Day 9 October 24

Early this morning we woke up, we had some spare time after breakfast and relaxed. The weather was almost 70 degrees now, nice for being outside!

Natural Environment

Today we went to Yanar Dag. Yanar Dag is a big mountain that is ON FIRE!! We drove out about 45 min. from our hotel to see this mountain.   We could see giant pillars of fire that went about 9 feet (about 3 meters) into the air. The Absheron Peninsula is known as the land of fire because of Yanar Dag and the different fires on the hill sides. Yanar Dag even translates to "burning mountain", this mountain is a continuous natural gas fire! This fire has been burning steadily for many years! A local story says that the fire as accidental lit by a shepherd in the 1950's. Most of these fire mountains are in Azerbaijan, and even the streams around it can be lit on fire!

Before that we went shopping in the downtown area of Baku, inside of the Park Bulvar Mall.  There were a wide range of stores, from a Nike shop to a Debenhams, which was like a Sears.  It was nice to be able to gain small trinkets and postcards to send home for our families.  I sent a great little postcard home showing the flame towers, I will talk more on that later! The stores there are quite similar to some back at home, though they had plenty of local stores as well. 

 

Some science behind the burning mountain, it is hydrocarbon gasses are seeping through the ground and reaching the surface and then becoming lit, and burning for a long time.  This is possible because the mountain sits on a large deposit of hydrocarbon gasses. These natural gases are everywhere and can be dangerous sometimes if you are not careful. 

 We were up there for a little while before we began to feel light headed because of the gases that were coming from the mountain. These flames are almost impossible to extinguish, even when we poured cold water on it, but the water was evaporated almost instantly! We decided to light some more gas that was coming out of the ground with a match to see what would happen, and it stayed lit for a long time. The fire stayed alight because of a ton of natural gas constantly coming up from beneath the ground. We stuck together when it began to get dark, and were rewarded with an awesome sight! The fires lit up the mountain in an amazing spectacle that proved visiting Azerbaijan was a great choice!  

Day 8 October 23

After packing for the trip today we ate a quick breakfast, the weather had stayed around 60 degrees (fahrenheit) this week and was heating up to 66 degrees today.

CULTURE Today the group went to The Tiny Book Museum in the capital city of Baku, this museum is the only tiny book museum in the whole world! The museum was opened on April 2 2002 in Azerbaijan's capital. The books were collected in a span of 30 years by a woman called Zarifa Salahova, and the books have come from many 64 different countries! There are more than 6500 books that have been collected by Ms. Salahova. Don't get the wrong idea like I did, I thought the museum was tiny, but instead it is the books that are miniature! It is a huge collection of mini books!

The main idea for the museum was to promote child literacy. There are so many books for all around the world, though I could not read them because they aren't written in English. The majority of these tiny books, which is even considered an art, were made in Soviet Russia and many other countries.

Some of them are so small you can’t even read the text without using a magnifying glass to see! We really wanted to buy one of the small books as a souvenir, however we weren't allowed to. You could buy some books that were on key chains but that was about it. There were a ton of people there to see the books, and there were even other kids just to see were the books came from! The books were kept neatly and they seemed to be in good condition for how old some of them are.   The fact that some people spent their entire lives making these minute books, amazes me!

The collection itself was impressive and included the authors Chukovsky, Barto, Gogol, Dostoyevsky, and works of A.S.Pushkin. Each of those where well known Middle Eastern writers and each has their works in this museum. The library did not forget to include the classics of their country and some other famous writers have made their mark on the museum.

Day 7 October 22

We awoke, ate and packed for the beach this morning, the temperature did not agree with us, but we went anyway.
Today our party ventured to the beaches of Baku to test the waters.  We went to a free beach access point about 15 minutes from our hotel, it was a quick journey and was entirely worth it! When we finally arrived we were given a spectacular view and made use all stop for a moment and stare!  The water was rather cool (18° C, 68° F, 291° K) the group did not mind to much and went in anyway, but not for very long!  We watched the Russian navy practice ship handling just off shore and we were able to get a picture of two frigate coming directly at us! 

Two Russian Frigates

We had a very relaxing day, and a great way to rest up after the first part of our trip.  So we did not have to even leave the beach to get lunch, we bought the delicious chicken and steak, I think, kabobs. I have developed quite a taste for the middle eastern cuisine.  The waters were a shade of blue I have never seen back home in the states, it was a clear and tranquil blue, with soft, elegant sand. This was a true paradise and a once in a lifetime experience! Take a good look at some of the pictures we got from the beach.





The trip to the beach was nice and relaxing, it provided a day off to help with the jet lag, which I think I am finally over. because tomorrow will bring a trip to a special museum! The rest of the trip seems to be an interesting and immersive experience but until then i'm going to enjoy a day at the beach!

Day 6 October 21

Natural Environment
A quick breakfast was followed by us getting ready for the trip we were going on. the weather dropped a bit over night but is still around 60 degrees fahrenheit.

Today we ventured into the Gobustan National Park, unfortunately this means an hour long car ride to the southwest of Baku. Before that we got breakfast from the hotel. When we arrived we saw some amazing sights, that were well worth the drive! Among these sights were some carvings for ancient civilizations!

The carvings dated from 40,000 years ago until 5,000 years ago. There are nearly 6,000 of these carvings that depict flora and fauna and the life of the humans native to the region and ones that were not! The carvings that depict the life of the people show battles between tribes of these prehistoric humans, these battles were fought by armed roman, and warriors with lance-like objects. They also show a religious aspect, as they depict special dances done. These also show trade happening, which was achieved overland by caravans of camels. The flora and fauna are shown to be suited for a warm and wet climate not the harsh desert it is today.

This is a picture of a Latin inscription on a rock from the 80th year AD.  The stone is the farthest east any Roman artifacts have ever been found.



This is one of the most famous engravings from the park.  It is showing some of the people who inhabited the area in prehistoric times, carved by themselves.



This picture depicts a ritual from the prehistoric natives' lives.

We did get to see the mud volcanoes, they were not aggressively erupting but they were slowly oozing mud. This "mud" is not actually mud as we think of it, it was heated water mixing with some minerals and gas, mostly methane. There are nearly 400 mud volcanoes in Azerbaijan, the most in the world! The locals are very proud of their volcanoes.



This is a mud volcano from the park, they do not often erupt violently.  The volcanoes are normally just slowly releasing the methane from underneath them.

On the way back to the hotel we stopped at a German restaurant that had the best bratwursts ever! Were were particularly elated because we had not had lunch and were very hungry. I wish we had one of these back home in North Carolina.

Day 5 October 20

HISTORY 

We woke up late-ish and ate a small complimentary breakfast at our hotel and went on to the museum. The weather was similar to yesterday, can't complain. We where refreshed and ready for the day ahead.

It is the largest museum located in Azerbaijan and it is in the city of Baku which is the capital of Azerbaijan. The Museum used to be a mansion of Haji Zeynalabdin Taghiyev, an oil tycoon.  The mansion was built from 1893- 1902 and is is built in the style of the Italian renaissance, so it takes up and entire city block! The Russian Army captured the city of Baku in April of 1920, and seized the mansion.  Just two months later in June, it was proclaimed that the mansion would become a history museum.

We toured the first floor of the buildings, which gave a very detailed history of Azerbaijan, and then went out to lunch at the Belfast Pub.  They had great Irish food and a very pub like atmosphere

On the second floor there are two major ball rooms. One of the rooms is oriental which has to do with the eastern world or the middle east and the other is occidental which is the western world or European civilization. The museum has ancient, medieval, and modern history of Azerbaijan. There were over 2,000 items and exhibits to look and and I wish we could have spent an entire week to soak in the history.

They had an exquisite collection of coins from the different dynasties that ruled the area:

Safavid Dynasty:



Karabakh Khanate Dynasty:


Other Dynasties:









These coins are a nice touch that is not covered about the middle east in the western museums.  The museum was a perfect way to spend our day!!

We then left and got a few chicken kabobs from a very polite and patient street vendor, and then we went back to the hotel to get some shut-eye. 

Day 4 October 19

HISTORY
On our 4th day of vacation we woke up refreshed and ready, a quick at the hotel breakfast was followed by a drive to the Azerbaijan carpet museum. The weather was warm, very nice for october, around 68 degrees (fahrenheit).

Carpets, that's the ugly thing all over your grandmother's house, right?  WRONG! In Azerbaijan carpets are an art form and treasured greatly.  At first glance I knew that this place was going to be special, the building looks like a giant semi-rolled carpet!

We ventured inside to see these majestic carpets we had heard about when we are planning this trip. First, we learned a bit about the history of making carpets in Azerbaijan.  Carpet making started in the rural villages of Azerbaijan, archaeologists have been able to date whole carpets to the 2nd Millennium BCE and carpet tools to the 4th Millennium BCE.   The ability to weave carpets became very valuable and weavers had a valuable, and prominent place in society

1. Very simple no patterns in the carpet
2. The thread and knotting becomes more ornate and complicated
3. complex patterns develop
4. Patterns and knots become more ornate and complex

Once we worked through the history exhibit, which took time having to use Google translate to find out what stuff meant, we left to go grab a bite to eat at the restaurant just outside, the food was not great but it was food none the less. Then we were able to see all of the gorgeous carpets from the 17-20th centuries.  There is no better way to show these off than with pictures, so:



The curved wall was filled with rugs, that we had a great view of from the 2nd story balcony.




This is a loom that would have been entirely human run and powered, and used to create these majestic carpets.


This part of the museum shows how carpets were not only used as mats, but as items to serve a specific purpose outside of display.

The majority of the building was like this, and the fact that these all were made by hand is even more amazing!  I now have the up-most respect for the women who wove these eloquent fabrics. everyone of these are intricate and really beautiful looking.

We went and ate a great dinner at 1/5 mərtəbə.  The food and beer was great and the atmosphere was even better.  The people were very helpful and polite to the crazy americans who have no idea what they are doing.  It took us a while to order but we enjoyed our night, and the nightlife of Baku is excellent.  Tomorrow we get to venture into the history museum of Azerbaijan!

Day 3, October 18

FESTIVAL
It was a cool sunday morning when we left for the Baku International Jazz Festival, One of our first interactions with the Azerbaijani culture. It was not a disappointment!

Wow, the musicians were amazing. First, however here is some background on why there is a jazz festival in a formerly Soviet controlled area. The festival was started in 2002 as a way to remember Azerbaijan's jazz musicians from the 1950's-60's. These musicians were risking their lives to play their music during the Cold War, even when the Soviets had outlawed jazz music; so being able to play jazz was a sign of access to the West - a sign of being able to overcome the oppressive Soviet Union. This was an amazing cultural experience that had an amazing story behind it!

We spent the day listening to the likes of Terri Lyne Carrington and his quartet, Michel Camilo along with his trio. Some of the local jazz artists came, including Salman Gambarov, and Mirjavid Jafarov. These composers and jazz players had clearly invested a lot into their music and showed a lot of emotion when they were performing. Michel Camilo is my all time favorite,though, because of the crazy pace that he played at. He did the song "Latin Jazz" which captivated the audience. Here is him performing this wonderful song:

MEAL/National cuisine

There was no food for lunch, so we had to go out, so we ate a quick meal at the good ol' American fast food chain of Kentucky Fried Chicken. For dinner this evening we ate a traditional Azerbaijani cuisine; our meal consisted of a Lyulya Kebab, which is lamb, spices, and herbs around a skewer and cooked, and we also had some lavash (thin sheet of unleavened bread), Toyuq sorbasi, the traditional form of chicken soup, and for dessert we had a sherkerbura, a pastry filled with nuts, cinnamon, and sugar. Our beverage that we drank was Sharbat which is a sweet cold drink made from fruit juice and is often perfumed with rose water. This meal was ABSOLUTELY GREAT!!! The dinner we enjoyed really showed what the food culture is like in Azerbaijan, and checked off another item on our list! 

We are going to visit the carpet museum tomorrow, so I am going to turn in for the night.