South Caucasus – Baku Old Town

I got up early today, well, earlier than the last days at least. My body get used to the time difference. I wanted to use the cooler hours of the morning to walk through the Old Town. At 9a.m. I left the hotel and walked towards the Fountains Square. Today is a windy day and the breeze is very welcome. It was cooler than the last days, but the humidity makes any physical activity more difficult.

I entered the Old Town theough the old gates and noticed that indeed it was very early, the shops were still closed and no tourists around. Excellent. Even better to explore the little streets and discover new sights. Only a huge film crew was very active, seizing the moment of empty streets. Judging the tawdrily dresses actress, my bets are on some soap opera.

I was taking many pictures and was using the shadowy side of the street as it was getting hot already. Next to the Maiden Tower, I sat down for a little rest. A seller of fresh figs and cherries offred me some products, I should see him several times today, wishout having sold anything. I remembered the words of Gani the guide; tourism is not what it used to be.

I arrived at the Shirvanshah Palace and obtained a ticket for the complex. As the name suggests, it was the palace of the Shah of Shirvan over centuries until the dynasty was driven out by the Safavids in the 16th century. The building is rather bare. as the splendor of the palace had been lost. A thorough restauration regained at least the initial stone structure.

Compared to the Shah of Persia, this was surely a very modest home, but it had all what a Shah of some standing needed. A board with some reference to the ‚genocide committed by the Armenians‘ made me frown so I sat down and checked the facts. Yes, in the turbulent year 1918 a massacre of Azerbaijanis by an Armenian militia resulted in the loss of 12.000 lives. What is not mentioned is that half a year later, the Ottoman army with allied Auerbaijani fighters retaliated by butchering more than double Armenians. This shows the tit-for-tat thinking in the region to this day. It will still take time until historic objectivity will clear the view what happened precisely.

I continued my walk, now through the street of tourist kitsch. Slowly the tourists flooded in and I needed a break from the heat. I entered a restaurant next to the wall where the breeze blew across the terrace and ordered a delicious Baku salad (sweet, ripe tomatoes tossed with red onions, mint, sour cherries, dressed simply with pomegranate juice) and some dolma (filled vine leaves). The waiter introduced me to Azerbaijani tea: chewing some walnuts in syrup, then sip some black tea with lemon. Very nice.

I walked back to the hotel to cool down and to plan for the next days. It means that the only rain in the wider region will be in the Caucasus mountains in the next days, that’s a bummer. Let’s see. I’ll plan from day to day. Tomorrow I’ll head to the west along the lower Caucasus mountains. This should be the nicest part of Azerbaijan. I received my cleaned clothes – one of the nicer amenities of a large hotel (laundry service).

In the evening I had selected a restaurant at the seashore and took the motorbike to get there (five hours walking were enough!) just to find out that it was closed this week. I improvised and went to the Maiden Tower where I parked the bike and had a Shah Plov (pilav) on a windy terrace overlooking the city.

Tomorrow morning I will leave Baku and start the actual motorbiking trip.