A walk along the Caspian Sea
View from a restaurant
Lot's of little restaurants on the Caspian boardwalk, part of it forested
The Flame Towers reminded me of the creatures from the war of the worlds the way they towered over the city
One of the few surviving structures from Soviet times along the Caspian - people parachuted off this for entertainment before the fall of the Soviet Union
The old town
City gates
more of the old town
old town
Restaurant in a croded pedestrianized area
Pedestrian area, not busy at 11:30 AM but by 1:00 PM it was hopping
same
old city
Typical urban street scene
Baku's a nice place, people are friendly and city is beautiful with a European flare to it. Azeri's think of themselves as Europeans and they are very friendly but not many speak english. Traffic is horrendous and chaotic and the city is not very walkable over longer distances despite its density...just too dangerous crossing major streets for most westerners and even Azeris. It does have a subway system that I did not use and plenty of buses (which I also did not use). I saw zero bicycles, they just are not used as a form of transportation - probably because of the traffic chaos but an Azeri told me riding a bike was also a negative status symbol. Lot's of good restaurants. The population is nominally muslim but the people are big vodka and beer drinkers. I think I saw only a single headscarf in the several days I was there.
