Baku
Visited Baku this spring. Before departure, everyone saw me off as if I were leaving for Iraq. And they sympathized with me as if they put me in jail. But I was full of optimism. I bought tickets in advance, as there were practically no seats a month before departure. A round-trip ticket for a plane - St. Petersburg - Baku costs about 14.500 rubles, which is quite a lot. Practically for this money you can relax for three days in London if you order a bus tour through all of Europe. When boarding a plane, you must go through customs, and the likelihood that you can be forced to turn out your pockets and show all the cash is very high. The plane flies a terrible, a kind of Tu-214, which few people have heard of. This is something like a Zhiguli, among the aircraft fleet. The plane flies a little more than 3 hours, during the flight they give hot and drinks. And then the plane lands at the airport. Heydar Aliyev, Baku.
It is March outside, the temperature outside is +12, which is by no means hot by local standards. But the sun shines brightly even after the nasty St. Petersburg weather - it seems like summer. We go through customs control, it is very fast, no marks in foreign countries. no need for a passport. For citizens of the Russian Federation, a visa is not required. The seal is placed only at the Russian customs, before boarding the plane. After receiving the luggage, we leave the airport. We're going to the hotel. The airport is located outside the city, we drive along a small highway, among small fir trees or pine trees, in short, local trees similar to our fir tree. Looks pretty nice.
We are entering the city. Having reached the Absheron Hotel, which is located on the embankment near the sea, we notice that cars are presented in a very contrasting way in the city. Here you can see any car, from a “penny” to a BMW X5, Land Rover, etc. to expensive foreign cars. The driving style is rather unfamiliar to a Russian motorist or a pedestrian.
At first, it’s not even much scary, because the turn signals rarely turn on, and turning from the leftmost lane to the right and changing from lane to lane in front of your car is quite normal. But despite such an extreme driving style, not a single accident was noticed in 5 days. Pedestrians are not allowed to pass, and if in Russia cars sometimes let pedestrians pass when turning, here only women are awarded this honor.
So, I'm at the hotel. The hotel was built in the Soviet era and reminds of those times and the rooms in it are different from simple, in the soviet style, to quite decent suites. I rented a regular room for $80 per night, + $10 for breakfast (buffet). The room has a TV, air conditioning, shower, in general, everything you need. But as they say, I did not come to sit in the room.
I go out to the city. And then the first problem appears, with you only rubles and dollars.
In the hotel, dollars were accepted without problems, but in shops it is better to pay in manats. (local money). I go to the first exchanger and exchange dollars and rubles for manats without any problems. For 3000 rubles, they give 100 manats. By the way, not so long ago there was a denomination, somewhere around 1:5000 (!!! ) and you can be called stores in old money, such as 15.000 manats or shervans. Do not be afraid, ask to transfer to new manats.
Then I go to the old city, about which I have heard a lot. In the city center there is another, the old city, which is surrounded by a wall. I could not find out the exact date of construction, but as I understood earlier, it was a fortress that served as a good defense against enemies. By the way, on one of the streets of this fortress, an episode from the film “The Diamond Arm” was filmed (where Nikulin falls and shouts “Damn it! ”).
I leave the fortress to the metro station (the metro was built in Baku in Soviet times) and go to the embankment. The day of the week is Monday.
But there are a lot of people on the street who walk very slowly around the city. A lot of girls and guys sitting somewhere and cooing among themselves. It feels like it's a holiday outside and people just relax on a day off. And people of all ages. Everyone is dressed very fashionably and with a needle. There is no paronji in women, as many people think. Mostly dark colors prevail in clothes and a lot of people wear sunglasses. Didn't see a single bum or beggar. No one ever fired a cigarette or came up to beg for something.
In terms of security, as it turned out, Baku is much safer than any city in Russia. Cars are left on the streets, in which they lie right in a visible place - things, radio tape recorders, televisions are left. I learned from the local population that thefts and robberies of cars are very rare and are usually committed by drug addicts during the period of taking a dose.
Separate history with oil.
If you go to the outskirts of the city, where there are rather meager houses, you can see a lot of towers, and even in the yards that pump oil. At the moment, the city is being built up at a frantic pace. And as in St. Petersburg, new houses are growing like mushrooms and they are also being built in courtyards and next to old houses. Only as it seemed, it was done a little beautiful, because the house did not just poke into an empty place, but so that it somehow fit into the surrounding architecture.
Prices for equipment, food, souvenirs are practically the same as in St. Petersburg, +/- 50 rubles. If you buy any souvenir at the market or on the street, be sure to bargain, firstly save money, and secondly, you will make the seller pleasant. Moreover, if you break down a lot and go from tray to tray, the price may drop by a widow.
There are few minibuses in the city, the main transport is a taxi. Agree on the cost of the trip before boarding the car. There are no taxi meters.
Money in front of the fare only. From the airport to the city center, on average, it costs 25-30 manats.
Mostly the local population speaks the local language, but everyone knows Russian. And many speak without an accent at all. If they see that you do not understand the local language, they will begin to speak Russian with you. This is not Estonia, where they will speak Estonian to the bone. They love guests here and help tourists in every possible way, and it doesn’t matter what skin color you have. Guests are honored here and given a warm welcome.
Food. Here I want to pay special attention. For 20-30 manats you can eat a lot. The food is delicious everywhere. The food is different from Russian cuisine. First, everything here is fresh. That is, if you are served a salad, you can be sure that these vegetables do not even last a day. Moreover, in many restaurants, vegetables are not bought at the market, but are grown on their own plot, which belongs to the restaurant.
There are a lot of meat dishes, all kinds of kebabs, kebabs, etc. Moreover, the food is fatty enough and the portions are large, not like we have a piece of meat, I really have meat clothes. At a hearty lunch, you can drink a bottle of wine and not get drunk. Eating with your hands is absolutely not immoral, but quite the contrary. Well, baklava is a separate conversation. What is sold in Russia is not a successful beta version. Separately, I want to highlight the wines. I tried a local wine called "Ivanovka", which is made in the province of the same name by Russians. The wine is so delicious that I bought myself a few bottles and drank it with great pleasure. In short, if you want to eat delicious food, come to Baku.
I would like to end my story on the fact that in our society, unfortunately, everyone is used to judging the countries of the Caucasus by the news reports that the government hammers into the head of every inhabitant of Russia, accusing all the “blacks” of all sins, but not themselves.
I assure you that many more visitors from other cities of Russia live in St. Petersburg, who shit on more visitors from the CIS countries. It's just that no one pays attention to it. And those Azerbaijanis who can be met driving a minibus or in the markets of Russian cities do not at all represent the culture of Azerbaijan. These are ordinary villagers who, bypassing Baku, go in search of good earnings to alluring Russia. Even the residents of Baku are very worried that these people spoil the idea of this wonderful country and city. If you dig deeper, you can find similar people on the streets of Moscow and St. Petersburg from all cities of Russia, who can steal your wallet in the metro and take your car away and play a scam with you ...And when you visit Baku, you will understand the whole culture of this people, taste wonderful cuisine and enjoy the magnificent weather and the sea.
It’s worth going to Baku and don’t listen to anything that is bad here and you can be killed here or something else. This is a kind of Sochi, only a hundred times better. Having visited once, you will fall in love with this city for the rest of your life. Who was here will understand me!
