Round Trip Ticket

I got back on Sunday night after 12 hours of being squished into to the middle seat in the middle section of the plane because the, now fired, travel agent didn’t bother to book the seats when she booked the flights. I guess she figured we would do better making a run for it during the boarding call. Unfortunately, we were still downstairs trying to get the paper ticket/e-ticket business straightened out when that first boarding call came. That being the case, there would have been no chance to lunge for a first class seat if that was the way it was done on Air Canada For some reason we had paper tickets for the Baku-London-Baku portion of this trip and pieces of printer paper with an incorrect booking reference number for the London-Halifax-London part. I am still mystified, but since we somehow had double reservations without seats….I kid you not….one of them turned out to be good, even though the reservation had never been ticketed.

It’s taken me some time to be able to complain about the abysmal service we’ve been getting from the travel agent. Despite all of wrong numbers, missing numbers, and middle seats, we’ve always managed to get where we were going when we were supposed to get there.

I, on the other hand, pulled a doozey this time around and have been keeping silent on the ineptitude of flight bookers in Baku. Carolyn and I flew into Halifax on the 8^th following an overnight in London. (Go see Les Miserables if you haven’t already…..put it on the list of ten things to do before you cash in your chips. It’s THAT good!) We were supposed to have a day and a half in Halifax and then travel to Houston to pick up the car. There was a wee problem with that plan since we arrived at the airport in Halifax on the 10^th to discover that I had booked the tickets for the 9^th, and not the 10^th. Who knew? Certainly not me! I had no idea we were supposed to be there the day before. I never MEANT to book the tickets for the 9^th. I blame my scroll wheel and am now fine with criticizing the travel agent.

In my case, perhaps booking travel should not be attempted at home without supervision……or at least without reading ones confirmation email before the day AFTER one’s departure date.

I felt bad for Carolyn who thought she was going on another little holiday and was left waiting at the altar of Continental Check-In. She told me that if her Dad was there we’d be going but I tend to think we’d be going to jail, instead.

Anyway, I just got back on Sunday like I said and I’m already working on reservations to go back at the end of September……which has sort of led to a new diversion….combing websites dedicated to maximizing those airline mileage points. I found two bonus mileage offers that I can use and weren’t sent to me by the airline or the hotel chain that is offering them….unless of course I forgot to open those emails, too. But I’m not going to think about that right now. My wounds are still a little too fresh.

Last night, we had dinner downtown and on the way home stopped into Kamran Market in search of vodka and caviar. The woman who manages the liquor wall was there to greet me with a smile of recognition, as she speaks no English. You know, you don’t really begin to feel at home until you’re missed at the corner store. A little while later I was over at the dairy counter trying to guess whether or not a particular container held cottage cheese, sour cream, or some unknown white milky substance....I heard liquor wall lady ask John where Carolyn was….not in so many words but I got the idea from the sign language. Very sweet...but why does she remember Carolyn so well? We explained that she was in Canada, got a nod of recognition, then an “America?” I guess that’s close enough.

Now, shouldn’t Russia and Azerbaijan be close enough together that the caviar labeled Russian and the caviar labeled Azerbaijan, in identical jars with identical lids be closer in price than 70 manat and 2 manat? For the life of me, I couldn’t figure out why the difference in price, but then I never did come to a definite conclusion on what was in the white plastic container of sour cream/cottage cheese/ white milky substance, either.

Our shipment arrived while I was gone. I have Kraft Dinner and my pots and my pans, and the Nikon camera…which was never supposed to be in there in the first place. Everything seems to be here and only a few inconsequential things were broken. There is enough wrinkled clothing to keep Lena ironing until the sheep come home.

The gazebo still isn’t finished but gazebo master still shows up every now and again to do some work. Right now, he is building an outdoor kitchen in one corner of it. The main part still needs some finishing touches but starting that outdoor kitchen was a plus. I was all set to move until I saw that going in....a built in gas barbecue in a land where there are none…..nothing to sneeze at. I fear that my gazebo has become a casualty of the Russian-Georgian conflict.I’ve been told the landlord is up in his native Georgia and therefore gazebo master isn’t getting paid. When he isn’t getting paid, he doesn’t tend to show up for work.

Everything seems business as usual in Baku. No one seems too concerned about the goings-on between our neighbors to the north but I do wish we had gone to Tblisi in June like we had planned. It doesn’t look like we will get there, now. We went here that weekend instead. Sheki……

We stayed here..which is a story in itself....

This is Carolyn and our lovely hostess, Arzu. She gets the gold medal for constant hovering...

No trip to Sheki is complete without a visit to the interactive museum....they encouraged us to climb on the antique carriages and sit on the furniture holding the antique weapons....

We checked out the handpainted interior of the Sheki Palace.....


It had beautiful stained glass windows....
Places to shop for the latest in fashion...
Household necessities...
And some absolutely beautiful scenery...
Breakfast under the trees on the way....

I'll keep this last on under wraps until the next post....