Hallelujah

We had THE Azerbaijani Touristic Experience. Or rather as non-touristic as it gets. Following the advice of the excellent Trailblazer guidebook (and my auntie Cecilia) we, still together with Adam and Will, headed up to Xinalik, again a mountain village high in the Caucasus. It was as beautiful as it was described and we settled in with a local family (six children, mother eight years older than me) in their kilim decorated guestroom.
Unfortunately the food was less sensational and after three meals of bread and home made sheep cheese (very sheepy) we longed even for the never ending kebabs. I was also tiring the boys by beating them in backgammon all the time.
Luckily we hiked up the mountain valley to see an "eternal flame", a leak of natural gas burning right out of the mountain. A man invited us for a picnic "-We'll make kebab". The following took place:
A riding man arrived with a live goat tied to the horse back. The goat was untied and within forty minutes it was freed of it's head, skinned, belly emptied (testicles, livers, heart, lungs, kidneys saved) and chopped into neat kebab pieces. These where fried on the stones heated by the eternal flame and offered to us. It was delicious. The flame is said to have been burning since the eighth century, 1300 years.




And yes, to Adams horror, I ate a testicle.