Baku - night and day

Late at the afternoon we came up with the idea to leave Ganja and go to our next destination. We decided this time to take the train. New experience of travelling around here. The train was very modern and the staff working there very friendly and guiding us to our seat, not easy when you have a train ticket in a language you do not understand at all. They even provided WiFi and train was running on time. Something we almost never experience in Germany. We always had the feeling that the trains in Germany are the worst ones in the world. Still we did not find a worse one.
Before midnight we finally arrived in Baku and after settling up at our place for the next day we went out to explore the town at night. We came up with the idea to go to some places twice so we could experience the difference.
Our steps first lead us to the old city hall of Baku, rather much is still left and also some towers are still standing.

As you can see at the first picture it was a really nice night. Clear sky with some clouds and even the clouds seemed to brighten up the sky.
From the old wall our way did lead to a nice fountain in the philharmonic park.

It was very surprising for us how close everything was, only a short way away from the fountain we for the first time in our lives did see the sea. Well to be more precise the Caspian sea, of course we have been at many oceans and will see many more.

At the promenade Bernd found a pond with swans and he wanted to make fun with them and scare them away, when he got closer he realized that it is just a fountain with stones having the appearance to swans. It was much fun seeing his surprised face.

During the day around the same area we found a big chess board and were up for a match. Bernds skills at playing chess are really bad, he lost every time and was no challenge at all. Lucky for me that the chess figures were too big and heavy for him, so he wasn't able to throw them in anger on me.

Further down the promenade we saw a building reminding us to the world famous opera in Sidney. We also thought that it might be an opera or similar but it turned out to be a shopping center. At least the building looks still interesting.

A few steps more and we ended up in Venice. It feels like more and more towns having their own little Venice. For example Erfurt a beautiful town in the heart of Germany were we used to live for many years. Bernd became very home sick and I also got lost in good memories. I did have a great time in this town, much fun and awesome people. Never forgotten.

We also took a picture of the carpet museum next to mini Venice but the picture quality is not good enough. The building looks like a big carpet and was quite interesting to look at. Well and we also got more attracted by the flaming towers to which we had a great as well.

We also decided to take a short video on the phone to show the changing of the lights on the towers. We both did like the flames most. This is also the first time that we are sharing a video in this blog. Don't know if we should do this more often.

During the day we went inside the old town through the well known old town wall and found there a room full of books. A museum with very tiny books, perfectly suiting Bernds small hands. Unfortunately this books were not for sale. Only presented in the museum. Too bad that we could not open and read the books, they also had lots of the rings in there.

Inside the town we wanted to enter the old mosque unfortunately it was closed so we could not take a look inside. At least we did walk around the old streets and enjoyed the time there. Also we took some pictures.

From Armenia to Ganja in Azerbaijan

Our reunion journey did already have a good start. We did see many great places in Georgia and Armenia, also made new friends from around the world. Because of the people we meet we always feel some sadness, but on the other side we can hopefully meet again. And also make new friends.
Next after Yerevan we decided to go to Azerbaijan, unfortunately Armenia and Azerbaijan are at war so we could not directly cross the boarder. Stupid humans. Why they have to keep on fighting each other because of some territory. I hate this.
To find our way to Azerbaijan we had to go back to Tbilisi and from there get across.
When we got to the boarder Bernd did fear that they won't let us through. From other travellers we did hear that even when having a visa people may not get the allowance to get across when they have been in Armenia.
With Bernds passport everything went well and when it was my turn they did saw the stamps from Armenia and started to ask questions. We both thought for a moment that they won't let me through, but at the end they only wanted to see some pictures.
So everything went good and we also had a short chat with the boarder control.

Late at night we did arrive in Ganja. And after a few minutes of walking and searching we found a place for the night. 

Also met some people, some of then were enjoying Ganja in Ganja.

Next day we did quite too early wake up from music and did check what was going on, close to our place there were some musicians playing and Bernd took the chance to join them, which was not a good idea at all.

I always thought that I'm a bad singer, but after listening to Bernds skills I would sound like a super star.
The guys got mad at him and were shouting at him and about to beat him. So he ran away, they did follow him for a rather long time and the place we ended up was not much better than this guys. We did arrive at at the puppet museum and Bernd was even more scared and kept on running.

Later I found him totally exhausted at the flag square. I was able to raise his mood by making some stupid jokes about the flagpole not having any flag. If we did have one in our bags we would have put a special and new one up there.

After getting back some energy we went to a local church. Which was quite different from the churches we have seen the last days. It was much more colourful in there.

A while later back in the city center we did buy something to eat and drink and did take a break in the sun. Here it is so much warmer than in Yerevan. 

Later on we had the idea to go to the cinema, but when we arrived there it seemed to be closed so we kept walking around and found a nice park to chill out.

Through the Caucasian mountains to Yerevan

After having a great time in Tbilisi we decided to take a mini bus to Yerevan. The drive did lead through the beautiful mountain area. Unfortunately the driver was driving like crazy, as being in a race driving as fast as possible, passing everywhere and it not all the holes in the street. Bernd was scared to death and several times was about to though up. Up until the mountains we did have a great view, especially due to the sun.

At the end we both survived and arrived after several hours of driving.
We were lucky quickly finding a good place to stay at so we did not have to waste much time searching for a room and begin making plans for the next days.
The first thing we decided to do is visiting the blue mosque. We both still remembered the blue mosque from Istanbul we visited years ago. This here is much smaller and not as much decorated but still very nice.

As you can see the weather was not as nice as the last days anymore. We had a mix of rain, snow and in the afternoon sun. Bad weather did not stop us from exploring and Bernd did make sure that he won't get wet, he always hid below the umbrella and let me stay in the rain/snow.
Our feet did take us through the rain to the opera where we started thinking of maybe going to an event inside.

From the opera we headed to the cascade complex climbing up millions of stairs. Which remind me on of my best friends birthday we celebrated in Kitzbühel. We did climb up the Hahnenkamm. Before we could get up there I needed to talk the girls into doing it, at the end they agreed but threatened me that I would need get along with their complaints, there were non at all.
And with Bernd ... well ... it was sort of surprising that my ears did not start bleeding. So different.

In our way back down we arrived at Matenadaran, a museum close by. We also went in and did take a look at many old books there. One of the most interesting parts were the languages in there, for example books from Italy printed in Armenian and also other combinations. And there have been a lot of books.

All this walking did make us hungry so we went to an Armenian restaurant to get some local disses and have a short break. The food was great and gave us back some energy. From the restaurant we headed to the place of the republic. Which we already saw at night when we arrived in Yerevan.

Despite of getting much energy back from our lunch Bernd started complaining and wanted to go back to our hostel, I could at least get him to visit Saint Gregory the Illuminator Cathedral. He did not regret going there, especially since the weather was much nicer and he could by some ice cream.

The next day we decided to go together with some other travellers to Etschmiadsin a town close by to Yerevan. We did build an international group making the conversations much more interesting. Japanese, Russian, Indonesian and us German guys.
During the night it got colder and it was snowing the howl day.

We did first take a look at some churches at the center of the town. What was new for us to see an open air church (you want to know more ?).

Bernd did hear some rumors about a treasure being around there so we started searching for it. We did not need that much time to find the treasure but some other people did get there before us and put it into a museum.

Since we did walk around in the cold weather we did decide to take a break at a restaurant or coffee, to not walk too far we just picked the one inside the church area and were positively surprised about the appearance. A nice medieval looking restaurant with much space in the basement.

Later that day we did get back to Yerevan and headed to the opera to join an event there. We both have never been there before so it was a new experience for us.

And this is how the story begins / continues

After telling you that we go again together on a longer journey we did still take some time to decide where to go first. The decision was not easy and we discussed for hours, finally we found or first destination the capital of Georgia (not this Georgia). The Georgia in Caucasus we picked, which we both think is much nicer. No offense please, its just our opinion.

To get from the airport into town we took a brand new awesome car and Bernd did insist to drive it, what at the end turned out not to be such a good idea. At first everything went we'll but then ... you know pictures say more than thousand words.

Of course the way to our guest house was still long, do we just left the car behind and did trap our stuff and started our long long walk. Bernd got really mad and grumbled all the time and was willing to beat something. And as usually he found something, it was very close but I could convince him to not destroy the bridge. So reason that it would be a big detour for is did make the point.

To get a break from all this walking and relax our feet we decided to take the cable car up the mountain and visit an old strange looking building.

Up there we met with the mother of Georgia and did have a very good conversation with the old lady. We wanted to take some pictures together with her for the blog but all the time something did prevent us from taking a good picture e.g. light, angle or blinking. If you want to know how she looks like click here or not.

Hours later we did take a zip line to quickly get down again, it was a short but amazing ride. I never heard Bernd screaming so loud before. Unfortunately again no pictures or even videos. Bernd did drop his phone in the ride so all got lost. But I still had my phone so a short while later we went to a water fall and enjoyed the scenery. It helped Bernd to calm down a little bit.

I know the waterfall is not as amazing as the ones we saw in Iceland, but it is still a waterfall. And we both love waterfalls.
Back in the center we also mad e a break in a small park where we found a strange looking statue. Bernd was joking around and came up with the strange joke of people getting hung with a bell so also the audience staying far away can realize by sound that the person is finally dead. The real story is a bit different, want to know more ?

Close to the point from where we went up we found a weird looking building. Looking like a big tube or even a cannon build out of glass. Later we got to know that it is a concept hall.

Since our car got broken we did have to walk a lot. We first did have the idea to take the metro but then we would not see what is between the stops and the bus routes seem not so easy to be understood. We did find another option, the biggest bicycle we have ever seen. Great to get quickly to the next interesting place.

Our plan with the bicycle did fail since we would try to get it going into different directions and we did not want to fight who's going to lead.

Later on we managed to find the underground. Not like the underground in London or the criminals. Just an interesting ancient bazaar located below the streets with a lot of interesting things.