Chaczapuri trip part. 1

After a few Christmas dinners and farewells some of the international students decided to go on a trip to Georgia! It would cover the New Years Eve and more than just Tbilisi. So our excursion began!

Living in the South Caucasus it would be impossible not to have any problems and they all started even before we left Baku. Well, apparentely the Baku-Tbilisi night train was not an option for us since there is a gender segregation and we'd be all spread around the train. That's why we had to take a bus, which was in fact cheaper (12 AZN) but not as convenient. We left slightly after 11PM to get to Tbilisi around 10AM. From there we immediately took a matrioshka (a name we now use for a marshrutka since some people can never learn new words!) to another part of the city from where we took a taxi straight to Kazbegi, a village up in the northern part of Georgia, very close to the Russia border (and South Osethia...). The mountaious view was incredible!

It was also our first opportunity to try chaczapuri and chinkali - two most popular Georgian dishes and as we soon found out, our daily meals! It was also a beginning of our obsession with the socks they were selling over there. Sock and 3kg of tangerines - what else a tourist might need?

Our trip was quite intense, we wanted to see as much as we could during the week of our stay in Georgia and for that reason next morning we took a marshrutka back to Tbilisi to change to another one that would take us to Akhaltsikhe, the town 20km away from, this time, Turkish border. From there we needed to get to Sabara's monastery and here we realized how popular Georgia is for Polish people. They were everywhere! As soon as we got out of a marshrutka a taxi driver came up to us offering his ride. How excited he got when he found out there're 2 Polish girls in our group! Nodari had a lot of stories to tell on the way to the monastery: mostly about tourists from Poland. As many stories as our stron fear of falling from the snow caped montanious road! Luckily we had to push the car only once, and we fell on ice only to land on our feet :)

Later Nodari showed us a good place to eat, and again we stuffed ourselves with chaczapuri, chinkali, kebab and his homemade wine that he gave us as a present! If you heard about Azerbaijani hispitality, forget about it! Georgians really know how to do it!! After an amazing meal we visited a castle in the center of Akhaltsikhe from which we had an incredible view on the whole town.

We finished our trip with Nodari at his house where he wanted to share with us some more wine - of course in a Georgian style!

From Akhaltsikhe we took a taxi to see Vardzia. On the way we stopped to visit some more castles and monasteries only to get to our final destination when it was already getting dark. We decided it's best to find our guest house and start sight seeing the next morning. What happened was, it turned out the guest house we read about in our travel book was working only during the season, in the summer. They wouldn't even host us because there was no hot water in the place. That's when we had some troubles with the taxi driver who turned out to be a great philosopher saying we shoul've have listened to him before and trow our book away since a book from 2012 (!) is apparently too old and wrong. Well, eventually he helped us find another place to sleep for which we were very thankful because it was freezing cold outside!!

In the morning we wanted to get a marshrutka to Vardzia, the place we wanted to see before. Well, we should've known that if a bus is scheduled for 10AM it will be there no sooner than 1030AM... For a solid half an hour we were trying to warm ourselves by dancing on the street. At least the sheep had fun - we were freezing! It was worth it though, Vardzia - a city in the mountain, was incredible!

to be continued

Azerbaijani cuisine

The moment comes that I need to talk about the most important thing for me - food. Following all the Christmas decorations everywhere, a little snow that maked everybody freak out and the fact that I can't find basic ingrediences for making some Polish dishes for Christmas dinner, at least a little must be said about what people eat in Azerbaijan.

The definite no. 1
BREAD. If not for bread, I don't know what people would eat. Bread is a must to every meal you eat in Azerbaijan. Considering low wages in the country, it's a best and cheapest way to kill your hunger. The most popular bread, çörək, is an addition to your breakfast, lunch and dinner. It doesn't matter what you eat: soup, salad, plov, chicken - the bread is always there. The other type of bread, my personal favourite, is təndir çörəyi, which is a type of bread baked in a clay oven called tandoor. It is delicious! Can't buy it very often though because once I get a taste of the freshly baked bread I eat the whole thing at once...
One other type of bread is lavash which is similar to what we know as a Mexican tortilla.

Çay
If you know Russian you already know what it is :) Çay is tea. Tea is drunk everyday, many, many, many times a day. The tradition and culture of drinking tea in Azerbaijan is long and strong. What's interesting is that tea is always served in pear shaped glasses, just like this one:

The thing is, if you're invited for some tea you should expect more than just one glass of tea. 'Tea meetings' as I like to call them last for hours. I don't think I have ever in my life drunk more tea than here. Those glasses are smaller than regular cups that's why people drink 4 or more glasses at a time. Tea is also served with nuts, raisins, fruit preserves, cookies, sweets, sugar and candy (many times Polish). Believe me, a lot of times one 'tea meeting' made well for a lunch for me :)

Ayran
Ayran is a type of drink which I got to try not knowing what it was. I mixed it up with natural yogurt which might be the reason I don't want to taste it again. Ayran is the most popular drink in Azerbaijan, right after tea. You can drink it to every meal you want but its mostly drank with kebab on the street :) Ayran is a salty drink and from my investigation it seems like it's a mixture of natural yogurt and water with some addition of salt. I would say it's one of the things you have to try when you're here although I can't guarantee you will like it :))

Mercimek Çorbası
Even though soups are quite popular in Poland too I don't make them very often. That's the reason here I want to try as many as I can. Most of the soups are very easy, vegetable soups that make for a nice appetizer (for the whole lunch you would need to add some bread ;p). The first one I ever tried here is mercimek çorbası and it still remains my favourite! It's a red lentil soup and it's the easiest thing in the world! The only thing you need is red lentils, a carrot, a potato, an onion and a little of tomato paste. Ta-dum! And this one exceptionally is very filling thanks to red lentils which from now on are a must in my kitchen!

Dolma
Dolma is a very interesting side dish that I can't help but to compare with Polish gołąbki ;) It's basically a minced lamb mixed with rice stuffed in vine leaves. They're much smaller than gołąbki and I bet they require a lot of work but try them if you have a chance.

Qutab
Qutab is a very thin pancake made out of flour and water with a very, very, very little of minced lamb, pumpkin, spinach or cheese. I don't recommend. They're good but they don't have much taste and you will not feel like you ate anything. Or maybe I was just unlucky?

Plov
Plov is the greatest dish I have tried here, it's definitely my favourite!! It requires a lot of work, a special type of rice, many grams of butter, raisins, apricots and walnuts. But it's worth it!! Plov is a rice dish with some chunks of either meat or chicken, dried fruits and saffron! There are many types of plov depending on the ingrediences you use but I assure you every one of them is great!

Paxlava
Baklava is the greatest of the desserts! There's nothing better: it's sweet, contains nuts and honey, always with some more nuts on the top! In March 2009, Azerbaijani bakers achieved an entry in the CIS book of records for baking the biggest and heaviest pakhlava in the CIS, weighing about 3 tons. More than 7 thousand eggs, 350 kg of nuts, 20 kg of almonds, 350 kg of sugar, and the same amount of flour was used in the preparation of the pastry*.

Halva and Shakerbura
What halva is everybody knows and I know especially. I can eat it all day long (and then hate myself)! Shakerbura is a funny thing. It looks like Polish pierogi with some ornaments on top and it's filled with a mixture of sweetened nuts. Yummy!

F.A.Q. part 1

I have been asked many basic questions about living in Azerbaijan and decided to put them all here to inform a bigger group of people at once. I'm assuming this is a first part of the questions so if you have some more don't hesitate to email me or leave a comment :)

1. How to communicate in Azerbaijan?

Unfortunately, the best way to communicate in Azerbaijan is to speak Azerbaijani language. If you know Turkish you're home but if not you might have some problems. The situation is a little easier in the capital, Baku. You will find many people who speak Russian and most of the products in the stores are labeled in Russian. I must say without any knowledge of Russian I would face a lot of difficulties here. The second foreign language you might use is English although take into account people here speak Azerbaijani English so you really need to focus to understand what people mean. Even the poor level of English language among the people of Azerbaijan many foreigners communicate only in this language. They live in the center of course which makes their lives a little easier.

2. Do I like Baku?

The most common question asked by everybody I meet :) I do like Baku, I like it very much. Not because I fell in love with the city but because it's so different from what I'm used to. The reason I chose Azerbaijan was to experience something new and exciting and I have to tell you I certainly got what I expected! I like the culture shock, I like how people don't understand us, Europeans and how we don't understand them. I like how we learn how different things are important for us and for them. I like the small differences that make me appreciate everything I have back at home. I like seeing those differences yet I'm so happy I don't have to live here. Take note that I'm writing this from a girl's perspective and as a guy you might have a different impression.

The center of the city is beautiful and very European-like. All the governmental institutions, parks, etc. are stunning and extremely impressive. But this is the touristic Baku, not the real one. Not the real Azerbaijan.

3. What do I do except of studying?

Good question. There's not that much to do in Baku. If you don't travel outside of the city and don't live in the center you most likely will be bored. The locals often spend their free time in çai evis playing games, smoking water pipes and of course drinking tea. When I say locals I mean men - the only entertainment the women get here is.. shopping? Hard to say since you don't see women here that often. The center has much more to offer. Around Fountain Square, a main meeting point in the city, you will find a bunch of places you can go to in the evening. One that I'd recommend is the only, if I'm not mistaken, wine house in Baku, called Room. It offers a variety of wines from Spain, Italy and Azerbaijan and every Wednesday they organize Aperitivo Italiano with a free boufet. Needless to say THIS is a place you will find me most :)

4. How are the Azerbaijani people?

Well.. I cannot deny they are the most hospitable, sharing and curious people. For most of them that I've met I'm the first and only foreigner they see. Often it happens that we get invited to smebody's house for tea which here mean a few hor stay with talking, drinking tea, trying some local sweets and sometimes also food. Very often they want to help us if we have a problem, they reassure us that we can always call if anything happens. In general they are very, very nice.
But there's always another side of the coin:
The curiosity has no boundaries here which is best explained in this picture I found in the Internet:

Most of the people we meet at school are also very immature and a lot of times I feel like I'm in middle school again.
One other thing is something I have been predicting before I arrive here and that is the lack of indifference for their actions. Everything they do has a second meaning. Since we're European they see some advantages they can get from us and some of the people would never even talk to us unless they wanted something. That kind of attitute I can feel more and more the longer I stay here.
Girls should also be careful with Azerbaijani boys. It's better not to smile or even look at some of them because they might immediately think you're interested in them. And if they do they will not let you live. So one advice: don't ever give out your phone numbers!

5. How is your university's teaching level?

When it comes to my university I have really mixed feelings because the way the classes are supposed to be conducted and the tasks we're supposed to have are quite ambicious. Some of the teachers really try to differentiate the classes and make them more interesting. Every classroom has a projector and each time we follow everything on a multimedia presentation. The thing is, the presentatons are later sent to the students so nobody pays attention to what is going on in the class. The classes themselves look exactly like in high school with one difference: nobody ever takes notes. What's more, nobody even has a notebook. Or a pen. I relaly doubt they're trying to type everythign in their iPhones but what else whould they be doing? ;)
One advantage I have here is that for each class we have to write a paper - a thing that's so unlikely to happen at my university back home. I concider it as a nice feature for myself but the fact is, I don't learn much here.

6. Life expenses in Baku

Baku is a very expensive city. Long time ago I learnt not to calculate the currency change because multiplying everything by 4 each time would give me a headache :) Even though some prices are so high I always laugh when I go to the store. The most expensive thing here is the housing. The prizes are so high and even though we have to face all the problems with the apartment and the landlords it's ridiculous. But be prepared because even in the city center you will not escape the typical Azerbaijani issues; mostly connected to the heating (in the winter) and air conditioning (in the summer). One cheap thing you will find here is of course gas for about 0,4 AZN per liter (1 AZN ~ 1,075). That unfortunately doesn't mean you can get a really cheap cab here.. :( But the public transportation is quite ok and cheap, too. For a subway ride you have to pay 0,2 AZN each time you enter the metro (after purchaising a metro card for 2 AZN which is refoundable) with no difference if you change the trains. The cost of the bus is the same but beware of the huge traffic, especially in the rush hour which is hard to predict here. If you decide to drive a car yourself than you need to have some driving experience already and be very brave. There's no such thing as sticking to the right side of the road and believe me, no extra space will be left on the road. If there are any traffic rules, I have no idea. You will find some of the traffic signs but not many people pay attention to them. What matters here is the horn. If you're loud enough on the street and look at the ther drivers you might not get killed. But I cannot guarantee this.

Gobustan Petroglyphs

Can't believe it's December already. Time flies so fast now we have to catch every minute of our stay and even though not much can we do, little things can make us happy: sushi, hookah, car rides and most of all trips outside of the city!

Last weekend we decided to visit Gobustan, region of Azerbaijan, 64km south-west from Baku. The weather was perfect, sunny and warm and hanging out with the best people made this trip absolutely amazing!
We started out trip by taking a bus from the center of Baku ater transfering into a second bus. As long as I already got used to the typical marshrutkas the bus was far from the public transportation we were used to...

When we got to Gobustan we had to take a taxi and if I can recommed anything here is to take the one that has the funnies and open taxi driver since you're going to spend the whole day with him :))
We started our Lada journey by taking a bumpy road to see the mud volcanoes. If you're familiar with the crazy way of Azerbaijani driving (which is quickly beeing absorbed by all the people living in Azerbaijan..) just imagine how it felt like in the back seat of the car while driving up the moutain.. But the view outside of the window was too great to worry about our lives ;)

In the middle of the desert we were driving on, on the top of a montain, we found the famous mud volcanoes! They're active so be careful because it's quite slippery and you can see the mud-lava coming out of the volcano! Some of them were bigger, some of them were smaller but the most fun was a lone volcano a little difficult to climb at. Being afraid of hights or not you better climb it because the view is incredible.

After that we headed to the Gobustan National Historical Artistic Preserve which was designated a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 2007. It cointains ancient sites, the relics and vestiges of culture from over 2000 years ago. The place is famous for its rock carvings and proves of the human early civilisation. More information about the preserve you can find here: Gobustan Petroglyphs
Some of the carving you will see very clearly but with the others it's a little harder. If you use your imagination you can probably see a lot more than this place has to offer! Just look out for the snakes! Bu ilanlar var

The rocks you see on the pitures came here as a result of tectonic movements makind such a grea landscape that's so typical for this region. Some of them, like Qaval Daşı, might wake up the inner musician in you!

There's also a muzeum near the entrance to the preserve but I didn't get enough information about the petroglyphs nor the region but that might be because the taxi driver was in a hurry. Later we found out why but at the moment we didn't even have enough time to talk to the pretty boys standing outside of the museum...

We finished our trip sipping tea and talking to the family of our taxi driver. It still amazes me how hospitable those people are here. The day could not have ended better - eating Azerbaijani food while listening to the sound of a guitar in a genuine Azerbaijani home. Inshallah our next trip will end the same way :)

ADA 3rd Annual International Festival

Azerbaijan Diplomatic Academy is the reason of my happiness and depression in Azerbaijan. It's quite westernized and not very Azerbaijani. It's aim is to educate yound diplomats and business experts. It has a wide body of international students from Egipt, India, Indonesia, Iraq, Palestine, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, USA, Vietnam and many more.

ADA has been established in 2007 by Azerbaijan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs with Hafiz Pashayev, a former Ambassador of the Republic of Azerbaijan in the USA, as a rector of the university. ADA's focus, direction and international students make me want to study here. Whenever I'm with the ADA student I do feel like an Erasmus. The International Festival made me really think about doing my masters here, especially knowing all the facilities and an aid the university has to offer to the foreign students...

Just look at the pictures: doesn't it look like a Western university that you would like to study in?

*The pictures are made by an other source

The festival itself was greater than I could have imagined! Walking inside the university you would see a long aile of different countries' stalls. People were dressed up in their national clothes, prepared some traditional food and provided basic information about the countries.

Pakistan

The United States

The stall of the international students at the ADA

Egipt

Argentina

Indonesia

Apart from the stalls there was a boufet... I was lucky I didn't eat anything at home because there was SO MUCH GREAT FOOD! From so many countries! I don't know if it's because of the people I already knew but the Palestinian food definitely won the contest!

The students also prepared the artistic part of the festival with singing and mostly dancing. We could have seen the emotional Chinese dance, the Greek Zorba, the Indian dance (unfortunately not Tunak Tunak Tun) or the Egiptian and Palestinian boys who made the whole crown stand up and dance with them! Here you can see a wonderful Vietnamese girl performing a traditional Vietnamese dance:

Traditional Vietnamese Dance
One suggestion if you are ever planning on studying in Azzerbaijan: do chose the ADA! From what I've heard they might join the Erasmus Mundus/Erasmus + program in the next 2 years or so. Do it and I guarantee you will never regret it!

And here's a material done by Azerbaijani media about the event:
Yurd.tv

Şirvanşahlar sarayı

Şirvanşahlar sarayı (az. Shirvanshahs' Palace) is a fifteenth century castle and complex in İçəri Şəhər (az. the Inner City) in Baku.
It consists of the main building, Divankhana - a small stone pavilion, the Mausoleum, the Palace Mosque and the Bath-House.
Of course my luck would never let me see all of the buildings - some of them were under renovation with parts shipped all the way from Vienna.

First thing that caugh my attention was the entrance fee - it was only 60 qepiq for a student (regular ticket costs 2 manats). Additionally you can pay another 2 manats for taking pictures. Naturally, I didn't pay so the pictures I took are a result of my disobedience.

The Inner City is a city inside a city. It resembles Baku as a whole. Right next to the new builings and world famous Flame Towers there are 12th century streets with ancient history behind them.
The Shirvanshahs' Palace was built in the 15th century right after the Shirvan's capital was moved from Shamaha to Baku. It was a residence for Shirvanshah Khalilula I and his son Faruk who were both killed in the battle in 1501. The palace was seriously damaged in the 18th century durind the Russian invasion.
It was restored during 18-20th centuries. For more historical information please see: Walled City of Baku with the Shirvanshah's Palace and Maiden Tower as there was no guide when I was there excluding one woman who suddely appeared to explain us a few things in Russian. Can you imagine that those building stay there since the 15th century and are made of clay and eggs?

The chambers were all very small, with the additional entrance for the women (even smaller so they had to be bent over while going out). They also had quite a number of rooms upstairs but the stairs were very steep and curly. Aparantely the rooms upstairs were nit to be seen by the public but I would not be myself if I didn't check those misterious places.. ;)

Göyçay Nar Bayrami

Ancient Azerbaijan is a motherland of the pomagranate. Each year since 2006 there's a pomegranate festival held in Göyçay, about 4 hours drive from Baku. The Goychay pomegranate is different from the pomegranate growing in other regions for its taste, sorts, quality, special effect on health, etc. Goychay people hold the “Pomegranate Festival” every year and present the world with an unparalleled product which they create with hard work. More about the festival: Goycay Pomegranate Festival

Foreign students from different universities from Baku were invited to the festival which took place on November 3rd. We left at 7AM (Azerbaijani 7AM makes it 740AM) to get there at about 12PM. It seemed like this small little town wakes up every year to host foreign visitors and share the best they have to offer. We arrived with two buses to be welcomed by very interested and curious looks from the local people.
First thing that hit me in the face was that it was so different from Baku. In Baku people do look at me, especially when I walk when it's already dark (forget about wearing a dress..) but in Goychay we knew this is the first time they see somebody from another country. People were atring at us, following us, takig pictures with and of us. Children were talking to us in English which was quite surprising (because the people I meet at the university have a lot of trouble speaking in English) and really cute. The picture taking thing was tiring and emberassing too.. I can understand why celebrities are so fed up with the paparazzi...

Well the festival itself was GREAT! As a food lover as big as me you would feel the heavens! There was so much food, everywhere! We tried differet kinds of pomegranate juice, pomegranate fruits, pomegranate preserves, pomegranate wine (so good!), baklava, shekebura (a dumpling-shaped cookie with roasted almonds and nuts), different types of cakes, plov and more pomegranate juice!

That was not all! After we walked around to try all different foods we were invited for lunch! Already full but happy with our bags filled with fresh fruits we walked in a wedding reception ballroom! That's when the real party started! ;)
It was just like a regular wedding reception except there was no bride aad groom. So Azerbaijanis weddings are not that different from Polish ones although they do differ. At frist you get to eat: appetizers, 4 courses (meat, meat, kebab, plov), drink some wine or other drinks and then the dancing starts. Azerbaijani dance is so different from what I've seen so far. The boys try to move their legs as fast as you can, girls try to do almost the same but they do stay graceful the whole time. A little of Azerbaijani dance you can see here:

Azerbaijani dance

After the reception there was a concert so we got to listen to Azerbaijani music stars and being foreigners as we are we started another party just outside. Dancing to Azerbaijani music, watching the lampions go up to the sky and hanging out with people from so many countries gave me so much energy I didn't feel I was up for almost 24 hours :) It was the first time I felt I'm Erasmus and it feels absolutely great!

That wasn't the end, though. After the concert we had a dinner which was pretty much the same thing as lunch so just imagine how full we were by the end of the night! We finished at around 11PM to sleep all the way back to Baku. Everyone tired but happy with many new international friends!

Nar Bayrami - Pomegranate Festival is definitely something you have to do if you're in Azerbaijan in November! I strongly recommend it!!