All the way back in May, I celebrated my first birthday in Brussels. In addition to a trip to the Atomium for my birthday, I also had a few other treats.

Firstly, the city held a grand parade on my behalf. The theme of Zinneke parade was “The Dinner Table”, and was filled with colourful participants from all the different neighbourhoods of Brussels. One smart idea was to shape the parade into a loop that started everywhere at the same time. That way, no matter where one was on the route, one didn’t have to wait for it to begin – much better than the two hour rain-soaked wait that we spent at the end of the route in Dendermonde.

We also had a surprise Aussie houseguest for the weekend – Anna, one of the original Canberran Cookies. She joined us for lunch at one of our favourite restaurants – it’s called Houtsiplou, but we can never remember the name. They serve great modern cuisine, and they also let you draw in their bathroom.

On the Saturday night we hosted an evening of cosmos, champagne, and cupcakes. I ordered mini-cupcakes from this cute little shop down the street called Merrily’s. Truly, to have both a castle and a cupcake shop within a few minutes walk is a wonderful thing. As is tradition here, I brought some into work on the Friday, then picked up a fresh batch for the party on Saturday.

One thing that I really like about parties here is that many people are newcomers and eager to mingle. In Brussels most everyone has an interesting story to tell about how they got here and what they did once they arrived. While I was a bit sad that I couldn’t celebrate with my family and friends back in Australia, I was very glad that Anna was able act as their representative. However, when I looked around our living room and saw all the fascinating people who we have met in the past year, I decided that Belgium is not such a bad place to turn 30.

On our way home from the Caucasus we spent a day in Riga, Latvia. Adrian told me that there would be cats on every corner. The souvenir shops were full of felined-themed merchandise, and we did find the Black Cat House, but the actual kitties hid from us in secret spaces. However, despite this minor disappointment, we had a lovely day strolling around the city and exploring its parks and cafés.

Our last few days in Azerbaijan took us out into the sun-baked oil-rich dessert plains. Often we could see the black gold oozing out from the ground, and the only feature on much of this huge expanse of desiccated ochre was hundreds of abandoned oil-rigs.

We took a very sweaty and unpleasant trip into the interior in a tiny bumpy little van, however we were rewarded with the chance to explore a field filled with bubbling mud volcanoes. There were large thick puddles that were slowly oozing down the slope, tiny ponds simmering energetically, and even one vent that occasionally made a sound like a very old man every and then shot crumbling dirt high up in the air.

Nearby, we also had the chance to view an astonishing array of petroglyphs at Gobustan, at least 4000 years old. By this time it was high noon, and the sun was unbearable. I could only manage to dash out for a few minutes to examine these carvings before again seeking refuge in the shade. It made me remember my Australian summers, and I wondered how I coped with months of this endless heat.

The natural gas deposits were incorporated into the religions of the Zoroastrians and the Indian. While John and Adrian rehydrated themselves, I visited the Atəşgah fire temple in Surakhani that was used first as an ancient Zoroastrian shrine and then as a Hindu temple. It was actually cooler to stand in the shade next to the fire than out in the sun filled courtyard. The current stone temple that envelopes the “eternal flame” was built around 1745. This flame is now less eternal, as the vast number of oil rigs around the site exhausted the natural gas deposits in 1969, and now the gas is supplied by an artificial pipeline and switched off every night.

From paata.ge

Back in the wealthy capital of Baku, the weather became enjoyable sometime after 9pm. We soothed our parched selves with some fresh pineapple juice and strolled along the beautiful promenade by the Caspian Sea. We said farewell to John and started packing our bags for our departure from the Caucuses.

Our first few days in Azerbaijan involved travelling through the Silk Road, and I loved the excuse to buy a couple of silk scarves and treat it as an educational experience. For Adrian it was the chance to stay an 18th century Caravanserai. Personally, I am more likely to choose a place with a bathtub and WiFi rather than celebrating the limitations of the past. I imagine the conditions must have been so much worse back then – bed bugs, poor sanitation, and long trips on horseback under the hot sun. However, one of my few rules when deciding on our destinations is “no camping”, so I figured I didn’t really have the right to complain, as it wasn’t like we were freezing in a flimsy tent in the middle of nowhere.

To further enhance the illusion of living in the past, we were lucky enough to witness traditional dancing and a Mugham opera that were performed in the central courtyard. A more modern touch was the half-dozen cameras positioned throughout the place, as the performance was screened on National television the next day.