Weekending

This weekend Mathias and I, along with our awesome sitemate Todd, decided to hike one of Samaxi's Mountains to find the ancient castle atop it.
Our journey began in town where we passed the City Stadium which was apparently, closed for "mowing"

As we headed out of town on the road, people became more and more scarce. We did walk along with a group of un-chaperoned cows for a bit:


At this point it started to get really foggy. Samaxi has a talent for that-sudden onsets of fog. Since we couldn't see where the mountain was anymore we stopped for directions. The man we asked was very nice and also very confident in our Azerbaijani language skills and therefore spoke quickly and copiously. This is pretty much what I heard "Go straight....There's a gate....next to....weather.....This way (hand points to the right).....two hours." And so we went straight. We found the gate and followed the evidence of a herd migration (little bits of sheep wool stuck among the brambles and cow pies) up the mountain.

It got steeper and steeper and we wondered how the cows made it this far...

When we reached the summit we felt like the conquerors of everest. It was only mildly dissapointing to discover that Azerbaijan had claimed the peak first:

The castle ruins were pretty cool. All the guide books say the view is pretty much why a person would make the hike but we will have to return later for evidence of that. There was the incredible feeling of standing at the edge of the world, being able to feel the height and dropoff before you, but not being able to see.

It was pretty cold up there and I wished I had taken my coat-there was still snow in the castle ruin's basement. Overall a fantastic adventure and a great day!