Day 11 - Azerbaijan

Bit of an update from yesterday first. To be honest, I'm not a huge fan of public transport (why oh why do this trip then?!?!) and the thought of catching crazy buses from Tbilisi to Gori to see the birthplace of Stalin was all sounding like a bit of a faff. All that miming and trying to find where you get on and get off etc. Still, I steeled myself, grew a pair and did it. And I'm really glad I did. It's not that bloody hard when you get right down to it.
So I saw where Georgia's favourite son started out, had a couple of hours hobbling around Gori and found the bus back, which was curiously 2 Lari cheaper than the way there (3 versus 5). One gets the bus from Didube market (it's on the Metro) and you just say 'Gori' to anyone that will listen and they point you to the right bus. You get dropped off right outside Stalin's gaff (everyone knows why you'd be going to Gori). The bus back can be found in Gori Marketplace (walk away from Stalin's abode down the big boulevard and hang a right at the first big junction. keep going, can't miss it.). Again, you just say 'Tbilisi' and add some steering wheel gestures for a final flourish and someone will point the way.
I think I'm getting the hang of this travelling lark.

So here's a thing I wasn't expecting. Tbilisi station was fairly crowded with military personnel. Men in sharp combat fatigues, milling around waiting for somewhere to go. We're all familiar with the sight in general but in this case, it struck me that these predominantly very young men, were just a short train ride, a few short hours, from bearing arms against their foe. They all had serious faces and were very alert. It all seemed very immediate, very serious. I felt quite odd about it all. I hope they'd all chosen to do what they were about to do rather than being forced or coerced. Perhaps they were just off to winter camp and the serious faces were down to having prior knowledge of the state of rations there.

To refer back to a previous post, I take back what I said about not being able to find decent bread. So far, Asia has proven bountiful. Excellent bread all round. Yesterday I had a cheese and potato flatbread which was tremendous.

I have become rather partial to first class rail travel. Another sleeper cabin to myself and another cracking journey into Azerbaijan. I took a photo of the border post complete with border guards and when I asked the nice lady on the train if she could take my photo, she said you get thrown in prison for taking photos in this area. So I'm technically on the run. A fugitive from justice.

Have recently arrived in my Baku Hotel and I forgot that I'd splashed out on this one and it's grrrrrreat! Phew! Wash and brush up next on the to-do list.

The big fella himself. One of the greatest genocidal maniacs in human history.

Me! Outside Tbilisi Central Station. It was meant to say that in the photo but I cocked it up and only managed to get 'entral'.