Hello all!
Baku is a beautiful old, but modern city! We are staying in a hotel in the old part of the city within the old, ancient city wall and close to the maiden tower. The old buildings are beautiful, big wood doors & carved limestone buildings, with ancient grape vines over verandas. The Caspian Sea smells great and there is a huge new sidewalk all along the sea. I haven't seen any oil production, but it is very evident that Baku is using some of the $70/bbl oil money to build new buildings and businesses. It is clean, the people are friendly. When we got here last night, we only received 7 day visas (not the 30 day that we asked for), which is a problem because our plane home leaves after the 7 day visa is up. We did not get a good reason as to why this happened. It was disappointing to say the least! We are all feeling relieved though, tonight, because of our friends here. Our friends met us this morning and have promised to pick us up on Monday morning and take us to the immigration service office to get additional days added to our visa. Their formal legal training is a huge asset for them in their work, and will be for us on Monday. Because of the years of Asbury folks building relationships with these wonderful, kind and loving people, we think we will be able to solve this problem of ours! Thank goodness! We ate lunch with them at a great restaurant and had an assortment of food common here. It was delicious and was about a 3 hour lunch, at least! They are very inspiring, confident, wise people. Again, I am so happy & relieved beyond words that we could call on them to help. We have spent the rest of the day walking around, looking at carpets, and people watching! There are many, many, many cats here...I have never seen so many and maybe I have seen 2 dogs! Fig trees, roses, beautiful architecture, some high fashion and a real sense of history make this a very unique place! Everyone is looking forward to a good nights sleep. We will have a restful day tomorrow, exploring more. Monday to settle our visa problem and then on to G-town! We are all flexible and know that we are experiencing just what we are supposed to be!!!
Ruthie
As of 7 pm their time, they are in G-town. They are 10 hours ahead of us.
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