In what seems like three months at ‘the easternmost point of
Europe’ I’ve made a few observations that I’d like to share with you.
The locals are very friendly. From the moment I stepped off the plane,
they’ve been there to guide, assist, and generally make life easy for the
Eurovision traveller. And this is a
genuine friendliness, dear reader, not one that’s been put on for show.
The driving here is like a white knuckle ride. There is always traffic around. In the rush hour; during the heat of the day;
even at 3am when some of us leave the Euroclub slight the worse for wear. There is no yielding when driving, you take a
chance getting out into a road or changing lane. But I have yet to see a car with a single
dent. So either they drive really well
or the panel beaters here are really efficient.
The language is a little incomprehensible. If you can speak Turkish, you’re apparently
at home as that and Azeri are mutually intelligible. But otherwise there seem to be 20 different
ways of saying ‘Thank you’, there is the character ‘Ə’ (a schwa if this character doesn’t
come out in the blog) that appears in every word and is pronounced as the ‘er’
in ‘water’, and you can pronounce a word perfectly and they sometimes still look
at you blank. But that happens to me in
my home country too.
The taxi drivers do not do any form of ‘The Knowledge’ in
Baku. The general rigmarole is this: you
tell the driver where you want to go, usually a landmark. He consults the map you show him with said
landmark on it. He then asks a couple of
mates where it is. He then asks you
again and repeat this a second time.
After this, we agree a fare or the meter starts. Because of the one-way system in the city, a
1km journey takes 2km. thankfully, if
you get one of the many London-style cabs, the fare isn’t excessive.
The city is very safe.
We’ve walked around it at all hours (bearing in mind the midnight starts
to the shows) and no-one seems interested in mugging or harassing you. The locals like to promenade along the
promenade (surprisingly) until really late – families with children, groups of
teenagers, pensioners – all intent on taking the air rather than menacing each
other. A few of my associates stand out
a little and get more attention, but that’s through curiosity more than seeing
‘rich’ Western Europeans as easy pickings.
Finally, you never go into a cellar bar. I’ve heard it’s been done and the individuals
involved soon realised the mistake. Once
you see the ladies of dubious virtue sipping drinks, wearing skimpy outfits and
watching for unwary travellers to fall upon their lair, you’re stuck. If you’re in a mixed group you do stand a
chance of getting back passed the pimps with the same amount of money (less the
price of a beer, obviously) you arrived in there with.
But if you’re alone, then I pray for you, my friend.
I must add that despite all of the above, this has been one
of my most favourite Eurovision experiences.
I’m glad I came here as it’s like nowhere I’ve been to before. It’s not efficient-yet-dull like some Nordic
cities. It’s not provincial like
Düsseldorf. It has no uneasy air like
some other capital cities I’ve been to.
It’s not stupidly big like İstanbul. It’s a vibrant city on the up, with all the
trappings of a capital. No doubt Baku
does have problems, but all big cities do.
President Əliyev, if you’re reading this, I’d like to thank
you and your countrymen for making this a fortnight I’ll never forget.
Riigi x
Baku is coming across on the telly as a vibrant, historic city. The public areas look attractive and the people seem happy and relaxed. I know everything we're shown is carefully selected and edited but I bet it's a place that most of us would now consider visiting.
ReplyDelete