[New post] DAYS 1 & 2: FLYING TO BAKU, AZERBAIJAN: TRAVELING THE ROAD LESS TAKEN—AZERBAIJAN, GEORGIA, & ARMENIA
crcscout posted: " After over 24 hours of travel time, I freely admit that I am exhausted. But I am also in Baku, Azerbaijan! Not a place this Texas girl ever thought she would see. There is nothing like being in a new and exotic location to make all of your travel wear" Tales from the Trail
After over 24 hours of travel time, I freely admit that I am exhausted. But I am also in Baku, Azerbaijan! Not a place this Texas girl ever thought she would see. There is nothing like being in a new and exotic location to make all of your travel weariness vanish. I'm sure though when I hit the bed, I will be out like a light
I have to say that considering how far we traveled, it all went smoothly. Usually something happens to get my adrenalin rushing, but not today. Sam and Leia got us to the airport just fine. We had no issues checking in although we had been told that our COVID vaccination record required a QR code for Azerbaijan. Florida doesn't do QR codes so we used the free CLEAR app as well as the website GoGetDoc. With the website you could actually download the QR code to your Apple Wallet. When you scan it, it just pulls up the photo of your vaccination card that you uploaded. CLEAR doesn't even do that. So we aren't sure how much good either are going to do us. I have to admit that I panicked today. We had done the QR code stuff before England and I could access the CLEAR but couldn't find my other one. I was about to have a heart attack when I realized that it was in my Apple wallet. Sheesh! I need to get a new brain.
At the terminal there was no lounge for us to enjoy so we sat at the gate for almost three hours. Boarding was interesting with Lufthansa. It's been a while since we've flown with them. They called for everybody with little kids to board first as well as people needing extra time. There was a whole herd of people with small children! I have never seen so many get on one plane before. It was crazy. It took forever to get them through. Some with big kids try to sneak on then, too, but most of them got stopped.
Once on board I realized I was a Business Class snob. This Business Class wasn't nearly as nice as the one on Delta. There was no real place to store things like glasses and cell phones. The screen was so far away I had to unbuckle to reach it. It was better than being in Economy though so I really shouldn't complain. We did get our sparkling wine and even nuts although they were cold. The food was definitely better than the seating. I had smoked duck for a starter and Cajun shrimp and rice. It was really tasty.
I didn't watch as many movies as normal. There was nothing new that I wanted to see so I went with an oldie—"The Other Boleyn Girl." I had seen it years ago at the theater and had even read the book. I figured after going to England, it was a good choice. I started watching "The Imitation Game" about Alan Turning who was one of the bright lights at Bletchley Park but I drifted off for a while. I did watch more of it about an hour before landing.
For a change in Frankfurt we weren't in a rush. We had a three hour layover which was a good thing because our plane ended up being late. I had to laugh when the flight attendant came on the loudspeaker and said they were sorry they were late but fingers crossed everybody makes their flights! Geez!
We deplaned and rode the bus to the terminal. Then we had to take a shuttle over to the terminal we needed to be at for our next flight. Every other time in Frankfurt we've had to go through security right outside the gate but not today. That was a nice change. We spent our time in the lounge which was really full. We ended up on some uncomfortable chairs but it was all we could find. I was too tired to care. I was just happy to have a place to sit and veg for a couple of hours. I was able to get a latte so that made everything better
While we were waiting at the gate to board, we saw an older gentleman with an OAT luggage tag on his carryon. Turns out he was going to be on the trip with us. He already had an iffy start to his trip. He had tangled with an escalator in the Atlanta airport and had a bloody arm. Not how you want to start a grand adventure! But he was quite cheerful and never complained about it.
Boarding our second flight was a bit less chaotic although the way people were pushing to the front, I wasn't too sure they weren't going to storm the plane. This flight had way fewer children although still a lot. I have to admit on the flight to Frankfurt, I didn't hear any of that multitude of kiddos for which I was very grateful!
This flight was definitely old school. It was a very old airplane. There would be no movie marathon during this nearly five hour flight. There were no screens of any type. If you wanted to watch something, hopefully you had it downloaded to your personal device. That was okay with me. I had a good book (I'm rereading the Da Vince Code since we saw where some of the events took place in London. I've read it twice before but it's been a while).
The flight attendants on this flight were very attentive. They weren't bad on the last flight but these were always asking if we wanted anything, coming by with snacks. I really liked them. They were all very nice. However, I'm sure they didn't endear themselves to Economy Class when they announced that Economy wouldn't be getting dinner. There was some issue. Oops. I believe they did serve them some type of sandwich so they didn't starve.
Our dinner was quite tasty. I got the cabbage rolls with veal. Normally I don't eat veal but that sounded better than the other choices. Plus on trips I do my best to try new things. It was very good. Doug got the same thing and he cleaned his dish.
It was dark by the time we finally arrived in Baku, Azerbaijan. It was pushing 9 PM. After deplaning we had to go through Passport Control which I was a bit nervous about. If you were running a temperature of 99.9, they yanked you out of line and COVID tested you. Yeeks! I didn't think I was running a temperature but you never know. Plus this was where we figured we would have to show the pain-in-the-neck QR code for your vaccination card. I kept my fingers crossed that we wouldn't have ANY kind of issues. And we didn't. They didn't even ask for a QR code, just the vaccination card. They took our picture and I assume our temperature at the same time. Then we were through. Whew!
While I hit the Ladies toilet Doug exchanged some of our dollars for the Azerbaijan manat. Then we were off to the luggage carousel. Both bags made it and while we were waiting, we met another couple who were going to be traveling in our group. They were from New Mexico. His bag had come but they were still waiting on hers. They were still waiting after we got our and headed into the Arrivals Hall. They had to wait quite awhile for her bag to make an appearance but it finally did.
Meanwhile we met up with Yasin who is our trip leader for this portion of the trip. Our friend Liz from our Patagonia trip had just been over here about a month ago and she had Yasin as a trip leader as well. She said he was great. He kept us entertained as we waited for the other couple. The other six members of our group had arrived earlier—one three days before and the other five the day before.
All luggage in tow, we headed out to the bus for our drive to the hotel, about a 40 minute drive. I had gotten my second wind and was happy to look outside the window and see this new place. The city was lit up like a birthday cake with neon candles. They were definitely showing off their oil and gas money. It was a real eye-opener seeing all of the colors flashing off of exotic modern buildings. The most famous were the Towers of Flame. They are a trio of towers that are shaped liked flames. At one point they were lit up like the Azerbaijani flag. Minutes later they were a myriad of neon colors. It was like watching a laser light show with all of the modern buildings in the city participating. It was worth arriving here late to see.
Our hotel is part of the new construction. We are actually staying at a Hilton! Whoop, whoop! I think it has 27 stories and is just across the road from the Promenade along the Caspian Sea. It's a perfect location. Once inside we got checked in quickly and oriented to the hotel facilities. Since we are Hilton Honors members, we got credit for the stay which boosted us to Gold status which entitles us to the Executive Lounge up on floor 17. Wow, I feel special!
Our room is on the 11th floor. I was glad Yasin was there to show us how to work the elevator. You didn't push the button to go up. This new modern elevator system had a keypad. You keyed in your floor and it told you which elevator you needed to take to go up. Ours was not the elevator we were standing next to. We had to trot passed a couple to get to the one it told us to take. Interesting system but once you are use to it, it works well.
Our room has a great view out to the Towers of Flame. We can even see a bit of the Caspian Sea. Our job tomorrow is to actually stick a hand into the water. Since it's so close that shouldn't be too difficult to accomplish. Tonight I just have to remember to brush my teeth with bottled water
The domestic terminal at the airport
The adventure truly starts tomorrow morning. After breakfast we have the usual orientation meeting where we all get to know each other and get the scoop on the trip from the actual trip leader. Then we are doing a walking tour of the Inner City which is the old part of Baku. Because tomorrow is a Monday and museums are closed on Mondays, our itinerary had to change a bit for the afternoon. Instead of seeing the Heydar Alyev Center, we are heading 40 km south to the Gobustan Open-Air Museum. This is where they have found a multitude of petroglyphs. So instead of being a shorter day, it's going to be a longer one. That's okay. We always want to see and do as much as we can.
No comments:
Post a Comment