Digenis.org

It’s that time of the year again. The time when I have to venture out of Russia to fill out of a bunch of paperwork to live in Russia. As the options of where to go scrolled through my head, it’s no surprise that Helsinki, Finland didn’t top the list; no offense to the Finns, but I’ve been to that expensive city 7 times and last August’s trip didn’t go as smoothly as it could have gone. The Russian Consulates in the Baltic countries have done away with their express visa processing in the last year, so that also narrowed down the list. I wanted something new and exotic.

A friend advised me to go to Baku, Azerbaijan. Of course, Baku is only new in the sense that I’ve never been there before; the city itself is quite ancient. Plus, I’d read an article called 48 hours on the run in Baku in Passport magazine a while back, so I knew that it was possible to see a lot of what the city has to offer on a budget and in a short amount of time.

So I flew into Baku on Sunday afternoon. Roma, a friend of Maria’s, met me at the airport and helped me get situated where I’m staying. It’s a nice, central part of the downtown called Besh Mertebe because the first 5-storey building in Baku was built here (besh means five in Azeri and mertebe means floor). I’d be staying there with an Azeri guy named Azer.

Having gotten rid of my bag, I decided to explore the city. I didn’t have a map, but that rarely bothers me; I’ve stumbled into some of my greatest adventures by sheer luck when forging my own path. As I walked down the streets in the general direction of the Caspian seashore, I was struck by the omnipresence of Heydar Aliyev, the deceased former-president of Azerbaijan, whose face graces practically every third billboard in this city, and in whose honor many streets, buildings, and even the airport are named. His son is president these days, but he’s not nearly as popular as his father was.

On the way to the seaside I found Nizami Street, a pedestrian street complete with Benneton, McDonald’s, fountains, a few restaurants and clubs, and a slew of mobilephone shops. In other words, it was not all that different from the pedestrian streets I’d seen in Copenhagen, Stockholm, Helsinki, Moscow, or any of the European capitals. I suppose the only real difference, and a quite pleasant one at that, was that it was not teeming with tourists.

I joined the general flow of people on Nizami Street and ended up at the seaside boardwalk area. The sidewalks were full of families on afternoon walks, and in the grassy areas some men were taking naps under the shade of the trees. Not a bad idea as it was about 35 degrees (95 F) on the streets. It seemed that this was the place where all the kids wanted to be; there were quite a few ghetto carnival rides and you could even rent Big Wheel type three-wheelers (some were even motorized).

I peeked over the side of the railing and quickly came to the conclusion that taking a dip in the Caspian Sea would not be on the agenda. The water was pretty nasty and had a layer of trash floating for a foot or two closest to the shore. Not to mention all the oil rigs drilling not to far down the shore.

I could see the high walls of the Old Town and the Maiden Tower from the boardwalk, but I decided to save that for the next day. The heat really takes a lot out of you.