Journey to Baku!

Let’s rewind to the beginning of our 30-hour journey to Baku before I start talking about anything else. While most people are sleeping at 1:00 am, I was wide awake thinking about our long journey to Azerbaijan. After all our luggage was loaded into the car, we were off to the Erie International Airport.

Once we arrived at the airport, we went to go check our suitcases in. Once suitcase was overweight so we had to shift items from that suitcase to another one that was underweight. Luckily, we manage to get all our suitcases to be the correct weight. We said our final goodbyes to Dad, then we headed through TSA, my least favorite part about traveling. We waved goodbye to Dad one last time and then we were off to our gate. We only had to wait a short time before we were allowed to board the plane to Chicago O’Hare, this plane was a relatively small compared to our next one. Since we had an early morning almost all of us slept on the plane from Erie to Chicago. One flight down, two to go.

After we exited the plane, we zigzagged our way through the airport to find Terminal C. We had to go through a Pedestrian Tunnel, the walls were lit up with pastel colors and the ceiling had lights that lit up. Once we got to our terminal we decided to get some food since none of us had eaten yet.We were able to sit down and eat some breakfast before we headed to our gate (which we later found out that wasn’t our gate). Once we set down all our belonging, Hannah, Robin and I headed back to the Pedestrian Tunnel to take some pictures. We moved from gates to gate since it was hard finding a place for all five of us to sit. All of us found things to do to keep us busy until boarding time, which was in another 6 hours. We tried to sleep whenever we could since sleep would be the one thing that we would be deprived of for the next day or so. I walked as much as I could since I knew I would be sitting for 9 hours straight on the flight to Frankfurt, Germany. Once lunchtime rolled around we got something to eat for those who wanted it. Around 1:20 pm (Chicago time) we boarded the plane to Frankfurt. The plane was less than halfway full, allowing us to spread out so we could lie down to sleep, which was nice. 4:30 pm (Chicago time) they served us dinner: a choice between chicken or ravioli, a dinner roll, and a salad. For dessert was a vanilla gelato, which was so yummy. About an hour before landing they served us breakfast which was a crescent roll with jam and blueberry yogurt.

Vanilla Bean Gelato

Breakfast on the plane

We landed in beautiful Germany at 5:20 am (Germany time, or 11:20 pm Edinboro time). We mazed our way through the airport to get our gate 30B. At the beginning of this trip we thought we would only have to go through TSA once but unfortunately, we had to go through TSA again in Frankfurt. We had to go through the process all over again starting with getting rid of all our food and liquids. Luckily, a nice man helped us with getting all our stuff through TSA. We had to walk through a full body scanner with our hands up like we just committed a crime. I swear that that machine could read into our soul. We found this little spot to wait until we knew where our gate was. I walked as much as possible since I was tired of sitting. Our little place was in front of windows, so we could watch the planes arriving and departing. Around 2:00 pm (Germany time), we headed to our gate. After waiting only a little bit, our boarding tickets were checked. We walked downstairs to a shuttle that would take us to the plane that would take us from Frankfurt to Baku. It was important to stay awake since the time we would be arriving in Baku would be night time. We wanted to start switching our bodies to Azerbaijan time and sleeping through the night was an important step. Around 9:15 pm (Baku time or 6:15 pm Germany time), we were flying over Baku. After landed we had to go through immigration and collect our suitcases. We met the library director and his assistant so they could take us to our apartment. Baku is such a beautiful city, between their European-like architecture and bright city lights, I'm falling in love and I haven't been in it for more than 30 minutes. Elchin, the library director at ADA told us that some of the building were based on structures in Dubai. I’m so excited to be calling Baku my home for the next four months.

View from the plane ride from Frankfurt to Baku

Baku International Airport

We arrived at our apartment building around 10:50 pm (Baku time), Elchin took us up to our apartment which is one the 12th floor. When we arrived at the apartment there was Papa John’s pizza, chips, and crackers, soda, and fruit so we would have something to eat. After we showered and changed into clean clothes we decided to have something to eat. Then, we went over plans for the next couple of days.

Food that was provided for us

We traveled within three different time zones, spent 15 hours in airports and spent over 16 hours on an airplane but it was worth every minute, opportunities like this don’t come very often. Whenever I have a chance to see the world I will never turn it down. I can’t wait to show you pictures of this beautiful city.

#Azerbaijan #journey #plane #Frankurt #Chicago #Erie #Baku