The Crescent Moon Resort beach in Sixov south of Baku. Beach goers were a mix of Russians and Azeris - sunbathing, playing soccer and volleyball, an aqua park with water slides next to the pier, Eurodisco music blasting through the air (hilarious when one of the dance songs started chanting "I want to F#%*!"), people would get inside those giant balls in the picture below and scramble on the water like a hamster, the sand was course full of tiny shells but not unpleasant to walk on.
We were the first Americans they'd ever had swim there. The water was clear, warm, with no oil floating in sight - though you could see offshore oil wells on the horizon after swimming far out to the buoy.
At the raucous beach bar, the bartender in an English national team jersey with Rooney on the back called Dad Al Pacino an me Brad Pitt. A dude with crazy eyes jumped over the bar to hug me around the neck and kept wanting to high five. More and more curious young Azeri men started congregating around us until we ducked into a wooden table shelter to order food.
We received quite a few suspicious stares. Hussein, our friend and taxi driver, found us. He helped speed up the food (we had a cargo ship to catch) and fended off the unwelcome glares.
Not quite the midnight swim, but mission accomplished - Caspian Sea!
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