Azerbaijan- Page 2

Final meal at Shaki Host House, Sheki and Azerbaijan. Bid farewell to the wonderful host family.

Our host in Sheki arranged a very affordable private taxi to the Balakan border crossing into Georgia.

Nice place for local sweets and pastries.

A modern French bakery.

This is a very small park besides the old city, which has a very beautiful Fountain.

Since we didn't spend much time at the old city yesterday, we decided to give it more time and attention today. The old city is quite charming, surrounded by a wall, with plenty of the old architectures still intact and quite a few small alley to explore. It is fairly relaxing to stroll around here. We didn't visit the internals of Palace of The Shirvansshahs, as we are no history buff. When we are tired, we took a rest at Seyidli Garden, a very tiny park at a corner of the old city. There is a nice street with a lion art mural.

Another small park next to the old city, facing the Nizami Museum of Azerbaijan Literature.

The Russian restaurant is pretty amazing: gorgeous interior and tasty food. The female waitress wears colourful Russian clothing as well. I like the Kvass - fermented beverage from rye bread. Other food are great as well, just that I don't remember their names.

We took a night train from Baku to Sheki, then asked the host to arrange a taxi to pick us up (10 Manatl. The host's son tag along, as he is the only one who could speak English. The house is clean and comfortable, and the host family is very friendly. A strong father, a mom who cook great food, a beautiful daughter and an energetic son.

Sheki Town itself could be explored easily by foot.

This is a small Palace, with no crowd during our visit. Cost 5 Manat to enter, same as the Summer Palace. If you visited Summer Palace before coming here, you might be disappointed by its size and simplicity. I am not a history or architecture buff, so it is a small two storey building with beautiful glass windows and carvings.

This place is a historical building + hotel + restaurant. Doesn't seems like a luxurious hotel despite it's size, probably due to lack of maintenance and upgrade. Still a nice place to drop by since it is free to visit.

The Palace is within Shaki Fortress, which is a big compound with few buildings such as Museum, Art & Crafts, etc. The entrance fee is 5 Manat, and you could pay extra for a guide. This Palace is bigger and more beautiful than the Winter Palace, with a much larger crowd as well. I would say it is a beautiful and interesting building.

We head South towards the mountain, as OpenStreetMap shown a short hiking trail. It is sunny and a great day to have a nice view of Sheki Town. It is a simple but nice hike. We didn't go all the way towards the next town as we would need to find a taxi back to Sheki. We turn back half way through.