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Azerbaijan certainly wasn't on my life list for travel destinations ... that is, not until Alison was awarded a teaching Fulbright and made her plans to go there for a year with Marlys. Alison is teaching American and English literature at two places, the state university of Language Arts and a private college set up by Turkish businesses. Marlys, a high school freshman, is attending the International School.
Doug took a leave from his job and I accompanied him to Baku in mid-November. British Air Seattle to London, a race between terminals, and a British Midlands flight Heathrow to Baku's Heydar Aliyev Airport, named for venerated leader Heydar Aliyev. He rose through the ranks of the KGB to lead Soviet Azerbaijan from '69-'82 and was then president '93 - 2003 after Azerbaijan's independence. His son has succeeded him, but allegiance to the father of past remains greater than to the son of present (some say the son is tolerated only out of respect for his father). Their pictures are in tandem everywhere around the country on huge billboards outside and on large posters inside.
For the insights and adventures specifically of Alison and Marlys, do visit their blog .
There wasn't time to see a lot of the country ... wanderings were primarily in the city (on my own or with Doug or working around work/school schedules of Alison and Marlys) with a couple day trips short distances out of town.
Some overall observations--in no particular order--include:
Huge high-sided castiron bathtubs on raised platforms are bloody difficult to get in and out of.
Baku is a bustling, cosmopolitan city, obviously centered on oil and natural gas production with all the foreign companies and workers that brings in, and with a tremendous amount happening to pull it along from its independent country status of only 15 years. It's mind-boggling just thinking of the work it has taken to get most of Cyrillic lettering off the buildings, streets, and signs and replaced with Azeri and English in Latin alphabets.
Drivers stop conscientiously at red lights, but that seems to be the only traffic law followed ... the lane markings seem meaningless, parking areas evolve willy-nilly at intersections, reversing at full speed for blocks is fairly common, pedestrians do not have any rights-of-way except at the relatively few intersections with lights ... some of busiest intersections have underground pedestrian passages. Some one-way streets really ARE but others become 2-way at will of driver. Horn honks are constant and deafening. Traffic patrol police cars are quite common, blasting out verbal instructions over bull horns to add to the cacophony.
Cell phone shops are rampant, 2 or 3 or 4 to every block in retail areas. Everyone's purses and pockets ring plentifully ... or people simply walk about fondling their cell phones.
Construction is everywhere with staging areas for materials cluttering the sidewalks, seemingly without a theft problem. Buildings-in-progress often sport gerry-rigged wooden scaffolding an agile monkey would avoid as treacherous and with workers often in sandals and slippers and no hard hats! Architecture ranges from concrete block buildings with that utilitarian Soviet look to modernistic skyscrapers of gold-tinted glass. In first week or so after Alison arrived, a nearby building under construction simply collapsed. Major arterial roads are being expanded, overpasses and cloverleafs are in place or under construction, paving projects are plentiful. Eventually, perhaps the upgrades will extend to sidewalks ... which at present (if they exist at all) are a treacherous maze of holes, varying levels with steps, broken tiles, oddly placed water run-off grooves, manholes with broken covers, conduit/water piping directly across surfaces, etc.
Apart from the construction messes, the city is clean, clean, clean ... there are folks out sweeping in most areas a good deal of the day and urns that look a bit like cemetery planters are plentiful for litter, as are dumpsters in residential areas.
Fruits and vegetables are varied, plentiful, and quite cheap. Alison buys a kilo (2+ pounds) of delicious pomegranates for about $1; cleanly shelled unbroken halves of absolutely delicious walnuts run $8-10/kilo. Butchers sell lamb, beef, fish, etc. ... a camel head or other appealing carcass parts are on display. In the bazaars scattered about the city, bargaining is a definite 'yes' even for foodstuffs.
Petrol costs ... diesel, which is only one I tracked, is 45 kopek a liter, or about 55 cents ... that brings it into the $2/gallon range. Seems to me regular petrol was a bit higher.
Pteradactyl-like derricks are pumping everywhere ... even in some graveyards ... although the majority of oil production is in the Caspian Sea on offshore platform rigs.
The retail operations are a mixed bag ... side-by-side with rather pricey MacDonald's and upmarket pizza places are street vendors and kiosks selling fabulous donar kebab sandwiches for 1 manat ... just over a dollar. Street vendors also hawk clothes alongside high-end retail shops with window displays that range from slightly bizarre to ones that wouldn't be out of place in Portland. The younger women dress in fashions that -- to my eye -- are way over the top ... very common are the tightest of tight pants (often lavishly embroidered and sequined in bright metallics) or shorts over leggings or short swirly skirts over tights. These are accessorized with high-heeled knee-length boots, enormous glittering purses, layers of shirts and belts and furry or leather jackets. Younger women and even teenage girls go in heavily for make-up. Nearly everyone seems to add or change the color of their hair. Scarves are few, except among older women. Men sport pin-striped slacks in shiny, satiny materials and yes, some wear the furry Cossack hats. There are also lots of jeans, varsity-style jackets, Nikes, etc.
Although Azerbaijan is a predominantly Muslim country, I never heard a muezzin call to prayer in the 3 weeks I was there. The weekend is Sat-Sun ... nothing noticeably different about Fridays. Some older men use "worry beads" but seemingly very few. Inshallah does not sprinkle conversations as it does elsewhere in Islamic countries of the Middle East/Asia.
Taxis are everywhere, hundreds of them ... only the ones with dark blue plates are officially registered, the rest are (one supposes) paying baksheesh to operate. I think I saw just 4 taxis with the law-abiding blue plates! Mass transportation includes shared mini-buses/vans and larger buses that run local routes, routes to suburbs, and also internationally. Local vans and buses run 20 kopek a ride (about 25 cents). There's a clean, fast underground metro system, also quite cheap. Each of the metro stations has been updated and has its own themed decor. Surface trains also run regularly ... to outlying towns and regions and to international destinations.
Admission charges for museums, parks, and other attractions are two-tiered -- locals rate and foreigners' rate. Extra charges are made for the right to take photos ... on a per camera basis. Tourism, however, has yet to become a real industry ... there are very limited (and expensive) street, country, or topographical maps available; attractions have almost no explanatory brochures; postcards and souvenir level of items are relatively few; the metro and bus systems have no central information booths nor any route maps; signage to attractions is hit or miss.
Azeri (akin to Turkish which helped me out enormously) and Russian are the main spoken languages, but more and more people are learning and speaking English. Several of the young people I met are already pretty fluently tri-lingual.
For more of history, economics, current events, etc. on Azerbaijan, try a 'google' search ... online material is pretty plentiful, with pretty good overall coverage at Wikipedia site.