The summary for those who haven't got the time to read it all – flew to Istanbul, bus to Georgia, and on to Armenia, five days there, lots of monasteries in scenic locations, back to Georgia to meet Iags, ten days in Georgia, lots of scenic locations, some with monasteries, then across the border to Azerbaijan. More details below...
Flew out from Luton on the morning of the 12th September, and into Istanbul. I'd already been there as part of my Middle East trip three years ago, so feel I know the place, instead of having to deal with somewhere new, and therefore a good place to start getting out of working life mode and back into travelling mode, which generally involves a twenty four hour minor panic attack where what I'm doing finally sinks in and I think about all the things that could possibly go wrong over the coming months, until I get into the 'It'll all work out OK' mindframe.
So a couple of days there, mainly sorting out how I was getting to Armenia, but with a quick re-visit to Hagia Sophia - the last time I was there they were restoring the frescoes on the dome and so had a large piece of scaffolding in the middle, which impacts somewhat on the grandeur of the space the dome generates, so I was hoping to fully experience it this time, but it appears that three years on they're still working on it, albeit on a slightly different part of the dome (at least I hope it is for their sakes), so the scaffolding is still there. It's still an incredible building though, both architecturally and culturally in the way it's been a Christian cathedral, a Muslim mosque and now a secular museum.Onwards then, on a 20 odd hour bus journey across the top of Turkey, ending up at Hopa, close to the Black Sea, a taxi ride to the border, a very easy ten minute crossing (the Georgian border guards, both here and elsewhere on the trip, were incredibly nice, probably the friendliest ones I've ever met), a local bus to Batumi on the Georgian side, then a six hour minibus ride (or marshrutka as they're universally referred to throughout the Caucasuses) up and over the hills to Tbilisi. A quick overnight stay in Tbilisi, then another marshrutka direct to Yerevan, the Armenian capital (Iags was coming out to visit me in Georgia about a week later, hence why I went straight to Armenia to kill a week before he arrived). No problems with the border crossing here either, except for the fact you actually got a full page visa on the border (which I was unaware of, I assumed you'd get a basic visa stamp like Turkey), meaning that I've now only got a single completely empty page left in my passport, which is probably going to be a problem if I need to get other visas to continue on from China, but I guess I'll worry about that later.
So Yerevan, the Armenian capital, and a place with a surprisingly continental European feel to it, the locals seem to swan around in designer/fake designer clothes, stopping for coffee at one of the innumerable cafes that are dotted around the central district, while chatting away on their mobile phones. The architecture is still distinctively Soviet though, which I can't say I'm much of a fan of, although one thing the Soviets did which I do love are their monumental statues, and Yerevan has a great Mother Armenia, towering over the city (a bit like Christ the Redeemer in Rio – but not quite), the classic Soviet strong female look, with a sword in her hands and the aura of a gangster holding a baseball bat when you know someone is about to get seriously hurt. I suspect the fact that she's staring straight out towards Turkey isn't a coincidence. The other unmissable sight in Yerevan is in fact just over the border in Turkey, Mount Ararat, of Noah fame (Armenians actually refer to Armenia as Hayastan, believing they're descended from Haya, one of Noah's grandsons, I think). It towers over the city, unlike any other mountain/city I've ever seen – usually a city near a mountain that size is itself quite high up, so the relative scale isn't as impressive, but here it's very different. Ararat is over 5000m above sea level, Yerevan is around a thousand, and it's pretty much plains for the thirty odd miles between them, with no other smaller mountains in between, so the effect is spectacular. When I first arrived and got a cab to the hostel, the cab driver pointed out of the window and said 'Mt Ararat', and I was looking out to the horizon, but couldn't see any peaks, so was slightly confused, until I did that thing where you re-adjust your scale of reference and realise you can't see the massive mountain right in front of you because you're just not expecting it to be that big.Based myself in Yerevan for four days, had a look around the city, including the Armenian Genocide Museum, describing the events that led up to the death of over a million Armenians living in Turkey towards the end of World War 1, which was pretty sobering. Turkey has never officially admitted it was genocide, but the facts seem pretty clear from what I can tell – the various embassies of the major powers were all reporting it back to their governments at the time, including the Germans who were the Turks/Ottaman Empire's allies in the war. Also did a variety of day trips, which consisted mainly of churches and monasteries (Armenia was the first officially Christian kingdom), mostly in scenic locations, the most impressive being Gerghardt, a church mainly carved out of a single solid rock. Headed back up towards the border after that, stopping off for a day's walking in the Debed canyon, again a couple of monasteries in scenic locations, with a nice two to three hour hike between them along the rim of the canyon.
Over the border then, and back to Tbilisi for a couple of days kicking about until Iags turned up, walked around the heart of the city, down the main street with some beautiful old buildings, including a late nineteenth century opera house (I got a ticket to see a performance of Dvorak's New World for two pounds, and could imagine it populated by characters from a Tolstoy novel what with the faded Russian grandeur of the place), around the picturesquely dilapidated old town, followed by a visit to a traditional bath house – being scrubbed down by a burly elderly gentleman is a slightly odd feeling. Another couple of days in Tbilisi with Iags, including a day trip out to Gori, proud birthplace of Georgia's most famous son, Josef Stalin. The house he was born in has been preserved, and an impressive museum built next to it, extolling his virtues and achievements, with only a passing mention of the 'few hundred thousand' (for which read 'undoubted millions') that were sent to re-education camps never to return, 'a dark period in Soviet history' as our guide referred to it in passing. Ended that day picking apples in the orchard of a random Georgian we met on the bus.
Onwards from Tbilisi out to the east (our original destination in the north, Kasbegi, had been cut off due to snow), and a couple of nights in Sighnaghi, an Italianete village up in the hills, with great views over the valley to the snow capped Caucasuses, from where we also did a day trip out to Davit Gareja, a collection of monasteries, one still functioning, way out in the middle of nowhere, right on what is now the Georgian-Azerbaijan border. Built originally by Georgia's greatest king, David the Builder (could he fix it? Yes he could) back in the twelfth century, the remnants are still accessible, carved out of cliff face caves, some still with remarkably well preserved frescoes adorning their walls and roofs. The landscape however was probably the highlight of the visit, a region of arid hills, with only a small village in the hour's drive from the main road, along with the occasional shepherd on horseback driving his sheep from and to god knows where.
The two days had been enough time for the snow to melt, so along with a group of Israelis (Georgia, being only a couple of hours or so away, has already been discovered by Israelis, while the usual traveller crowd of Aussies/Kiwis/Brits/Dutch is conspicuous by its relative absence) we hired a marshrutka to drive us the five hours or so up to Kasbegi, deep in Caucasus mountains, only a few miles from the Russian border. The journey up was spectacular, the recent snowfall had left all the peaks covered in a blanket of white, and as we wound our way slowly up the mountain passes to several thousand feet there were a fair few moments of jaw dropping beauty (as well as some mildly terrifying sheer drops from the side of the road). Kasbegi itself is a small village up in the mountains, famed particularly for a monastery (anyone spotting a theme here?) built on a rocky outcrop way above the village, a good hour's hike up, with Mount Kasbegi framing it in the background. The Soviets actually built a cable car up to it during their time in Georgia, somewhat missing the point of building a monastery that requires effort by the faithful to reach – but it wasn't long post independence before the locals ripped it down. So we spent a couple of days in the area, staying in a local family's house, communicating purely through sign language (mainly quite effectively), and doing some hiking, although the snow put paid to some of the longer hikes we were hoping to do (we met a group who'd planned to climb up to the top of Mount Kasbegi, only to get caught in a 36 hour snowstorm at base camp). The snow did make the whole place incredibly beautiful though, so it was a reasonable trade off, and there is something quite exhilarating about traipsing through fresh snow, creating your own tracks and paths.Back then to the chaos that is the main bus station in Tbilisi (and the description bus station in itself implies significantly more than is the actual case), a quick change of marshrutka and a quicker beer while we waited, and on to Borjomi, another couple of hours away. Just a day and a night in Borjomi, spent hiking through the national park there. A completely different experience to that of Kasbegi, this time in the lower Caucasuses, all forested hills, with surprisingly well marked trails leading you up and through the trees to the occasional clearing for vistas of green and brown across the valleys, before descending down through lush meadows. A Saturday night out in Borjomi, which consisted mainly of trying to find somewhere that would serve us beer after ten pm – for a nation that is very keen on its vodka toasting, wine and general drinking it's been surprisingly hard outside Tbilisi to get a late evening drink.
Sunday was Iags' final day, so back to Tbilisi for the last time, a final wander around the city, including an eventually successful search for a Russian – English phrasebook (I suspect I'll need one in the coming weeks, and forgot to get one at home), and a walk up to the new cathedral, built only a few years ago, a striking testament to the resurgent importance of the Church in the post Soviet era. A couple of beers then in an expat pub to watch the football, then back to the hostel for Iags to pack his bags and head off to the airport. Back east for me the following day, to a town called Telavi, a quick winery tour in the evening, and then up early the next morning to catch a marshrutka and a taxi down to the Azerbaijan border.
So that's a reasonably quick summary of the first three weeks of the trip – it didn't really feel like a proper travel though during those three weeks, the first week was mainly getting my head around the travelling thing again, and almost just killing time until Iags arrived, and then having Iags there gave Georgia a holiday feel (which was great), as opposed to a real travelling one. Being on holiday with someone is a completely different experience to travelling on your own, not better or worse I don't think, just different. The travelling feeling kicked in once I was in Azerbaijan, but I'll write that up in the next week or so, and post it up next time I have internet access (not sure that it's that freely available in Turkmenistan).
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