Day 10 October 25

We woke up to another complimentary breakfast, got ready and left. We have a very exciting day ahead of us. With the temperature around 66 degrees it is a good day to watch some sports!

 Sports
I was so excited to see the Azerbaijan Premier League play today. There are three stadiums/arenas in Azerbaijan, but we decided to go to the one in Baku because it was closest. It was called the Azal Arena.

The stadium holds up to 5,000 people. It's not the biggest stadium but it is well kept. The captain of the AZAL team is Seymur Asadov. Seymur is a 21 year old midfielder born in Azerbaijan. He is worth 100,000 € (Euros). It was a blast to see him play. But during the middle of the game it was kind of boring so we came up with some puns:

What kind of Tea do soccer players drink?

PenalTea!

Where is the best place to buy a soccer shirt?

New Jersey!

How do athletes stay cool during the game?

They go by the fans!



Culture
Before the game we went to see the Heydar Aliyev Cultural Center. The architecture of the center was magnificent. This building was designed by Zaha Hadid, a distinguished architect. The center is named for Heydar Aliyev, who was the leader of the Azerbaijan when they were part of the Soviet Union. He was elected into presidency after Azerbaijan gained its independence from 1993-2003.

There is a very extensive exhibit about the culture of Azerbaijan. The main exhibit covered all three floors and covered the life of the president (Heydar Aliyev) and how Azerbaijan struggled against the Soviet Union. This was a very 21st century exhibit and it had many touch screens and sound clips. Part of the way through the exhibit there was a map of Azerbaijan and its oil lines. These oil lines had the current flow for each pipeline displayed by the color of the line. The exhibit was concluded by showing all of the gifts that other nation have given to Azerbaijan, these included gifts of porcelain, a golden watch, and some ornate platters.

Because of the timing and we had to go the the socer game, we did not get lunch but we did eat a meal at the game.

The second exhibit we went into was the “Legend of Arms” exhibit that contained real, local, knights armor and weapons from the 16-18th centuries. This highlighted the capabilities of the area’s knights and other military powers.



The Armor of warriors from the medieval period.



Two knights set up to joust in a tournament like setting.

We ate dinner at the Casual Brasserie Cafe Bar, which had a nice small dish of pastries that we ate at. I have been very surprised by how much global food we have been able to eat in Baku.