Home from my Travels

 I have been to Azerbaijan and am back today.  I have been in London for a night at the airport as it was a late night flight. 

The tour was very good and I documented it on Instagram which many of you followed.   I found it easy and delightful and no trolls.  

I wrote quite a bit while I was travelling.  The poetry came back especially after we had been to the tomb of Nizami the most revered poet and philosopher of Azerbaijan/Persia.   I read some of his poems while I was in my room in the evening and started to write again. 

I was with five people,  Mark a lovely man from Sheffield, Annie and Ian from Lytham, Jean from North London and Margaret from Peterborough.   I gave Margaret the nickname of Miss Perfect, others gave her the name of Sheila Hancock because she looked liked her;  Margaret was well travelled and the oldest in the group at 76, the fastest walker and the least accommodating to the needs of others. 

Jean was a nutty accounts clerk still working in her late 60s and appeared to be have problems understanding  instructions which upset Miss Perfect greatly.  

Annie and Ian caused some problems with missing passports and were unable to board the train when we arrived at the station for a cross country journey so four of us went on the train without them and they had to get a taxi.  We were unable to board the train without id.  I don't know if this was because we were foreigners as we were not crossing any borders so id requirement seemed  odd to me.  They later found their passports and were at odds between the two of them who was to blame.  

There was a big row between Jean and Miss Perfect  one morning when Jean was late.  

I kept  out of all upsets and trouble.  

Troubles would come and drift away with shrugs and Jean and Miss Perfect avoided each other after the row. 

We all sang from the same political hymn sheet which was good for calmness where there could have been storms.  Mark from Sheffield was as middle of the road as they come.  No calling for death or horrors to befall politicians, no hate for anyone past or present, just political facts current and on-going, home and abroad.   We left  England the day after we had voted in our local elections so some political chat was inevitable.  

It was odd to be with people everyday for almost a fortnight when I am used to being alone at home for days on end.  I am finding my house incredibly quiet at the moment and strange to have nobody to talk  to.  

I spent some time on my own or with the driver and had different experiences to the rest of the group because I did not always want to spend all day walking because my body just couldn't take it especially in the heat of Azerbaijan.  It was always at least 27C

Azerbaijan lived up to all my expectations and did not disappoint.  I saw oil rigs, textiles, fruit, vegetables, wheat and barley.  I saw wonderful modern architecture in Baku and some very ancient architecture elsewhere.   I saw clean streets everywhere with ladies and men sweeping and weeding always, even miles from anywhere, always cleaning and sweeping.  No graffiti anywhere.  The food was lamb and chicken kebabs and stews with rice and salads and many cheeses.  Drinks were always fruit juices, particularly cherry juice.    I photographed farms and tractors, cars, markets and mosques.  There was much evidence all around of former Soviet Azerbaijan with blocks of apartments, cars and the sweepers.  The people were friendly and loved to talk about football.  There wasn't a great deal of English spoken but football and the English Premier league were frequently a topic of conversation from Baku to isolated villages miles from anywhere and crossed the language barrier without a problem.

The cats were well behaved while I was away and look pampered and content and happy to see me.