Ganja and Back

I made it back to Imishli safe and sound after my weekend away. My cluster from PST and I made the trip to Ganja to be there for our LCF's, Sabina, 21st birthday. I really enjoyed seeing everyone again and we had a lot of fun goofing off together. Jake, Amy, and I decided to take the night train together out to Ganja. So we meet up in Baku and enjoyed a meal at a pub called Tequila Junction, a frequent stop for most PCVs whenever they are in Baku. I have come a fan of the Azerbaijan Mexican food served there. I usually order the nachos with refried beans, and when I say refried beans I really mean baked beans as that is what Azerbaijan believes refried beans to be! Despite the interesting combination, it is not half bad.

After dinner we set out on the night train for Ganja. The train was terribly hot, miserably hot, and we were all uncomfortable. I felt kind of bad for Amy and Jake because it was there first time on the night train and they were really pumped for the expereince. Jake chickened out and didn't take the night train with us back to Baku on Monday night because it was so uncomfortable going there, which was unfortunate because the return trip was a much nicer temperature - quite pleasant actually. We bought tickets for the 4 person cabin and we were curious to see who our 4th roommate would be. Kind of funny story because the guy came running in the cabin out of breath. He must have been running to catch the train (I know that feeling all to well!) and got there just in time. Well, the three of us were in a pretty complaining mood as it was hot and stinky and were all uncomfortable. In comes this fourth guy who smelt pretty bad. The three of us were carrying on conversations in English, saying how hot is was, that this guy must of run to catch the train, etc... Luckily none of said anything bad about the 4th guy (like how stinky he was and how the entire cabin smelt even worse after he took his shoes off) because out of nowhere he says in perfect accentless English "Hey guys, do you mind if I shut the door?" It was so incredibly funny - everyone knows the saying about assuming!?! Well, totally true. Good thing we bit our tongue a bit. I have to remember that in big cities I am more likely to run into people who speak and understand English! The train ride back was less eventful as Amy and I were in a cabin with two other ladies and slept the entire time.

I am posting a link to a Snapfish album I just recreated. Some of the pictures are from during PST, but most of them are from this weekend. Here is the link: http://www2.snapfish.com/share/p=242221232624407123/l=469709779/g=42056374/otsc=SYE/otsi=SALB