Baku After Dark

 

The Maiden Tower lit up for the evening, with Azerbaijani carpets for sale

I slept through the supper hour yesterday and I was not going to sleep through it again today. The restaurant that was highly recommended both by the food and beverage director of my hotel, and by my walking guide from yesterday, was Qaynana.

Traditional Azerbaijani cuisine in the Old City. And that means: kebab. And "kebab" means barbecue. Skewers optional.

Non-pretentious atmosphere.

My beverage was a pear lemonade. It was good, but it was so sweet it tasted like pear-infused cotton candy. Art cotton candy, I guess.

Prices were ridiculously cheap. Seven manat (about $4.20) for the chicken kebab. At that price, I assumed appetizer-sized portions, so I ordered a main dish.  Here was the chicken kebab:

That's a lot of bird. As is typical for chicken breast meat in other parts of the world, the breast had flavor and, more importantly, did not have the rubberband texture of chicken breast stateside. Seasoned red onion on the side. I was full.

But I had a main course coming.

Azerbaijani style fesenjan. I love fesenjan. It's my "go to" order in a Persian restaurant. The Mediterranean Cafe in Las Vegas makes a particularly tasty version.  Fesenjan is a stew made with chicken meat in a flavorful sauce made from pulverized nuts and a pomegranate.

 

 A couple of interesting things about this fesenjan. First, it was much more "pomegranate forward" than the fesenjan back home in Las Vegas. This is not good or bad. It's just an observation. It did make the dish sweeter. And the rice was served cooked in bread for some delicious starch-on-starch action. All that for 15 manat. In U.S. dollars: $9.00.  It was excellent but, unfortunately, not knowing what the portion size would be, I could not finish it. Ate most of the chicken, a fair amount of rice and sauce were left uneaten. No dessert, of course, even though I am 100 percent certain the dessert options would have been outrageously awesome.

So to walk off all that delicious Azerbaijani food, it was time to walk around the lit-up Old City Baku.

Turn a corner and run into an old friend:

The Flame Towers. Or, a Flame Tower. Lit up in green!

Shall we zoom in closer?

I'm going to go out onto a bit of a limb here, but if the bar/restaurant has the name "Sultan" in it, it's probably not authentic. Might be a tourist magnet, don't you think?

The lights on the Flame Towers kept changing. I was too slow to catch it when it was lit up with the colors of the Azerbaijani flag. But I did catch this:

Even the archaeology is lit up for the night:

And the day (and the night) ends at the Maiden Tower:

Finally, the jet lag ebbed enough to let me experience Baku After Dark.

The Carpet Museum and a Walk on the Boulevard

The shopping mall on the Boulevard

Next up on the agenda was the Azerbijani Carpet Museum.

Why, you may ask. Carpets are an important part of Azerbaijani cultural tradition, The Caucasus region was one of the first places on Planet Earth (our planet) (the one we call home) to develop a weaving culture. And it's supposed to be a very interesting and, most definitely, it is a unique museum. And I like museums dedicated focus on non-traditional museum things. And, to top it off, it's in a building shaped like what inside: a carpet! Do you need any more reasons than that?

Well, I don't.

The carpet in the foreground of that line features a camel motif. Camels are important cultural symbols. They symbolize humpin' to get through the drudgery of life. Actually, I don't think that's quote it. Endurance, maybe? Prosperity?

And here a room of carpets.

I once was in a room that was fully carpeted. Even the walls were carpeted. But with deep pile monochromatic carpet. It was the Jungle Room in Elvis's Graceland. This carpeted room did not evoke Elvis or Memphis or Graceland. Cool nonetheless.

This museum, by the way, had the strangest photography policy I've yet encountered. Cameras are not allowed. But you were allowed to take pictures with your phone. Just not a camera dedicated to picture-taking. Sometimes I just shake my head ...

You can see the shape of the building -- the side curve -- on these carpet displays.

This one unusually displays humans, instead of the traditional Islamic geometric designs:

The carpets in this section are separated and placed to highlight local traditions in technique and design.

If you want me to explain what local design traditions are evidenced by the above display, well, that's a above my vacation-level pay grade. You're going to have to hire a knowledgeable tour guide for that sort of information and I, not being as into carpet as some who visit this museum, did not do that.

This was a huge carpet with a camp scene (which included people) in the middle surrounded by the geometric design.

This was one of my favorites:

If the price were right, I would buy it and display it in my house. I like the design, I reminded me of an Advent Calendar.

And we will end with this one:

A carpet weaved to commemorate Azerbaijani victory over (who else?) the Armenians in the recent 44-day "Patriotic War" in 2021. Yes, even carpet-weaving can be timely, reflecting current events.

My feet are now getting tired. The sun is getting hotter. Might be time for a mid-day jetlag-required siesta. Instead, I choose to walk the Boulevard.

This is the pedestrian walk along the Caspian Sea harbor. You could call it a "boardwalk," since actual timber "boards" are not required to make a boardwalk in this day and age.

Lots and lots of small stands. Most sell ice cream, or cold beverages, or hot coffee. But there was an old-fashioned shooting gallery:

Do they still have these in the USA? Are have they gone out of favor? But here, out there on the Boulevard, the shooting galley remains part of the fun scene, Children (or adults) shooting ducks and other small objects (Armenians? This is Azerbaijan after all!) for the thrill of it all. 

Art Cotton Candy! Get your cotton candy dyed and sculpted into various shapes, such as green Ninja Turtle. Because if you are going to eat pure sugar, it might as well be dyed.

And here is the Coffee Bus!

I got a chocolate milkshake and lesson in life. What life lesson did I get at a coffee bus? The gentleman working the coffee bus asked me where I was from and I answered "Las Vegas, United States." He got a huge smile on his face and said something about wanting to see Las Vegas. And here's the life lesson. We in Las Vegas keep hearing that tourism numbers are way down and Las Vegas is on the decline. But wherever whenever I travel and I mention that I am from Las Vegas, it always gets a smile and a comment about wanting to visit Las Vegas some day. So things may be down here, but we're not out. Las Vegas is still a place that people the world over love and brings them a smile. Thank you for the reminder, Mr. Coffee Bus.

And, finally, a giant chess board.

Azerbaijanis love chess. And right along the Boulevard is a giant chess set to prove it. Some toddler had been moving the chess pieces around, but obviously the kid was chess-illiterate. He but both black bishops on black squares. A chess impossibility! I hope his parents corrected him.

Getting close to the hotel, I walk the street behind the hotel.

This is the street filled with restaurants with English language names. You might even have to ask for the Azerbaijani language menu. Some international chains (Gloria Jeans coffee, Cinnabon) or stand-alone restaurants evoking American imagery (the bar called "Friends" no thank you). The people working at my hotel told me not to go to the restaurants on this street and, instead, recommending Azerbaijani restaurants in the Old City reached by walking out the front door. Go west! Not east. At least when you're in Baku, staying at The Merchant, and need supper.

Fun Fun Fun Funicular Away

Funicular station with (two of the three) Flame Towers looming behind
("Looming" is a foreshadowing because the day also included a visit to the Azerbaijan Carpet Museum.)

What you doing on your bed on your back?

You should be tourist-ing.

I was feeling all jetlaggy, laying in bed (on my back) and then it hit me:  I should be tourist-ing. More importantly, I should be out doing the things that brought me to Baku. Not the Maiden Tower, although it's impressive especially given its age: built halfway up in the fifth century A.D. or so and completed to its full height in the 12th Century A.D., which is very very tall for its era.

Not this attractive building:

Much newer than the Maiden Tower by uncountable centuries.  This is the Art Gallery Hotel, I believe.

And not this building:

But we're getting closer.

The Swan Fountain is even closer:

Mini-Venice is even closer.

But we're not going to take a gondola to get where we're going.

The Carpet Museum is a destination, but not the first stop of the day:

This is where we are headed first:

Well, not the Behram-ı Gür Monument. But what's behind it:

The funicular!

Ain't no fun like FUNicular fun.

Baku has only one funicular. The entire nation of Azerbaijan has one funicular. And this is it.

The funicular to Highland Park and the Flame Towers.

The ride to the top was quick. Not especially long and high. Not really steep. Is it the best funicular I've ever ridden? Not the right question. It's the funicular available to ride today and that, my friends, is more than good enough.

Pop out of the station, look to the right, and there's a Flame Tower and a mosque.

That is the Alley of Martyrs Mosque. It's Friday, so the call to prayer was audible. This is being Azerbaijan, I suspected that the "martyrs" referenced in the mosque name were Azerbaijanis killed fighting the Armenians at some point in that multi-century conflict. So I googled it. Google AI said I was mostly right. The martyrs were fighting the Armenians. But they were Ottoman soldiers who died fighting the Russian Bolshevik and Armenian soldiers in the Battle of Baku in 1918.

The view from the top of the funicular route is impressive.

The most prominent building in that picture -- and you'll be able to figure it out when I tell you the building's name -- is the Crescent Hotel.

And here's a typical tourist touristing in the tourist quarter of Baku:

I asked the young lady taking my picture for me to use the "beauty filter" -- like all the cool kids do nowadays -- to reduce the size of my gut. I think it worked.

More Flame Towers juxtaposed with the funicular station:

Let's take a stroll through Highland Park and enjoy the magnificent views:

Do you prefer your view of the Crescent with or without?

With trees?

Or without trees?

It was about then I noticed window-washers on the curved side of one of the Flame Towers:

So many viewpoints:

So many buildings in the harbor.

The body of water is, of course, the Caspian Sea.

Which isn't really, technically a "sea." It's the world's largest lake. What's second, you ask? My tour guide Azay from yesterday googled this so I didn't have to. It's Lake Superior.

This is "Eye of Baku".

It's another one of those giant ferris wheels that're in all the cities everywhere. Baku is not bucking the trend, It's riding the trend like me riding up on a funicular.

So what is that building, you may ask, that from way up here, looks like a flower opening up?

It's just a shopping mall. Deniz Mall. It's funny -- curious way not ha-ha way -- the shopping mall concept is dead in the USA but thriving in the rest of the world. Baku, apparently, being no exception.

Zooming in on the Eye of Baku:

And as I wander back to the Flame Towers:

It's getting close to time to descend. The timing being dictated by the fact that this particular funicular goes on lunch break everyday between 1:00 p.m. and 2:00 p.m. Actually, it's probably the funicular workers who take the lunch break, although the funicular itself is on break, too.

Time for one last selfie up top:

And back at the funicular station with the minutes to spare before the final pre-lunch descent.

Miss it and you have to walk down ten million stairs. It's probably actually fewer than that. But the knees will think it was ten million.

And back in the lowlands. And like the statue in the middle of the fountain, I'm looking at the Azerbaijan Carpet Museum. It's the day's next destination.