On the Road again: Visiting Tovuz

Once again we took to the road and decided to visit some new sights. We decided to go outside Baku and Travelled to Togruls families house by Tovuz, a small city located West in the country, only an hours drive from the border to Armenia.

I'm again getting used to taking long-distance transport per bus, train or car. Since we were travelling in the night, we decided to take the train to Tovuz, the trip takes 11 hours and we were lucky enough to get the seats by the toilets (It was a bit of a smelly trip), but despite unappetizing odors we managed to sleep quite well through the night. And however we feel about the the trip was the days in Tovuz were definitely worth it!

Tovuz was a new exciting experience (especially for all the internationals). We were staying in a village a few kilometers from Tovuz in picturesque surroundings. The house was surrounded by rolling hills with forested mountains a bit further away. The house was enclosed with a beautiful orchard with fruittrees and flowers. We spent most of the days in that garden talking, drinking chai and eating delicious home-made food!

The first day we got the chance i visit a spring named after Togruls grandfather where we had a bareque (goat which was butchered and skinned in our garden by the way). We also got to try homemade vodka, fresh springwater, dancing rollcalls with two kids in the minibus on the way back from the mountains,

The next day we drove over to Tovuz center seeing a newly constructed park before going to the forest, drinking tea by the river. Our driver Sasha (Togruls cousin) was apparently infamous on the streets of Tovuz, not too bothered with following the speed-limit or rules. He proudly showed us the place where he smashed his car a few months before, but he apparently was driving nicely (after insistent calls from his father). Still this was not the rides we were used to; we were 7 people in the car (3 in front, 4 in the back), no seatbelts of course, driving 140km/hour down a dark country road. He closed his eyes, left the car at one point while we were driving. Exciting experience.

We were only there for 3 days, but it was a nice break from Baku. On the way back we stopped in Shemkir, a small town in which they are building a Youth Center. The center was incredible and we were invited to oversee the construction and talk about potential partnership with the organization.

I'm always enjoying seeing more of the country and look forward to traveling again soon.

❤ From Baku!