Day 8 Thursday

Thursday is January 20, a national day of mourning in Azerbaijan--a black holiday. I suppose it would be like calling September 11 a holiday. In 2001 Russian troops rolled into the capital, Baku, in an attempt to re-take control of this nation. Tanks and troops roared in, killing about several hundred and wounding many hundreds more. The takeover was thwarted, but the country has not forgotten those that were killed in the action. All businesses are closed, and friends gather in remembrance of the day.


Since The Bank is closed, we have been invited to join England and his family on a trek into the mountains. They do this a couple times each month, and since we are new in town we have been invited to experience this escapade.

We depart about 11:00 in the morning, but the weather is very foggy--it will not be a very picturesque excursion. We are seeing, about one-half mile at a time, new parts of Ganja and the surrounding countryside. The trip takes about 1.5 hours, and we arrive high enough in the mountains that there is snow, enough to build a snowman. We take a walk to picnic lunch, about two miles, to a very lovely overlook on a small valley. Two miles walk back to the truck, drive home, relax in the evening.


Since this is kind of a short post, allow me to catch up on some photos that I'd promised from earlier posts...


One of the first photos I shot in Azerbaijan...

Just outside Baku

My First banking experience, along with the taxi driver who delivered us to Ganja. Yes, I am very tall compared to the average Azeri...


While speaking of the taxi driver I want to share a couple of photos about the drive its self. These photos were taken as we are driving between 60 and 75 miles-per-hour. I just had to close my eyes and trust we would be alright. More than a dozen times we were waiting to pass, not 10 feet off the bumper of the vehicle in front of us. Sometimes a mile or two at a time. Welcome to Azerbaijan!

And the infamous "squatting toilet" which we have now seen more times than we'd care to remember. It is true, more than half the planet does not sit to, well, you know.
Lovely tile work too. At least it was clean...

I'll finish it up with some everyday staples of Azerbaijan. The modern infrastructure...

I believe these are natural gas lines

The ever-present "use your Mercedes as a truck,"...

And last but not least, a sample of the standard unit of measure, nothing. This doorway is in my house, it is crooked, un-equal, un-even, and un-square, but it does close nicely.