Blogs from Georgia, Asia - page 24

Scarlet Sails "Mr Spielberg, Mr Spielberg ! How do you want me ? What's my inspiration ?" "You guys just stay sitting at the bar, he (the star) will be in between you doing his piece to camera while you talk among yourselves." What can you say ? A late night in a faraway bar and someone pointing a film camera at us, saying talk among ourselves. Hmmm. A Scotland trip. What are we going to talk about ? "So, how strong was Hattie Jacques' gusset ?" "How did Kirk Broadfoot ever play for Scotland ?" We had decided to expand our horizons and leave the comfort of Tbilisi's Old Town bars. We made about fifty yards and found the Scarlet Sails. Deciding on a beer before going too far, we stepped inside, much darker than ... read more

Geo: 42.264, 42.7075I have left this as being in Kutaisi to make sense of the map, though I'm really in Tbilisi again. Back in Tbilisi for an evening and a day, chance to go to the traditional architecture museum and will fill an evening with the marionette theatre (subtitles in English) before heading off back up the military Highway and into Russia on Monday, assuming all goes to plan. My guide here has written out for me in Russian everything I need when I get to Vladikavkaz station, cancel one ticket I'm not using (Sochi to Rostov) and buy Vladikavkaz to Rostov and Rostov to Kiev. So here I am about halfway through the trip, in time if not yet degrees of the circle. Done a lot of travelling as a car passenger in the last ... read more

We returned to Shilda after our travels through Turkey to what was a fast and eventful three weeks. It began with a teachers’ concert in Kvareli. The concert was a performance by teachers from the villages and towns in our area and included traditional dance, singing and poetry. The teachers did a great job. It was interesting to see how different regions have their own traditional dress and dance styles. My personal favourite was the dance routine from the Dagestan village who still speak their traditional language while living in Georgia. The crowd loved them and gave them a huge applause. The performances were held in a large theatre which was built in Soviet Union times and was true to form in that it was spectacular in size considering the small population of Kvareli but unspectacular ... read more

Geo: 42.6567, 44.6433Every mountain I have seen on the trip so far, with the possible exception of Mount Ararat, just pales into insignificance, and these pile peak upon peak - even on an overcast day.We left Tbilisi at 9 headed first for Mtskheta, the religious and spiritual capital of Georgia, with its large cathedral built in 1010-29 on the site of a much earlier church that dated back to the 4th century. This one was considered to be so magnificent that they chopped off the architect's right arm so he could never work on anything else (scant reward for doing a good job, I say)Then we headed north on the Georgian Military Highway, this has existed as a route through the Great Caucusus since the first century BC, turned into a carraige road by the Russians ... read more

Geo: 41.72, 44.79Monday, my last day in Armenia, and quite uneventful. Gregor had two monasteries for me to see en route to Tbilisi. Both big monastery complexes close to each other, Sanahin which means older than the other and Haghpat which means the one with the big wall, all very unoriginal - to get to the first one we had to drive through a Soviet era housing estate of crumbling apartment blocks. One odd thing I haven't mentioned is the gas pipes, I know I know, what can be interesting about them! Well all our gas pipes are underground, the ones in Armenia, and Georgia it seems, were underground but they had problems with leaks and explosions so they moved them all above ground and painted them yellow. So there is this warren of yellow pipes ... read more