Eurovision finals

It is the most watched non-sport event in the world, with over 150 million viewers.  Azerbaijan went all out as host of the annual song contest this year.

42 countries participated, minus Armenia which pulled out in fear for its participants’ safety, or perhaps, as the NY Times reported, because they would rather pay a fine (for not appearing) than to step foot on enemy soil. (http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/28/world/asia/azerbaijan-revels-as-host-of-eurovision-song-contest.html)

The vast majority of songs were in English (shocking Mon dieu! to see that the French entry’s song title was in English but phew it was sung in French). Your author really liked the Estonian, who sang, presumably, in Estonian.

It began at midnight, timed more conveniently for London (8 pm) and central European time (9). T and I went out after 11 pm to walk along the Bulvar and catch the vibe.

Lots of people were out--a party atmosphere. The short funicular railway up a hillside just down the street from us, closed since we arrived last August, had been rebuilt and opened for business in time for the event. A line of people waited to ride.

The Crystal Palace, built at great monetary and social cost for the occasion, lit up with the colors of the flag of each nations’ act. Sorry our photos did not catch the Palace, but below is a shot of the new funicular building with the three new "flame towers" behind. A video runs on the towers, showing a person waving an Azerbaijani flag and then flames, a national symbol.

Eurovision is known for its flamboyant acts. This year did not disappoint--lots of kitsch and weirdness: The Romanians had a moon-walking bagpiper with white rimmed glasses,  the Dutch singer sported a full Indian (native American) feather headdress,  the Danes a women’s band with token males who play cello and a small xylophone. Ukraine has men in dresses and white go-go boots, and the hit Russian "Grannies", round and smiling Siberian babushka women in headscarves, average age 75, moving to a pop number.


We watched some from a giant screen on the seaside Bulvar, the rest on a Russian TV channel at home. Fans worldwide voted by SMS for a short time (half an hour?)--we couldn't find a local TV station to find the correct number to vote or I would have...  People cannot vote for their own country, but many seem to vote for neighboring countries. Representatives from each country then beam in, giving their country's votes for first, second and third: "Good evening! Belgrade calling" and a screen quickly updates the tally (how did they do this before computers??).  

M? M? No, M.

When our planned trip to Iran (what? where?!, you may say) was cancelled (hearing your relief, perhaps) we looked into the Maldives--expensive, not much variety of things to do, then Mauritius--less expensive but winter there now and still not lots to do, before settling on Madagascar. Tom loves lemurs.

Iran seems a beautiful country indeed, with a rich history and people whom we hear are amazingly welcoming and lovely despite the enmity between our lands.  Our decision to join a tour there was a bit rash--we were invited by a friend and it sounded like a wonderful opportunity. Even got as far as having visa photos taken--me in a borrowed full head scarf. But the trip was canceled when only the three of us had signed up.

Having already committed the funds for travel, and not planning to visit the US this Summer (which your writer is a wee bit sad about), we decided to go for another adventure.  Now madly searching for travel info and hotels.

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Seen:

Random street photo

• In the metro: USAID-sponsored poster advising people to cover their mouth when coughing
• New rogue bus trick:  up on the sidewalk for about 80 feet to avoid traffic
• Saw my first police woman today. Wearing heels, albeit only about 2"
• In the Didn't Think it was Possible Department: young lady on the bus, wearing full 3" platform high heels, the spikes of which approached 6".  Hope she makes it.
• This is buried at the bottom of a list on purpose. How much will really get done in time for E-r-v-s-o-? We noticed that the army has been deployed in a couple of spots in the construction blitz. OMG--will the new carpet museum on the main sea-front road, less than a mile from the brand spankin' new festivities site, be ready?? It still lacks a portion of its outside panelling and looks completely unfinished inside. Needless to say no priceless carpets installed yet. It should be a major tourist draw.  Less than two weeks before people start arriving. Will heads roll???
• Direction signs are popping up all over town, to hotels and tourist sites. A nice touch.

Lebanon and France--part two (France)

Notre Dame

La France---nous t'aimons. T's first trip My first in many years. Oh the style, the comfort. Again,  it is especially so perhaps in contrast to Baku. Many people on this trip asked us what it is like in Az. In comparison (to France, or even Lebanon) Az seems so much more limited: in style, in food, in rights....  [Now really expecting those men in suits!]

T and You-Know-What

K outside the Louvre

Nighttime on the Seine

Why does France feel comfortable? It is mellow yet vibrant, well organized, interesting and, off season yet, not too busy.  There is both order and beauty--what a concept! Lebanon was fun (and had one or two of those qualities, though not consistently...) but we dashed all over the place nonstop. Here we have only four and a half days but it feels more relaxed.


Two days in Paris (and one without our bags, which didn't make the transfer in Istanbul) but we managed to see Notre Dame, the Eiffel Tower, l'Arc de Triomphe, and Galleries Lafayette (a department store!!) and to picnic in Bois de Bologne and walk along the Seine at night. And to eat in lovely bistros, T enjoying entrecôte and frites every single day. Moi? Salade Nicoise, mmmmm, and poire roquefort for DINNER one night--such variety, so interresante!

T at the chateau in Blois

We rented a car for our two + days in the Loire Valley (had been aiming for Provence but time was too short to go all that way) and visited several chateaux: Chenonceau (built over a river!),  the royal palace at Blois, Château du Clos Lucé (where Leonardo da Vinci lived the last years of his life), and Chambord (just the outside, but wow!)

K at Amboise

Leonardo's tank design

every château needs one of these

Three cakes OR Trip to Lebanon and France

A wonderful, memorable big 6-0 for K :-), with three celebrations in three countries.



Troy

Starting with a remarkable evening on the 16th... Directly after a full of work,  howling wind and rain begin as around 15 of us make our way to the new Hilton on the Bulvar (Caspian Sea boulevard), and its revolving, rooftop restaurant, for a drink and appetizers, arranged with considerable effort by T.  We miss the bus stop and race in taxis back to the place. We are on a schedule, as we have tickets to a Turkish dance and music extravaganza based on the story of Troy, at 7 pm...  Lovely celebration #1 at the Hilton, and they even provide a cake...  We race off in taxis to the theater,  in very slow traffic, arriving in the nick of time for curtain rise, only to discover that T and I have brought the wrong tickets....the ones for an April 6 performance at another theater.  Ay yay yay. Off in a taxi home to nab the correct tickets and back--just in time for act two. Oh well. Our friends have all made it at least!

After the show,  T's beloved phone is nowhere to be found. Sigh. How will the BP driver for the airport reach us in the morning? Then, at home, a newly installed radiator in the bedroom is shooting s geyser of water in the air and has drenched both floor and the only  valuable rug we own.  Panic, a wrench, a call to the landlord--we are due to leave in 6 hours for Lebanon...  T manages to stanch the flow.

Later, off to the airport and as we board the plane a blizzard hits--snow blowing horizontally. The plane is delayed and deiced, but manages takes off before the airport is closed.

BEIRUT

How comfortable it feels after Baku. How very lovely to be welcomed by old friends there. Three hours after touching down, we head for a fine mezze with friends, on the Mediterranean.

Amazing cake commissioned by Tom and made by friend
and master baker Lauren--chocolate salt!
Tom had her write Happy Birthday Habibi Kris on it :-)

Next day it is up to Broumana, and Broumana Friends Meeting friends.  K has timed the trip to have two Sundays with them :-).

     Auntie Renée makes lunch for me and a cake...

And then its off on a whirlwind 5 day trip around Lebanon, showing our Baku traveling buddies, A and N, the sights.

A and N posing with refugee kids at Tyre hippodrome

Lebanon felt comfortable--partly because it was familiar, and partly in contrast to Azerbaijan. I am not so aware of the totalitarian nature of our current residence, the lack of freedom of speech, the blandness of food, life in general [Uh-oh, the men in black suits?!] I think, until I leave and see/feel how it is elsewhere.

--continued in part two because I can't seem to upload anymore pix here :-{

Novruz = New Year = Happy Spring! [+ Etc.]

It's the biggest holiday in the region.  Alas, this year T and I will miss most of it, in favor of a big 6-0 trip for me to Lebanon and to France.  For four weeks leading up to the equinox people here and in Iran celebrate Novruz, an ancient Zoroastrian holiday. On each of the four Tuesday evenings--dedicated to water, fire, earth, wind--bonfires are made in each neighborhood and people jump over the fire.  Plates of traditional foods numbering seven, all items beginning with "S" are prepared. There is a festive spirit all month long, and despite the still cold temps, the cheery trays of wheat grass for sale at many small shops help to remind that Spring is indeed around the corner. It has been the coldest winter in 100 years here!

A and K, waiting for Spring

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wheat grass for sale

Novruz treats

Etc.

• Less than three months to Eurovision. Whole neighborhoods have been razed, people displaced, trees uprooted. Construction continues at a relentless pace, pretty much 24/7, not only at the newly-leveled route from downtown to the [new, in construction] arena but at various spots in town, including the iconic new "flame towers" on a hill  above the old city, a long, wide strip of well-established commerce between two metro stations stripped of life, and at a number of state institutions (e.g. national oil company, state puppet theater) where, presumably (behind elaborate scaffolding and screens) sandblasting or perhaps yet another new layer of veneer, is being added.  [Will this post earn me a visit from scary-looking men in black suits, waiting for me at my door one evening, as I heard happened to another foreign blogger??] At 7 pm busloads of migrant workers take off for the night--are there enough of them to do the highly ambitious level of work envisioned?  No doubt this is true of most cities hosting major events.  At least its not Rio, host of the 2014 World Cup, where apparently slave labor and prisoners are being used for their mad construction blitz.
• It's not the first time I've been on a rogue bus, the driver having decided he (always a "he") didn't like the look of the traffic ahead and decided on a different route. Usually this results in little time savings and, amazing to me, generally NO outburst from passengers who may be seriously inconvenienced. I am thankful I know my way around a bit now, so no panic at not knowing where we are going.
• In the "never in the U.S." department--an ad for prenatal vitamins called: NATALSID

Istanbul/Gallipoli weekend

You’ve got to love living in a place where you can hit Istanbul for the weekend… Well, it was a three day weekend and a bit extravagant at about $250 round trip for the 2 ½ hour flight, but…

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Turkey again, wow—third time in a year for us, and fourth time in Istanbul ever. We love Turkey, love traveling here. This time it is short—only two days, one for Istanbul and one to visit Gallipoli, scene of  the senseless slaughter of tens of thousands of Turks, Australians, New Zealanders, Brits and French during WW I.

It makes for a very long day trip from Istanbul.  On the way we stop at a rest area catering to tourists. Staff in the gift shop speak some English, German and Japanese.

The trip was particularly moving for our Australian friend Nicole

Poorly planned and coordinated, Gallipoli was ignored by politicians (notably Winston Churchill) in favor of the Western front, and plagued by bad luck as well.  The area has been made into a national park. It remains a symbol of the vain quest to overpower and control.

This lists the dead in one cemetery whose names were known; most there were buried anonymously

Tom showing a trench

Poignancies: statue to the Turkish soldier (see photo) who, after listening to the cries of a wounded British soldier, stuck in the no-man’s land between the trench lines, raised a white flag, ventured out, picked up the man and carried him to the enemy’s trenches.

 

Among our small tour group was a Japanese family.  Do they think of Hiroshima, I wonder? Nagasaki?

And another monument bears the words of Mustafa Kamal, who bravely led the Turkish troops and who later, as Ataturk, father of the country,  so generously praised both the dead from both sides of the conflict: 

“Those heroes that shed their blood
and lost their lives . . .. you are
now lying in the soil of a friendly country.
Therefore rest in peace.
There is no difference between the
Johnnies and the Mehmets
to us where they lie side by side here
in this country of ours. You . . the mothers,
who sent their sons from
faraway countries, wipe away your
tears. Your sons are now lying in
our bosom and are at peace.
After having lost their lives in this land,
They have become our sons as well.

Kemal Ataturk

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Then a day in Istanbul, showing our friends the sights of Sultanahmet. Here is Tom at Aya Sofia (left), which we never tire of seeing—an amazing house of worship, dedicated in 360 (no digit missing there) and with a ceiling/roof so high and broad that the architectural feat could not be repeated for 1000 years. 

And a glimpse of the Grand Bazaar.

 

 

And of the Blue Mosque. 
 

As we fly out, I am treated to a great view of the Bosphorus and ships lined up in the Sea of Marmara (having, presumably, passed by Gallipoli—through the Dardanelles—from the Aegean Sea) end waiting to go through.