Day 18 10 May Flight from Dubai to Baku in Azerbaijan

Photo above - on the Caspian Sea coast at Baku.

Early start

Early start today to get to the airport for an 8am flight north to Baku in Azerbaija. The flight from Dubai takes 3hours to cover the 1100 miles over the Persian Gulf and Iran. Azerbaijan has a population of about 10.5 million, and covers an area about one third the size of the UK.

Azerbaijan

The Republic of Azerbaijan, an Islamic country which until 1991 was a part of the Soviet Union, has borders with Russia and Georgia to the north, Armenia and Turkey to the west, Iran to the south, and sits on the shores of the Caspian sea to the east. It is considered to be part of both Asia and Europe.

Baku the capital and largest city, is situated on the Caspian Sea coast, in the far east of the country. It is 92ft/28m below sea Level, making it the lowest lying capital in the world. It has a population of about 2.5 million.

Flight over Iran

Passage through Dubai airport was very straightforward and the flight left on time. It was a bit hazy as we took off do could not get any decent shots out of the window before we were over the Persian Gulf. Shortly after we were over the coast of Iiran. We spent a lot of the flight over Iran’s brown dusty landscape. Flat desert, barren mountains, a few roads, some pieces of land that were clearly divided up for agriculture, but all looked different shades of brown, and tiny towns a villages dotted throughout this vast landscape. At one point passed over Lake Satak, a very large dry salt lake, then a little way on Tehran was off to our right. The final stretch of Iran contained some snow capped mountains, which surprised me.

First taste of Baku

After this, we were over the Caspian Sea. We landed on time at 11am in Baku. Once through the formalities of customs including a visa check, and baggage collection, I exited the airport, and located my pre arranged transfer to the hotel in the city which is about 30 minutes drive away. Yesterday I had Boris Karloff and today the driver was the spitting image of the actor Homolka, who with his big eyebrows, was the baddie in several 60s films, but probably most famously in the Michael Caine/Len Leighton films Funeral in Berlin and Billion Dollar brain. But I digress, although a Saturday, traffic was not too bad, and flowed well on the 4 and 5 lane highways coming into the city. As we came into land over the outer suburbs, it surprised me how green it seemed. As we approached the city centre the tall skyscrapers started to crowd round, but also there were plenty of interesting looking older buildings from the Russian period. We passed the local football stadium, which looks a lot like the birds nest in Beijing used at the Olympics.

A walk around the city

My hotel turns out to be very nicely situated near the main shopping areas and parks. As my room was not ready, I took a stroll. It feels like a very friendly place with lots of different nationalities wandering around,but definitely a lot of locals. This is where Asia, meets Europe, meets the middle east, meets Russia. The territory used to belong to Russia, and the language is very Russian or eastern European sounding. However, this is an Islamic country and there are a lot of people with a middle eastern background, it is very cosmopolitan, and right on the border of Europe, a very interesting mash up.

The streets here are very clean, and along with the many styles of architecture on show, there is a lot of quirky art in the streets. I walked down one street, and found myself on the coast of the Caspian Sea. This sea front is a great place to walk and people watch. They even have an old UK telephone box there. I was trying to take a selfie on my mobile in the bright sun, not easy, and I saw a woman trying to do the same. We agreed to swap phones to take a proper photo. Turns out she was from Russia and did not speak any English, but a few hand signals and body language got the job done.

Just the beginning

Found a nice quiet cafe where I had a vegan salad, and my first taste of the local beer. All good. Went back to the hotel to chill.out. Later in the evening, I met up with my fellow travellers for this trek around Azerbaijan, Georgia and Armenia. Tomorrow we explore some of the old city.Early start today to get to the airport for an 8am flight north to Baku in Azerbaijan