International Railroad Discussion > Azerbaijan, part 3. Balakan

Train 664 rolled into Balakan on time at 9:55.

Balakan is a quiet town, the last town in the valley in Azerbaijan, about 5 miles from the Georgian international border.

Like the other stations along the line, it's located outside of town, as the tracks are further from the base of the mountains than the towns.

I was finally starting bike touring at this point, planned to go 100 kilometers east to Sheki, then 100 kilometers back west to Balakan, then 200 or 300 kilometers west to Tbilisi. I'd had my touring bike ready to go for three or four weeks at this point, but just wasn't ambitious enough to head out across the deserts of Kazakhstan, where villages were 30 or 40 kilometers apart.

But, it was drizzling a bit, so I wasn't motivated to leave the station area on my next adventure, and the weather forecast called for generally clearing skies. So I lingered around the station and watched the crew move the power from one end to the other.

1) Railroad employee with good posture.

2) Engine running around the train to change ends for the return trip (which would be just after sunset). Caucuses Mountains (which we'd been running parallel to all morning) in the background.

3) Train schedule in Balakan station. (If only the Baku station had a solid state, ink and paper train schedule like this, it would have saved me about 45 minutes in frustrating deciphering of the wiggy electronic billboard).



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/03/18 21:52 by gobbl3gook.

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The Balakan station was an interesting case study. It looked like a 1960s building with some poorly executed architectural features added in the 2010s. With little maintenance performed, before or after the architectural updates.

4) Station, platform side.

5) Station, parking lot side. Can anyone name this architectural style?

6) Station, waiting room. That's the president (dictator?) of Azerbaijan. His face was featured prominently throughout the country.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/03/18 22:44 by gobbl3gook.

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7) Can anyone identify the make and model of this baggage cart?

8) After 3000 kilometers of trains and ferries, I'm finally ready to head out by bicycle.

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Bonus photos, bicycling in Azerbaijan

I took 2 days for the 100 km ride to Sheki town, 2 days sightseeing in Sheki, then 2 days to ride back to Balakan. Then continued for a week bicycling west and south through Georgia until I met up with the rail system again in Tbilisi, Georgia.

My goals for the trip, as explained in my first Kazakhstan post, were to travel from Asia to Europe by bicycle, train and ferry. And to generally take the slowest trains and smallest roads possible. Aiming to have the best possible travel experience, not necessarily see the biggest mountains, most beautiful landscapes, "must see" tourist destinations. Just to get out and experience life on the backside of the the planet.

A few photos from the road:

9) Village street scene

10 & 11) Riding along the base of the Caucasus

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More bonus photos:

12) The locals were very friendly, I frequently got invited to join tables at restaurants, and all groups wanted me to take a selfie with them. These folks ran a roadside cafe, and they offered to put me up for the night, which I happily accepted (drizzly night). & I was warm, dry, and well rested when heading out the next morning.

13) This older fellow also invited me for dinner and to spend the night, I politely declined, as it was a little early and I had more ground I wanted to cover. It's the way it works in Azerbaijan, Georgia and Armenia. Everyone invites you in for dinner, offers to put you up for the night, and wants a selfie. And there's always good camping in hazelnut orchards.

14) Sheki was a compact, pretty little city at the mouth of a canyon. It had a few museums in a historic castle yard, a silk weaving factory that had been in business for centuries, and pretty houses with persimmon and pomegranate trees in the yards. I met up with some friends I'd made in Baku. I enjoy traveling alone, and I also enjoy meeting people along the way and traveling with them for a day or two.

Photos taken around Oct 20, 2017.

Locations:
Balakan Station
https://www.google.com/maps/@41.6788956,46.4122535,706m/data=!3m1!1e3

Sheki
https://www.google.com/maps/@41.2025575,47.1962997,1612m/data=!3m1!1e3

Questions, comments?

Ted in OR

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5) Station, parking lot side. Can anyone name this architectural style?

Caucasus Weird? I Georgia you'll run into a lot of Brutalist, Constructivist, and Socialist Realism buildings. There are tour companies that specialize in tours of the odd side of Caucasus architecture.
http://brutaltours.com

I have really enjoyed your posts and the descriptions of your travels in an area usually not well known. What was the traffic like on the roads you bicycled? Were there a lot of trucks or other vehicles to contend with or was it fairly easy? Does your bike hold up well with all the gear you have to have and did you have to make repairs often?

Tom

photo #5: The style is "Mid-century Disaster," made popular by Oscar Nightmarius.
(The facade actually reminds me of some local 1960s apartments that have mansard roofs and some tacked-on ornaments, I guess to "make them real classy."

GettingShort Wrote:
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> Caucasus Weird? I Georgia you'll run into a lot of
> Brutalist, Constructivist, and Socialist Realism
> buildings.

That's what two friends and I dubbed Totalitarian Revival after three weeks in Cuba.

Thanks for posting your interesting photos and narratives.
ALLEN

Tom -- bicycling was generally safe and comfortable.

People in cars and trucks were almost always giving me reasonable space when overtaking me.

The only category of problems that was an ongoing headache was passing. People in Central Asia like to drive at the top speed possible/comfortable, which varies from vehicle to vehicle, so there's a lot of passing going on. And they're more liberal with passing there than in North America on 2 lane roads.

So there's two kinds of problems that comes with that. I could be bicycling along, watching someone coming up behind in my rear-view mirror, they're giving me space, then suddenly they've sidled up next to me because someone in a car is passing them. And, I'd can be pedaling along with no traffic to the rear, and all of a sudden I have a car coming at me in my lane, passing someone else coming at me.

Often the roads were wide enough that there was plenty of room for everyone. But maybe 10 or 20% of the total time on highways was on roads that had both some traffic and limited shoulders. So it was intermittently harrowing. In places like these I kept one eye on my mirror, one on the road ahead, and one monitoring the shoulder for bailing out. And, by being generally aware like this, I was never in danger. Just less relaxed than I normally am.

The further west I got the less frenzied the drivers -- western Georgia drivers are more mellow than eastern Azerbaijani drivers. And when I got to Ukraine the highways became very mellow.

But, all told, it was a fine bike ride, and a great adventure. The only thing I'd do differently next time is talk someone else into coming along for at least one month of the trip. I like traveling alone generally, but 2 months straight with fairly few encounters with English speaking folks got a bit dull after a while.

*****

Interesting comments on the architecture, I didn't know that Caucasian Brutalism had a following...

*****

I'm headed out of town for 2 weeks (Coast Starlight to San Luis Obispo, bicycling to Monterey (bypassing the Mud Creek Mudslide), bus/train to Davis, then probably Coast Starlight back to Portland).

I'll resume the series here with photos from Georgia on about Feb 19.

Ted in OR



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/06/18 03:26 by gobbl3gook.

Have a great ride Ted and we look forward to whatever you want to share with us

As always be safe out there

Gosh this looks like a blast!