Where is it located?
Azerbaijan is a country located in the Caucasus region. They are one of the countries which were part of the Soviet Union. Azerbaijan shares borders with Iran, Georgia, Armenia and on an exclave also with Turkey.
The capital Baku is the biggest city and also the place where most people going to start their trip in the country, same as me.
What were my expectations?
I was expecting a city which would be very modern and have many tourists. I was thinking that there would be many people speaking English and also that it would be quite expensive.
Beaches which would be easy to reach.
How did I experience Azerbaijan during my time there?
After getting out of the airport I was taking a bus and trying to get to my host, who is living in the opposite direction of the center. Nobody was able to help me, because English wasn’t widely spoken, and no other tourist was there with me, so I just tried my best by communicating with hands and feets. Someone at the end was able to help me by speaking a little bit of German.
I was getting out of the wrong station, but managed somehow to get to the right station by taking the metro. I wasn’t expecting a metro to be honest and the metro was cheap as well.
Walking to my host from the station was interesting, old soviet buildings and it reminded me a little bit of Chernobyl, quite cool, but not what I was expecting. Sheeps were walking around and everything wasn’t looking like a capital in a country like Azerbaijan.
Baku’s old town was quite pretty and historically interesting, but the rest of the city had in my opinion no soul and I wasn’t enjoying the city at all.
Also while I was visiting there was the huge attack on the Karabakh region, which luckily wasn’t ending in a massacre, this was also overlaying my experience.
Food and prices
The food I tried was as a pescatarian, basically falafel sandwiches which I personally like a lot, the most food was with meat. Mainly I’ve seen fast food restaurants, which wasn’t at all what I expected, so don’t know if that’s common or popular, but besides the USA I would not expect fast food to be a cultural cuisine.
The food which wasn’t just fast food reminded me a lot of the Turkish restaurants in Germany then the actual Turkish food in Turkey, which was quite weird and disappointing.
Prices were actually quite cheap, you could go to fancy places of course, but that’s not necessary. Prices for public transportation were fair and actually cheap. The metro was fast and working super well, so I wouldn’t complain at all!
The pastries were really good and I enjoyed them a lot, only surprising when it is the opposite though, because pastries are something I enjoy a lot.
How are the locals in Azerbaijan?
The locals I met on Couchsurfing were super friendly and welcoming which I enjoyed a lot, besides that many people were rude to me and also quite nationalistic.
They were similar to people in Turkey, speaking with a Turkish accent and I wasn’t enjoying it with most of them sadly.
I was seeing and hearing a lot of hate toward the direction of Armenia, same as when I visited Armenia toward Azerbaijan and that’s something I really don’t like.
Summary
Azerbaijan is a small country, but a country with a lot of influence in the world. I absolutely was negatively surprised by my stay in Baku so that I wasn’t even motivated to see anything else. The city has no soul and isn’t a place in which I was able to find happiness or motivation to come back.
I was there during the huge attack on the Karabakh region, which was something that might have affected my time in Baku a little bit. Still even after reflecting a lot and relooking at the pictures from the trip I still can’t say that something, besides the post soviet places which looked like Chernobly, was really positive, surprising me.
After visiting 90 countries I have to say that what I saw from Azerbaijan can’t make it out of the lowest spots.
Stay tuned for the next expectations vs reality article.
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