RE: Ladies and Gentlemen of Azerbaijan

People in Azerbaijan are the most miserable I have ever come across in all my travels

I think Georgians and Azeris have more in common than they do with their other neighbours. One of the main reasons I left Georgia was for a similar reason: everyone was just utterly miserable. You'd walk into a shop and say hello or ask if they have something and they'll blank you. Just scrolling through tiktok instead. Or people would would push in front of you in lines without a fuck given. It was such an odd atmosphere which felt like all societal foundations were thrown out of the window. I still met the odd person that was nice, and many of them would also point out these problems and state how much they hated it and wanted to leave because of it.

One of the largest cafe chains in Georgia had every receipt that would feature a text along the lines of "20% of Georgia is occupied by Russia." That sort of atmosphere just felt really off. Just full of misery and hate. Streets, even their oldest buildings 100+ years old, were riddled with graffiti displaying more hate. Saying fuck X nationality, or swastikas and all sorts of nonsense.

What made Georgia more tolerable were the Russians which weren't so cold. They had fun cafes and spaces for events which gave the place a bit more life to it. But it still wasn't enough to stick around. From my experience with Turks and Armenians, the two are much kinder, more open and welcoming. I've still had the odd encounter, that's inevitable. But the majority have been lovely.