{"id":2445,"date":"2015-07-22T17:54:58","date_gmt":"2015-07-22T21:54:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/svetanyc.com\/?p=2445"},"modified":"2016-06-04T19:43:58","modified_gmt":"2016-06-04T23:43:58","slug":"azerbaijan-july-2015","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/192.168.2.119:1984\/svetanyc\/2015\/07\/azerbaijan-july-2015\/","title":{"rendered":"Azerbaijan. July 2015"},"content":{"rendered":"

The countries of the South Caucasus have always been the “lands in-between”. In between the Black and Caspian seas, Europe and Asia, Russia and the Middle East, Christianity and Islam and, more recently, democracy and dictatorship. Armenia, Azerbaijan<\/a> and Georgia and the territories around them have the mixed blessing of being at the crossing-place of different cultures and political systems. However, in my memory, those 3 nations\u00a0were a part of one country I was born in – USSR. The beauty of the land, hospitality and heroism, three things that are always associated with Caucasus, I learnt in childhood by reading Alexander Pushkin, Mikhail Lermontov, Leo Tolstoy and watching the all-time famous Soviet comedy by Leonid Gaidai\u00a0“Kidnapping, Caucasian Style”.<\/a><\/p>\n

I don’t think I’d ever considered visiting the Caucasus until I met an Azeri girl\u00a0at the all-inclusive resort in Cancun who, in very favorable manner told me about her home town, Baku, and how it was becoming the “new Dubai”, backed by world’s growing demand for Azeri oil and gas. Thank you, Ulviya, for kindling my interest and assisting me with planning this trip to the “Land of Fire”. Azerbaijan wasn’t my only destination, as I was thrilled by an idea\u00a0to swim in both seas – Caspian and Black – on the same trip. That is how\u00a0my 11 day “Baku to Batumi” journey came about and until now, it is one of my favorite trips.<\/p>\n

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Literature.<\/strong><\/p>\n