June 7-9

We had a few rest days while our car went across the Caspian so I figured I’d amalgamate these into one post.

June 7th

The next morning at the hotel Don, Jerome and I went swimming in the Caspian. We saw a snake swimming along but it didn’t seem too interested in us. We learned later on that sea snakes are actually the most venemous ones. After that Alican, Khalid and I hit the water park with all the slides and a lazy river.

It felt weird to be at a resort in the middle of our arduous journey. We boarded some busses headed to Aktau airport and enjoyed a nice flight into Baku. We got in late which left little time to do anything except for a night time walk. I saw many stray cats and many lovely french buildings. 

June 8th

Our first full day in Baku we departed for the old city, only 2km away from our hotel, joined by Alican. Most of the interesting parts of the old city were ticketed areas but it was fun to walk through the shops and restaurants. I’ve been learning Turkish, and Azerbaijani is a Turkic language so I was able to make very basic conversation with the storekeepers. After the old city we left to collect our car from the port.

We parked them in a waterfront square across the road from the F1 pitlane and there was a big celebration with music and dances. Two young boys came up to our car and asked us all sorts of questions about it and us. They spoke with great english and returned later to bring us some ice cream as a gift. The people of Baku have a deep appreciation for cars and a culture centered around oil. 

June 9th

My dad took the car to a lift to fix up the brakes and I had a nice long walk around the city. In the evening we visited a nice restaurant in the old city called La Quzu. Azerbaijani cuisine is familiar but distinguishable. We had plov, kebabs, shirazi salad, lamb dolmas and doner. After our dinner we walked to the hotel to prepare for another day back on the road.