Frogger

Well, it looks like my schedule is going to be even busier in Baku than it was in Moscow, but I will do my best to keep up with the blogging.  The heat has slowly receded, and as hat has happened, we've been getting out more and more to see the city.

One weekend, we went to see the old city, which dates back to the 12th century, although parts of it are built on foundations that appear to go back several thousand years.

We climbed the Maiden tower, which turned out to have a very nice museum inside that covers different topics  - history, construction, uses, etc... - on each level, and great views from the top! A bored looking security guard  offered to take our pictures.  I was a little worried he would try to extort money from us, but he only asked if we had a cigarette, and didn't seem upset when we didn't. 

After the Maiden tower we explored the old town and tried, unsuccessfully, to avoid the lure of souvenir shopping. The salesmen are quite persistent, and there is a lot of neat stuff to look at! One guy was very annoying and when I asked for prices he told me that if I bought right away, he would give a lower price, and then said I had waited too long when I tried to ask Stephanie what she thought and raised the price.  He didn't have anything I wanted that badly, so we left.  We did end up buying a little soviet-era serving dish that had Azerbaijani style.  It was a little worn, so we went to the bazaar to get it fixed up.  One guy replaced a bolt that was holding it together with a nicer model and didn't even charge us for the work.  Then Stephanie took us to a guy she bought a broom from to ask where we could find bronze polish.  He offered to have someone clean it for roughly twice the price we bought it for, but we just got the polish instead.  Then we asked where we could buy honey, because it's so expensive in the store.  He offered a jar (not large) for about $40 and insisted it was very fresh.  We decided he isn't someone we want to do business with either.

We had our lunch in an archaeological site, which used to be a home.

I enjoyed a fresh tarkhun (an herb with a sort of licorice flavor), while discovered four turtles in one of the little ditches.  The chef showed us his samovar and told us about the different parts of the house, like wells and water holes for cold storage.

One of the other nice things about Baku is that pomegranates and olives are native to the area, so they grow everywhere.  I haven't figured out yet if it's ok to pick them.  I haven't seen anyone else do it.  Not that I'd know what to do with a raw olive anyway.  Some of the olive trees are reportedly several hundred years old.

Bread here is delicious, and as with many places in the region, bread is culturally revered.  Here, we are warned that we shouldn't through bread away because it will cause you to be cursed.  If bread goes bad or you can't eat it, you're supposed to hang it out rather than throw it away so that it can be disposed of properly.  No one has told me what happens to the old bread, but occasionally we see little bags of bread hanging from doors or trees. 

In addition to the charms of the old city, we have been finding more nice things in our neighborhood.  There is a kids amusement park about a 10 minute walk from our apartment.  Aiden seems to be happy just wandering around, but he was also very excited about a little caterpillar rollercoaster and rode it three times in a row - once with me, once with Stephanie, and once by himself!

This doesn't really have anything to do with my story, but the third supermoon of the year was incredible over the city...

The time came for us to get haircuts.  I found a guy in a little hole in the wall (almost literally), who gives a good haircut for about $8.  He was very thorough and didn't stick his fingers in my ear or blow on my neck like my barber in Tajikistan.

Stephanie went to a place near our building and was thrilled to discover that they blow your hair out as part of the cut, so she came home with straight hair for the cost of a regular haircut in the U.S.  It took some getting used to, and I still like her curls, but it was fun to see her so excited.

We decided to take Stephanie's new do out for a spin, so we went down to the funicular that goes up to the valley of martyrs. Aiden was excited because it was like riding a vertical choo choo train.

I was excited because of the views and because I got to see the flame towers close up.

The valley of martyrs is a memorial to the people who were killed by soviet troops during a bid for independence just prior to the fall of the Soviet Union and is a very beautiful place.

In addition to the cooler weather, the days are getting shorter, which means my morning runs are getting darker.  It takes a little care not to break an ankle, but so far I'm keeping up with it.  One interesting thing is that now when I run past the bazaar on the way home, I usually see cars pulled over with people hauling animal carcasses out of their trunks and onto little carts for the butchers.  It's a little weird smelling fresh meat during a run, but not entirely unpleasant.  Speaking of meat, we found a guy who sells fresh pork and another who sells bacon, so we're basically set for the next two years. 

The other thing that happens as the weather cools off is that school starts, which apparently causes the volume of traffic to double because everyone drives their kids into the city for school.  This increase in traffic causes an inverse squared drop in the quality of driving, with people going the wrong way, flooring their gas on the way to a red light, or just generally not paying any attention at all.  Crossing the street feels like you've entered a game of Frogger. 

The occasional traffic cop doesn't help much.  On the way home, I have to cross a busy street and usually count on the traffic light to give me a chance to cross.  But in the afternoons, there is a traffic cop who likes to encourage the cars waiting at the red light to just go and merge into the general traffic, without any regard for the fact that this makes it effectively impossible for pedestrians to get over.   The first time this happened, I finally got fed up and crossed when the traffic jammed briefly.  He started shouting unintelligible things at me, but I just shouted that I had a green light and he looked at it and said "ok". 

For being so close to the water, it's relatively difficult to find fresh fish, but the other day I went to the store and there was a big tank of live trout. So I bought a couple and had them cleaned.  We cooked it up in an iron skillet and it was amazingly good!  So while, not from the Caspian, they are local and it doesn't get much fresher than flopping. 

That pretty much covers it for now.  Work has been interesting lately, so I'll try to talk about that a little more next time...