Our first impressions of Baku

Salam, everybody!

As I mentioned in my earlier post, we moved on to our new post about two months ago.
So far, we are really loving it here!
Azerbaijan is a country that most people we talk to have never heard about. It has just in recent years become a little bit more known to people because of the Eurovision Song Contest that Baku hosted in 2012, the first European Olympic Games and a Formula 1 race that both took place in Baku last year. I hope Azerbaijan is going to host more international events and attract more tourists in the years to come. Anthon and I have traveled quite a bit in the past few years and agree that Baku is one of the most beautiful cities we have been to and is therefore definitely worth a trip.

Azerbaijan is very fascinating to me. About 98% of Azerbaijanis are Muslim and you can definitely see some Middle Eastern influence in the buildings here, but then Baku also feels a lot like a rich Eastern European city like Budapest or Prague. You can feel and see that Azerbaijan has been part of the Soviet Union for about 70 years. Especially the political buildings and statues remind me of the former Soviet Union, but then you look around and see a mosque or a building with typical middle Eastern art patterns. Coming from Saudi, this mix is just very interesting to see.

Middle Eastern patterns on this fire tower

But then a very European looking Symphony hall

Not sure what this building is, but if you take a closer look, you can see some typical Middle Eastern arches and other adornments

Polish Embassy - the windows reminded me of Jeddah's famous Roshan windows that looked very similar

The Muslims here are mostly very liberal, eat pork (although it is not offered much in restaurants), have never been to a mosque in their life, dress "normal" and not especially conservatively, and people even celebrate Christmas. I've already seen first Christmas decorations at the stores this week and we are looking forward to experiencing our first cultural Christmas here soon.

The city is very clean, there are many old, but well maintained as well as new, modern and slick looking high rises.

Very modern looking Cultural Center

The famous Flame Towers that are lit with LED lamps

View over the city

The old downtown area is very nice to walk around, and Baku is full of little parks with fountains and beautiful trees. There is also a very nice broad 3.75km long boardwalk along the Caspian Sea with cafes, carousels, malls, museums, a ferris wheel, a bike park, and more fountains and trees.
We also really like walking around in the main downtown area that reminds us of German pedestrian precincts.

Downtown area at night

There is also an old, walled downtown area with cobble streets, called Icheri Sheher that is really nice to walk through. It dates back to at least the 12th century and has been a UNESCO world heritage site since 2000. There are several little tourist souvenir shops, a nice art gallery, small restaurants and huts where old Russian looking ladies make tendir, the traditional Azeri bread baked in a clay oven. The salespeople are surprisingly unobtrusive, which makes it very pleasant to walk and look around.

The Maiden Tower, the symbol of Baku, in the old downtown area

Walls that surround the old downtown 

I love the mix between old and new

We were put in an apartment in a high-rise about 3km away from the old downtown area (we have only little say in where we get to live). The apartment is quite spacious, but nothing luxurious and I was, quite honestly, a little shocked when we first entered our new home. I made some changes, moved furniture around, added personal touches and we now really like it and feel comfortable here.

Although I like that our apartment feels a lot more private than our home on our last compound did, I feel like it is more difficult to meet new people. It was super easy to make friends on our last compound, but I'm having a hard time meeting new people here. I guess I'm meeting new people every once in a while, but we haven't met many people that we really click with. I'm sure we will find good friends eventually, but it just takes a little bit more time than it did in Jeddah, I think.
I go to a kids' club a couple of times a week with William where he can run around and play with all kinds of toys. Before signing up, we were told that most US embassy moms sign up their kids there, so I thought that it would be a great way to connect with other mothers. I've been there so many times now and I have only met 1 other Western lady that speaks English. I have yet to meet somebody from the embassy there.
I think the problem is that pretty much all expats have nannies that go there with the children, so the mothers never really go to the club. Oh well.... at least William likes it there, right? :-)
And at least they have free wi-fi for me.

William in his toy heaven :-)

Besides the little connection problem, we are really enjoying our new city life. It makes me feel like I really live here in Baku, whereas I felt like I was living in a small, Western bubble on our compound in Jeddah.
From here, we can just hop in a cab or Uber taxi and go anywhere for really cheap. Taking an Uber taxi to the downtown area costs about $1.17 - so cheap!
We bought a nice car for a great deal before coming here, but taking an Uber taxi is sometimes more convenient.

Talking about cheap, eating out is fairly affordable here, too. For one of our date nights, we went to the Four Seasons hotel, sat down in their lounge, ordered two mocktails, a cheese platter that was pretty big, and then 4 little cake pieces. I think we paid around $24 for everything. Remember, this was at the Four Seasons, the nicest hotel in town.
Going to the movies is super cheap, too. A ticket costs $2.33 per person. So, we go together and watch an English movie, buy two popcorn cups, two drinks and only pay around $8 - that's pretty awesome!
The typical local street food, a doner (different from the döner that you get in Germany) and an ayran drink only cost 1.5 Azeri Manat, which is only $0.87.

Salads might be cheap here, but they are a little bit too hardcore for us with the whole dill and parsley branches and no dressing :-)

Room service at a hotel. We were super hungry and ordered way too much, but we got all this for $21.

Traditional Azerbaijani restaurant

We have also found a great babysitter that we are very, very happy with. She is a local, but speaks English very well. She has been very helpful with her knowledge about the city and where to get things.
As a specialist, Anthon unfortunately rarely gets any language training, but we are surviving here with English.... and our hands and feet. It's definitely a little bit more difficult than it was in Jeddah though, where most people spoke English.



So yeah, generally the transition has been pretty smooth. Every time we drive or walk around the city, we tell each other that we are so happy to be here. It is really a nice place and we hope to convince our families and friends to come and visit us while we are here ;-) Book your tickets!