Baku, Azerbaijan / Tbilisi, Georgia, June 15-16, 2014

Sunday in Baku appears to be the day when people promenade about in their best Sunday clothes in the city center. Unfortunately this was out last day in Azerbaijan's capital; we had to rush to the airport in the late afternoon. Most of the afternoon was spent talking to Jamila, the young and very knowledgable foreign policy expert, we met the day before. Sitting outside in a pleasant coffee shop somewhere in the city center we had another most interesting talk about global and domestic developments.

When arriving at Tbilisi airport a few hours later and taking a taxi into the town center the contrast between the two cities becomes more than obvious. Baku gives the impression of a somewhat cold overly modernized city where everything seems to be dictated by business and making and spending huge amounts of oil money, a giant Wall Street if you like. Tibilisi, by contrast, seems to be a mixture between a developing and a gradually modernizing city. It's more charming, homely and has more atmosphere but it is also clearly much poorer. A stroll into the old town later at night only confirmed this impression. It appears to be a freer city, more relaxed (if this is the right word amidst all the traffic chaos) more disorderly and chaotic with street vendors and guitar players at many corners. Baku is much more organized and ordered, at least in the city center. One looks in vain for disorderly or ad hoc behavior or perhaps more idiosyncratic people as they can be found a plenty in Tbilisi. Both cities are definitely worth a visit though.

In the morning of the 16th another lecture on US foreign policy, this time to Tbilisi State University. We'll see how this goes. Then the mini bus (5-6 hours, great) to Yerevan. There is no other means of transport between the two cities it seems.