Then Considering the Caucuses

A lovely lunch with an old classmate yesterday.  He has been in Baku for two years, raising his daughters here, much the same way I am in Beijing.  I hadn’t seen him in twenty years since grad school and he looked wonderful and effortlessly matured into his new, rather significant role.

High up on a perch in the Sultan Inn we could look down on the Maiden’s tower we’d seen before hand and all.  The aircon was so good, no one wanted to leave but eventually we did set out.  I had a dozen things I’d wanted to show them but was pretty sure we wouldn’t make it far beyond the first stop in all this heat.  And we traced the path I did the day before.  Which is easier to do, when you know where you’re going. 

Dinner I surrendered to something in the mall.  Azeri food is tasty but it isn’t so great for my vegetarian daughter, the older one.  Sure.  Let’s do Italian.  And soon we were having lasagna and fried zucchini in a high end joint downstairs from us in the Baku mall.  I tried to debrief this trip my girls:  What did you think of traveling across the Eurasian land mass, and then considering the Caucuses.  They had some thoughtful insights.  But it was still all rather fresh. 

And at midnight we headed out to the airport to make our way off and over the Atlantic.  My, my the outfits on the the Azerbaijan Airlines’ staff there in the lounge are hard to ignore.  Glad the local imams are cool with all that.  I’ll have to remember to fly them some day.  They are Star Alliance.  It's very late, here in this lounge.  We all just want to set out. 

The flight from Baku to Istanbul was uncomfortably tight.  I was exhausted and cramped.  Then we dashed over to enjoy the lounge at the Istanbul airport, which was still there and we all got in without a hitch but there was no Baklava till 10:00AM.  Which wasn’t very nice and my girls were bummed.  Me however had some meze some crisp Turkish white wine. 

This flight now to JFK speaks to Istanbul’s rather remarkable status as a hub. (And necessarily to to New York’s as well.)  Lots of people who look Israeli.  No shortage of people who would appear to be Turkish but plenty of folks from sub-Saharan Africa and Eastern Europe as well.  I managed to finish Bely's "Petersburg."  Ahh, his parents have both died.  And the hero is ironically off in Tunisia and Egypt ,which is where I’d like to take these kids this time next year..  Soon we'll bask in the exoticism of New York State.  

Friday 7/13/18