Day 1, August 5, 2010:
We left Baku and went to Goychay. Took about three hours to get there. Met up with PCVs Megan and Rikki. They invited us to see an International Music Festival in the neighboring region of Qebele with a FLEX alumni who had just returned from studying in the states. He had studied in a high school in Minnesota and therefore had, a slight Minnesota accent. We watched the London Philharmonic perform. When we took a bathroom break, we let one of the performers take the stall in front of us. She thanked us and then asked, "How do you have such good English?" Nice lady.
Day 2, August 6, 2010:
Stayed in Goychay. Went to the bazaar in the morning. Visited Rikki's host family's house in the afternoon. We made pizza, got a water scare (meaning we weren't sure if there was going to be water for the day), Megan gave us haircuts, took showers (the water finally came), watched an episode of Glee and went to sleep.
Goychay was such a cute little town. It's known for its Nar (pomegranate) production and has a Nar parade every fall. A great way to start the trip off. Thanks nar girls!
Day 3, August 7, 2010:
Woke up early and headed out to Mingechevir. Somehow my backpack was smaller than when I first left Baku. This phenomenon continued throughout the whole trip despite my acquiring more and more things. Katie came and met us and we all headed out to the reservoir to escape the blistering heat. We met up with Beca, Todd, and Sarah in front of the mashrut and swam for 3 hours or so. Somehow we bumped into Jeff who was hanging out with people from the Ministry of Agriculture. We made dinner and invited our old Language and Culture Facilitator, Gulshan over.
Day 4, August 8, 2010:
Checked out the produce bazaar, clothes bazaar, and random things bazaar. Bought a watermelon and back to Katie's apartment to try to ward off the heat.
Day 5, August 9, 2010:
This was kind of a day in shame. Didn't really leave the apartment and had an embarrassingly long marathon of an ABC Family show that shall remain nameless. Then went for an evening walk along the little 'boardwalk" of Mingechevir.
Day 6, August 10, 2010:
Left Mingechevir and went to Sheki. Met up with Jenni, who lives in Sheki, and Amanda for lunch. Went to the Sheki Chicken Shack (as named by PCVs) for the only item on their menu, barbecued chicken slathered in a tomato based sauce with onions and cilantro. So delicious. In the afternoon, went to have tea, then met up with old cluster mate, Irene for dinner and the Sheki saray, a NICE western hotel with a restaurant that served chicken Caesar salad. Delish.
Day 7, August 11, 2010:
This is where the bad water luck for REALLY bad. Jade woke up several times throughout the night to use the bathroom caused by dysentery. This continued throughout the day followed by dehydration and fever. We aren't too sure what the cause was but have a theory about the water source (or lack of one) in Jenni's bathroom. Both Jenni and Amanda had gotten sick two days apart of each other that weekend. This bad luck had also spread to the rest of the city with no running in water in any of Jenni's sitemates' houses either. That night, we returned to the Sheki Saray to meet up with Tim and his visiting brother Tom for dinner and drinks and to use their shower.
Day 8, August 12, 2010:
Met up with Tim to go site seeing. Went to the Xan Saray, which is an ancient palace filled with murals and stained glass. Then we went to the village of Kish which had an old Albanian church. After we met back up with the girls, had tea in the Karvan saray (another hotel and historical site) and then dinner (for the third time) at the Sheki Saray. That's where things got kind of weird... and we will leave it at that.
Day 9, August 13, 2010:
Left Sheki and went up to Qax (which was, in my opinion, the best place on the trip.) We met up with our friends Lori and Stephanie. We had dinner with Lori's Georgian friends and walked around the Heydar Aliyev Park.
Day 10, August 14, 2010:
Day 10, August 14, 2010:
Jade, Lori, Steph, and I woke up early, made a picnic lunch and set off to the Pilgrimage church. This is a Georgian church up in the hills that twice a year many Georgians come on a pilgrimage to visit. It was beautiful up there. After we met up with Lori's Georgian friends and went to church. Service is usually hours long and you're standing the entire time so people come and go to take breaks. The inside walls were painted with murals of various saints and scenes from the Bible. After service we went back to the Georgian family's house and cooked them pizza. It was a great evening filled with good company, good food, and decent homemade wine. This was my favorite day of the trip.
Day 11, August 15, 2010:
The four of us decided to go shopping at the bazaar so we walked around for a couple hours but unfortunately did not find anything. Then we went to a Georgian restaurant for Xengel, dumplings, and lots of (guess again) homemade wine. Another great night was had.
Day 12, August 16, 2010:
This is the infamous day of the watermelon eating competition. The four of us took a mashrutka (little bus) to Zaqatala where we met up with a few other volunteers. We had decided to hold a watermelon eating competition in which we would try to eat as much as possible within half an hour. We bought a bunch of 8 kilo watermelons, smack talked the whole time and went to sit on the curb in front of the school for the event. Turns out, I'm a slow eater. I came in last BUT in my defense I feel like I could have continued eating whereas my competitors were all feeling sick at the end.
Day 13, August 17, 2010:
In the morning, we walked to the bazaar to do a little food shopping and then walked around the town for a bit. Zaqatala is a nice looking city. Parts of it reminded me of an old gold mining town. In the evening everyone went back to Loki's (a PCV who lives in Zaqatala's) house for dinner and a movie. Loki, by the way, was fasting due to Ramazan. This means that she had to wake up around 4am every morning to eat a hearty meal before the sun came up and had to wait until the sun went down to replenish. This includes drinking water. It was pretty impressive and watching her, I realized that it was something that I most likely could not accomplish.
Day 14, August 18, 2010:
Day 11, August 15, 2010:
The four of us decided to go shopping at the bazaar so we walked around for a couple hours but unfortunately did not find anything. Then we went to a Georgian restaurant for Xengel, dumplings, and lots of (guess again) homemade wine. Another great night was had.
Day 12, August 16, 2010:
This is the infamous day of the watermelon eating competition. The four of us took a mashrutka (little bus) to Zaqatala where we met up with a few other volunteers. We had decided to hold a watermelon eating competition in which we would try to eat as much as possible within half an hour. We bought a bunch of 8 kilo watermelons, smack talked the whole time and went to sit on the curb in front of the school for the event. Turns out, I'm a slow eater. I came in last BUT in my defense I feel like I could have continued eating whereas my competitors were all feeling sick at the end.
Day 13, August 17, 2010:
In the morning, we walked to the bazaar to do a little food shopping and then walked around the town for a bit. Zaqatala is a nice looking city. Parts of it reminded me of an old gold mining town. In the evening everyone went back to Loki's (a PCV who lives in Zaqatala's) house for dinner and a movie. Loki, by the way, was fasting due to Ramazan. This means that she had to wake up around 4am every morning to eat a hearty meal before the sun came up and had to wait until the sun went down to replenish. This includes drinking water. It was pretty impressive and watching her, I realized that it was something that I most likely could not accomplish.
Day 14, August 18, 2010:
Jade, Jon, and I took a mashrut and headed to see another PCV, Amy, in her village, Danachi. When you think of Peace Corps, this village is what you think of. The village had one "big" street with three stores, barely any cars, houses stocked with hay stacks and drying tobacco, and horse drawn carriages pulling stocks of wood. It was fantastic. I loved this place so much. Her host brother took us out to pick blackberries to make a pie for the night. We made dinner, made the pie, and sat on her porch playing card games and looking out at stars.
Day 15, August 19, 2010:
The three of us headed back to Zaqatala in the morning. Jon took a bus out and we took a mashrut to Balaken, the most northern city in this part of the country that has a volunteer. We met back up with Stephanie who lives there, hung around her house for a bit and went to dinner. We went to a friend Xengel (the Georgian dumpling again) restaurant with the other volunteer there, Bailey. After eating, we went to the Heydar Aliyev Park there. This one had a huge man made hill with a large statue of the late president presiding over it. There are a few flight of stairs leading up to the top but a gondola was built because people would not climb the steps to see the statue. We went up and had tea at the top then took the gondola back down.
Day 16, August 20, 2010:
This was the last official day of the Trek. We spent the morning with Bailey in her compound. There are three houses there that have two other families. One of them had a sweet old Russian grandma that was clearly suffering from some bouts of dementia. Her granddaughter, the woman of the house, was a terrible woman who was abusive to the grandma. It was depressing actually. Fortunately Bailey has since moved out of that terrible place and hopefully shamed the woman in the process.
We went back to Zaqatala, spent a few hours at an internet source then went to the train station. The night train is the most inexpensive way to get from the north and the west back into Baku. We bought tickets for a coupe, a cart, that consisted of four beds. It was decently comfortable. We had the top so we were next to the open window but there was 2 hours where it was plain misery. The train is incredibly loud and sometimes when another train would pass by, a huge cloud of fumes and diesel would come streaming through the window. It was also UNBEARABLY hot. We were both just melting. After that passed and it cooled down though, the rest of the trip was quite pleasant.
Day 17, August 21, 2010:
We arrived in Baku around 8am. No one was on the streets as walked back to Ze's. I felt disgusting though as I had sweat for a good 6 hours straight. Jumped in the shower the minute we walked into Ze's and went to sleep on his couch. The next week was just full of living in comfort and pretending like I was in America. This was getting to the end of summer and it was such a great experience being able to see the country and see how my friends were faring in this place together. The Turtle Treks live on...
Here are some pictures. Enjoy!
http://picasaweb.google.com/ClarissaW.Chan/TheTurtleTreks?authkey=Gv1sRgCPDY04zu4o-0kwE#
Day 15, August 19, 2010:
The three of us headed back to Zaqatala in the morning. Jon took a bus out and we took a mashrut to Balaken, the most northern city in this part of the country that has a volunteer. We met back up with Stephanie who lives there, hung around her house for a bit and went to dinner. We went to a friend Xengel (the Georgian dumpling again) restaurant with the other volunteer there, Bailey. After eating, we went to the Heydar Aliyev Park there. This one had a huge man made hill with a large statue of the late president presiding over it. There are a few flight of stairs leading up to the top but a gondola was built because people would not climb the steps to see the statue. We went up and had tea at the top then took the gondola back down.
Day 16, August 20, 2010:
This was the last official day of the Trek. We spent the morning with Bailey in her compound. There are three houses there that have two other families. One of them had a sweet old Russian grandma that was clearly suffering from some bouts of dementia. Her granddaughter, the woman of the house, was a terrible woman who was abusive to the grandma. It was depressing actually. Fortunately Bailey has since moved out of that terrible place and hopefully shamed the woman in the process.
We went back to Zaqatala, spent a few hours at an internet source then went to the train station. The night train is the most inexpensive way to get from the north and the west back into Baku. We bought tickets for a coupe, a cart, that consisted of four beds. It was decently comfortable. We had the top so we were next to the open window but there was 2 hours where it was plain misery. The train is incredibly loud and sometimes when another train would pass by, a huge cloud of fumes and diesel would come streaming through the window. It was also UNBEARABLY hot. We were both just melting. After that passed and it cooled down though, the rest of the trip was quite pleasant.
Day 17, August 21, 2010:
We arrived in Baku around 8am. No one was on the streets as walked back to Ze's. I felt disgusting though as I had sweat for a good 6 hours straight. Jumped in the shower the minute we walked into Ze's and went to sleep on his couch. The next week was just full of living in comfort and pretending like I was in America. This was getting to the end of summer and it was such a great experience being able to see the country and see how my friends were faring in this place together. The Turtle Treks live on...
Here are some pictures. Enjoy!
http://picasaweb.google.com/ClarissaW.Chan/TheTurtleTreks?authkey=Gv1sRgCPDY04zu4o-0kwE#
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