Azerbaijan, the land of fire located in the South Caucasus, is the largest of the three former Soviet republics which make up the region. Bordering Russia, Georgia, Armenia and Iran, the country presents itself as a unique combination of different cultures and civilizations. It’s also rather famous for its natural resources. The main wealth of the country comes from oil.

Although not on the typical tourist’s path, the country has opened itself up since gaining independence and those who have already visited the country post details about its culture and people. Exerro details its ongoing visit to Azerbaijan and starts by expressing its opinion on the capital, Baku.

Anyway, Baku was a surprise to us both, despite not leaving the airport until around 2200 local time (the airport, by the way, is bright. modern and efficient - we cleared immigration, got our bags, cleared customs and were in a taxi within 40 minutes).

Driving to the hotel, I was really surprised at the architecture. It’s dark outside, but there’s clearly a lot of turn of the (20th) century buildings that look like they’re in great shape. Kristy tells me they were from the oil boom that happened around that time. I’m just amazed at how much I felt like I was in a European city.

The Travel Blog, however, complains about the weather.

The weather in Baku was very uninviting, unlike the wonderful people that live there. It was cold, miserable, windy, yucky, slushy, rainy, snowing an did I mention cold? The howling winds made you wonder why Airbus had to build wind tunnels to test their new A-380. I am not a light weight, but I really felt like superman as I was about to fulfill my dream of flying without a machine. Add to that the near 0 degree Celsius temperature and the wind chill was down to minus 10 and lower. It didn’t matter after a while what the temperature was. My ears had fallen off somewhere, my hair was like the windsock on the runway and my jaw felt like it was stuck between frozen and rusted. [...]

In the 19th century Azerbaijan experienced an oil boom and already in 20th century has been supplying almost half of the world’s oil. And while suffering from the typical problems associated with former Soviet republics, offers some of its own unique attractions. Exerro, for example, details a centuries-old caravanserai turned into a hotel, and flaming hillsides fueled by natural gas.