"Welcome to Baku, Lassie"

It took us seven months to get here but now it’s done. I’ve unpacked our six suitcases and figured out how the shower works in my bathroom. That’s pretty settled, I think. Having stayed in so many different hotels over the past five years had to give me an edge in conquering the shower in less than a day.

John got back to Houston from Baku on the 22^nd and since I hadn’t seen him for almost two months, I was nice and in a good mood for as many days. Then the very ugly nasty bitch in me reared her ugly head and generally freaked out over every thing…..big or little. I guess I had some issues to work out before I got here and it feels good to have all that done and over. No one died and the bruises are healing okay. Since we’ve moved umpteen times in the past, I believe John recognizes the pattern of behavior, gives me some room, and puts all sharp objects out of sight. But anyway…….

That’s done and I’m here in Baku, happily being a vegetable. I don’t think I have ever been so exhausted in my life…..could I really be getting too old for this? Our flight from Houston left at 4 PM on Saturday. This time we had a window and an aisle seat, so I got my window and a place to rest my head, and John got his aisle and a place to stretch his long legs. The not-so-good-this-is-really -their last chance- travel agent had us booked in two seats in the center section of the Air Bus 340-600 and I wasn’t about to sit squished in a middle seat for the 10 hours it was going to take to get to Frankfurt nd the four additional ones to Baku…..again. I had bugged John to confirm where our seats were for about a week to no avail, so I managed to find out by calling Lufthansa directly. I was told we were sitting in the same row but on opposite sides of the aisle. Um….okay….but not. I changed them to seats A & C. I found out later that it was John who had also called Lufthansa, a few hours before I had, and secured us those across the aisle seats. 

For some reason the trip didn’t seem as long as it did in October, when we came over here to check the place out. Neither one of us slept much. I read my book, drank a fair bit of free wine, and thought about Kenai down in the hold….no doubt all stretched out in his first class crate having a nice snooze. I can’t believe what a gem he was at Bush. I was on the check in line while John put the crate together in front of the Lufthansa counter. He had Kenai on his leash and that dog was totally unconcerned with all of the people milling about and seemed completely nonplussed about the fact that he was going in to that crate when the last clip was clipped closed. When we put him in the crate….which is big enough for him to stand, turn around and lay full out in….. he had the good manners not to whine in front of all the other passengers who were going to be squished into restrictive seats and pay a whole lot more for the privilege. Once he was crated, and our luggage checked in, we had to wheel him down to the end of the terminal where they security screen oversize bags, which includes live animals. I wish I had a picture of Kenai getting his TSA pat down…seriously. It was too cute. I don’t think he thought so but it was cute nonetheless.

We waved goodbye to him at the conveyor belt and the TSA guy walked back with him to make sure he got to the right place. That was one of the hardest parts, letting him go like that. It was going to be such a long trip and he’d only flown once before and not nearly that far. No drugs or nothing…..not even free wine.

The best kinds of trips are uneventful and so Houston to Baku with the 5 hour stop in Frankfurt was the best kind of trip. I love Lufthansa. Getting through immigration in Baku was pretty smooth, just long..... there was a gal arriving for an embassy job, or something, who thought that since the embassy was picking up the tab for her visa that it should have been prepaid. At least that's what I gathered from six places back in the line up. It seemed like the immigration guys had no idea what the hell she was talking about. It took them quite a while to sort it all out and I dozed off in the queue, mesmerized by the sight of my luggage going round and round and round on the baggage carousel, so I have no idea how it was all resolved in the end. But I was just about ready to cough up the money for her. The visa fee for Americans is $135, Brits $100, and everyone else (including us Canadians) $65US. Between us John and I only came up with $58 bucks…..we had enough manat to cover my visa but all of the signs said US dollars. Surely, they’d take manat since it is the local currency, and they did (grudgingly) but at par with the US dollar…..and the manat is worth more.

With visa in hand, it was off to find out where to collect Kenai. I had envisioned him sitting, in his blue Cadillac of crates somewhere on the tarmac but he was parked right next to the baggage carousel keeping watch over our six pieces of luggage….one of which contained a ten pound bag of IAMS Active Maturity and a large box of Milk Bones. John went off to find a couple of carts and I began to retrieve our bags. A man in a uniform came over and I thought he might be the customs inspector to check out the dog’s Health and Vaccination Certificates but he wasn’t. He looked into the crate and when I told him that Kenai was with me, he told me that he was looking for another dog who was supposed to be on the flight going out and couldn’t be found. Uh oh!

Importing Kenai turned out to be a breeze. I had been so worried that we hadn’t done something right or had forgotten something but everything went amazingly easy. I offered his documents and Kenai was waved through with a “Welcome to Baku, Lassie.”

Ali, and his brother Mahmoot, were waiting to pick us up, and we were off to the big yellow house another 40 minutes away. I couldn’t wait to see the place now that it was finished and furnished. "IKEA on steroids," is what Jill said when I showed her the pictures John sent in December. It looks better in person, a lot better….and not so small. I think the size of the rooms dwarfs the furniture a bit.....but it’s definitely normal sized and so is the fridge, thank God. It’s surprisingly quite normal, it’s tall and thin but it’s certainly big enough. So is this blog. I’ll save the room by room for later…HA! For the past few days I’ve been discovering the quirks that John hadn’t noticed in the 2 months he was in here before me, including the fact that the gas to the stove isn’t hooked up. He forgot to order the cable TV, so I can get some shows in English via the BBC and wouldn't you know it, ESPN. There's also the little matter of some deadbolts on the doors that don’t open from the inside. I'll save that one for later.