Abastumani, Georgia July 10th 2014 “Let's go." "We can't." "Why not?" "We're waiting for Godot.”.... ...“There's no lack of void.” Samuel Beckett, Waiting for Godot I had been told that Abastumani had hot-springs. But there was no obvious evidence of them, although there are active 'spa' resorts (sanitoria) in the surrounding hills. My experiences of no English signage (to wit: the drug warning at the border and the hotel signs in Tbilisi) is now expanded to no signs at all. My hotel owner first denied any such thing as hot-springs existing (which I later realised must have just been a failure to communicate), and I began to suspect that access to the three springs I read about on the net were possibly all locked up via these expensive spa resorts. The springs themselves are said to ... read more

Abastumani, Georgia July 9th, 2014 “Get back to where you do belong” The Beatles, Get Back Monday night (July 7th), after learning from a phone call to my lawyer that my destiny with the Georgian Public Prosecutor would not be happening for some days, I decided on a whim to leave Tbilisi, not to return to Akhaltsikhe but find somewhere in the mountains (where it would be cooler and relaxing) within striking distance of Akhaltsikhe for when I am called. As I happened to be at the Tourist Information Centre at Liberty Square (that name striking a rather bitter taste in my mouth under my present circumstances) to meet a Spanish traveler I'd gotten to know in Turkey for a beer, I asked the woman behind the desk what might fit the described requirements. Straight away ... read more

Akhaltsikhe, Georgia July 3rd 2014 “You can add up the parts, but you still won't have the sum” Leonard Cohen, Anthem “It is difficult to make our material condition better by the best law, but it is easy enough to ruin it by bad laws.” Theodore Roosevelt Stalin came from Georgia I have just returned from the Police station in Akhaltsikhe... a little emotional. The test results on the content of my 'narcotics' (see previous blog) are back. The critical threshold was 2 gm. The Codeine total weight was found in the Police laboratory analysis to be: In one set of 10 pills = 0.128 gm In the other set of 8 pills = 0.1024 gm TOTAL = 0.2304 gm ... so I am over the legal limit by 0.0304 gm. I have tried to keep ... read more

Turkey 29th June 2014 "I took the one less traveled by And that has made all the difference" Robert Frost, The Road Not Taken “You who are on the road, must have a code that you can live by” Crosby, Stills, Nash, & Young I had decided to try hitch-hiking from Kars to Tblisi. It just seemed a nice way to travel, to meet some locals along the way, and avoid being cooped up in a bus (not to mention saving myself around 30 euros on fares). It's early still on a Sunday morning (about 7.30 am) and after walking out of town and waiting for about 30 minutes I begin to wonder if I have been wise as there is hardly any traffic at all. I then get my first ride to the highway interchange ... read more

Eastern Turkey 28th June 2014 “... while the killers in high places say their prayers aloud” Leonard Cohen, Anthem "Evacuations were unlawful and violent. Security forces would surround a village using helicopters, armored vehicles, troops, and village guards, and burn stored produce, agricultural equipment, crops, orchards, forests, and livestock. They set fire to houses, often giving the inhabitants no opportunity to retrieve their possessions. During the course of such operations, security forces frequently abused and humiliated villagers, stole their property and cash, and ill-treated or tortured them before herding them onto the roads and away from their former homes. The operations were marked by scores of “disappearances” and extrajudicial executions. By the mid-1990s, more than 3,000 villages had been virtually wiped from the map, a... read more