Shraddha Srinath Instagram – Azeri people are the nicest. Especially the waiters. They’ll coax you into ordering two bottles of wine and two desserts too, flashing their best smiles and speaking in their best broken English. But no one ever complained of having too much wine or dessert right? Don’t answer that. Ate an excellent Azeri meal and Russian meal. So many beautiful restaurants! Cats. Soooooo many cats. Some friendly, some unbothered. I guess those are the only two categories of cats there are. The outskirts of Baku looks very soviet and cold, but you enter the city and it is so full of life and so charming. Lovely large parks, coffee shops, huge promenade, cobbled roads and sidewalks. Cops everywhere and I mean EVERYWHERE, and so helpful too. Our driver to Gabala fought the Azerbaijan-Armenia war 2 years ago and proudly showed off his medals and certificates. Azerbaijani men have to undergo compulsory military training after the age of 18 it seems. Anyway. I played music off my phone on our way back to the hotel and between ‘dil ko tumse pyar hua’ and ‘Ondra renda asaigal’ he loved the latter. His verdict, not mine. Also saw parts of the Baku street circuit. My airport taxi guy asked if I knew Azerbaijani and when I said no he wanted to chat with me using google translate while zipping on the highway. No thanks, I said in English. I think he understood. The second photo is my reaction to blue cheese. You should know how I react to blue cheese. F1 fans do you recognise the turn in the 3rd photo???? Can’t wait for the season to beginnnnn. Photos by @rohitsabu