Expectations

I blame Eddie Izzard.

For it was Dame Eddie of Izzard who first turned simply saying the word 'Azerbaijan' into a shorthand for merriment. Merriment and a sense of the surreal and unlikely. I still can't say Azerbaijan without his cadence. I still can't say 'I've been to Azerbaijan' without laughing at how preposterous the very idea is. I blame Eddie.

So before departure I had a hard time getting a grip on what Azerbaijan would be like. Clearly not somewhere where my hair would be sold into slavery, so I truied to run through some other criteria. I had all sorts of competing ideas running around my head.

A former Soviet Capital city: Would it be fringed with communist ideas of concrete utopia? Would there be evidence of economic development?

An Islamic city: would the influence of the dominant religion be visible architecturally and culturally? How welcome would Westerners be?

An oil boom town: Would there be evidence of the new wealth? Would there be evidence of that wealth being shared around?

Off the tourist track: Would anyone speak English? What sort of services would there be?

An autocratic dictatorship with a sham democracy: What would that mean for moving around Baku and it's surrounds?

A desert city: Would it be dry and dusty?

A Turkic city: Would there be baklava?

A city on the Caspian in a country that borders Iran. Just what would that be like?!

I really had no idea what to expect.