The hostel doesn’t have enough visitors to run the tours today or tomorrow, so I set off on a day tour myself via the very inexpensive public transportation. Today’s day trip would be to Echmiadzin on a very grey skied day. I would only see the sun for about 5 minutes today but luckily it really didn’t rain.
Echmiadzin is basically the Vatican of the Armenia church. It is the most holy of all the churches and serves at the school where the Armenian priests study.
The church itself was not super impressive. However, I was there to visit the Treasury which held the most valuable relics owned by the Armenian church. Amongst the items on display were some illuminated bibles, the spear that pierced Jesus’ side, a bit of Noah’s Ark, and two bejeweled wall hangings that had small bits of the cross.
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I then set off walking and was lucky enough to come across two different churches. The first was St. Gayane. The other was St. Hripsime. Both churches were named after women who had come from Rome with other maidens. Hripsime was very beautiful and left Rome to avoid marriage. The King of Armenia wanted to marry her but it would require that she give up her Christianity. She refused and was stoned.
I continued walking back towards Yerevan. It was not a pleasant walk because the road was very busy and littered. However, I was walking to Zvartnots Cathedral that was only a few miles from Echmiadzin. This ruined Cathedral was one of the first Cathedrals in the country. It was ruined in the 900’s – most likely by an earthquake but not totally known. The small museum here showed about architecture of the various Armenian churches.
After Zvartnots, I caught a minibus back to Yerevan. We drove past the huge American Embassy there – probably the largest embassy I’ve seen. Arriving in Yerevan, it was early enough to hightail it to the Genocide museum, which was to close at 4pm. So, I walked very fast from the bus station, past the brandy factories and up the hill of a park to the museum and huge monument. The museum had lots of media on the Armenian genocide that took place from 1915-1922. The Ottoman Turks killed 1.5 million Armenians during this period. They also kidnapped some of the women and children to add to their harems and assimilate into the Ottoman culture. This is part of the reason why Armenia and Turkey is to this day unfriendly neighbors with a closed border.
Next, I walked to the fancy mall that was at the bottom of the hill of the park. The Dalma Garden mall appears to very new and they appear to be adding a huge condominium complex attached. For the fun of it, I decided to find out if they had any movies playing in English since all the movies in this whole region from Kyrgyzstan to Armenia have been dubbed in Russian. In fact, they were going to start playing movies in English at this theater – a week from today. So, I just bought some snacks at the huge supermarket and headed back to the hostel where I watched a movie on YouTube.
I slept in a little bit and had breakfast. I was supposed to have a 10 am walking tour. The guide showed up but the other tourists did not so we decided to cancel the tour. Earlier I had met a Dutch guy that was headed out to Geghard Monastery and Garni Temple. I was supposed to do these on tour tomorrow but it was looking very likely that there would not be enough people to run the tour so I decided to see the sights with him.
We took a local bus out to a small bus stop on the east side of the city. There we got onto the 284 bus that took as far as the village of Goght. From here it was about 3 miles to the Geghard Monastery. We decided to walk but a little over halfway there, we were offered a ride by a couple from Yerevan in and Infinity SUV who were headed that way. The monetary itself was great. Geghard was named after the spear that pierced Jesus’ side during the crucifixion. The spear resided in this church for a long time but is now housed in another church in Armenia. There were a couple churches built next to each other as part of the Geghard complex. The best of these was a huge temple with four huge pillars carved out of a single piece of rock. Another temple was carved below this temple.
We had thought about walking the 10 Kms to Garni but a taxi driver offered to take us for 1000 Dram (about $2.50).
In Garni, we saw the Garni Temple. This had typical Roman Architecture with columns and an inner temple. It had been built on a dragon stone that had been worshiped in pagan times but was later converted to a Christian temple. It was on a fantastic lookout of a basalt canyon.
We returned to Yerevan by taxi but the driver wanted to charge us more to go to the center so we decided to take public transportation. We were hoping to visit the national history museum that was closing in just over an hour. Unfortunately, the Dutch guy was impatient and got on the wrong bus. So we zig zagged around the NW side of Yerevan and got dropped as close to the center as possible. From here the walk to the museum would take quite some time so I decided to skip it. However, I walked by the Opera House ticket booth and bought a ticket for an opera good for Thursday night.
Back at the hostel, I had a couple of glasses of pomegranate wine and chatted with Adam, the Australian guy. We decided to go to dinner at “At Gayana’s”. This place was only a block from the hostel but the workers had not heard of it. Armed with good reviews and an address from Tripadvisor, we set off to find it. We found the apartment block for the address and then we walked around peering in several windows. Finally, a lady motioned that we come inside. There was no sign on the door but we figured we were in the right place. We were in the dining and living room, where three tables had been set with nice tablecloths and settings. We had a fixed meal that included a drink of our choice (a wine glass filled to the brim with homemade wine), 5 different salads, fish baked in lavash bread (sort of a tortilla) with local spices and pomegranate. It was a great dinner in such a lovely setting.
We arrived at the Georgia/Armenia border and were quickly stamped out of Georgia. We got to Armenia and I was asked for my visa. I didn’t have one. However, there was a booth that sold them but it had to be paid in Armenian dram. There was a sort of vending machine so I put in $10 and waited. Eventually 4,030 drams came out. I paid 3,000 for the visa and the official put a full-page sticker in my passport. At passport control, the other official stamped me in and said “Have a nice day.” Again, so different from some of the other border crossings on the trip. This was the second easiest after Georgia.
The roads weren’t as straight and fast moving in Georgia because the landscape changed once we entered Armenia. The roads were very curvy and hilly and the scenery was beautiful. Even the villages were a bit different – different architecture, building materials. The churches were made from reddish stone bricks, as opposed to the white stones in Georgia. I could see several snowcapped mountains in the distance and we drove past Lake Sevan, the largest lake in Armenia. I arrived in Yerevan around 6:30, just after dark and spent my last 1,000 drams on a taxi to the hostel.
The hostel was in a great location. Within a block were lots of little restaurants and pubs. The next street over is one of the major shopping streets and had a 24-hour supermarket with a currency exchange.
Steps: 9,610
Mon, Nov 25
I went for a morning walk up the “Cascade”, about 800 marble steps up to the Independence Monument.
From there I walked thru the park to the “Mother of Armenia” statue.
There were a few locals doing exercise and sweeping up leaves but generally it was eerie walking thru a deserted amusement park. The Mother of Armenia statue is purely defensive – with a huge sword, shield at her feet, and several military vehicles parked around the plaza. Unlike Mother Georgia who also holds a cup for wine.
At 11:00, I set off on a “Soviet Tour” run by the Envoy Hostel. For 3 hours, we drove around the city learning about the days when Armenia was part of the USSR. There used to be many streets named after Lenin and a large statue in the square, but today there is little along the way of names that links Armenia with the USSR.
However, there are several remnants we saw as part of the tour:
* The large marble buildings in Republic Square (formerly Lenin Square). These use a pink tinted stone called “Tufta” which is native to Armenia. Thus, the former nickname of “The rose city of the USSR.
*The Yerevan Train Station and Subway that were built by the Soviets. The subway probably wouldn’t have been originally built but the mayor of Yerevan paid people to create fake traffic jams when the Soviets visited, thus leading to the Soviets thinking how badly a subway was needed. On the way to the subway, we stopped to have some traditional Russian treats – fried bread. One had a potato filling and the other with powdered sugar on top.
*Factory district – there was 100% employment in the Soviet days, and nearly 100% unemployment immediately after the independence. Many of the older taxi drivers were the engineers in the various factories. These huge, empty, very polluted sites serve as a reminder.
* Soviet bloc housing. The Soviets were in the process of building block houses for 1000’s of people. Each one of these buildings made up a part of a letter that would eventually spell “CCCP” as seen from the air. Only two of the C’s and a part of the P were completed at the time of independence.
*Almost all the Lenin statues in Armenia were destroyed. However, the Lenin statue in one city was carved by a Yerevan artist. This artist wanted to keep the head and the nearly 3-foot head is now in his backyard. This is the only Lenin in Yerevan today.
After the Soviet tour, I headed to the Yerevan Distillery with makes the Ararat brand of Brandy. They had a tour in English starting in an hour so I went for a short walk to wait for the others to arrive. The others in the tour were a couple from Canada here for an Armenian carpet convention and 3 diplomats from Germany, Macedonia, and Georgia in town for an OSCE convention. The tour was short but very interesting. We learned that Winston Churchill daily drank Armenian brandy. They showed us the scale where they would give every visiting president their weight in brandy. And we learned about aging brandy and the fact that it stops aging once it’s in the bottle (I never knew that – I assumed it continued aging). After the tour, we got to taste a 3 year and 10-year aged brandy with some chocolate.
Later that evening, my hostel roommate, Natasha and I went for beers and a Greek salad and the Czech Brewery. We met and talked to an Australian guy at the hostel for a while before going to bed. He is in love with the Caucuses and had been to Georgia several times.
After saying goodbye to the people from the tour that were up for an early breakfast, I headed to the subway station to go to the stop where the mini-buses (matruskys) depart for various towns in western Georgia. It’s helpful to read a Georgia travel guideto learn more about public transportation.
I easily found the matrusky that was headed to Gori, but it was empty and someone said it wasn’t departing for about 40 minutes. Meanwhile, a taxi driver was trying to convince me to hire him for the day to take me to Gori as well as a cave city that was near Gori. I had remembered reading about the cave city and was interested but had seen that it was quite difficult to get to unless you hired a taxi. So, after he lowered the price to 60 lari (less than $40), I decided to take the taxi.
He drove me via the freeway to the town of Gori. Gori was the boyhood home of Joseph Stalin and location of the Stalin Museum. First, I looked around the large marble museum, which was built by the Soviets when Georgia was part of the USSR.
Next, you get to go outside where the one room brick house that was rented by Joseph’s parents when he was a boy. All the other houses have been torn down but this one has been preserved and a protective structure has been built around it.
The last stop is the luxury railway carriage that took Stalin to the Yalta Convention. There was even a full bathroom on the car with a huge bathtub and toilet. To think on this trip, I’ve now seen toilets used by both Joseph Stalin and the Dahli Lama!
My last stop in Gori was the crusader statues and hill for a view of Stalin’s Georgian city.
Next, we drove to the cave city of Uplistsikhe. The carved buildings looked like there were out of the Flintstones. At one point, there were 20,000 people in this city first built over 3,000 years ago. There were temples that were originally pagan and later converted to Christianity. This was another city that had been invaded by Genghis Khan. It’s amazing the number of cities we’ve seen on this trip that was in the Mongol invasion. The exit was thru a very long tunnel carved in the sandstone in ancient days.
The taxi returned to Tbilisi via the scenic route. The taxi driver kept on trying to convince me to stop at other monasteries, probably for additional cost, but I was a bit tired and wanted to return to Tbilisi. I looked around the market at the Didube train station and bought a Georgian Snickers (walnuts, grape juice, and flour snack) and bought a bag that I can use as a carry on to carry my souvenirs home. I took the metro subway back to town and walked down Rustaveli street towards old town again. I ran into some more Samoan rugby players and asked there were and when the game and how to get tickets. They said they get some free tickets and would leave one for me at the Radisson tomorrow (we’ll see if they remember). The stores on Rustavelli are starting to put out their Christmas decorations.
It was hard to get up early after a late night last night, but we had breakfast and departed Tbilisi. We were driving north towards the Russia (Chechnya) border. First, we stopped at Ananuri monetary, which was on the shores of a large reservoir.
There were so many dogs hanging out there and chasing around anyone that had a bag. We also saw a big Georgian country traffic jam – there were dozens of cows and sheep, a few donkeys, a couple shepherds, a cop car, and a couple semi-trucks all on the same bridge.
We continued our drive with spectacular mountain scenery and drove thru a large ski resort town which is currently devoid of snow. The temps are cool enough but the first big storm of the season hasn’t hit yet.
Just after the ski town, we stopped at a circular mural overlooking the mountains and a waterfall. It is Overlanding tradition to drive the truck into the circle and get a group photo of everyone in or on the truck.
Over half of the group were on the roof of the truck and after the photos were taken, tragedy struck. I heard a scream and a thud on the cement. Helen, one of our driver/guides, had slid off the top of the truck and landed on the cement. I was one of the first ones there and it was a scary scene – she was moaning and seizing and there was a small amount of blood coming out of her ear. Luckily, we had our doctor and three nurses on board that provided emergency assistance as our local guide called the ambulance. Before the ambulance could arrive, she had been warmed up and given oxygen. She was walking and talking. The doctor had inspected her and determined there were no broken bones but she was still in need of observation at a hospital. The ambulance took her away to a small hospital in the small city we were heading to for the night, about 30 Km away. Everyone was so happy that it wasn’t worse and we were all shaken. With the fall being over 12 feet onto cement it could have been very bad. We are hoping for good news soon.
As we continued towards town, there was a huge white calcium deposit on one of the mountain sides. It looked like icicles.
We arrived into the town of Kazbegi and checked into our interesting accommodation for the night. We were staying at a University’s “Alpine Ecology Institute”. The ground floor had a kitchen, dining hall, conference rooms, and labs while the 2nd and 3rd floor were dorm rooms. I’m not sure why the students aren’t here right now, but it’s a good place to stay for the night.
After checking in, I set off to hike up the big hill to the Gergeti Trinity Holy Church. The hike was very steep. This was my most strenuous hike since Kyrgyzstan, over a month ago. We’re around 2000 meters elevation so the altitude also impacted me. I was glad I had my hiking poles – the first time they’ve been out since Kyrgyz too. It was a good hike with great views and the reward was the beautiful church with the snow of the mountains behind. I then hiked down the hill. I took the shortcut walking path half of the way but tired of the steep gravel so I took the car road the rest of the way, arriving back at the dorms after dark.
We had dinner provided in the accommodation and there we heard news about Helen. She was doing OK but her back was sore. She is being transferred to a larger hospital in Tbilisi where she can have brain and spinal scans. There’s no news on if or when she will rejoin the trip.
I found myself in Tbilisi three times due to changes in plans. I LOVE this city and want to go back some day.
Mon, Nov 18, 2013
It was around freezing in the morning as there was a little bit of frost on the tent. I’m happy to say I’ve survived all the bush camps of the trip! The remainder of nights will be spent in hotels or hostels. We were leaving at 9:00 this morning so I had to get up earlier to fit in my morning walk. I set off at 6:30 under the light of a full moon towards a monastery I had seen the previous day. The walk was easy but after I continued along the road I found a sign for the monetary in Georgian as well as English: No tourists, No photographs, Women must wear proper headscarves. Strike three for me! So I walked to the top of a hill to appreciate he monastery and the sunrise from afar.
First thing I saw on the way into Tbilisi
We arrived in Tbilisi, the capital of Georgia just before noon. We were lucky to be able to check into our hotel rooms where I took a great hot shower after 2 nights of camping plus I packed up my souvenirs which I hoped to mail home plus my laundry which was in dire need of washing. Anna and I set off for the post office which the Lonely Planet said was across the street from the National Gallery. We set off on foot but were confused by the map so we hopped in a very expensive taxi whose driver didn’t know where to drop us on the Rustavelli street so we ended up walked back quite a way to the place the post was supposed to be. After searching around that block for some time and asking many people who didn’t have a clue, we stopped into the Marriott Hotel for directions. They gave us a map and walking directions. It turns out the post office for parcels was only about 7 blocks from our hotel on the same street. They weighed my stuff and it was 3.8 Kilos (about 8 pounds) and the charge to mail it home was over $100 so I guess I’ll be lugging this stuff around for 2 more weeks.
Anna offered to take my souvenir bag back to the hotel as I headed towards old town to find the Envoy Hostel where I will be staying later this week. It took quite some searching – no one seemed to know it or the street it was on but I eventually found it on a hill behind the old city.
I met up with Bruce, Judy, Bruce, and Sue and they were going to sit at an outdoor cafe and have a beer so I joined them for two. We had some snacks on our way to the metro station where I rode the longest escalator in my life to ride the subway of Tbilisi back to the neighborhood of our hotel.
Steps: 28,210
Tues, Nov 19
After breakfast at the hotel, we set off on a walking tour with our local guide, ZaZa. We took a taxi to the old town and had a walk around. He took us down a gorge in the middle of the old town to find a hidden waterfall. We walked around the old part and saw lots of neat architecture.
Such a mix of Asian and European and the Silk Road staples of a blue tiled mosque and hammams (baths). And a secret waterfall hiding in the middle of the city.
Mother Georgia Statue – Sword in one hand and wine in the other
We were dropped off at Freedom Square where Bruce, Sue, and I had lunch at a little bakery. This time I tried the lasagna-like cheese pie. Very thin noodles with the local cheese but no red sauce or meat. This was probably my favorite of the cheese pies, or unofficial national food of Georgia.
I was hoping to buy a ticket to the ballet or opera for later in the month when I’m back in Tbilisi. However, the Opera house was all boarded up and I couldn’t find a box office. This is odd because a local activities guide was showing that there are events here in November. Just another wild goose chase in Tbilisi. My first impression is this is not my favorite city. There have been two occasions where someone has ripped me off in the last two days- once at a money exchange (a dodgy sign didn’t properly show the rate) and another for a taxi (faulty meter?). The number of beggars in the city is outrageous – I’ve seen several hundred in the last few days.
I did some more walking around old town and visited the local open air antiques and art market in the park. I went to the Envoy Hostel to pick up my laundry and walked back to my Hotel in the newer part of town to relax a couple hours before dinner.
For dinner, 11 of us headed off to a spot recommended by our guide for a bit of Georgian food and entertainment. There was a four-man singing group plus a woman and 3 men dancers. The dancers were amazing – in different costumes. It was sort of like Georgian river dance. After the show, a couple other singers came out and sang some slow songs and some fast songs both in Georgian and English. We appeared to be the only tourists there – lots of locals celebrating various events. The large table next to us was celebrating a 45th birthday and we took turns buying each other pitchers of wine and partying together. It was probably one of the most fun nights of the trip! So much dancing and flirting with cute guys.
Steps: 22,519
Sat, Nov 23
It was very grey skies this morning – this might be the only day of the trip so far that I haven’t seen the sun at least for a little while. Overall, the weather has been quite amazingly good. I thought it would be very cold in Georgia in November but it’s a good time to be here – a light jacket is plenty and there are very few tourists around. This is both good and bad. Good in that I have whole sites to myself and bad because tours and transportation are a bit more difficult.
I found out that the hostel will be completely full tonight. The Peace Corps had a conference in another town but nearly all of them need to reconnect via public transportation to their rural towns via Tbilisi so they are spending the night in various hostels around town. So, my room to myself last night will now have 4 girls tonight.
I just had a lazy morning and hung around the hostel and went out for a walk. I was planning to go to the Georgian National Museum but found out it was closed today, presumably for the St. George festival which takes place today. This festival celebrates St. George, the patron saint and namesake of Georgia. All the churches were very busy today. So, I just had lunch and walked back to the hostel to drop off some things and prepare to go out to the Georgia vs. Samoa Rugby match. After asking several people, I finally was given directions and an address of a stadium, as well as the numbers of a couple buses that went there.
So, I set off for bus 61 and got off at the address I was given. It was a bank. Luckily the guard knew a little bit of English and he pointed out the direction to the stadium. After I walked a bit I saw large stadium lighting towering over the trees of a park. I was a bit early so I hung out outside the stadium. In several places around town, there are guys running a gambling type game where someone pays some money and if they can hang on a bar for over 2 minutes they will win some money. I haven’t seen anyone win yet. This location in front of the stadium was particularly good as 75% of the spectators were young men.
I met Patrick, a guy from Manchester, UK in line so we decided to sit together. We bought the most expensive tickets for about $1.80 that put us right at midfield. At some point an announcement was made before the match and all the people with the 60 cent tickets filled in the empty spaces. Overall, the stadium was about 75% full. Both national anthems were made before the match and the Samoan team did a Haka dance (a chant with arm and leg motions, most famously done by the Maori and New Zealand sports teams). The match was good – the score was always close and both Samoa and Georgia lead at various times. With about 10 minutes left, Georgia went ahead at a score of 16-15. Samoa was getting close to scoring but then the whistle blew that time had run out. Georgia (the 18th best team) had beaten Samoa (the 8th best team).
It was too busy to catch a bus so we started walking back to the city. We ran into a guy from New Zealand who was also headed there so we hailed a taxi. I said goodbye to the guys and headed back to the hostel. There were a couple dozen Peace Corp volunteers hanging out in the common room and I talked to a few of them. At 8:30 I headed to a local place that was to have singing at 9pm. I ordered wine and my favorite Georgian dish – mashed kidney beans in a clay pot. I listened to the music for a while but felt a bit lonely and tired so I went back to the hostel at 10:30.
Steps:26,018
Sun, Nov 24
My main aim for the day was to get to Armenia but I had to wait until 1 pm until my van would leave. So, I relaxed at the hostel for a bit and then walked up to Rustavelli Avenue (again, it seems like I’m there multiple times every day) to go to the National Museum. Exhibitions there included:
* National Treasury: mostly gold adornments that were found in graves around Georgia. Many had Roman, Greek, and Hellenic influence.
* An Oriental Collection that had paintings and other art from Iran, Egypt, and a few other Asian countries
* Old military goods: swords, uniforms, and guns
* Info and relics from the Soviet occupation from 1921-1991. The Soviets executed 100,000s of Georgians at this time and there are still a couple regions that are under dispute.
I walked back to the hostel and got my things and walked to the subway station that also would have the vehicle that I would take to Yerevan, Armenia. I was happy to see a blue Mercedes van with a “Erevan” placard in the window. Immediately, they asked “Lisa?” and helped me with my bag. I waited until 1:00 and eventually a couple local ladies and man showed up and we were off by 1:07. This driver went fast! He was going as fast at 140 Km per hour and at one time was doing 100 in a 40 zone. I was glad to have a seat belt.
Fri, Nov 29
Today would be the first of 3 travel days to go home. Today’s journey would be by “Marshrutka” or Russian for “Van” from the capital of Armenia to the capital of Georgia. I was happy that the Marshrutka left right on time at 10am. I had heard they sometimes wait until they fill up as a couple that tried to get a 7:30 am van last week told me they waited 2.5 hours, but the van was quite full and the passengers were verbally complaining when the driver left even 1 minute late.
It was another spectacular drive thru the Armenian countryside. I was happy that the van took a different route than the shared taxi did five days ago. Today’s drive took us over a mountain pass with rain, snow, and slush. Then past Mount Aragats (sort of the little sister mountain of Ararat, but only 4000 meters high compared to the 5000+ meters of Ararat). Next, we entered the Debed Canyon, named for the river that cut the canyon. I was getting a bit of harassment by a Georgian guy – the other locals in the van were getting a laugh out of it. When he asked me if I was married (a pretty standard question on this trip) all the locals yelled “YES!”
We arrived in Tbilisi before 4:00 and I went to the hostel to store my bag. Since I had to be at the airport so early, I decided to save the money and just pull an “all-nighter” and stay at the bar until it was time to get my bag and go to the airport. It was drizzling again – it seems the only rain on this trip has been in Tbilisi. I went out for a walk up to Rustavelli again. My first stop was the ticket sales for the Tbilisi State Ballet Company. I had seen and advert for the Nutcracker the prior week and I hadn’t bought a ticket because I wasn’t 100% sure I’d be back in time. I bought a ticket for about $6.50. I next went to a local chain restaurant for a late lunch/early dinner. This restaurant is like the Georgian version of Cracker Barrel or Perkins. I had the mashed beans in a hot pot with pickled veggies and the local corn bread. There were some interesting veggies in the mix – one I’ve never seen before plus so green tomatoes.
I dressed for a night out and headed out to the theater to see The Nutcracker. The theater was nearly packed and there were lots of kids. The version was quite a bit different from the version I saw in Seattle a couple years ago. The opera house where they normally would perform was under construction so they now perform in a smaller theater. There’s no room for an orchestra so they danced to recorded music. There was a program printed in both Georgian and English and I noticed that 2 of the 4 lead dancers were Japanese.
After the ballet was over, I had about 6 hours until I needed to be to the airport so I went to a bar and had some cheap local beers then headed to one of the more expensive bars with live music. I was talking to a couple guys that were on a software project in Tbilisi. Then some local people started talking to us and trying to share their vodka (no vodka for me – I was not forgetting that I had to be to the airport in a couple hours). I hung out with them for a while to spend the waiting time.
We departed Signaghi at 10 am and drove a bit until we arrived at Gremi. Gremi was a town built in the 1500’s by a local king. There was a church and fortress at the top of a hill. Eventually the Persians attacked this town and destroyed much of it as well as tortured and killed the queen due to her faith. She is now a famous martyr of Georgia. The interior of the church was very nice, with original paintings that hadn’t been over-restored like some of the other sites of the trip.
We had a couple hours to explore the town of Telavi and have lunch. I walked around the King’s fortress and peaked into the church. I had lunch at a little diner consisting of a pastry with a salty bean paste and the eggplant/walnut paste salad.
We set up camp in a park that was flanked by a cemetery and livestock grazing land. There were some farm homes very nearby. We had a short walk to our included Wine Tasting excursion. Georgian wine is made a bit differently from the European and American wine making. The Georgian wine is made by crushing the grapes and then putting all the parts of the grape (skins, seeds, and everything) in the fermenting casks. Instead of using wooden barrels, the juice is put in huge ceramic jars that are buried in the ground. This allows them to stay at consistent temperatures during the fermenting process. Early in the process, the juice is stirred. He stirred the mix and it was bubbling. In the spring, the wine will be on the top and all the ground skins and seeds will be at the bottom. There will be 3 grades of wine. The stuff at the top will be the best grade with the stuff at the bottom the worst. We tried two white wines and a red (or black) wine. The white wines were not very white – a much darker brown than we are typically used to. I wasn’t very fond of the whites but the red was nice. We snacked on bread, cheese, and walnuts.
I swear I’m not drunk here.
After the wine tasting, we went into the home at the winery for our first “Georgian Feast.” A Georgian Feast is a home style meal at a homestay or other home. Our dinner started out with a variety of Georgian salads – eggs with tarragon, eggplant/walnut, pureed spinach, pureed beets, carrot, and Russian salad. Dinner was heaps and heaps of meat dumplings. Along with the food was unlimited wine and cha cha (grappa).
We used the Georgian Feast to celebrate the engagement of Sam and Mindy. The home and our guide ZaZa arranged to have an engagement cake. After dinner, we went outside where there were two heart shaped Chinese lanterns that were meant to be lit and to float into the sky. However, once they started floating, the wind caused them to get stuck in a tree. Hope that’s not bad luck.
Steps: 26,119
Sun, Nov 17
Today marks the point at which I return to the US in exactly 2 weeks. We weren’t leaving until 10 am so I headed out for another pre-breakfast walk, walking up a hill that appeared to be park and forest land. The views of sunrise over the snowcapped mountains were amazing and I came upon the silhouette of church.
I was amazed by the mistletoe growing in the trees. I’m not sure if I’ve ever seen live mistletoe before. They make perfect ball shapes in the trees that are otherwise bare of their leaves.
Mistletoe Plant
We spent most of the day driving with great views. We slowly winded up over a mountain with views of the mountain range that separates Georgia from Russia.
We passed thru cute villages and saw lots of ruins of fortresses and monasteries. And we stopped to buy incredibly fresh bread for our lunch, made in a stone oven.
By afternoon, we had entered a semi-arid desert with mostly grassland that borders Azerbaijan. Our destination with the Davit Gareji monetary. This monetary was built into sandstone caves around the 500 AD. There were some cave frescos (paintings) here but we didn’t have time to hike over to see them.
We set up our camp in a dry grass field. Barb and I hiked along a ridge to watch a spectacular sunset. Dinner was grilled sausages, mashed potatoes, and roast beets. The full moon was great and lit up the camp in the cold night.
Today’s drive was short – only about 3 hours, much of it up a winding hill with nice views of the fortress on the top of the hill, the valley, and the snow-capped mountains in the far distance. Our destination was the town of Signaghi at the top of the hill. It was surrounded by a stone wall with towers and several churches. We’ve been in Muslim countries for so long, it’s strange to now be in a Christian country so close to the middle east. We stayed in a guesthouse in the center in town.
Anna, Barb, Chris and I walked around the town, looking at shops and stopping for nice views. A lady was selling something that is locally known as “Georgian Snickers” – they take walnuts and string them together and then it is dipped in a grape juice and flour concoction that eventually gels around the walnuts. They look like a cross between homemade sausages and candles. To eat them, you pull the string out and then eat the whole thing – there’s no type of skin to peel off. They are mildly sweet.
Georgian Snickers
At the bottom of the wall, we found a restaurant with a view of the valley and mountains. We ordered 3 lemonades for Barb, Chris and I and they brought us three fizzy sweet drinks in three flavors and colors – a lemonade that tasted like Sprite, a pear drink, and a bright green Tarragon flavor drink that tasted a bit like medicine or mouthwash.
We relaxed in Barb and Chris’ huge room in their guesthouse and drank some really nice Georgian wine. We then went to a very fancy local restaurant where I had a carrot/dill/garlic salad, corn bread, and a whole fried trout with 1/4 bottle of wine for about $10.
Anna and I, as well as some others, were staying in Nana’s Guesthouse. She was a nice Georgian lady who speaks English very well. She was excited to hear I am from Washington state – she had gone on a Wine tour to Washington state in the past and as I was on the internet in the chilly common room, she came a wrapped a blanket around me that had “Seattle” embroidered on the side.
Steps: 18,620
Sat, Nov 16
I had a big walk before breakfast. I had originally planned to walk around the city walls for sunrise over the mountains but the mountains were all clouded over. Instead, I ended up walking 3 Km out of town to the Ninos Convent and monastery. They were reconstructing the big church there and there was a fascinating workshop outside.
It took a couple hours of driving to the Azerbaijan/Georgia border. The Azeri official recognized the Odyssey Overland group since another group had just passed this border a couple weeks ago. He asked if the group was going to Armenia. Azerbaijan and Armenia hasn’t been on good terms since 1919 and there are some disputed borders between them such that a person can’t cross the border between these two neighbor countries. I was told not to mention that my plan is to jump off the tour at our last stop in Georgia and make a 5-day trip to Armenia on my own. The last week of the tour is alot of driving and 3 nights in Cappadocia where I visited only 2.5 years ago so I’m hopping off the tour in just over a week and will join them via a flight on the last day of the tour (November 30th).
We walked across a bridge to the Georgian border. It took only about half a minute for the official to look at my passport and stamp me into the country as he said “Welcome to Georgia.” Definitely the easiest border crossing of the trip. As we waited for the others to get stamped in, we were joking with one of the officials there and he gave us some tips for visiting Georgia:
* Don’t drink beer. You need to drink wine in Georgia
* Men like white wine and women like red wine. That’s because the red wine is heavy and you can only drink about 1/2 liter of it at one time. With white wine, you can drink 2 liters.
* You should drink 3 shots, not 4, of grappa every morning. The local name for grappa is “Cha-Cha.” This keeps you from getting viruses. (Grappa is a hard liquor made from grapes).
This was a great border. There were a few currency exchanges changing both Azeri Manat and US dollars at good rates. There were also several shops with ice cream bars and fancy wine bottles filled with Georgian wines. Our group created a run on ice cream. There were some huge bottles of wine, as well as ceramic bottles shaped like people. Linc scored a bottle with a picture of Stalin, who was born in Georgia.
We drove a short distance to the Lagodekhi Nature Reserve where we set up camp and had a late lunch of really fresh bread, feta cheese, and salami. Feta and salami is very cheap here so I have a feeling we’ll have alot of it – so yummy.
After lunch, I set off on a walk in the Nature reserve. There was a 7km hike to a waterfall so I tried to get there. However, after the trail narrowed and there was a small river crossing, and I did not have my flashlight/torch I decided not to venture too far. The walk was very nice – lovely fall colors and leaves falling all around me in the sunlight. Bruce and Robbie were on the trail so I joined them for the walk back to camp.
Gift giving is an important part of Georgian culture. Apparently if you tell a person that you like their scarf or hat, they will give it to you and you cannot refuse. Our local guide that joined the trip today, Zaza, gave the group a gift of 10 liters of homemade wine as a joining gift. It was very fruity. Dinner was chicken fajitas and we got some exciting news at dinner – Sam proposed to Mindy along the banks of the river and she said yes! Congratulations to them.
Steps: 19,184
Fri, Nov 15
We didn’t have to leave until 10 am so I met Bruce, Judy, and Barb for an early morning walk into the nearby town to look at the interesting tin trim on the roofs. We picked some grapes at an obviously deserted house that were starting to rot on the vine. The grapes were so sweet and left us with very purple tongues. We had pancakes and stewed apples for breakfast.
On the drive to Sheki, we stopped on a hill for our most exciting lunch – hot dogs with fried onions and yellow mustard! No cucumbers! These were some emergency rations that had been taken on the ferry in case it took more than a day to cross (crossings can take from 12 hours to 7 days depending on the weather, how fuel sensitive the crew is, and the business of the port). Since we hadn’t needed the food for the ferry, we had it for lunch today. Before lunch, I had walked up the hill and picked some wild pomegranates to add to our lunch rations.
We arrived in Sheki around 3pm. Sheki (spelled also Seki or Sexi) is a cute city. Most of the buildings are built out of stone bricks. We checked into the Karavansaray Hotel. This hotel is in an old Silk Road Caravanserai (hotel). The building is great. Our room is a long rectangular with a rounded ceiling. There is a large sitting room, a bathroom that is split toilet/sink on one side and shower on the other, and then a large bedroom with 3 beds. The hotel is one of Lonely Planets’ suggested pick for the whole country of Azerbaijan.
We dropped off our bags and then headed to the Khan’s summer palace, which was an included tour in our trip. We had a good guide that showed us the various meeting and administrative rooms of the summer palace. There were some amazing intricate stained glass windows that were made purely of glass and wood. No metal was used. There were also some very detailed paintings in this 250-year-old palace.
After the palace, we wanted to make the most of the daylight and so Anna, Barb, Chris, and I walked downtown to the square. We took pictures of some of the stone buildings. We did a bit of shopping and then had dinner of a doner (kabob chicken in a bun with veggies). There was a mosque next to the Caravanserai, and the call to prayer was loud and long. The songs are nice but keep one awake.
Azerbaijan has really surprised me in a good way. The city of Baku was so modern and comfortable. The mud volcanoes were weird and wild. And Sheki was a nice place to visit too.
Steps: 17,563
Thurs, Nov 14
We had a little bit of free time in Sheki as we weren’t leaving for the border until 10am. There was something strange going on in Sheki, as there were policemen blocking the street of the Caravanserai. The prior night, the loudspeaker at the local mosque was blaring messages with a bit of yelling for several hours. There were many men around and the parking lot was filled with fancier cars (mostly Mercedes) so we think there was something Muslim/mosque related going on. I wanted to take some pictures of the old houses and since I had headed into town last night, I decided to walk up the cobblestone road near the hotel. The houses here were so cute and after some while of walking uphill I came upon a cemetery. There was some of the nice metal trim on some of the buildings there… craftsmen of Azerbaijan make some unusual shaped trims for the tin roofs. I continued up the hill for a nice view of the town.
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