Baku isn’t outer space --- just feels like it sometimes

·      For anyone who isn’t familiar with the Caucasus – Azerbaijan, Georgia and Armenia -  it is a region formerly controlled by the Soviet Union, from Bolshevik times through the early 1990's. When the Soviet Union collapsed they all got their independence, for better or worse. There is a lot of history and baggage as you can imagine.

      I showed up at the State Museum in Baku this past weekend to take a look-see at 20^th century Azerbaijan/Soviet art. I arrived right at opening time and the ticket taker was running late so the museum cleaning lady brought me into the coat room, sat me down and gave me tea and a sweet – nice. I think she felt sorry for the poor sweating foreign lady. Some interesting works. I saw the Russian painting above and thought --- yes. Maybe I am assuming – but this I get, this makes some kind of sense to me. Good old-fashioned 1960’s white people in outer space. This is going to be an interesting place!

·      I wanted to spend the weekend walking around Baku. I wanted to breathe in the sights, sounds, smells and tastes of the town. I wanted to figure out where to find an apartment, do some things that make me feel normal (visit a museum) and do something different like attend the final day of the 1^st European Games.  Badminton was cool, and 3 hour 3 hours was quite enough to satisfy that itch.

 So I wandered through the Old City, an ancient part of town with walls 6 feet thick. A place for cats I sense, or maybe my eyes are just open to them. I came upon this little one in a bit of a sticky situation. Wait a minute…. birds don’t eat cats … cats eat birds – right?! I’m pretty sure the old lady across the street thought me a crazy one yelling and flapping my arms to break up this – going nowhere for the cat – situation. How long did I stave of the inevitable?

     I was reminded today that there is a fine line between asking dumb questions and making stupid assumptions – it is not a continuum with those choices at either end. I am forced negotiate this razor edge daily in this new place.  Pretty soon I get tired of asking stupid questions and go for it and more than half the time I am wrong. Luckily I am usually the only one to suffer – like assuming I know which direction I am walking, but ending up on the wrong side of town, lost, in a 105-degree day and being chatted up by an uninteresting, drunk Brit – cracky! 

With heat stroke eminent and in near delirium, I find my way to the pedestrian part of the city – yeah! I see a nun walking down the street.  Her lower half obscured by a half wall. Very traditional I think and very hot she must be, but rather model-like with her habit flowing in the Baku wind. Hmmm – how many nunneries can there be in Baku? She comes to a clearing and I see on her feet very non-nun-like non-sensible shoes. Wait a minute – nuns don’t wear high heels – do they? Alas, not everyone fits my worldview and I think yes, this is why I travel, to see new things with new eyes. Cheers sister!

I sense this country which has been around for centuries... with all its different-ness,  is way smarter than I am...

or is it....I mean who do they think they are fooling?!?

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