Oh my Goodness. I’m lost for words

Yes me! Helen! and after hours of mask wearing and keeping my mouth shut I am walking round with my gob open as if catching flies. 

Everywhere I look I am gobsmacked. I am by no means an architecture buff but this is extreme. Every single building has features you would not expect, all of them stunning. 

Someone told me that Baku is like Dubai. Let me tell you it is nothing like Dubai. It is stately, serene, grown up and has none of the garishness and falseness of Dubai. There is no glitz, there is no split between modern, old and very old; they all mingle together. There is no open demonstration of wealth, people look neat, tidy, modern and unaffected by the extreme wealth that oil has generated in this beautiful place. Buildings are functional but with pizzaz and even the modern make a statement without flash superficial crap. 

I’ve been to a few places but no where have I felt so safe, comfortable or captivated. This is in a class of its own. 

To my two mates Chris and Chris who are coming here soon I know you will love it. There isn’t anything not to love. 

I am writing this whilst sat in a restaurant gazing out to sea and watching the spin of the ferris wheel directly ahead. The restaurant is housed in the building that looks a bit like the Sydney Opera House - more below. 

My day started after a fitful nights sleep, despite being dead tired I only managed to sleep in blocks of a couple of hours at a time so it was a late start by the time I’d done my puzzles and my spanish class. 

First stop not 50m from the hotel at the Coffee Shop ‘Entrée’ where I had yet another delicious pastry and a great coffee.  Chris C. Take note. 

My destination today is the Carpet Museum and I wandered off in the direction I had been told.  I don’t know what to look at first. For once it’s not the people I am looking at so much. It’s the doors to restaurants virtually hidden in the basements, it is the street sweeper using a mop to get rid of every speck of dirt (the place is immaculate), it’s the marble clad underpasses which take you under the wide sprawling streets to the other side, it’s the park that stretches for miles gentling stepping you down the hill, it’s the walls of the old city hiding the secrets within, it’s the majesty of the flame tower sky scrapers towering above the skyline and now it’s the waterside promenade that is home to so much more. Or is it the mini Venice that takes waterways through the park.  The photos hopefully tell the story:

My walk continues in the same direction past the funicular which goes to the top of the hill, under the highway to my destination, The Carpet Museum; a magnificent building that is built to look like a roll of carpet. Hard to get a good photo but here is an attempt together with some pics of the woven capets on display, some going back hundreds of years 

From the Museum I could see a building that was reminiscent of the Sydney Opera House so I set off to have a nose. Quite a splendid building for a shopping mall where the idea of shopping didn’t do it for me but I was hungry and a very Westernised restaurant by the name of ‘Big Chefs’ was my chosen spot. Funnily enough Big Chefs provided me with an ok salad at Sabiha Gocken airport as well. My lamb cutlets, delicately flavoured with middle eastern herbs and spices were out of this world. 

The down side is that my now full belly has changed my gears and I now want to sleep. 

Time for an Uber back to my peaceful and quiet hotel. I’m still not totally shot of the bug I had before travelling and idea of anything more thsn a casual stroll is still a bit beyond me. Anyway it is getting warmer and the humidity increasing accordingly. My research suggested the temps woukd peak at mid 20’s this time of year. It’s 34 at the mo and I am not dressed for the heat.