Christmas in Baku

Since Azerbaijan is a Muslim country, I didn't expect to find much Christmas in Baku.  Boy was I wrong!

Since early December, there has been a holiday market in Fountain Square in center city.  I heard it's technically for New Years, but it sure seemed to be inspired by German Christmas markets.  Of course, it still had Azerbaijani flair, with speakers pumping out loud dance tunes throughout the day.

Erica enjoying the holiday market

Many storefronts also had bright displays with Christmas trees, gingerbread houses, and wrapped presents.  My favorite was the one shown below.  It had a mannequin with a skirt made of peacock feathers wrapped with a strand of Christmas lights.  Underneath was a sign that read "Mezzy Christmas."  I have no idea what it all meant, but it sure brought a grin to my face!

A very "Mezzy Christmas" to you!

I got to see the Nutcracker ballet for the first time in at least 5 years.  It was an interesting performance, most notably because the same dancer who portrayed Clara was also the Sugar Plum Fairy.  I'm a little hazy on the exact details of the story, but I thought Clara was supposed to be a young girl, and the Sugar Plum Fairy was a grown woman.  Oh well.  I was happy to see a ballet, with live orchestra and choral accompaniment.  Plus I got a free ticket in the 4th row through my embassy colleague who knew one of the dancers, so I really can't complain!

Nutcracker Waltz of the Flowers

I also spied several Santas around town, including this one pictured below who was displayed on the sidewalk next to a popular bathhouse, whose customers stared at us when we stopped to take a photo.  I guess they were not as amused by Santa as we were!

Jeremy was super psyched to see Santa!

And, of course, we had our own little Christmas display in the house, with stockings, a tree, reindeer, and our infamous Christmas hats.  No snow here, thank goodness, but a lovely Christmas nonetheless and lots of good friends to celebrate with!

The Covers hope you had a Merry Christmas!

Journey to the Holy Land

Israel's En Gedi Nature Reserve

Jeremy and I recently returned from a trip to Israel and Jordan.  My pose above is a good summary of my feelings about the trip -- It was amazing!

Our first stop was Tel Aviv.  As we strolled through the open-air Carmel Market, we came to a stand selling something we had never seen before.  The vendor was only too glad to offer samples of his product -- halva, a sweet, dense confection popular across a wide swath of Europe, the Middle East, and Asia.  In Israel, halva is usually made from tahini paste and then flavored with ingredients such as nuts or chocolate.  The vendor, the Halva King, had at least 40 flavors and seemed to want us to try every one of them.  Did I mention that halva is dense and sweet??  We finally called a halt to the tasting and selected two flavors to buy.  The King knew suckers when he had seen them, and cut off big hunks without actually asking how much we wanted.  He wrapped them up nicely and told us the price:  50 USD!  Not having the heart to backtrack on the sale at that point, we gulped, paid the money, and figured we were now stocked up on halva for the rest of our trip.

Jeremy with the Halva King

After Tel Aviv, we headed north to the Sea of Galilee, where we visited several national parks with historical ruins and waterfalls.  In Arbel National Park, we reached the first lookout to find the area filled with Israeli teenagers running, shouting, playing music, taking selfies, and generally being teenagers.  We moved on from the lookout, hoping to get in front of the group.  No such luck.  While waiting at a narrow point where only one person at a time could descend the trail, we realized we were smack in the middle of a large school group.  As the kids continued to play music loudly and the boys jostled each other, creating mini stone landslides, my visions of a peaceful hike faded away and I was about ready to throw in the towel and return to the car.  Then I saw Jeremy talking with some of the kids, telling them his name and where he was from, and they were smiling back at him.  My icy heart warmed a little, I told myself "Serenity now," and I re-committed myself to the hike.  And I'm glad I did, because it was one of the best hikes of the trip, with great views and a fun trail scrambling over rocks or clinging to cliff sides.  By the end, one of the kids even asked for a picture with us!

Erica navigating the narrow trail at Arbel National Park

Then we turned south to the Dead Sea, and the obligatory photo shoot of floating in its salty waters.  We paid for beach access and made our way to the water's edge.  Thank goodness I was wearing water shoes, because the ground was hard and sharp from the salt deposits.  I don't know how Jeremy managed it barefoot.  We each floated and took pictures and then we looked at each other and said "now what?"  The scenery was beautiful with the mountains of Jordan in the background, but the aroma was not fragrant, the water tasted horrible, the salt stung every small cut on our skin, but worst of all, the water left this slimy film on us.  With the photos finished, we left the beach and had a shower at the first available opportunity!

Jeremy floating in the Dead Sea

Having enjoyed some of the natural beauty of Israel, we visited Jerusalem.  We were both struck by the rich history of the city.  And that history was further enriched by the malleability with which it's claimed by different segments of the population.  During a walking tour of the Old City, our guide would stop at a landmark, tell us a story about why it was important and then say "But you may ask, do we know for sure that event took place on this spot?  Well..." And then he would launch into a story about how a different group of people think the same event took place in a completely different location.  He would never take sides.  He would simply tell the multiple stories and say it was up to each of us to decide what we believed.  Fascinating!  We could have spent several more days in Jerusalem, for the history, food, and nightlife!

Jeremy at Jerusalem's Old City Damascus Gate

But, next it was on to Petra, the ancient city chiseled into the cliffs of southern Jordan.  While the landscape of Petra was stunning and the carvings were impressive, I was continually struck by the lack of tourists at the site.  Tourism in Jordan has plummeted in recent years due to general instability in the region because of the Syrian civil war and the rise of ISIS.  The vendors and guides of Petra were quite hopeful for our business.  Within our first hour in Petra, we met a young boy named Omar who offered us a ride on his donkey, Michael.  Despite Omar's excellent English and persuasive sales tactics, we declined.  But we saw Omar several more times and heard several more of his persistent sales pitches.  I'm not sure I ever saw him with a paying customer though.   I can only hope he earned some money that day. 

Jeremy at Petra w/ Omar, his donkey Michael & other friends

From Petra, we continued to Wadi Rum, a desert landscape of towering rock formations and sand dunes.  After a half-day 4x4 tour of the highlights  -- including climbing sand dunes and scrambling around on the rocks -- we were anxious to reach our camp before sunset.  But then the car suddenly stopped, the driver made several attempts to restart it, and then pronounced that we would wait for another car to come get us.  As the sun fully sank, darkness surrounded us, and the cool chill became even colder, my mind thought more and more of being lost and stranded in the desert.  And more and more of how cold and hungry I was!  But eventually salvation appeared in the form of headlights drawing closer and closer and delivering us to camp in time for dinner.

Erica waiting by our broken-down vehicle in Wadi Rum

Those are some of the fun stories from our trip.  I'll close with some more pictures of the landscape, which was stunningly beautiful.  If you haven't been, I highly encourage a visit to Israel and Jordan!

Nimrod's Fortress in the Golan Heights, Israel

Israel's En Gedi Nature Reserve

Jerusalem's Mount of Olives and Old City

Petra Royal Tombs

Wadi Rum Little Bridge

Cityscape of Amman Jordan

Baku Circus, Part II

The Baku Circus featured a lot of animal acts.  Some were entertaining, some ho-hum, and some disturbing.  The most unique for me were the seals, as I don't think I've ever seen them perform live before.  The entire stage was turned into a large slip-and-slide with plastic sheeting and buckets of water.  The seals bounced balls, played music, and mock-tended bar while sliding around the Hawaiian-vacation themed set-up.

Seals balance martini cups on their noses

Less entertaining for me were the dogs.  There were multiple dog acts, ranging from miniature poodles to a Great Dane. Perhaps it's the ubiquity of dogs in American life that made them less exciting to me.  Or that I'm not a natural dog-lover. Either way, I clapped politely for them without having much of a reaction to their antics.

Standard poodles jump over their trainers' legs

I did have trouble watching the duck act.  The trainer did a lot of movements with the duck's neck, including what looked like grabbing the duck's neck roughly and thrusting the duck back-and-forth so that I kept thinking the poor animal would get whiplash.  I have no way of knowing if these actions truly caused pain, but I certainly knew I didn't want the same things being done to my own neck!  I was grateful when the ducks left the stage.

I felt sorry for this ducky and his neck!

Interspersed between animal performances were other familiar circus acts.  I enjoyed the unicyclist riding around in a brightly-colored jacket with huge shoulder pads, unbuttoned to reveal yellow suspenders underneath.  Honestly, I was more intrigued by his outfit than by his unicycling tricks!

Unicyclist with his flashy outfit

There were also a few acrobatic and trapeze acts.  I was pleased to capture the below picture where it appears this artist is balancing solely by her butt on the rung of the the rope ladder!

Impressive gravity-defying acrobatic move

My favorite performer by far was one of the clowns.  He was very tall and thin, not the stature of your typical clown.  And he perfectly played the part of being frustrated by the antics of his clown partner, glaring and scowling across the stage with fabulously mean eyes.

This is not a happy clown!

Overall, the entire circus experience was memorable and entertaining.  Now I just have to learn Russian so I can follow the storyline the next time they're in town!

Baku Circus, Part 1

One of the things on my "must-see" list in Baku was the circus.  When Azerbaijan was part of the Soviet Union, Moscow created a designated circus school and developed its own style of circus entertainment.  The circus grew into an important Soviet cultural tradition, with circus troupes from Moscow traveling throughout the USSR, and the world, to perform their acts.  Baku has its own permanent circus building, specifically designed and decorated for circus shows, which continues to host Russian circus performances.

Erica inside the Baku Circus building

The Circus building was not much to look at from the outside.  It's a plain circular building, with the unadorned concrete architecture familiar to U.S. college campuses and DC government buildings built in the 1970s.  But the interior had several wonderful mosaics depicting clowns, acrobats, and other mainstays of the circus.

Mosaic inside the circus building

Once inside the arena, the first thing I noticed was a live band, very visually perched above the main curtain, rather than being hidden in an orchestra pit.  As a huge lover of live music, I bopped my head along to the beat while they entertained the crowd until the start of the show.

Circus band

The opening act was something unexpected for me - show girls!  I thought the dancing was tame, but many Americans consider the circus to be a family activity, thus find the dancing out of place and avoid the circus for that reason.

Show girls with bright feathers kicked off the show

And perhaps those Americans have a point, because the show actually had quite a bit of dancing.  Another group came out later dancing to pop music.  I got a huge kick out of their outfits that were straight out of the '80s.  I'm not sure if the act was meant to be nostalgic or if they just hadn't taken the time to update the wardrobe!

Pop dancers sporting '80s one-shoulder tops and headbands

The circus also featured classic big-top acts such as clowns, acrobats, and performing animals, which I'll get to in the next post!

Village of Lahij

A favorite weekend getaway in Azerbaijan is the village of Lahij.  With its proximity to copper mines and community of skilled craftsmen, Lahij has been a center for copper and metal work since the 1700s.  On our visit, we toured an abandoned blacksmith shop that still contained a forge, bellows, and other tools of the trade.

Erica pumps the blacksmith bellows

We also entered operating workshops still making jugs, cups, and platters in the traditional fashion, and stood watch while craftsmen fine-tuned their creations.

Craftsman hammers a pot into shape

One shop featured a sizable display of antiques and a friendly merchant who provided a run-down of the names and functions of the various lamps, urns, and trays.

Display of traditional metalwork items

Outside of the metalwork shops, Lahij is popular because it is so picturesque.  Its narrow cobblestone streets are flanked by buildings with wooden shutter-like doors overhung by small balconies.  We discovered the hard way that it's not an easy village to drive through, but it's perfect for strolling!

Lahij's cobbled main street

But the best part of a trip to Lahij is the drive in and out.  The entrance road passes through a gorge with stark vertically-layered cliffs before opening up into a postcard-perfect image of idyllic mountain serenity!

Stark cliffs outside of Lahij...

...contrast moments later with green rolling hills

Hiking Accomplished

After recent failed attempts to get out and enjoy nature (see prior post for one example), I finally got in some hiking this weekend.  We decided to tackle Besh Barmaq (Five Finger) Mountain, a very visible and well-known landmark about an hour's drive from Baku.

The rocky pinnacle of Besh Barmaq

We got off to a rough start.  None of us had actually been to Besh Barmaq before, so we drove past the unmarked access road once, then twice, before stopping for directions and getting onto the right road.

Roadside mosque and stalls with Besh Barmaq in background

Despite the difficulties in finding the place, Besh Barmaq was actually set up to be accessible to hikers with a wide range of abilities.  Much of the route had built-in staircases to mitigate the steepness of the path.  Along the stairs we encountered many old ladies wanting money or selling herb bundles.

Old woman seen through a hole in the rock formations

We diverted from the main path a few times to scramble over boulders and check out interesting crevices.  Eventually reaching the top, we encountered a very cheerful woman who enthusiastically insisted on taking several photos with us.  We weren't quite sure if she was intrigued by seeing foreigners or just thought our hats were funny, but we obliged anyway.

Larry and Erica with our new Azeri friend

On the way back down, another woman insisted on giving us candies.  We felt like celebrities - first photos and then free gifts!  We basked in the attention and then let our egos come back down to earth as we descended the final steps to the base.

Our small band of hikers

Hiking Interrupted

Last weekend, we set off to go hiking in the countryside.  We plugged our destination into our GPS and hit the road.  We were driving along, watching mountain peaks getting closer, when we suddenly came to a barrier across the road.  A very nice man came out of his booth and said something unintelligible to us.  We mimed that we were trying to drive through and named our destination:  Xinaliq.  He made multiple gestures and said more things we couldn't decipher.  Finally we understood one word:  President.  With that, we realized this was an access road to (one of) the President's villas and there was no chance we were driving through.  The man continued to make animated gestures and then jumped into our car.  He motioned for us to turn around and rode with us a few minutes down the road before pointing to a side road we had blown right past.  We drove him back to his post and thanked him profusely.  First crisis averted.

A few more miles down the road, we drove through a spectacular canyon and then began to climb up one of the narrow, winding mountain passes that dot the Azerbaijani countryside.  While Jeremy managed the switchbacks, I got to enjoy the scenery.

Jeremy waves from our car

As we arrived in Xinaliq, I realized I had to go to the bathroom.  Now, Azerbaijan is not necessarily the type of place that has a toilet at every gas station.  Plus Xinaliq was little more than a gathering of houses along the road and didn't have a gas station anyway!  We strolled through the village and some helpful people pointed out a toilet.  At first I wondered if this was a trick to see if the foreigner would fall for the bait, because this toilet was literally perched on the edge of a cliff!  But when ya gotta go, ya gotta go!  I did my business, and the locals weren't gathered outside laughing when I emerged. Second crisis averted.

A toilet with a view

Now we were ready for our hike.  We noticed a structure in the distance that looked like the entrance to a hiking trail.  Once we got closer, we could read the sign:  Shahdag National Park.  But then some unfriendly men came out of their booth, stopped us, and asked for our documents.  Puzzled, we said we didn't have any documents.  The look on their faces clearly conveyed, "No documents, no entry."  Having no idea what documents were needed for a simple hike, we shrugged our shoulders and returned to our car.  Third crisis not averted.  We didn't get to hike, but instead got a nice drive through the mountains, and a good story to tell!

Beautiful mountain scenery outside Xinaliq

Dalga Beach

One of the best parts about living in Baku is that Caspian Sea beaches are within a half hour drive.  We went to the beach throughout the summer, testing out different spots.  Our favorite by far was Dalga Beach.  It had fabulous canopy chairs on the sand by a peaceful lagoon.  An added bonus was that Azerbaijanis are not morning people, so until at least noon, we had the beach practically all to ourselves!

Lounging in cool canopy chairs designed for two

Dalga Beach also had Jeremy's favorite new activity:  a surfing simulator.  It shot water up a slope as he tried to balance and ride the board across the currents.  Jeremy did pretty well when he stayed on his knees.  Then he had some fabulous wipeouts when he tried standing up!

Jeremy surfing it up!

But the best part about Dalga Beach was that it had water slides!  Before this summer, I can't remember the last time I rode water slides.  I think it was at Wild Water Kingdom in Allentown, PA during high school!  I'll admit that Dalga's water slides are not in the same category as Wild Water Kingdom, but who cares?!  Water slides are always awesome!

Jeremy & two friends race down the slides

Although these slides may look pretty tame, they were actually quite fast.  Most of us caught air on a few of them.  And the one below shot you straight up the orange ramp, giving you a moment of weightlessness before you plunged back down and slid into the pool.  

Jeremy finishes a slide down Big Orange 

Sadly, I think the summer weather is over and we won't see Dalga Beach again for many months.  But rest assured, we'll be back!

Front Row View to a Soccer Match

Last week we went to a soccer game.  It was on my list of things to do in Baku, so when we heard the Celtic Football Club from Scotland was coming to Baku as part of the Champions League, we jumped at the chance to go.

Jeremy at the stadium entrance

We did not buy tickets in advance.  I had assumed there would be plenty of seats available, but it turned out to be a packed crowd.  Luckily, our friends arrived early and bought tickets for our group before they sold out.  We looked at the tickets and thought "Score!  We're in the first row."  What we didn't realize until we sat down was the first row was at field level, and unless the ball was kicked into the air, we couldn't actually see it at all!

Tight security monitored the sold-out crowd

There was another interesting aspect to our seats.  Azerbaijan is very security conscious.  Hopefully you can see in the photo above the line of neon green along the bottom of the stadium seats.  Those were security guards forming a ring to prevent anyone from coming onto the field.  There was one guard perhaps every 10 feet, so as we were straining to follow the action on the field while not being able to see the ball, we had security guards staring right back at us!  Plus, a guard was standing directly in my line of sight to one of the goals, so I also had to look around him whenever the ball was at that end of the field.  

Field view, obstructed by security guard and field barriers

Despite these setbacks, we had a fun time.  I'm not sure I've ever heard such a loud, enthusiastic crowd at a sporting event.  The crowd roared every time the Azerbaijani team seemed within reach of scoring.  But sadly that never happened. The game ended with a score that makes non-soccer fans shake their heads:  0-0.