...Azerbaijan...

..A Busman's Holiday & a mini School Reunion in Baku..

Baku was for some time one of the cities I was looking forward to visiting.

Azerbaijan would mark my entrance to drier areas of this world and only the Caspian sea would separate me now from cycling through longer stretches of dry land and desert. Something I am not familiar with as yet.

But as we know; leaving our comfort zone will take us to the next adventure…

..Having a jolly good time..

Baku was going to be a bit of a ‘jolly’ on my trip. Firstly, as the land borders are all closed to tourists and one can only fly to Azerbaijan I was not really planning to do a lot of cycling here and secondly, Baku was going to be the place of a mini school reunion too!

It’s over 40 years since I’ve left school and due to spending most of those years living and working away from Switzerland I was never able to attend any school reunions.

Heinz, a former classmate of mine, is in a very similar situation. He also has chosen a career abroad and very recently, has been posted in Baku as the Head of Chancery at the Swiss Embassy. Therefore, it was the perfect time to have our own, little school reunion now!

Time to relive some moments from the past and refresh our memories about the mischief we were up to!

As one would expect, to work at the Swiss embassy, Heinz would have to be efficient, precise and working like a Swiss clock!

And he did!

I was still battling with my tattered bike box in ‘Arrivals’ at the airport in Baku, when the driver, organized by Heinz, was already calling me over the tannoy to come to the information desk.

Once we arrived at Heinz’s address, a middle-aged man was sitting outside the building with a couple of bottles of cold water in his hands waiting for somebody. At first, neither the man nor I realized we were looking for each other (not that we had visibly changed or even aged in those 40 years…)!

The introduction to his flat was quick, precise and efficient and therefore, 30 minutes later we were ready for our first session of ‘painting the town'!

There was never a dull moment with Heinz and the long forgotten from over 40 years ago resurfaced again, like Heinz still fondly remembering kissing the home economics teacher…at her farewell get-together before retirement.

..And there was the Busman’s Holiday…

The original idea started by being asked to be part of a small event at the Ambassador’s Residence which could be linked to the COP29 Conference which will be held later this year in Baku. Nice idea, but by the time I knew my arrival date in Baku, it was too late to organize such event and therefore it was decided to have a small dinner for some of the Embassy staff at the Ambassador’s Residence instead.

Who would be cooking? Yep, you are guessing right!

The shopping was done in a lovely car with diplomatic number plates, driven by nobody less than the Swiss Ambassador to Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan Thomas Staehli himself.

For me it was certainly a first to be chauffeured around by an Ambassador to pick up fruit and vegetables for dinner! I’m not sure is this on his job description either..

Thanks to the well equipped kitchen and the help of Fira, housekeeper of the Ambassador and my ‘Sous Chef’ on the day, the dinner went well, was light hearted and we all had a good time!

Furthermore, it was very interesting to get to know how an Embassy works, what roles people are having there and what challenges they face in their day to day jobs. A fascinating work environment to be in and no one seemed to be short of a story to tell.

Baku appears to be modern, very clean and safe. Who would dare do get up to mischief when there’s always a police car somewhere in sight?

It’s one of the cheaper cities I’ve been to since leaving the UK.

Whilst expensive places are not hard to find, one can still eat a 2-course business lunch including a soft drink in a nice restaurant in the business district for less than GBP 10!

Getting around town by metro, bus or BOLT drivers were all good options at a cheap to very reasonable price. The metro has some of the nicest stations I’ve seen. Very ornamental, big decorative pillars, mosaic pictures on the walls and they are all very clean.

Taking a few pictures after most other travelers and commuters have left the station was obviously ‘suspicious’ behavior and I got asked some questions by the female security guard which I didn’t understand.

She didn’t sound like she was explaining the significance of the artwork at the metro station to me, though... However, my  foreign looks and ‘sorry I don’t understand you’ face‘ must have convinced her that I am only an innocent tourist and she ended up pointing me in the direction of the exit.

The look of some of the more modern buildings in town were fascinating; the flame towers in the shape of flames reaching high up into the sky, the area around Port Baku with the modern blue glass buildings look all very appealing.

Even the Crescent Hotel, which was meant to open in 2015(!) but never did, still looks spectacular and is one of the landmarks or Baku!

Baku didn’t feel overcrowded (maybe because of school holidays?) and there are lots of green spaces dotted around the town too.

Unfortunately, due to the oil drilling close to the shores, the seawater is polluted and batches of oil floating on the surface of the water are clearly visible.

Due to the COP29 Conference in September, façade cleaning around town is in full swing. I hope they will do the same with the sea…

Another interesting place was the Martyrs’ Lane. It’s in memory of the fallen soldiers from the events during the Black January of 1990 when Soviet forces invaded Baku and also in memory for the fallen soldiers who died in the first Nagorno-Karabakh War which lasted from 1988 to 1994. And as we know, only just recently more history has been created around the Nagorno-Karabakh region.  

And in between cooking, sightseeing, bike assembling, shopping and doing some research for the next leg of my journey, the mini class reunions continued…

My thanks go to you Heinz for your hospitality and great time we had together and also, to Ambassador Thomas Staehli and the rest of the people at the Swiss Embassy for taking the time to meet and to have some good times!

And the steak at Paul's Steakhouse was fantastic too. Thanks Andreas! 

As I left Baku behind me and cycled out of town towards the Port of Alat, my thoughts switched between the new memories I was able to make in Baku to the next stage of my journey across the Caspian Sea to Kazakhstan.

New adventures must be waiting for me...