As a first stop in our European journey, we decided to spend a few days in Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan. Coming from Australia, it was the first European city on our way (even though sometimes it is mentioned as part of Asia, as it happens with Turkey). Part of this post will try to explain why we found Baku more European than Asian.
A few details regarding Azerbaijan before starting:
- A visa is usually required, can be requested and paid online and normally is replied in less than 2 days. It can be done at https://evisa.gov.az/en/ , and cost is 24 USD.
- Currency is called Manat, and at the time of writing this post (October 2018) you could get 1,70 Manat per 1 USD.
- Flights arrive to Heydar Aliyev International Airport, located outside of Baku.
Arriving at Heydar Aliyev airport - ATM and Exchange offices can be found in the Airport.
- A service to get a Sim card can be found as well. Passport is required, and it is not as cheap as one would expect (we paid 25 Manat for 2GB, approximately 15 USD), but reception was fairly good, and super useful for Google Maps and the occasional necessary translation.
- Best way into the city is taking the City Bus. Line H1 costs 1,30 Manat and takes you all the way to the 28 May train station, located right in the city center. Only way to pay is by using the Baki Card, which is used for all public transport in Baku. Card can be bought from a machine just outside of the airport terminal. Screen can be changed to English, card costs 2 Manats, and the machine will not give change, so all change is charged as credit in the card. If you enter a 10 Manat bill, you will get the card with 8 Manat charge (which is a lot because bus fare is standard 0,30 Manat). Same card can be used by more than one person, as there is no Tag Off needed when using public transport.
- We booked our accomodation via Booking.com. If interested, please create your user by using this link, and you will obtain a 25 australian dollars discount (or equivalent in your home currency)
As mentioned above, Azerbaijan lies in the limit between Europe and Asia, same as Turkey. And that can certainly be seen in the streets of Baku. Ancient constructions, specially those found in the Old Town, look like Middle Eastern, taking us a little bit to Istanbul. The street markets, with food, handcrafts and carpets are certainly part of that. Modern constructions, on the other hand, try to be more European, some imitating French construction from the XIX century even though they were built in the past 15 years. I kind of think of it as a little Istanbul, but Flor seems not to agree with that idea.
Azerbaijan, also a former Soviet Union country, means land of fire and one of the modern constructions in the country honor that name, the Flame Towers, completed in 2012.
General development deserves a special paragraph in Azerbaijan. With an economy relying mainly on natural resources, during the days when oil barrel was reaching prices over 100 USD (2007-2008 and 2011-2012) Azerbaijan started a lot of development plans, including huge ultramodern buildings such as the Flame towers (mentioned above) and the potentially highest skyscraper in the world, which construction started but was placed on hold due to the now low prices of oil. With these plans, some people had called Baku the “new Dubai”.
From our perspective, it looked like Azerbaijan had been trying to develop quickly, but economy has not been able to keep the pace, resulting in a strange mix of ancient culture, a few modern buildings and many incomplete works.
The influence of many years as part of the Soviet Union had a huge impact in people. While religion was kept strong (with majority of the people being Muslim), older generations speak Russian as a second language, but younger ones prefer to learn English.
If interested, click here to read the summary of how we organized our 2+ days in Azerbaijan.