Discover Azerbaijan...

Today I am posting random pictures and a video and will give some captions to each...

This is a photo of a typical window in Sheki...

This is a photo of a tractor that I took last time we were travelling back from Sheki. I don't think it was abandoned but probably parked.

This photo I called colours of Soviet Union. Popular in Soviet times "zhiguli" and another tractor look so Soviet, although I love the colours...

This is a video of "Oil rocks" island of Azerbaijan. This island was made in 1949 by people for world's first!!! offshore oil exploration. 

Now when Azerbaijan is rushing to turn from a developing to developed country I am thinking to myself how developed it must have been to have an island like  "Oil rocks" back in 1949...

Old tractors and zhigulis can seem like a burden although to me they are all part of history...while we all happily changed seats from zhigulis to newly made cars, for some reason I don't think I would ever change the way the windows of my house look in Sheki...it is interesting how there is a thin line between something that becomes burdensome and outdated and something that becomes historic and antique...

While some scenes of the video may seem "shocking" and "polluted" it is important to keep things in perspective...

I hope you enjoy the process of discovering Azerbaijan...
Be well. 

Short and sweet or its so good to be spring or spring is on my mind :)...

If you are wondering about the title of the post then I want to say that it conveys my feelings this April...spring is finally here and for some reason this year I feel it more acutely than I could remember feeling before. Birds singing, trees rushing to blossom, flowers opening up everywhere, longer days, warmer sun all this is so beautiful and wonderful. What a special season spring is...

Spring in Baku is usually short and summer comes in quite quickly. I am sure poets must have compared spring to childhood or youth...since all pass so quickly...

I think there are two types of people...the ones that start noticing beauty and creating beauty around them after they are better financially and the ones that whatever the income, they would still create beauty and neatness around them. In Sheki and not only there one can see many homes and gardens that are very sophisticated in their neatness and order with minimum investment and maximum hard work. In spring this becomes particularly obvious.

Unfortunately I don't have spring photos of Sheki (haven't travelled there recently) to share but I am sharing with you photos that I am taking now and then in Baku while wandering with kids. Excuse me for quality as these are quick photos taken so that kids don't do something naughty while there is no attention.

Happy spring everyone...

Baku boulevard...

Philharmonie garden...