it seems like it has such a wonderful blend of culture and history. and all the photos i’ve seen are just beautiful – the colors of buildings, the architecture, the casbian sea. plus, i seem to like visiting former soviet-ruled countries.
this trip is a ways off (perhaps within the next five years) but in researching flights it was interesting to learn that, from seattle, you can get there by travelling either east or west. granted, the east-bound travel times seem to be a few hours shorter… but either way you go through moscow and it takes close to forever to get there.

EDIT: i’ve just discovered that you can fly direct from london to baku… going this way only takes 22 hours and it cuts tons of travel time off – leaving more time for adventures.