architecture. From modern Zaha Hadid...(this is a museum)
To ancient castles, namely the Palace of Shirvansha in the old city, as well as USSR administrative building architecture.
Azerbaijan is great when you have money. You can go to lovely restaurants like the one with the extremely tasteful and europeanesque decoration below:
You can also do silly things like this and enjoy moderate amounts of booze. I do enjoy a good night out
Azerbaijan has delicious food! The grilled meat (kebab) is AMAZING and I can safely say that I had the best BBQ experience of my life in Azerbaijan. My host's mother was also extremely generous in her servings and a master in cuisine. As a frenchman I genetically know everything about cooking, tastes, and aromas, so believe me when I tell you that it was excellent!
Otherwise, people live here...
or, here....
or, here....
Here we have sour milk with herbs, extremely (and genuinely) refreshing. Some other dishes with peas and milk (if i remember correclty) were Turshu Govurma and dovga but I have no pictures of these.
An equally delicious appetiser: smocked cheese.
And all kinds of meat as a main dish. Godly.
The famous flame towers that cost 10,000 euros per tower, per night to run...(apparently). By day...
And by night...
Being by the Caspian see, "Azerbaijan has the most beautiful beaches in the world" assured my host. Humm.
An interesting fact. Azerbaijan has the second biggest flag and flag pole in the world after Tajikistan (the bastards!). My host assured me that the flag was as big as a football field and cost 200,000 euros to manufacture.
Two pictures that inspired my poem....Land of light...
Land of fire...(a burning rock)
Highly recommended provided you have a guide
An equally delicious appetiser: smocked cheese.
And all kinds of meat as a main dish. Godly.
The famous flame towers that cost 10,000 euros per tower, per night to run...(apparently). By day...
And by night...
Being by the Caspian see, "Azerbaijan has the most beautiful beaches in the world" assured my host. Humm.
An interesting fact. Azerbaijan has the second biggest flag and flag pole in the world after Tajikistan (the bastards!). My host assured me that the flag was as big as a football field and cost 200,000 euros to manufacture.
Two pictures that inspired my poem....Land of light...
Land of fire...(a burning rock)
Highly recommended provided you have a guide
