Around the world (sort of) in 180 days (ish): Georgia (also a while ago)

14 May 2011 - 28 May 2011

The border crossing from Turkey was pretty straightforward, although we had to dodge the construction site on the Georgian side. There was a marked contrast in the roads, with Georgian roads being somewhat more potholed than the lovely smooth Turkish ones, but other than that and the writing (see pics - it's weird and very pretty), there was really very little difference between the two countries.

We went straight up to the Black Sea “resort town” of Batumi which was a lesson in bad roads and worse architecture. The buildings reminded me very much of some of the worst of new Latin American buildings, with too much of a fondness of concrete & brick cube construction, overlaid with garish finishes and topped with ever tasteful colourful mirrored glass.

Tasteful architecture

Black sea

Local beer

Apparently the town is a magnet for holidaymakers, but it seemed a bit desolate and there are much nicer places in Georgia to visit.

From there we went on a mammoth drive North into the hills to the town of Mestia close to the Russian border. It was pissing with rain for most of the morning so we stopped at a derelict factory (?) building in the middle of nowhere to have lunch. However, we were soon joined by a bunch of locals (men in black leather) who plied us with brandy and homebrew wine and even ran off at one point in their little white lada to fetch us a rather bemused Australian teacher. One guy in particular was kind enough to say I was the prettiest girl in the whole local area which, of course, was extremely flattering!

My admirer is to my left

The road was on the bumpy side with sheer drops down to a silty grey river below and it took about 9 hours to cover just 70km. The journey was made immeasurably worse by the shouty out of key singing in the back of the truck.

The road to Mestia

Landslide with teeny weeny digger clearing it from the other side

Scary overhanging bit of road (and the only railing I think we saw!)

The following day we met a local guide, Keti, who was just 17 and fluent in English, and skiving off school for the day to take us around. We went up to one of the old villages (a few of them are now connected up and make up the town of Mestia) called Margiani (which is also her surname, it being her ancestral village). The village consisted of a bunch of stone farmhouse type buildings, a cemetery with black headstones etched with the deceased’s portrait and amazing siege towers which are endemic.

Siege tower

Graveyard

Street sign with lovely Georgian script

Keti took us first to a museum which was a preserved traditional house. The ground floor was semi submerged and was used for storage, the first floor was the living floor and upstairs was for cattle feed. The living floor was just one big room with animal stalls around the edges, some seating (elaborately carved for the men and plain for the women) and a hearth in the middle. Most interestingly was a dowry chest carved with 5 suns (although Georgia was the second country converted to Christianity the people held on to their sun worshipping beliefs also) which represented the 5 daughters that a family could have at any one time. Any further daughters were the victims of infanticide.

Dowry chest

Keti's sheepdog

Our laundry after a few days camping!

The main street in Mestia (they are working on it)

Me and Keti

The butcher

From there we went to climb on of the siege towers which was just damn scary, all rickety ladders and packed dirt floors.

Keti also took a few of us up to the next village to see an amazing 11^thc. church built over a 6^th c. one. Both had amazing frescos.

After a similarly long drive back down the hill (the fun added to with the occasionally induced landslide being cleared as part of the road rebuilding) we camped in some open ground near an old fort with just cows, the ever-present stay dogs and a police escort for company (two burly men squashed into a teeny tiny lada!).

Camping

Market

Cheese in the market

This was some kind of dried fruit

The weather really picked up for a visit to Kutaisi and Bagrati cathedral, and we went from there to Gori and camped at the Uplistsikhe Cave City on a football pitch by the river. The weather was still really lovely and warm on arrival so I went off for a wee clamber over the ruins of the cave city (added bonus was that it was free as it was national museum day).

Bagrati cathedral

Cave City

From there we went back to Gori (in the rain again!) and visited the Stalin museum which was a strange experience. We were led around by a girl called Tamar wearing over the knee, shiny black high heel boots, a black mini skirt suit and red satin shirt. She spoke good English but with a strong accent and really fast so couldn’t understand her except we caught the drift that Stalin was a hero, misunderstood and he didn’t do bad things. Outside the museum they’ve built a temple like structure around the house that Stalin was born in and (according to which version of history you read) lived in until he was either 4 or a teenager. They’ve also got his (allegedly) bullet proof personal train carriage parked up outside, but clearly the town doesn’t love the association as much as they once did as they’ve taken down the huge Stalin statue that apparently once stood in town.

Stalin: less unattractive in his youth

Then it was on to Kazbegi, also in the north on the border with Russia, but this time with much better roads, including some snow tunnels which we had to use as there was still plenty of snow all over the place. Luckily we descended from the snow line to camp just outside of town in the shadow of Mt Kazbek which is around 5,000m. We had a strange red themed party that night on the truck and were joined by a few other tourists that had seen us from the road.

Me and Aoife at the red themed party

Camp at Kazbegi

Mount Kazbek

Red squirrel

The following day a few of us walked up to the Holy Trinity/Tsminda Sameba church/monastery which is supposed to be one of the holier sites in the country. It was really beautiful up there with great views all around, but I had to wear a slightly strange outfit to get in, throwing a dress (ladies must wear dresses/skirts) over my hiking trousers and long sleeved top (ladies must cover their arms) before donning a headscarf (ladies must cover their hair)!

Tsminda Sameba

Fashion

We then spent a few days in Tbilisi which is a fairly pretty place. We discovered the local Irish bar (run by a scary old American woman with terrible waist length hair extensions and a tartan miniskirt), a really good icecream parlour and, when the hangover abated, had a lovely walk around town. We also spent some time door stepping the Azeri embassy as they were being a little slow in issuing our visas. Those of us without visas were missing them because the embassy in London had closed for 3 weeks unannounced, just at the time we were applying for them.

Brand new and massive cathedral, Tbilisi

Tbilisi

And then east again to the Davit Gareja area which is near the border with Azerbaijan. The area is really beautiful, all rolling green hills, dotted with monasteries and full of sheep and snakes. We visited a really lovely monastery and then returned the same way to the town of Sighnaghi where I accidentally purchased a couple of carpets…..

Davit Gareja monastery

More fashion

Accidental Iranian carpet purchase

Accidental Dagestani carpet purchase

We spent a soggy couple of nights camping in the woods and visiting another monastery and a convent, when Jim returned, triumphant with our Azeri visas and we all headed off to the town of Telavi where the girls all stayed in a Russian General’s house which was a little plain on the outside but really ornate on the inside.