I've been very uninspired blogging lately so - instead of trying to write about all those things in the moment, I find my inspiration by digging backwards and continue the travel story to India I still haven't completed! For some reason this story is always enjoyable for me to write on, maybe because it doesn't have a deadline and is always there to continue :)
So..

Welcome again to the story about when I travelled overland to India with a band, funding all our expenses with music. A journey that took 1 year and 8 months, through 32 countries!

Last Chapter was about the beautiful capital of Georgia - Tbilisi.
In this chapter we are still in Tbilisi for a bit, and then follow the journey to Azerbaijan!

Georgia - Azerbaijan

June 2011

If any readers were following when this crew was in Turkey, you already met The Spanish Girls aka, Cris Blanca and Gemma. These wonderful ladies now catched up with us and met us in Tbilisi!

Which resulted in a smaller invasion with music and chatting in one of the local parks

Of course accompanied with some beautiful Georgian puri - bread (that everybody apparently wants to caress)

The girls also had to celebrate the exit of muslim culture - and dress code

So we got slightly drunk and invaded Bude Bar one last time with music!

And that was our goodbye with Tbilisi and yet a goodbye to the girls. The continued journey goes to a country we never heard about before this journey - Azerbaijan

hitchhiking road-photo and my first photo from Azerbaijan

The hippies goes to Ganja City! 🤣

The sun sets over the hitchhikers and azeri wasteland..

And we got to Baku! The Capital of Azerbaijan! Unfortunately we didn't have much time to explore the rest of Azerbaijan because we would have to catch a cargo ship over the Caspian Sea to continue our journey towards India!

At this point I might explain our route, which looked roughly like this (with the yellow cross being the "you are here" sign:

And some might ask why that detour to Kazakhstan instead of the more direct through Iran? And the answer is visas - we did a fair bit of research along the way, and first of all, Iranian visa was a bit complicated for our American member and secondly, it's near impossible to get a visa for Pakistan anywhere else than your home country or the Chinese border! So we would have to get in through China, and the easiest way was through The -Stans!
AND they also don't give you a Russian visa very easily, so through Azerbaijan it was and over the Caspian Sea with a cargo ship! This route also gave name to our band - The Caspian Caravan, since The Caspian Sea was a middle point on the route and one of the parts we had to conquer!
We had heard that they take passengers on Cargo Ships, but that they don't leave very often and you will not know when the ship will leave before 3 hours before departure!
So with our just about 2 weeks of visa for Azerbaijan, we had to get to the capital and get a hold of a cargo ship before the visa ran out!

So to Baku we came, and also here we were a photo opportunity to place your kids next to!

And then we met Vussal!
It's a shame I didn't find my old journals (they are on a loft in my old house under a ton of other stuff... One day I will find them and write the whole story once more with more details 😂) - because right now I don't remember how we met "Vussi", but he became our saviour in Baku and a very good friend and important figure of this journey!

He obviously let us stay in his little flat, squashed here between the other houses, that he shared with his friend.

And I will end this chapter with a photo of Matt and Jeff and a bridge, possibly build for no reason, and safe the story of incredible Baku and more of Azerbaijan in the next chapter!

So stay tuned! Next chapter will come anytime between now and a few months from now, you never know!

Thank you as always for reading! 🐱