Roaming Baku

This blog post accounts for the highlights of the IOI team’s arrival day in Baku, as told by IOI team member Tunan Shi. Tunan is representing Australia for the first time, at this year’s IOI.

Part 1

Hello again! Somehow your local Tunan found himself volunteering to write the blog entry for today because there was nothing better to do on a flight.

The team got a very uncomfortable 6 hours of sleep (better than nothing, right?) on the flight from Sydney to Doha. Nobody really said or did anything, maybe we were all too tired to start a conversation. By the time we got to Doha, nobody was that hungry, either. The in-flight meals served just fine to keep our stomachs full.

I am currently on a flight to Baku, the capital city of the Land of Fire. Another two and a half hours stuck in a giant metal bird travelling at 300 metres per second. In reality, a lot less cool than you may think. Maybe I will get to write the second entry in the evening, when I am actually in Baku.

Part 2

The flight to Baku passed quite quickly, although I ran out of music on my phone halfway 🙁

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We soon arrived, and our team guide, Fidan, met us at the airport. We settled into our accommodation (Angus said it was apparently quite spacious compared to last year), and Fidan led us through the Baku Metro, and along a tour of Icherisheher (the old city centre), where we went up the 12th century Maiden Tower and saw an excellent view of Baku.

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There really wasn’t much time to write a blog during the day, since there was so much moving and exploring to do. Here I am on the night of the 4th of August, finishing this blog. Josh probably won’t even get to posting this until after the IOI. [Ed. this ended up being the case]

P.S. We saw a cat eating a cheeseburger. 😮

P.P.S. Hi, it’s me again, and it is now the 9th of August. The IOI has been quite hectic, so I don’t think anyone has managed to write blogs during the actual IOI journey. Perhaps this will be the last blog written by students.