Baku is not the disorganised, old school “Russia meets Middle East” stereotype that it was when it first broke away from the Soviet Union back in 1991. After that well needed shift, Azerbaijanis gained not just independence again, but a new sense of pride. Politically and geographically, Azerbaijan continues to be a complicated enigma. The…
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Xinaliq is a magical place. Anyone who has ever explored this spot has had a truly memorable experience for sure. Some references site Xinaliq as “Europe’s Highest Village”, a fact that could well be true, though geographically the inclusion of Azerbaijan as ‘Europe’ is slightly misleading. It’s more Middle East than Europe. Yet it’s more…
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This is a break from the usual travel and lifestyle posts on here and I’m glad to be finally writing about watching football again, not just on my own site but I’ve done a load of football articles recently, including on UFWC. Football has played a big part in my travels, it’s a MASSIVE part…
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You’ll pinch yourself when you get to a place like Sheki (Seki/Shaki), just to check it’s really happening. You’re in a city you’ve never heard of. No backpackers anywhere and you have a completely cool city all to yourself!! Sheki does a good job to promote Azerbaijan to the world. While backpacking in Sheki ‘s…
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Taking a trip out of Baku to Qobustan to see the rock inscriptions is a top tip while touring Azerbaijan. Qobustan is a world heritage site, as listed by UNESCO. That fact alone makes it worth seeing, but the truth is that Azerbaijan is such an off the beaten path backpacking beast that you’ll be…
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Having featured Azerbaijan and the town of Seki in yesterday’s “Thirsty Thursdays”, today it’s time for an Azerbaijani food. I tried a lot of different local food while backpacking in Azerbaijan and found most of it to be average, or below average. That doesn’t mean I won’t write about it though. I headed to the…
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It’s off to Azerbaijan for today’s Thirsty Thursdays and a relaxing sober moment for a change. I haven’t had a lot of time to relax recently, but this was an hour where myself and my girlfriend found time to chill out, in the city of Seki. Drinking hot tea in the October sunshine. Explain Seki…
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Having spent 10 epic days in Azerbaijan, it was time to head back to Georgia. We were heading early morning, north west from the city of Seki (Sheki) and aiming to be in Sighnaghi in Georgia by the afternoon. Here’s an overview of our journey which saw us use the Balaken to Lagodekhi crossing –…
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Without doubt this is one of my favourite border crossings of all time and I’m delighted to be writing about it here as it hasn’t been covered much on travel blogs. I aim to be the first backpacking travel blogger to write more than 10 posts on backpacking in Nagorno Karabakh. So without further ado,…
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Azerbaijan threw more random highlights than we could have imagined. As part of a tour to Qobustan World Heritage Site we also got to visit an area with lots of mini mud volcanoes. It’s south of Qobustan, by about 10 kilometres, so not too far from Baku either and most people do this as part…
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