When I first saw Baku’s almost desert-like outline from the plane, I was already getting excited. I had never traveled east of my home country, Bulgaria, before, and the landscape already seemed much different than I was used to traveling through Western and Eastern Europe throughout my lifetime. As the plane was descending, I was already recognizing the big glassy buildings across the seafront and the center that I had seen online prior to leaving. I was also trying to figure out the outline of the Baku City Circuit; I was en route to my first ever Formula 1 race.

Formula 1 came into my life a bit over a year ago, in July 2023, when a friend of mine who is a fan invited me to watch a race together. I said yes, and next thing I knew he was explaining all of the rules to me, introducing me to drivers and their strengths and weaknesses, and of course, describing the cars and how they work. I was immediately hooked. Perhaps because I was going through a very confusing stage in my life, both personally and professionally, and I was feeling down a big chunk of the time, but it is like I needed it—I needed this sport in my life, and it found the right moment to enter it.

Buying the tickets to the Azerbaijan Grand Prix was an impulse decision but also a birthday gift from me. They were the cheapest I could find back in February, and the idea of traveling somewhere I had never been to before sounded enticing.

So, after disembarking the plane upon touchdown in Baku, I was excited. My heart was pumping joyously, and I was inhaling the warm Azerbaijani air mixed with airplane fuel thirstily.

After some hassle with our transport from the airport to our hotel, an hour and a half later we finally checked in with my father, who was my companion for this trip. It was past five o’clock in the afternoon already on the Thursday before the Grand Prix, which meant we had missed the pit lane walk that was included in our tickets. That was the first (and dare I say only) disappointment of the trip, because I was really looking forward to seeing the garages up close and personal.

Nevertheless, we still decided to take the metro downtown and walk around the circuit area and potentially the fanzone. Baku’s metro was very interesting to me, as it was quite different from what I am used to. The metro station we got in from was spacious, well-lit, and polished, almost looking like a giant hospital room to me. The trains were not brand new but still did the job well, despite being so loud that we had to yell at each other in order to communicate. What made an impression to me was also that the time between stops is quite longer than in any other metro I have been on—probably about 5 minutes, but it made sense, of course, as Baku is quite a big city. Inside the train, at every stop, they would play a different piano melody, which I found quite amusing and I liked very much.

After reaching the center and the circuit itself, without any help from maps or phones (we still had not gotten our prepaid SIM cards), the disappointment of missing the pit lane walk grew bigger, because now I could see the garages from afar, but the kind gentlemen at security were shaking their heads, pointing to their watches, and saying “late, late." Defeated, we turned back to go enter the fanzone from the other entrance, when probably the most insane thing of my life happened.

I heard a slight commotion, and I turned around slightly to see what was going on when Alex Albon and Sergio Perez, the Williams and Red Bull drivers, respectively, engrossed in a chat, passed by me literally half a meter away. The shock was great, but I still composed myself to snap a picture of them two. People started asking them for photos as they walked towards the big hotel next to the circuit, and my father, bless him, basically pushed me forward and told me to get a photo too. Sergio had already gone inside the hotel in a hurry, so I missed him, but Alex was kind enough to stop with the few fans around and snap pictures with them. I was one of these lucky fans.

To this day I struggle to comprehend meeting them, but I think this is a normal reaction when you meet somebody that famous who you only see on TV. This was undoubtedly the highlight of the trip, having happened just mere hours after we had landed.

Afterwards, we did enter the fanzone and took a small glimpse of what was expecting us for the next few days. It all seemed like a dream to me. As the fanzone was spread throughout the whole seafront park, we sat next to the sea, and I was still contemplating how lucky I had just gotten to meet an actual F1 driver. Every fiber in my body was thrumming with excitement for the next few days.

The next few days passed in a blur—a beautiful, exciting, joyful blur.

On the Friday and the Saturday of the Grand Prix weekend, we arrived at the fanzone bright and early to catch the Q&As with the drivers at the main stage—a very fun experience, where they would joke around and share what they had been up to and what they were most excited about the race weekend. It was so wonderful to see all these drivers live on stage—drivers who I had gotten to know only from TV or phone screens for the past a bit over a year.

Afterwards, we would just roam around the big fanzone, not a care in the world, and look around all the attractions. One time we would stop and take a photo with the show car—a car exactly the same in size and features as the ones we would see on the track. Another time we participated in the pit stop challenge, where we learned how to change a Formula 1 tire. Me and my dad posed at the special podium set up for photographs (with me on the top step, of course, and him in 3rd place, in case there were any doubts!), and then we posed for our ‘driver selfies'—a special machine that prints out a photo of you between your favorite team’s drivers. Occasionally we would go have a bite at the food and drink courts, and my dad would have a beer. Life was blissful.

We would walk along the whole fanzone and seafront park, enjoying the sunset behind the so-called Flame Towers, one of the main sights in Baku, and taking photos. We would just stop and take in the whole skyline around, with big, fancy, glassy buildings in odd shapes, but also the Baku Old Town peeking in the background. One of the evenings we went to a J Balvin concert, which was included in our tickets. It was in Baku’s Crystal Hall, a wonderful and multi-purpose facility, where Eurovision 2012 was held. It was a proper party there, and I danced to the reggae until late.

I had made friendship bracelets, Taylor Swift-style, with different drivers and writings on them, and managed to give away some of them to other girls who were Formula 1 fans, who were always very happy to receive them. One of them was my seat neighbor, who was a McLaren fan and got a Lando Norris bracelet from me, and she gave me mints at some point during the race. Pure girlhood!

I will never forget when I saw a Formula 1 car live in action for the first time. It was Friday, and time for the first free practice of the weekend. I had heard the Formula 2 cars before that in the distance, before we went to take our seats at the grandstand, but had not seen anything yet. We were located on one of the main straights that leads up to the start/finish line. It was, I believe, one of the Aston Martins, that passed by us first, and it is a moment I shall never forget. It was fast—very fast, as one would expect a Formula 1 car to be, and very loud. I did not know what to expect sound-wise, but it definitely was an unforgettable sound. It passed almost in a blur, and it left behind it a trail of faint fuel and tire smells. Absolutely incredible for a motorsport fan like me.

Despite some fans complaining that three free practices are too much in Formula 1, and they get boring at some point, this was absolutely not the case when following them live. I was watching with sparkling eyes every single car that was passing by, even though they were only doing practice laps. I was taking it all in.

Race day was arguably the best day of the weekend, as the excitement was peaking. I watched breathlessly these genius machines, apogees of technology and design, fighting for dominance and for a spot among the points. It was not that eventful of a race, with the main moments being when Oscar Piastri took the lead from Charles Leclerc’s Ferrari, and when Sergio Perez and Carlos Sainz had a very unfortunate incident in the last lap, taking them both out of the race. Piastri ended up winning for the second time in his career, and despite the fact that I was cheering for my favorites Leclerc and Max Verstappen, I was genuinely happy for him, as this moment was purely his and his only (after the team ‘shenanigans’ that occurred during his very first win in Hungary—just remember the papaya rules!).

After it was all over, a strange type of serenity fell upon me. I could not believe I just had some of the best days of my entire life happen to me. Pure, unadulterated happiness. I will remember and cherish it forever.

We had one more day in Baku, to be tourists only, and we got to work. We visited the famous Heydar Aliyev Center and snapped pics in front of the “I love Baku” sign (we really did love Baku!) We roamed around the Old town and had a wonderful lunch there, trying all kinds of local foods. At some point I stopped and watched how the old faded into new architecture-wise. Baku has this beautiful quality of mixing both history and novelty, and they exist together in harmony. There is no rivalry between the two, no fighting for territory. Everything is as if exactly where it needs to be. And it is beautiful.

At some point we came across a little garden in the old town that was filled with cats, all sorts of them. Older cats were lazily sleeping in the shade or drinking water; a pile of kittens were cuddling and napping as well. It was such a cute view, and I wanted to stay there, petting them and playing with them the whole afternoon.

As we were riding the bus back to our hotel one last time before leaving, I was taking in the Baku skyline and was contemplating how grateful I am that I get to combine my love for traveling and for sports (Formula 1 in particular) right here in this city. I thought back to February, where I had no clue how wonderful of a time I would have in seven months. That is why I would advise everyone:

Follow your dreams. Travel. Indulge in your passion. Don’t look back, only forward. Live.