Initial Impressions - AZ

---

So after spending a horrible 7 hours in Dubai Airport I finally made it to Baku. Thankfully I was able to nap on the plane and having a burger made me feel less sick and tired upon landing. The immigration process was suprisngly smooth, I almost laughed when the officer asked me if I spoke English. One of those, dude its the only language i speak moments. Getting my bags through was also scarily easy, they only x rayed my small bag and then just let me through.



So I got picked up by Piri, the MCVPTM here and he was nice enough to buy me a bottle of water to help out a very dehydrated me. I think after Malaysia, the heat wasnt as bad and considering itts like 30 + degrees here, im suprised at how easy it is to adjust. Anyways once Piri grabbed me, we met up with his friend who was kind enough to drive us and started on our way to Baku city centre. 2 main things stood out for me on the drive. Firstly the cars here have the driver on the left. Secondly, you can go up to 120 - 140 km on the Motorway legally. So the journey was pretty uneventful until some idiot started swearing at Piri's friend who proceeded to jump out of the car with a heavy metal object and argue with the guy for about 5 mins. The entire time im thinking wow 30 mins in the country and im already in a situation, looks like me + trouble isnt just limited to NZ. Anyways, the situation was resolved fairly peacefully and we continued our way to the apartment.



So the apartment it self. Its in the city centre on Nisami street next to Brot Haus for those of you that want to google map it. Its through a dodgy looking alley and very very dodgy looking stairs and building, however once inside its actually beautiful. Think like very homey soviet style house. Functional yet at the same time very classy and clean. So after this Piri had to run off to class which meant i got time to enjoy a nice shower and settle in a little to my room while waiting for Vit the MCVPICX to arrive.



So once Vit arrived we kind of hit it off immediately. He was a former LCP from the Czech Republic and we both have very similar intrests. We started chatting and decided to go get the "best kebabs" in Baku. So we took a nice walk around the city which suprised me by how clean and busy it is. Seriously even Queen Street has nothing on Baku. So we went to get my NZD exchanged to the local currency. According to the internet the rate was 1 Manat = 0.63 NZD, However most of the exchange places were offering approx 0.5 Manat = 1 NZD. After almost getting ripped off we managed to get a semi decent deal of 0.55 Manat for 1 NzD. So onto food The Kebab here was pure amazing. I got the Lamb Plov which is like shaved lamb meet on this spriced rice with a ring of veges on the outside. Seriuosly AMAZING food. AND it was only like 10 NZD for a HYPER fancy meal and a very fancy resturant.

Anyways onto a more interesting story. After we went to meet Wieteke who is an intern from Holland that also stays with us. This was at a bar where she was having a few quiet drinks with some work mates, which meant I got to meet non AIESEC locals. So im chatting away to these guys and one of them who is only 20 suddenly says,if you want girls, come to me, ill get you them really cheap. Now at this moment im just stunned that a 20 year old is saying this. I stumble my way through a no thanks and process this. I still laugh whenever i replay this in my head. a 20 yo pimp. That is crackup. I tried a local beer Xirdalan, which was quite light. Kind of like export but a bit more taste. Id give it a 5 - 6/10.

After we came back to the flat, I ended up helping out Vit solve some Legisliation documentation which was quite funny. One of those ahh AIESEC will never leave you moments. Its quite cool with the AIESEC here as they are only 4 yo which means theyre still new. However despite their age, their results and MC team are quite strong and I see them quite easily being able to beat an established entity like AIESEC NZ in terms of results.

Anyway, that about wraps up the first day.

So day 2 started with me waking up to Wieteke kindly offering me some local melon. That taste quite good and i really enjoyed it. I think I may go hunting for it later on today. Then i decided to go for my first explore of the city on my own. I went with a 5 mins in each direction from my flat method and managed to find an amazing bakey which had the nicest pastrys I have ever had. They have this one filled with grapes and a chocolate paste thats actually mindblowing. So after foodgasming over this I also found a good looking resturant and a nice net cafe and a bar which i decided I would visit later that night. So by this time Vit arrives home and we decide to go get lunch at the fancy resturant i saw. I got a local pizza which tasted pretty good. The local cheese here is quite nice.

So after dinner/lunch we decided to have a few drinks. So we started wtih Effes which is a turkish beer. That was fairly decent and tasted similar to a less sweet tui. Id give it a solid 6/10. This led us to start on the Barcardi Black I got in duty free. Thankfully we didnt break into my Glenfiddich. After a few drinks Vit needed to sleep as he had work early so i resolved to go to the bar i saw earlier just to try it out.



Now this is when SHIT GOT REAL. Upon entering the bar i get literally jumped by 5 pretty hot chicks. Thankfully i realised right away they were hookers so I decided to act hyper innocent and convinced them that I was not interested AT ALL. I managed to order my beer in peace and the minute i sat down, 2 of them spent the entire night trying to get close to me. One of them randomly took out my piercing and i had to pretty much use sign language to get that back. So after about 30 mins i decided I really wasnt enjoying trying to convince 2 hookers that I was not interested so I opted out and managed to make it home and get some much needed rest.



So that wrapped up day 2.



However I think its necessary to dedicate a small section to Katrina the kitten that lives in our flat. This kitten is a mixture of cute, crazy and semi homocidal. Its awesomely active which means hours of fun mplaying with her however this also means my arms are covered in bite marks and scratches. Today when i was eating pizza, she decided she wanted some and everytime my back was turned started eating it. When i tried to left her up, she grabbed on the pizza and started eating it mid air. Also she went crazy everytime i took her away. Eventually i gave up and gave her the pizza in her food bowl. So yes a tiny as kitten has me as its bitch. Still she is really cute and awesomely fun so i guess i wont complain for now.



So what I have learnt so far.

a) You can get ripped of really easily in Baku.

b) Hardly ANYONE speaks english

c) The food here is amazing.

d) The sun here is hot,.

e) The bars are full of hookers

f) Ciggarettes are scarily cheap here. like $2 nz for a 20 pack

g) Tap water is not safe to drink

h) Scratches hurt

i) Bus drivers are homocidal and will run anything over.



Anyways thats it for now. Hopefully a lot more adventures to come but I think i can def manage a year here at least without getting bored.



Lata

Nix

---

Comments

[Nawfal's God]

"Ciggarettes are scarily cheap here. like $2 nz for a 20 pack"
Let me guess, you're going to come back with lung cancer. Your blog needs photos, I totally tl:dr but then i read from bottom paragraph upward to the first paragraph. It was entertaining. Please be careful, be street wise, don't let get jumped by randoms because that's my role.