There’s more to Sheki than sheep balls

Other stuff we saw that day was a palace from the 18th century, I think. It had trees outside from the 5th century. The inside was all hand-painted walls and ceilings and colored glass windows hand-laid with tiny carved wood pieces. I’ll put pictures up. It was stunning.


And then we went to an Albanian church, the beginnings of which were in 2-1 BC! (what's in the pic has been renovated.) There were old crypts dug up and you could see all the bones and bodies. So crazy old. There were even animal bones up at the altar from the old Christian/pagan sacrifices. We had to climb up some windy stone roads. Just put the massive Land Cruiser into 4-wheel and got up some roads a horse would’ve had trouble on. Very medieval feeling—like the back alleys of Kilkenny, Ireland.

I learned so much about the history of Azerbaijan, and the Caucasus in general. How a lot of Iran used to be Azerbaijan (all Persia, I assume), and after a war 1808 (?) between Iran and Russia, they sort of divided it. But there are more Azeris in Iran than Iranians. Plus there are so many Turks, Turk descendants, Kurds, and more in Iran. Most of the Iranian army used to be Azeris, and all the major shahs were actually Azeris too. The guide said not many people not from this region know that. Shia Muslim is what most Azeris are. Thor Heyerdahl (Con-tiki 2 anyone? Didn’t he try to prove the Phoenicians could have made it to America on a reed raft centuries before Columbus? Wasn’t the raft called the Con-tiki, which sank, and the Con-tiki 2, which also sank? We need a Mac-istan fact checker. Volunteers?) Oh, but Thor Heyerdahl has a theory that Norwegians are actually descendants of Azeris.

Oh, and we stayed at this amazing ancient hotel. Here’s a picture. It was like a castle too. Beautiful, all made of stone, all the walls and arches. But very nice inside. I slept on the couch though because the mattresses were like mush, but it was still nice.

Watched a lamb get butchered while the guys bought some breakfast. Then we drove the 4 hours home.

I’ve been amazed at what I can sleep through now, being so profoundly jet-lagged. The road between Sheki and Baku has some off-roading areas in the mountains due to construction, which makes for an exciting ride. And I was had to hang on for dear life through some the switchbacks. But on the way to Sheki I slept like a baby, sitting up, through all of that. Very surprising for someone who was kept awake by the gurgling of the air conditioner last night while in a comfy bed.
I’ve got to try to post this now. I say try because I know she can be testy sometimes, Mama Blogspot.

Speaking of mama blogspot, i have had much better success in writing comments and loading photos if i use Mozilla Firefox as a browser instead of explorer. It only takes a second to download, and all the cool people use it. No, they've moved on to cooler things, but Mozilla is still better than Internet Explorer. Am I Ron?