After five nights in Baku, we left. We planned to use the same driver from our first two days, who spoke significantly better English than I speak Azerbaijani, but not always well enough to manage extras. The night before we left, we had a communication hiccup about our route to Sheki. The price we had previously agreed on suddenly increased by 50%. Luckily, I had talked to several people and within 20 minutes had locked in a different driver with a Mercedes van, working seat belts, and fluency in English (and Italian), all at around 7 pm for the same price.

We decided to leave at 9:30 in the morning, which gave us enough time to order some Uber Eats—mashed potato filled fried dough, and fried dough with apple jelly inside—for $4, including tip.

Ali, the driver, filled us in on history on the way to the oldest mosque in Azerbaijan, then we visited a waterfall with countless steps. Archer and Rose insisted on watching the water the entire way up. Rose and I had a minor disagreement on the way down: she wanted to walk along the slick, haphazardly built steps, while I preferred to hold her and grip the railing. Archer kept stopping to take photos for his preschool scrapbook—we now have a whole collection showing different ways water can drain off a sidewalk.

We stopped at a lake for lunch and had the most expensive meal of our trip so far. I’m sure the driver got a kickback, but our children needed to eat. We were planning to take a gondola ride in a nearby ski town, but by then, Rose was clearly done and needed a nap. The final straw came when I took her and Archer to the bathroom, and she tried to mop the floor with her body while I helped Archer wipe. After a fair amount of screaming in the car, Rose fell asleep for the next hour until we reached Sheki.

Sheki is very different from Baku. It’s an old town with history stretching back more than 200 years, having been ruled separately from Baku before being taken over by the Russians and, much earlier, Alexander the Great.

We checked into the caravanserai, a several hundred-year-old Silk Road inn once used by traders. Two remain in town, and one has been converted into a hotel. The setting is amazing, and you’d think it might be pricey, but it’s a bare-bones place. Our “luxury room” consisted of two connected rooms, each with two twin beds; one had a couch and coffee table. The total cost: $40 per night.

After settling in, we spotted a playground through our window and went in search of it. After walking around the block, we realized it was probably part of a school and not accessible, which disappointed the kids. We decided the next best option was to go eat dinner.

We walked down the hill to a restaurant our driver had pointed out, which sometimes had live music. I think there was a single menu for the entire place. I ordered a bottle of local red wine for $12 from the display rack. Soon after, a party with balloons and cake began next to us. The “local music” turned out to be a man singing with a sound system as his backing band. Rose was given a balloon and a lot of head pats from the women at the party. A Chinese woman asked to take a photo with Rose—she mainly got a picture of herself with my crotch and Rose dangling from it.

Then another guest, a three-ish-year-old boy, arrived. Archer, Rose, and the boy proceeded to wreak havoc on the restaurant (we and the party were the only guests). Their favorite game was releasing helium balloons to the ceiling and having someone retrieve them. Dinner eventually ended, and we went back to our caravanserai.

We woke up to the expected pitter-patter of rain, which would define the rest of our time in Sheki. Katy had read that the caravanserai had super-hot water but cold rooms at night. They actually turned on our radiators, and we had to open a window to keep the room pleasant. It took us a minute to realize “H” was cold and “C” was hot, but once we figured that out, we had a toasty room and scalding water.

We walked to a café we’d noticed the day before and had pastries and coffee for breakfast. It turned out to have the nicest bathrooms in Sheki: a Western-style toilet, foaming soap, and paper towels.

Since it was raining, we decided to be lazy and spent $0.90 on an Uber to save ten minutes of walking to the palace of the Sheki Khans. The palace was really interesting—its mosaic-style windows contain thousands of colored glass pieces held together in tiny wooden frames. Unfortunately, no photos were allowed inside.

Then Rose took a giant poop. It’ll be nice to travel once she’s potty-trained.

We walked to a nearby mosque, and someone outside told us we could visit the 3-manat museum or the free mosque. We saw both and really enjoyed the peaceful atmosphere, although Rose required constant supervision.

Afterward, we stopped at a halva shop that also sold coffee. Halva is a traditional sweet made with sesame, nuts and honey. The store had no English signage, but when we asked for prices, they were lower than any of the more touristy shops. Sheki, overall, is much cheaper than Baku.

Then we went to lunch at our hotel and explored the restaurant’s back area, which was a maze of corridors and rooms. Right under our room was a former storage vault where traders would keep goods accessible through a trapdoor (no longer in use). After lunch, it was nap time. Archer was soaked by then; his rain jacket might have actually made him wetter by funneling water in whenever he purposefully ducked under drips.

In the afternoon, we took an Uber to the market zone. Since the Baku market went late and Google said this one closed at 8 pm, we thought visiting at 4 would be fine. Most stalls were closed, though, so we just browsed a small store in a mall-like building and grabbed the kids some sweatshirts (we forgot to pack theirs).

We then tried a restaurant recommended by our Sheki driver, supposedly named after the first astronaut. It took me a moment to realize “Qarqarin” referred to Yuri Gagarin—the Q equals G in Azerbaijani. Unfortunately, it was closed. Another nearby restaurant gave off a weird vibe, so we bailed and went back to the same place we’d eaten lunch.

The next morning, we booked an Uber to the border. The app quoted $22 for the two-hour drive, but the driver demanded an extra $13, which we agreed to. Thankfully, it was all handled through the messaging app. Katy wasn’t thrilled with the seatbelt situation (it could have been worse) or the driver’s aggressive style, which shaved twenty minutes off Google’s ETA.

Approaching the border, we passed 10 kilometers of trucks lined up, waiting to leave Azerbaijan. Our driver dropped us in the middle of the road. Thankfully, a border guard stopped traffic and directed us where to go. A guard opened a gate, checked our passports in the rain, and sent us up a 200-yard ramp to customs, where we scanned our bags through an x-ray machine. Then we showed our passports at immigration and were officially checked out of Azerbaijan. Another 200-yard walk brought us to a closed gate. After waiting about 12 seconds, I told Katy to open it. A guard appeared 30 seconds later, had us go back, and checked our passports again—he was probably on break or in the bathroom.

We finally crossed the bridge over the river separating Georgia and Azerbaijan and entered the Georgian immigration building. The officer asked a single question: where were we going? I had to look it up; he probably thought we were hopeless. He disappeared with our passports, returned shortly, and waved us through.

I then tried to withdraw $150 from the ATM, but it kept erroring. After several attempts, I realized it had a 30-bill limit and had six 20 lari bills ($6) and the rest 5 lari ($1.50). I didn’t take all the 5s, but now we have an impressive stack of small bills, which actually turned out to be super useful, since change is hard to come by.

We really enjoyed Azerbaijan. It definitely had some quirks to it. We didn’t know before we started researching our trip that they are very friendly with Israel and actually at odds with Iran (different type of Islam) and Russia. They have a ton of oil/gas money, and in the 90s their second oil boom started. Having a lot of oil money had made them less dependent on Russia compared to many other former parts is the USSR, this has created some tension. The country is way more modern and cleaner than I expected. Many places you think could benefit from a coat of paint, Baku wasn’t one of them. There are a lot of issues with authoritarian rule and that is what Azerbaijan is. The country is a Muslim country (Katy can attest to being awoken by the call to prayer), but they sell alcohol freely and most people are not strictly practicing Muslims. Our driver said that when he started doing tours someone asked him what type of Muslim he was, and he had to call his dad to see if he was Sunni or Shiite. It did not feel like a Muslim country like Indonesia or Turkey.

Next country in our adventure is Georgia…