Tag: travel blog

All good things must come to an end

On By cockneykiwi15Leave a comment

Yerevan, Armenia

April 2025

And so we had come to our last full day on holiday and the day started with a perfect mountain view from breakfast. Despite being in another country (Turkey), Mt Ararat (little and greater) dominate the Yerevan skyline.

We first headed to the Cascade complex were we first met Alexander Tamanian, the architect responsible for much of the Yerevan we see today.  He created the first plan of the modern city which was approved in 1924 and transformed the small city into a modern capital.  His statue at the bottom of the Cascade has earnt him the nickname “the DJ of Yerevan” – do you see it? 😂

 

When he started, the city only had a population of 45,000 and he had the foresight to plan for a city of 500,000 but the city grew so rapidly, it now has a population of over 1,000,000!

We walked through the formal gardens of Cafesjian Sculpture Garden which holds a collection of sculptures from all over the world.  The private collection included a large lion made of old tires, I spotted a Botero (from Colombia) and was pleasantly surprised to meet the first other kiwi I had met on the whole trip – this one was a very large blue one, and part of the exhibition. 

The Cascade’s formal name is the Cafesjian Centre for the Arts and was originally the idea of Tumanian to connect the city together, but the plan was forgotten.  After a few false starts, in the 70’s, 80’s and 90’s, the complex was finally completed in the early 2000s, funded by  Gerard Cafesjian, an American Armenian who funded over $120m of projects in the country.

From the bottom to the top of the Cascade it is 300m high, with an escalator on the inside (with different galleries and event rooms on each level) and over 550 steps on the outside.  We went up the escalator and then wandered slowly down the stairs admiring the views across the city to Mt Ararat.

As it dominates the city, Mt Ararat dominates the centre of Armenian coat of arms, along with Noah’s ark balanced on the top.  Apparently, the Turks said that the Armenian’s couldn’t have Mt Ararat on their coat of arms as it is not in Armenia!  Their reply was, well you can’t have the moon on yours as it is not in Turkey … lol.  So Turkey has the moon and Armenia has Mt Ararat lol.😝

 

Our next stop was the Matenadaran – the Museum of Ancient Manuscripts.  Established in 1959, it not only houses a huge collection of historical manuscripts (from Armenia and around the world), but also a scientific research institute.  We had a guide to take us around and introduce us to some of the most important books.  Some of the standouts to me were a 5th century Armenian manuscript on animal skin parchments, the largest book from the 14th century, weighing in at 28k (which took the skins of 660 newborn animals to make) and the smallest book from the 15th which weighs 19g and took only 1 newborn lamb to make.

The animal population of Armenian must have been pleased when they moved to using paper for books!  Apparently, Armenia was the 3rd country in the world to use paper after China and Arabia).

 

They had a wide collection of beautiful, colourful religious books, some made in the ancient Armenian Kingdom of Cilicia.  They used gold leaf, garlic juice and beetles for the red colour.  Apparently, it took 1000 beetles to make 1 gram of colour!

It was an interesting visit and it hard to imagine that they only have 1-2% of their collection on display! 

Levon had recommended a local sweet shop to purchase gifts to take home – New Zealand has very strict biosecurity rules and everything needs to be commercially made with country of origin and ingredients listed, so we had a quick pit stop at this amazing candy land type shop that sells chocolate coated dried fruit and nuts. 

After securing my purchases we headed to the equally candy land themed café next door to sample some freshly cooked ponchik – a filled, fried sweet dough.  I can confirm they were delicious.

We wandered back down towards the city centre, pausing for a moment in the ‘musical quarter’ – the home to Conservatory Park and the Theatre of Opera and Ballet.  One of the prominent statues is of Komitas, a priest, composer, singer and the pioneer of Armenian folk music.   He would walk from town to town compiling local folk music.

During the Armenian genocide in 1915, he was arrested, along with hundreds of other Armenian intellectuals, and deported to a prison camp.  He was allegedly saved by the French ambassador but suffered from PTSD and spent the rest of his life in a psychiatric hospital in Paris.   He is not only considered the saviour of Armenian music but also thought of as a martyr of the genocide.

Although we were walking around the central city today, Yerevan does have a Metro system – well, system may be a strong word, they have one, single Metro line that does not connect anything particularly useful!  It was built in the late 70’s and at the time, Yerevan only have a population of around 40,000 people.  Not nearly enough to justify the costs!  Apparently, they staged fake traffic to justify getting the money from the Soviet Union for the build! 😂

Our wanderings took us past the large carpet ‘statue’ we had seen the night before, the puppet theatre with it’s beautiful mosaic tiles and the oldest surviving church in the city (13th century I think).    We passed a mural of Edgar Alan Poe, that was painted by Levon’s wife,  the 1936 “Moscow” cinema and continued down a beautiful tree lined street that is lined by some of the oldest buildings in the city (which to be honest are not that old as the city has been destroyed many times). 

There was a beautiful building from 1915 that once housed the first private hospital in the city and then an 1880’s traders house that today is home to the Dalan Gallery and Restaurant.  From the street it just looks like a souvenir shop, but you can walk through the shop into the courtyard out the back into the restaurant and upstairs to explore the old house.

 

Back in the car, and we headed out of the city for our lunch spot at Vagharshapat, the Machanents House.  It is old house that has been turned into a social enterprise, providing artesian lessons in weaving and pottery, theatre and a national cuisine school, mostly for disabled people.  There is also a popular restaurant where we enjoyed lunch (which included a pizza face ☺️).

The main reason for our visit to Vagharshapat was not lunch, but the large religious complex that is considered the seat of Armenian Christianity and that houses the residence of the Armenian churches pontifical, as well as the oldest Armenian church that isn’t in ruins – the Etchmiadzin Cathedral.  Built in the early 4th century, it is believed to be the oldest cathedral in the world and is still a site of major pilgrimage today, as was evident from the amount of local people visiting.   

The Etchmiadzin Cathedral is considered the mother church of the Armenian Apostolic Church and was thought to have been built by our old friend Greogry the Illuminator (in fact you are greeted by life size carvings for Gregory and the King as you enter the complex through the imposing gates).  Not surprisingly, the cathedral has seen various iterations over the years due to earthquakes, plunderings and general neglect, so what we see today shows a number or different styles of architecture and seems to be fairly recently refurbished inside and it was stunning.

The Cathedral was beautiful and to be honest all looked rather new, but there were Perspex areas on the floor where you can see a small part of the 4th century foundation.  This was in stark contrast to our next stop, just a short drive away at the ruins of the 7th century Zvartnots Cathedral.

This Cathedral was unique in its circular shape and that fact that it had a multifloored design and stood at around 50 metres tall.  Unfortunately it only stood for 320 years before collapsing in the 10th century, probably as a result of an earthquake, despite being designed to last 1,000 years!

There was a small but informative museum on site that had a scale model of what it would have looked like and wandering around the site itself was really interesting.  At 25C it was our hottest day of the trip and we could see out to Mt Ararat (over 5,100m) on one side and Mt Aragats (over 4,000m) on the other.

Apparently, Armenian’s say that Mt Aragats is the highest mountain in the Republic of Armenia, but Mt Ararat is the highest mountain in Armenia, referring to all the land that was once part of Armenia!

As we drove back to the city, we made a brief detour to the Armenian Genocide Memorial complex.  We did not have much time so didn’t visit the museum but did a quick walk around the monument.  We were visiting the day after the Genocide Remembrance Day, that remembers April 24th, 1915, when the atrocities started. 

A quick history – the Armenia genocide refers to the annihilation of ethnic Armenian’s from the from April 1915 through to September 1916 by the Ottoman empire. They started by rounding up academics, politicians, musicians, artists etc in one night and killing them all.  Then those menof army service age were sent to work in prison camps, many dying later of starvation, exposure and disease.  Children were forcibly removed from their families and forced to convert to Islam.  It is reported that over 1 million people were killed.   

The Ottoman Empire did not recognise the genocide and say it was just part of WWI when lots of people died. Even today, many countries including Turkey, do not formally recognise it as genocide. Despite that, its impact on Armenia and its people is everywhere, and the reason that there are such large diaspora communities around the world as they fled the genocide and its aftermath.  

The monument itself is made up of three different parts.  Firstly the 44m spike which symbolised the national rebirth of Armenia.  Secondly, 12 slabs in a circle, representing the 12 lost provinces (which are now in Turkey) and it’s eternal flame.  There is also a long wall that lists all the areas and towns that were lost and people killed or removed.

I am not 100% sure what happens on the Remembrance Day but the whole area must have been covered in flowers and there were large groups of people cleaning them up and piling them high around the eternal flame.  It was a sobering site but an important part of understanding part of the history of Armenia – a country and a people that we had definitely grown to love.

It was sadly now time to say goodbye to Levon as he dropped us back at our hotel.  We had thought it would be tough to match Tazo, our Georgian guide who was amazing, but Levon managed to do that.  If you want a guide in Armenia, who’s not only knowledgeable but funny, kind and prepared for ever eventuality, he is your guy!

Being our last night, we decided to head out for a lovely last glass of Armenian wine and see the Cascade at night.  As we enjoyed our wine, thunder and lightning started cracking around us and despite deciding to try and get back to our hotel before the rain came (about a 15-minute walk), we did not get far … and when the rain came, it came hard!!!

(We might have got back before it started to rain if we had not stopped for 10 minutes to try and take photos of the lightning ☺️.)

We took  refuge in a bank ATM vestibule, or maybe it was a package collection place, either way we thought we could and wait out the worst of it.  We could not, so made a break for it and although the rain had subsided a little, the footpaths and roads were rivers that we had to wade through so there was not hope for the shoes.

When I had got back to the hotel in the afternoon, my room was incredibly hot (almost 30C) and the reception just told me to open my windows … of course I did not close them before going out and now the floor is also soaking wet … nothing that a towel on the floor won’t fix by morning , I hope 😉.) Armenia was certainly full of excitement right till the very end ❤️. (We thought we had it bad, Levon sent us a video of him driving on roads that were completely flooded!)

The long trip home was relatively uneventful. A little confusion for my airport pickup (they waited outside the hotel, I waited inside lol), but the airport was relatively small and quiet so plenty of time for immigration to scrutinise every page of my passport.  A slightly diverted flight to avoid flying through very high cumulus nimbus clouds. 

6 hours in Dubai airport (at least I did not have to rush for the 2 buses and then a train to change terminals this time).  14 hours to Sydney and a lovely view of the city coming into land, and then the final hop across the Tasman Sea and home.

I really enjoy writing these blogs and I do hope that someone enjoys reading them and/or finds them informative lol.  It gives me an opportunity to look back at photos and remember what we did each day whilst it is still relatively fresh in my mind.  This was definitely an incredible trip, one that I would highly recommend and in fact would love to come back again to dig deeper.  There is always so much more to see.

Museums, markets … and more monasteries (and a pagan temple)

On By cockneykiwi15Leave a comment

Armenia

April 2025

The hotel restaurant was on the 9th floor of the hotel with a view out over the city and Mt Ararat. When I went up for breakfast, it slowly came in to view under the clouds.  Unfortunately, by the time we came to leave for our day of activities it was raining.

Levon recommended we switched our activities around because of the weather  … and so we headed out of town to the Garni Temple complex.  The roads were terrible.  Apparently they were fine last week, but with some sustained heavy rain, they had turned into rivers with huge potholes! 

The locals joke that some of the potholes are so deep you loss cell phone reception if you go into one lol. If the potholes were not bad enough, part of the route was also in a landslide zone, where the ground and the buildings built on it, were slowly sliding down the hill! 

The Garni Temple is the only preserved pagan temple in Armenia and it is thought to have been originally built sometime between the years 100-300AD (remembering they became Christians in 301).  

The temple itself is a combination of Greek and Roman architecture and has 24 columns to symbolise 24 hours in a day, and 9 steps to symbolise the 9 social classes accepted in ancient Armenia.  For some reason, on this site, instead of destroying the pagan temple and building the Christian church on top (which happened everywhere else), the temple was kept, and the church built beside it.

Unfortunately, after surviving Christianity and multiple invasions, the temple succumbed to an earthquake in 1679.  It was restored in the 1970’s, using its original basalt stones, to what we see today.

They were obviously setting up for a concert and not only were all the lighting and cables ruining my photos, they also seemed pretty unsafe.  All the electric cables were sitting out in the rain and they were also a massive trip hazard as we climbed over them to get around the temple! Armenia health and safety at its finest! 😜

The site also served as a royal summer palace with a bath house/sauna and palace buildings.  The remains of the bath house has beautiful Greek style mosaics and one image that looks like a woman holding a smart phone??  They actually piped in the water for the bath house from 5km away in clay pipes.

One of the most important artefacts at Garni is the Dragon Stone or vishapakar, a monolith that predates the Khachkars.  It is believed that these date back to the Kingdom of Urartu, that dominated the Armenia highlands (which now extends over modern day Turkey, Iran and Armenia) from the 8th to 6th centuries BC.  It is crazy that this incredibly important artefact is just sitting out here with no protection from people or the elements!

You can see why this was a favourite spot for royalty, with it stunning views down the valleys on both sides (also making it hard to invade).  You can also see down to the “Symphony of Stones”.  Armenia’s version of the hexagonal (and some pentagonal) basalt columns, some nearly 50m high, that I have seen in recent years in Northern Ireland and Iceland.  They are now protected but were once cut to make the paving stones we were walking on.


As we exited the site, we passed more stalls with people selling their beautiful homemade products.  As with all our experiences in Armenia, they all wanted us to try their products even if we were not going to buy.  I always felt bad doing this but Levon told us they would be offended if we did not try lol.

It was odd to see how interested people were when they found out that we had been to Azerbaijan.  They would always ask what were the people like and what did they say about Armenians.  It really does seem that they are afraid of each other.  Levon said that people felt like they would be killed in the streets if they somehow found themselves in Baku! I can’t image what it must feel like to have such fear of a neighbour.

The rain had let up a little by the time we got to our next stop – Geghard monastery.  Another medieval monastery, this time partially carved into the cliff.  The complex was founded in the 4th century by our friend Greogry the Illuminator on the site of a sacred spring in a cave, that is still there and locals collect water from it.  It is believed that Gregory lived here for some time.

The name, Geghard, means spear, and allegedly, the spear which had been used to wound Jesus when he was on the cross, was brought to Armenia by the apostle Jude and it had been stored on this site!

Some parts of the complex are dug entirely into the cliff, others are stand alone structure, most built between the 10th and 12h centuries but as with most sites in this part of the world, it has suffered from invasions and earthquakes, in this case, also fire!

There are many Khachkar’s here, lining the rock faces and in some places the stones are carved directly into the rock walls and the main church is adorned with carvings of grapes, pomegranates, doves and a bull fighting a lion, thought to symbolise the prince’s power!  Apparently it took 40 years to build the cave monastery, digging it out from the top down and it had lovely acoustics.  (We convinced Levon to do a demonstration of said acoustics lol.)

From one of the upper tombs, there is a hole down in to one of the downstairs tombs.  Not sure if it is natural or manmade but it makes a good photo opportunity.

The rain came again so we ran back to the car and travelled through the now substantial surface water back into Yerevan.  It is clear that they have very poor drainage systems that can’t cope with heavy downpours and we were grateful to be driving in a suitable vehicle!

Back in town we stopped at the large “GUM”market (named after a nearby department store).  It was huge and mostly indoors (which was great on a day like this one).  It reminded me of markets I have seen in Kazakhstan.  Shoes, clothes, suitcases etc could be found upstairs, and food downstairs – fresh and dried fruit, nuts, vegetables, spices, meat, cheese, herbs ….

Again, we got lots of free samples and thankfully Ania bought some to take home, and I bought a little to eat today!   We have seen churchkhela around Armenia and lots here in the market.  Apparently here they call them the “Armenian Snickers” as they are sweet and nutty.  They are spiced here (with a little cinnamon I think) and I prefer them to the Georgian ones.  You can also buy them in small pieces, rather than just in the long sausage shape which is much better for me.

We wandered through the market, sampling many of the products and Levon recommended we had lunch at one of the ‘hole in the wall’ places on the edge of the market.  We were also keen to try local food so were happy to take him up. 

As is normal, I did not make a note of what it was called (but I did take photos of the lady making them in the small hole in the wall shop.  It was basically a lavash bread dough, with 15 types of herbs rolled in to it.  One site I came across on the internet called it Jingalov Hat (in English) so we will go with that.  It was delicious, what ever it was called.

From the market we headed in to the centre of the city.  Yerevan is clearly a city where the old and new stand side by side, although its seems that much of the old is being demolished to make way for more of the new!  It is also a place where Teslas coexist with Soviet era Ladas!

Yerevan is one of the oldest continuous settled cities in the world, starting in the 8th century BC with the building of the fortress of Erebuni.  It has been destroyed a number of times by earthquakes and only became the capital of the First Republic of Armenia in 1918.  I will probably touch more on this in the next blog. 

Parking is definitely at a premium and we did have to park some distance from our destination.  At least this gave us the opportunity to walk through the streets, passed lovely looking cafes, breweries and fancy restaurants. It is most definitely a cosmopolitan city today. 

Republic Square, the central town square was our destination. The “square” (its not really square) is surrounded by five major buildings, built in the pinkish “tuff” (local volcanic stone) which includes Government House, a hotel, and the History Museum of Armenia.  There are also musical fountains but unfortunately, we were too early in the year for them to be operating.

Construction of the ‘new’ city started here in 1923, though these buildings were not complete until the 1950s. Not surprisingly, during Soviet times, it was called Lenin Square, it had a large statue of Lenin and was the location of many Soviet parades.

We were in the square to visit the History Museum which was vast with so much information to take in.  We had a guide, who was French/Polish young man who was in Yerevan on a youth exchange but he had certainly done a lot of work learning about all the history.

I noted a few of the most interesting things we heard/saw:

  • The museum houses a 15th century door that once lived at the Sevan monastery.
  • The earliest settlements outside of African were in the Armenian highlands and had many ancient civilisations that I had never heard of!
  • We saw the actual leather shoe that was found in the Areni-1 cave we had visited the previous day.
  • Apparently, there were lions in the Armenia highlands until the 12th century are there are still leopards (the rare Caucasian or Persian Leopard) today.
  • The Urartu Kingdom, also known as the Van Kingdom (which we had met earlier in the day at the Garni temple) were very powerful and had their own unique language.
  • Wine is part of the culture (I think we knew that already lol).
  • First Armenians were seen in the 6-4 centuries BC, under Persian domination.  The took advantage of Alexander the Great’s death to get independence.
  • Tigranes the Great (or King Tigranes II) became ruler at 14 and ruled from 95 to 55 BC.  He lived until 85 and is still considered  a great ruler.
  • Armenian’s are very proud of their Christianity and it helped them get their freedom from the Zoroastrianism Persians and Pagan Romans.  Along with Gregory the Illuminator, apostles Thaddeus and Bartholomew were also instrumental in the formation and spread of the Armenian apostolic church and creation of the Armenian identity.
  • The Armenia alphabet was oral until the 5th century when a monk was asked to create a written language.  The 36 symbols or letters he came up with are based on the phonetic principles of “one symbol for one sound”.  Having a written alphabet was of great political and cultural importance.
  • The Bagratid Armenian Kingdom once ruled most of present day Armenia and eastern Turkey and it’s capital , Ani (from 961 to 1045)  was of strategic importance and was one of the world’s largest cities in its heyday.  Unfortunately, today, it sits in eastern Turkey  which makes it difficult for Armenian’s to visit but they still consider it a symbol of Armenian national heritage.

It was definitely a lot of information to take in, in just one short hour but definitely worth a visit.  Before finished up for the day we had a quick look around a derelict building which is currently being used as a bar and small shops by some Russians – at least until the entire building is knocked down to make way for another new tower block!

Yet another busy day ended up back at the hotel for a couple of hours before going out for dinner – I even changed and got a little dressed up, the first time on the trip! Every day was so busy we were always exhausted and too tired to doing anything except eat 😂 .  (This is not a problem for me lol.)

We had a lovely dinner in the very busy Yerevan Tavern before wandering back down to Republic Square via a pedestrian mall. The rainy day had turned into a lovely evening so it was nice to join the Friday night crowds for a while. 

We finished up in the bar on the 9th floor of the hotel for a view up to Mother Armenian and the ‘Yerevan eye’ lit up for the night. 

 

Back to the mountains … more snow and traffic jams

On By cockneykiwi15Leave a comment


Georgia, April 2025

Today Tazo picked us up in his 3rd car – a second landrover, this time with LPG!  Apparently, it is cheap to have cars so many people have more than one, or in Tazo’s case, more than two.

Unfortunately Ania was in more pain this morning so our first stop for the day was another emergency dentist.   Our search for a dentist took us to a beautiful part of the city with wide tree lined streets flanked by beautiful buildings, including universities, shops and apartments.  There was also some lovely street art.   At least we got to see a part of the city we would not normally! 

It took a while but we found a dentist that was open and they were so kind and did not charge her for their time.  They did give her a prescription for stronger antibiotics and stronger painkillers, but did recommend that she needed a tooth extraction which she was not keen on doing in Georgia (though I am sure it would be much cheap) so she just needed to get the pain and infection under control.

We finally left the city at 11am and not far out of the city we got caught in traffic!  Not sure where it was all going, but it was pretty slow for a period of time.  It is a crazy place when you just pass a random 6th century fortress on a hill as you drive down the road! 

Tazo got us more delicious roadside hot Georgian bread, today in the form of puri.  Puri is a savoury bread, baked in the same tone as the sweet bread we had the day before.  The bread was long and shaped like the curve of the tone and is actually called shotis puri.  It was steaming hot and really tasty.  Honestly, in my opinion, you cannot go wrong with a country that thrives on bread, cheese and wine!

The road we were on today is called the Georgian Military Road and it runs 212 km from Tbilisi to Russia.  In fact, today it is the one and only remaining open land border with Russia.  This meant the road had an eclectic range of vehicles from all over the region, including Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Armenian, Russia ….  And there were trucks, oh so many trucks!  Despite still being 150km from the border we started passing trucks parked up on the side of the road, queuing for the border.  Apparently, the lines are controlled by police, who move them on to the next stop point all along the road.  Tazo mentioned that they let the trucks cross in one direction in the morning and the other direction in the afternoon and that we did not want to get stuck behind them!! 

Back in 1914 this road was described as one of the most beautiful mountain roads in the world but I am pretty sure that was before it was full of trucks!  Some of the trucks started moving and try as we may, for every truck we passed, there were another 10 in front of us making the journey much slower than it should be.

In our attempt to beat the trucks, we could only stop for a brief photo at the Zhinvali Reservoir.  An artificial lake created by a nearby hydroelectric dam which was built in 1985.  The lake itself provides much of the water used in Tbilisi.  With the surrounding mountains and forest covered slopes, it was quite beautiful. 

We wound our way up the mountain, with the road narrowing as we climbed, till we reached the popular ski resort of Gudauri, at an altitude of around 2220m above sea level.  Apparently, it is the most popular ski resort in Georgia and has over 70 km of ski runs and it is the highest settlement along this road.  Because of the warm March, much of the town was closed up as two weeks ago there was no snow, but today it was covered in snow again.   We thought we had some serious snow the other day, but they must have had a lot more here given what was left on the ground. 

As we were still on a mission, we passed straight through town and only to be stuck in a traffic jam, mostly of trucks!  So picture this – we are now stuck on a narrow windy stretch of mountain road – with a 2-metre-high snow back on one side, and a drop of the mountain side on the other.  The traffic is at a standstill.    Apparently, some of the tunnels ahead can not fit two trucks side by side so traffic can only go through one way at a time causing these huge backups. 

Unfortunately as we had left Tbilisi a couple of hours later than planned, Tazo had to make the call that we just could not make it to our final destination of Kazbegi – he actually said that the traffic is so bad these days that he would never recommend trying to get there as a day trip, even without the snow! 

Of course this traffic has only been an issue since the Russia – Ukraine war started and all other countries closed their land borders.  Prior to that this was not the problem it is today.  They are currently in the process of building a new tunnel through the mountains to the border which should definitely solve part of the problem (although the route definitely won’t be so scenic)!

As disappointing as it was not to get to Kazbegi, the views from our traffic jam were absolutely breathtaking and I could get out of the car to take some photos before Tazo managed to make a crazy U turn in a tight space to head back down to Gudauri and the Russian-Georgia Friendship monument.

We parked in a small, snow filled car park and my slight deviation from the well walked tracked found me in knee deep snow – and of course, again I was not dressed for snow!!  At least this time I was using my sunglasses for the sun (and the glare from the snow)!

The Russian-Georgia Friendship monument was built in 1983 to mark the 200th anniversary of the Treaty of Georgievsk, which we learnt about when we met King Erekle II in Kakheti a few days early.  This was the treaty he signed with Catherine the Great to try and strengthen his kingdoms independence from Persia. 

The large round, structure overlooks the so-called Devil’s Valley and its mural depicts scenes from Georgian and Russian history and was designed by Georgian architect George Chakhava.   

The views were just stunning, but there may have been the most tourists we have seen in one place on the entire trip!  Throw in their buses and minibuses in the small car parks and narrow roads and now add snow, and it was all a bit chaotic! 

One more quick stop in town for more breathtaking views of the mountains and down the valleys, including a classic “Georgian church on a hill” before we continued back down the mountain and out of the snow. We continued to pass trucks, so many more trucks than we passed on the way up. With all the trucks on the side of the road, and another 500 sitting in a roadside truck park, they must have numbered in the thousands! 

By this time it was almost 4pm and most definitely time for lunch, Tazo knew just the place.  In fact, this food stop was one he had told us about on our first day with him as this area, called Pasanauri, is sometimes referred to as the ‘cradle of khinkali’ – that is, where they originated and where you get the best ones!   

Not being an expert, all I can say is that were definitely the best we have had, and this time we paired it with a Mkhlovana (I think), basically a Khachapuri with cheese and herbs inside which is a speciality of the east Georgian mountain regions.  It was probably also my favourite of the Khachapuris! 

Back on the road and in less of a hurry we could do a couple of stops.  The first was at the convergence of two rivers – helpfully known as the Black Aragvi and the White Aragvi lol.  The white is due to sediment rich in limestone and the black from organic material and silt.

Now I have seen amazing images of the two rivers meeting and the different colours flowing side by side but as you can see from my photo that was not our experience!  You can almost make out a slightly different colour but it definitely was not amazing, possibly due to the river being fairly full and fast flowing. 

We also had time to have a quick stop at the medieval Ananuri fortress, on the shores of Zhinvali reservoir.   Original built in the 16-17th centuries, the fortress includes an Orthodox monastery, bell tower and three churches. It was apparently still in use until the beginning of the 19th century and as with other fortresses we have seen, there are secret passages down to the water to allow people under siege inside to get water and food.

Despite damage from battles and fires during the year, the fortress still retains beautifully carved facades.

I am not sure I have mentioned previously, Tazo’s driving music is an eclectic mix of old school music ranging from jazz and swing to soul.  On today’s playlist we were listen to “Georgia on my mind” by Ray Charles.  Obviously, it was written about a different Georgia (the state in USA) but  Georgia (the country) was definitely in my mind ❤️.

Given we had had lunch so late, I did not go out for dinner, but I did have a lovely view out to the cathedral from my room and was very happy with the photos I took just out of my window as the sun set!





 

 

 

Fortresses and dinosaurs

On By cockneykiwi15Leave a comment

Georgia, April 2025

Our hotel in Akhaltsikhe was ok, definitely not as nice as some of the others we had had.  Unfortunately I could not get the water hot enough to wash my hair and breakfast spread was not as vast as other places – serious first world problems and nothing I could not cope with (especially for only 1 night). 

Akhaltsikhe is a small town with a population of only 18,000 and sitting at 1000m above sea level and before leaving we visited Rabat Castle, which dominates the town.  It is medieval fortress, initially built in the 9th century which has been called Lomsia (Lion), Akhal-tsikhe (New Fortress) and Rabat or Rabati (meaning fortress in Arabic)! 

We had to wait a few minutes for our English guide and acquainted ourselves with a couple of the local stray dogs.  There are stray dogs everywhere in Georgia but despite being stray, they seem well feed and looked after and they are not aggressive with us or each other.  In fact they are all very friendly.  That said, it seems our ‘guide’ dog was not a fan of our actual guide and did her best to keep in between us and him and barked at him if he got too close lol.

The oldest part of the complex was built in the 9th century, with subsequent additions, including the high walls, entrance gates and watch towers being added in the 12th century.  The varying architectures of the different eras and religions is clear here and it was interesting to learn that the “church” has functioned as a church and a mosque over the years – depending on who won the most recent battle.  From the covered balcony’s (for Muslim women to enjoy fresh air without being seen) to the mosque/church which was actually designed by an Italian Catholic), a Muslim madras (or school) and a ‘secret’ opium room.  What we see today has been through extensive reconstruction and renovation in more recent years. 

Apparently, Tamerlane and his Turco-Mongol army attacked in the late 1300’s on his rampage across the continent– if you had been reading my blogs for a while your may remember I met Tamerlane (or Timur) in Uzbekistan in 2019.  In this instance, Rabati Fortress withstood his attack.  

The fortress continued to be a site of battles as the area saw constant struggles between Iran and Turkey, and the region was in fact part of Turkey, and predominately Muslim until the invasion of the Russian Empire in the early 1800s.  The region briefly returned to Turkish control after WWI in 1918, falling back to Russia and the USSR in 1921.

Over the years, this multi-faceted complex has also been a military prison and a hospital!  And of course, the citadel which was used as a signal point to send messages by lighting fires which could be send 10kms away.  All the fortresses would be used in this way, passing messages for 100’s of miles through multiple fortresses and castle citadels.

Leaving town and heading towards our next destination, we passed through beautiful landscapes spotting fortresses on hilltops (part of the message sending chain I mentioned above).  We stopped for a brief walk in the beautiful town of Borjomi, who’s name is famous as a brand of naturally carbonated water that originates in the springs here.

Borjomi is a resort town, with a population of just over 11,000 which sits in the Borjomi Gorge.   As well as its mineral water fame, today it is known as a hub for adventure activities including 4WD trips, hiking, rafting, horse riding etc. and is continuing to grow in popularity. In the past, it was the home to the nearby Romanov summer palace and the gardens here started life as a park solely for the Russian royal family and other aristocrats and the town was used frequently by the Russian military for convalescence and to partake in the healing powers of the local mineral water.  It was once known as “the pearl of Caucasus”.

During the period of the USSR, all the aristocratic mansions were seized by the state and turned into sanatoriums for Communist party elite (so the same thing, just for different ‘aristocrats’).

On the day of our visit, the town was pretty quiet and lots of people were trying to sell their activities and wares.  Apparently, some of the guys were telling Tazo that they were give him a cut if he convinced us to do something with them!  We did stop and have a stilted but interesting conversation with an older lady selling ‘medicinal’ products made out of pine trees (needles, sap, bark etc) found in the local forests.  Not really sure of the medicinal part of it but it was interesting to learn about their beliefs in the natural products.

The park was beautiful and it was lovely to have a brief stroll in the sunshine and sample the so-called therapeutic waters from the Ekaterina Spring.  There is a fountain that you can fill your bottles from or drink straight from the tap …. It was not good lol.  If you did not breathe you could escape the sulphur smell, but you could not escape the metallic taste.  After a small sip, I did not go back for seconds!

We were soon back on the motorway and this section of the road has over 40 tunnels cutting through the hills, and big roadside rest stops featuring small supermarkets and American chain fast food restaurants Wendy’s, Subway and Dunkin Donuts.  More importantly they had clean toilets – most toilets come at a cost here, 1 Lari a visit, so we often found Tazo sponsoring out toilet visits lol.

Car chats with Tazo today covered the following:

  • It was the long Easter weekend and most in the country are Georgian Orthodox, so Easter is taken pretty seriously.  What we call Good Friday; they call Red Friday and families dye eggs red to represent the blood of Christ shed on the day of the crucifixion. Now we did not discuss ‘Easter Grass’ but I did see it being sold – they either grow or purchase this (basically 10cm high wheatgrass) which is used as decoration along with the red eggs to symbolise new life after the resurrection.

On Easter Monday, in a few days’ time, families gather for picnics at cemeteries to commemorate their loved ones, sometimes pouring wine on top of the graves.

  • The Georgian philosophy “Everything to my country, I get what my country can give back” reflects the strong sense of national dedication and loyalty.
  • After the collapse of the USSR, the years 1991 to 2003 are referred to as “12 years of suffering”.  There was turmoil internally and with neighbours and political and economic instability.  In 2003, the so-called Rose Revolution saw a non-violent uprising bringing on a change of government and subsequently stability.  They introduced a Zero tolerance policy and within 5 years they become one of the safety countries in the world.

We arrived in the city of Kutaisi, but before stopping in the city, we drove through and out to the Sataplia Nature Reserve, 10km out of town.  The park was created in 1935, after the discovery of the cave complex and the dinosaur footprints.    The name Sataplia translates to “honey place” as bees used to live in small holes in the cliffs.  Most are gone today but you can still see the evidence of their previous existence.

We had to wait around 45 minutes for an English guide (which was mandatory) but to be honest they really were not worth the wait as they did not really tell us anything.  They just directed us places, first into a small building that covers the dinosaur footprints.  There are 150 footprints, thought to be from 30 different individuals from 5-6 different dinosaur species, including one new genus called the Satapliasaurus. Generally they appear to be both raptors and grass eating dinosaurs from the Jurassic period.

From the dinosaur footprints we moved on to the incredible cave system – a karst cave system carved out by the Oghaskura River over 30 million of years its 300m length is filled with stalactites and stalagmites.  There is a boardwalk type walkway through the cave and the cave was filled with music and lights. It is also always a constant 14 degrees inside – to be honest it felt a little more like a disco than a cave complex lol.   The cave’s main attraction was a heart shaped formation where people make wishes. 

Once out of the cave we had free time to explore some of the 350 ha of forest, part of which has dinosaur figures that come to life as you walk near them and then the piece de resistance – the glass panoramic viewpoint overlooking the area.  It was rather a unique experience but it was lovely to have a walk through the forest and enjoy the nature.

Back in town, we decided to find somewhere to have a quick drink before Tazo dropped us at our hotel and we found a small café in the old town and we enjoyed a home-made semi sweet rose in the sun.  I think I have mentioned that everyone in Georgia make their own wine and although it was rather yeasty, it was still tasty.

Our hotel here was lovely (most have been pretty good) and we went to a restaurant called Agerari, recommended my Tazo, for a delicious dinner and a local beer. We had so much food, we almost had to roll back to the hotel lol.