Our honeymoon
Areeba and Saad
Baku, Gabala & Sheki
April 20268 nights
After the walima, eight nights that were only ours.
The two of us
Saad planned it all in secret and told Areeba at the walima, between the photos and the biryani. Eight nights later we came home married in a way the wedding had only promised. These are the places that held us first.
Where love took us
Five places, one story
Three nights in Baku by the sea, a day in the desert, then the mountains of the north. Tap a place to go to its chapter.
Our chapters
Chapter One
Icherisheher
Days 1–2The old city, Baku
Lost inside the walls, on purpose
Our first home as husband and wife was a little room inside the old city walls. Every morning started with a wrong turn down a stone street, and every wrong turn ended somewhere lovely.
She bought a scarf. He carried it.
Chapter Two
The Boulevard
Day 2Baku, by the Caspian
The evening the towers caught fire
A long walk by the sea as the sun went down, tea in small pear-shaped glasses, and then the three towers on the hill lit up like flames. We stayed until they had done it twice.
Chapter Three
Gobustan
Day 3The desert, south of Baku
The quietest place we have ever been
Out over the desert to grey hills of mud that bubble softly, and rocks carved by people who loved and danced here thousands of years ago. We sat on a warm stone and did not say much at all.
Saad's shoes did not survive. We did.
Chapter Four
Gabala
Days 4–6Nohur lake
Autumn in the mountains
Forest, apples and cold clean air. A boat on Nohur lake in the morning mist, and dinners of trout and pomegranate in a garden with a fire, wrapped in one shawl between the two of us.
We counted eleven shades of orange.
Chapter Five
Sheki
Days 7–8The Khan's palace
A palace made of coloured light
Every window in the Khan's summer palace is thousands of pieces of glass fitted without a single nail. We stood inside while the sun came through and painted us both in red and blue and gold.
In numbers
Eight nights of us
- 8nights, just the two of us
- 5places that held us
- 41glasses of tea
- 1carpet we did not mean to buy
Memories
The moments in between
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