Refreshed Eyes: Azerbaijan From A Visitor's Perspective

My eyes, though refreshed, sometimes see things a little blurry...

This past week I was lucky enough to get a visit in Azerbaijan from an American friend.  Ingrid has been living overseas, working for Cirque du Soleil, for a while now.  She first spent two years in Macau and is now traveling through Western Europe.  She had a tour break and decided to hop on by and see what Peace Corps life is like.

We spent our first night in Baku.  Now, I've spent a bit of time in Baku, and the Boulevard-the massive pedestrian mall that borders the Caspian sea-has become an all too common place.  In fact, it represents an annoying cultural quirk of the Azeri people-that more than doing activities, like going to the movies, or bowling, or whatever, they just like strolling up and down and up again.  Living here for a while, the Boulevard became an example of the lack of options for entertainment in Baku.

However, spending time with Ingrid I was able to enjoy it from her perspective, as a constant outdoor fair.  In becoming obsessed with all the people walking up and down I forgot to turn my attention to the carnival rides and haunted houses that dot the path, or the outdoor restaurants that look out upon the people and bay.  Thinking of all the things I could not do blinded me to the attractions I did have available to me.

Ingrid was most surprised to see that places like the Boulevard or Targova Square, which is a downtown area filled with restaurants and bars, outdoor sculpture and shopping, existed in Azerbaijan at all.  To some degree, she was expecting what we saw in outer Baku-its crumbling Soviet era buildings and snarled traffic-but instead she found she was shocked by how nice Baku was.

Getting to Khachmaz was where the Peace Corps experience became a bit more apparent.  After viewing Glendene's toilet and my shower she was amazed at the time and creative energy it took to keep personal hygiene up to a certain standard.  It was amazing to her the amount of effort it took to get my shower working-only to find that 'working' was simply a trickle of cold water.

And, hearing her mention that, I realize she is sort of right.  I probably spent over 10 hours trying to 'fix' my shower, and all the fix gave me was what we would consider a broken shower in America.  But this broken shower is my only saving grace when it comes to sleeping in any semblance of comfort during the hot, muggy summers.

In fact, most of Khachmaz, when she first saw it, struck her as a little bit slummy.  Keep in mind: this is the place I've been writing how nice it was compared to other cities in Azerbaijan for the past two years.  But she mentioned that the longer she stayed in the city and the more we walked around and saw the places I would go, the more she came to see the charm and enjoyment of it.

This reached a high point when we came home from the beach.  We spent the day at the seaside, eating watermelon and playing in the waves.  From there we went to Glendene's house to use her good shower and rid ourselves of the Caspian smell.  Finally, after a long and fun day, we arrived back at my apartment.  And here Ingrid realized how nice it was, what a relief it was to be in this place instead of another house or hotel.  Suddenly it no longer looked older and rundown, but lived in and comfortable. (video HERE)

And she's right-it is.  Certainly its not on a the same level as apartments in America.  But there is a homeyness in it that helps one to enjoy the time spent here, whether thats for 2 days or 2 years.

It was great to see an old friend and give someone a sense of Peace Corps living.  But it was especially nice to get their perspective on a culture that has become all too normal to me.  Being with a friend who was seeing Azerbaijan with new eyes helped me to see it with refreshed eyes.