Flag Square on a windy day, is not a great day to go.

 

In the photo above you are supposed to be looking at the world's second tallest flag {it was the tallest for four months before Tajikistan beat it}. Unfortunately because the wind simply Has. Not. Stopped. Blowing this weekend the flag was taken down. Dan's day was ruined. So we went to get ice cream.

That one time we went out after dark...we might do it again sometime

If you're driving in Baku, you need to know where your horn is

A couple of weeks ago, when we first got here and ventured out to the supermarket that morning, one thing that we both noticed was the curbs. They are huge. I'm talking a good two feet higher than the road in some places, and at least a foot in others.

I guess we didn't really think too much of it - maybe the paving slabs are particularly thick here or the builders just had left over cement. But it wasn't until the other day when someone at work said something that it all made sense: the pavements are so high off the road because if they weren't the cars would be using them as an additional lane. Which I thoroughly believe to be true.

The driving here is crazy. There are no rules, at least no rules that people follow. Not even the police. One way road but you want to go the opposite way? No problem! Traffic lights have turned red but you want to go? Just go for it!

And it wouldn't be so bad if it was just a simple road with a lane going in each direction, but most of the roads have at least 5 lanes.

I thought it couldn't be too bad as we hadn't seen a car crash despite the chaos. Then we got to Friday night last week, and bam, right in front of us a taxi didn't slow down out of a junction and slammed right into the oncoming traffic. Thankfully no one was hurt, but still. You'd think they'd take a little more care.

It explains why half of the roads here have escalators and subways to allow you to go right underneath the craziness above. 

So, for now at least, we have eyes in the back of our head when we cross the street.

Our weekend in photos

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Weeks are just longer in Azerbaijan

I'm sure for most people their first week in a new job flies by, but I swear they must have at least 12 days in their week here because this. Week. Has. Taken. Forever.

And so far, we've come up with two big conclusions about Baku; they really like fountains {they are literally everywhere}; and when it comes to driving there are no rules - on Tuesday our minibus driver took a wrong turn so he reversed and drove the wrong way up a one way, 5-lane main road of oncoming traffic in rush hour.

We moved into our temporary accommodation on Wednesday - it's nothing fancy, just a hotel room with a microwave and toaster. But at least it means we're only 10 minutes from work so we don't have to get the bus each morning. Plus the view is pretty awesome.

Now that we're based in the centre of the city everything is so much easier to walk to, which makes it a lot more convenient as we can practically fall out of bed and into a supermarket. But what we can buy food-wise is still pretty limited as we have nowhere to cook {and microwave meals don't seem to have made it here quite yet}. So we're sticking to the basics - milk, bread, cereal - and then eating out for lunch and dinner.

Some things are really cheap, a loaf of bread is about 20p, but then some things are really expensive, like my jar of peanut butter for £3. But it probably all evens out in the end.

Besides hanging out at the pool this weekend we went to explore the Old City. It's the original walled town of Baku with lots of old buildings, carpet shops and other sights. It was really good, but all I could think about the whole time was how much of an amazing job the designers at Disney's Animal Kingdom do, because it looked exactly like that. We're going to go back when it gets a bit cooler and do the guided tour.

We also experienced our first Baku blackout on Friday night. We were sitting on the terrace at the Marriott with a few friends and suddenly everything went out. Even the fire pits. And for a city where every building is lit up for as far as your eye can see, it was a big deal. I'm just glad we were still sitting down and not walking back by then.

And that was pretty much our week. Aside from our medicals, but I'll tell you  about that another time.

We're really in Baku. And we live here

Hot is the one word that I would use to describe the past couple of days. We ventured out on Saturday morning and by 11am the temperature had hit 38 degrees. I stopped looking after that. It's not as bad as I thought 35+ would feel though.

 

We haven't seen too much of the city yet but we have been to the supermarket. Which was such a funny experience. Some of the things are exactly the same as home - coke, milka chocolate, shampoo. But some of the things we had to rely on pictures and translators to identify. And the amount of cheese they have. My goodness. Row after row of every cheese you could possibly imagine.

 

Dan and I played it safe buying lunch, a couple of rolls, some slices if cheese and even asking at the deli counter for some slices of Turkey. We also bought some water only to take a sip find out it was sparkling. So we tipped that away and went back in to buy some of the still variety. We won't make that mistake again!

 

We've been around the harbour and the mall and fountain square briefly, but we'll go back and do those properly when the weather cools down a bit. Most if the time though we've been hanging out around the pool. There's lots of people there from either Glasgow or London that Dan knows so we've been chatting to them.

 

Our apartment isn't ready yet but we'll be moving into our temporary accommodation on Wednesday which will be a lot closer to work and the centre, so we'll be able to explore a bit more then.

 

It does feel a bit like we're on holiday at the moment, so I think reality will kick in properly when we start work tomorrow.

Salam from Azerbaijan!

Well we made it! The flight was pretty uneventful...we watched a film, ate a meal, landed. The usual.

 

 

When we arrived there was a lovely girl waiting to take us to the visa desk then through passport control {while everyone else queued} before handing us over to a guy who collected our luggage an then finally taking us to our driver. Dan and I want to know where we book that service for future!

 

I am just so thankful that all of our luggage was there. A poor guy called Sean who we'll be working with in Baku landed with us and none of his cases turned up. We offered to lend him some of our things but he said he had bits in his hand luggage that would last until Sunday night when the cases should eventually arrive.

 

We exchanged a few Pounds into Manats before we left the airport - I'm worried that if banks are open only Monday to Friday and we can't get away from work we might not be able to get any cash {Azerbaijan is one of the countries that doesn't let currency out of the country, so you can't buy it before you come}. So at least that should sort us out for a while.

 

Our driver was great {he even managed to fit our six suitcases into a car that should probably hold no more than three!}. He was an official Baku 2015 driver so knew all the sight to point out to us - the Olympic stadium, the gymnastics stadium, the athletes' village.

 

When you get into the city the buildings are amazing. They are either really modern or look like you are in New York's upper east side. And I have no idea how much electricity they must use, but almost every building is lit...and they look beautiful. That was pretty much all we saw of it yesterday {well, that and a W H Smiths!!}.

 

We checked into the hotel, got room service and went straight to sleep. We're going to go out and explore today.

So we're unpacking, and repacking. All day.



 

It's starting to feel a little more real now. We're moving to Azerbaijan. Tomorrow.

 

The past week has been a blur of getting everything sorted and saying goodbye to people that we won't see for a while. We're almost there, a late-night shopping trip yesterday on the hunt for Cadbury's giant chocolate buttons ticked one more thing off the list, and we've spent most of today packing {and then unpacking and repacking to get the weight right}.

 

We'll be flying out tomorrow morning which means a 4am wake up call, but I've been attempting to get a jump start on the jet-lag. We've been getting up an hour earlier each day so that the four hour time difference in Baku won't be as bad when we have to be up for work on Monday. Or so the theory goes. Dan's not so great at it.

 

So that's it. Six suitcases, 10 bottles of shampoo, and three learn to speak Russian apps loaded on the phone, we're ready to go.

Farewell Glasgow...you've been great.

If moving was a sport, I'm sure we would have won a medal this week. From the shrink wrap and moving trolley to the packing station and tape gun, we were fully kitted out. I have to say though, doing it all in a day is not recommended!
 

Dan did a great job of working out the Tetris that was the entire contents of our apartment and fitting it into that tiny van. I'm always amazed at how he just looks at the space and comes up with a game plan. He's definitely team captain when it comes to moving house.
 

We made the seven hour drive down to Ely, and were so grateful that we had helpers the other end. I think we'd have just gone to sleep otherwise.
 

There was a little bit of a panic when we looked at everything left and realised we still had 6 boxes and four suitcases all labelled 'Baku', but we've got a week to sort that out. So now that the moving is complete we've got a week off to relax and see our family and friends before we fly next Friday.

Our Baku blog is coming soon!