It so happened that in connection with the First European Olympic Games BAKU 2015, we moved to Baku. From Kiev we decided to go by car, since it would have been very expensive to bring all my photo equipment to Azerbaijan by plane, and the wheels under my butt in the new country will never hurt. The route Kiev – Baku by car I have laid, in my opinion, the quietest places. We drove through all the problematic regions of Ukraine on the territory of Russia, and then through Georgia to Azerbaijan. Our route was 2,724KM and took four days. We had overnight stops. All the way to the crossing of the Azerbaijani border, I was worried about the color of my car, will they let me in Azerbaijan with a car with vinyl or not? After all, this is a Muslim country, and I have pin-up girls in bathing suits on my car. I took almost no pictures along the way. The car was so packed that there was no way to take the camera out of the backpack and just leave it on Stand – By. If you take pictures, the following procedure: Stop, get out, get your backpack, open it, get your camera, take pictures, pack everything up. The procedure is really 15 minutes, was lazy 🙂
- day Kiev – Voronezh 720 km
- day Voronezh – Armavir 856 km
- Armavir – Tbilisi 598 km
- day Tbilisi – Baku 555 km
In general, the road was good, the whole way we had only three troubles.
First:
When we entered Ossetia, a policeman who looked like a pig from the game Angry Birds walked around my car for a long time and did not know what to complain about. First he checked the insurance, then began to wonder if the color coincided with the color in the technical passport. He asked me if I had a first-aid kit, then suddenly he glowed and saw that my side window was tinted. You should have seen his radiant face, his teeth shot off the phrase, tinting is prohibited in the Russian Federation!!! At that, his narrow, deep-set eyes sparkled, and a satisfied, snide grimace appeared on his face. I asked with a completely nonchalant look if there was a service to remove the film? The inspector clearly did not expect such a reaction and, in my opinion, he blushed… Anyway, in 5 minutes I peeled off the film and we happily drove on.
Second:
To be honest, when I drove around Sochi for almost a year, I thought I had passed the AD, the most reckless drivers in Adler, there is nothing worse. Guys, how wrong I was, there is Tbilisi!!!! There’s only one rule in Tbilisi, you see a hole, you go there. That’s how everyone drives. Turner, what is it? It’s true that the local traffic police, unlike ours, works. The guys bravo regulate traffic so as not to create traffic jams. So, in Tbilisi, I was caught in the back by Jigit in a minibus. Fortunately, there were no injuries, so we shook hands and drove away.
Third:
When we successfully passed the Azerbaijani border, I was pleasantly surprised by the width of the track, but my happiness did not last long. After a couple of dozen kilometers, the road was repaired, the highway narrowed into two lanes. Luckily for me there was an old ZIL in front of me, two stories loaded with cows, yes – yes two stories. It was a kind of London double-decker cow bus. Cows in Azerbaijan are apparently used to this form of transport. The cow on the top floor was looking straight at me with a nonchalant expression on her face, occasionally munching on the delicatessen fodder. So, I’m driving behind this miracle for about 20 minutes, there is no way to overtake, and then suddenly stopped oncoming traffic. I was faced with a choice “now or never”, I drove onto the oncoming road, pressed the gas, my Peugeot roared like a Boeing, and we began to imposingly ahead of the truck. At the very end of the maneuver, a white BMW with blinkers appeared on the horizon, cheered me up, said something in Azerbaijani over the loudspeaker, turned around like in an American movie, and drove after me. Of course, it wasn’t a greeting. I had to slow down. The cow overtook us with a snide face and, in my opinion, even showed a hoof with its middle finger 🙂 The guys in uniform told me and showed me a video of me overtaking with exceeding the speed limit by 20 km, and said that watching the video costs 60 manat (60 euros) and is accompanied by a protocol….
The most striking impression we made of Georgia, when you enter the country you are struck by the beauty of its rocky mountains with rock tunnels, which, smoothly passing into the green hills. Most likely, this is where the well-known green wallpaper for Windows J was shot. Of course – it did not do without the sheep, which are just walking along the road, and all the drivers are patiently waiting for them. But I’m already used to it, in Abkhazia cows walk the same way.
And of course, I almost forgot, khinkali, the most divine khinkali I have ever eaten is Georgian khinkali in a place in Tbilisi. I will definitely go to Tbilisi soon and spend a couple of days there, it’s an amazing city.
And now, I am in Baku and trying to be a professional photographer here, I even have my assistant Pasha, who just like me moved with his wife to Baku. So far in my two weeks of stay we have not managed to earn a single manat, but we will soon fix that, as ideas are generated every day
So moving Kiev – Baku by car was successful!
