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My dear readers,<br /><br />Today, I am going to my trip from Tunisia to Russia. These who read my story from previous trip: Silk Road may remember that I was motivated on it by a childhood dream about Takla-Makan Desert. On trip before that to Himalayas I was motivated by my mountaineering youth. This coming trip is also not without motivation. I want to go through the most luxurious places in Europe, such as French and Italian Riviera, the backpacker way (bosiatskim sposobom). Why the backpacker way? Because these places are very expensive and also because I do not like to travel the civilized way. I am motivated to this trip by two great Russian Travelers Romanych http://romanycz.travel.ru/ and Yuri Mossokovsky http://mosspower.w-city.net.ua Last one took a bold task to prove that the ordinary Russian citizen can afford to travel to Western Europe on a bike. He proved it, but lost 20 lb. on the way. I am going to prove that the ordinary American Social Seniority recipient can travel through Rivieras too. And I do not mind to lose weight ever.

From Tunisia to Russia (part II)

Alex Mumzhiu
2006-03-22 13:32:47

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in "this Baku" as the poet said, after hearing so many good words from my friends.

But, let me return to my notes in hronologically order. I left Tbilisi by bike, because there was no public transportation to Azerbaijan. The road to the border, down the Kyra river, 40Mi, 60Km was fun. Unpleasant border formality, as usually, was smoothed by my funny looking bike.

In Azerbaijan I took the bus to Baku, 12 hours, $10. I was the only tourist there, so the 2 drivers invited me for the dinner with them. Dinner, at dinner stop was served in a special VIP room for drivers and the food was superb. According to Caucasian hospitality they paid for it. I told them as to everybody else that I am from St. Petersburg. I know, if I tell them that I am from America, it will be endless questions about how many cars I have and how many rooms are in my house. I felt sometimes like a spy about to be discovered, because I cannot support conversation about details of recent events, I do not know names of popular singers, football players and politicians in Russia.

We arrived in Baku at 3 am and I went to the LP recommended Absheron hotel. To my surprise, the doorman told me about two other bicyclists who stayed here a year ago. They were the brave German couple which I met at Russian / Mongolian border during my trip last year.

Baku is in better shape than other two Caucasian capitals, Tbilisi and Yerevan. The city is clean and looks very European. Azerbaijan received about $7 billion dollars from the West for the oil development. Walking along these nice streets, it was difficult to imagine that just 12 years ago, this city erupted in Armenian massacre and Russian tanks had to enter to stop it. When Russian tanks left, Armenians and many Russians left too. There is a cemetery in the centeral park for rioters killed by Russians. There is no cemetery for Armenians, because rioters had a habit of cutting them in small pieces. Always ...