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GEORGIA (COUNTRY NOT US STATE) - NOW UPDATED SHOWING THE CORRECT COUNTRY
Kasbegi
The first part of my travels, ten days in Georgia, seems like eons ago rather than six weeks ago (I know I know I am terrible at this updating my blog lark, but you try doing this from the middle of Siberia or Mongolia). My first impression of Georgia was how bloody hot it was followed closely by the main TV tower mast in Tbilisi with flashing multi coloured lights all night (think of the Crystal Palace TV mast lit up like a Christmas tree every evening).
I was there to visit one of my many nephews, Carl, my week was a mixture of sightseeing in Tbilisi, getting out to the countryside and going along to Miss Deaf World 2010 (more of that later!).
The day after I arrived, Carl and I decided to head for a place called Kasbegi in the Caucasus, to see some of the countryside and to do some hiking.Carl drove and it was my first taste of the crazy Georgian drivers (which in hindsight are not as bad as the Mongolian drivers) who:
(a)Don't seem able to drive in a straight line or rather within road markings as quite frequently car(s) would veer in front of ours
(b)Have never heard of "mirror, signal, manuover"
(c)Don't know what an indicator light is
(d)Don't seem to know what to do at a set of traffic lights
The main road that we travelled on was the Georgian Military Highway, it's the only road to Russia, however you can't actually drive to Russia as the road comes to a dead end because the boarder crossing is closed for political reasons (unless you happen to be driving a truck transporting goods that the Russians will allow in to Georgia).
We made a couple of stops along the way, the first being at Ananuri, a 17th century fortress and the first of many churches that I visited both in Russia and Georgia.The view was breath taking (I'll post a picture when I have access to a desk top computer).It was also here that I discovered the Georgian national hat which is made of sheep skin and wool (imagine a white afro wig), I'll post picture of Carl wearing the hat (sorry Carl!).
The second stop was at an old and decrepit Soviet viewing platform and mural which was built in 1983 to celebrate the 200th anniversary of the Treaty of Gurgrievsk (you'll have to Google that one).It's a funny place for a viewing platform as it's just off the main road; then again I guess that the Soviets liked building those kinds of things as I have also seen one in Mongolia.
Kasbegi is a small sleepy town of about 4,000 plus a few hundred cows that seemed to prefer milling around on roads and bridges rather than grazing on grass like normal cattle.There is not much, sorry correction, nothing to do in the evenings, the men all milled around the main statue drinking and the women, well I guess they must have all been waitingin doors for their other halves to come home after their "big night out at the square".
There are two main reasons why people head to Kasbegi, firstly to go to the Gergeti Trinity Church and secondly to hike to the Gereti Glacier on Mt Kazbeg.After an hour and half hike to the church we found that it was over run with day trippers from Tbilisi, it was midday and we decided to try and hike it to the Glacier which is at 2950m, I mean how hard could it be?Well, we followed the wrong path from the Church, (it honestly looked like there was a path up the hill/mountain) which came to a dead end.So being the adventurous Spychal's that we are, we decided to climb up the hard way, and well Carl found it easier than me.Which meant scrambling up the side of a rather steep hill/ mountain?Now anyone who saw us must have thought we were mad, two normal people would have gone back the way they came and looked for the right path.We reached the path eventually (I think it only took about an hour at most, however it felt a lot longer) and decided to see how far we could get.We passed quite a few hikers coming back from the glacier, who all had proper equipment like ice boots, I think it was at this point that we may have decided that perhaps continuing on to a glacier was not such a good idea as it was already 3.30pm and we were not sure how long it would take us to get back to the hotel.
Tbilisi
The next day we headed back to Tbilisi via another couple of churches, firstly Jvari, which is a UNESCO world heritage site and is 150m above the town of Mtskheta.We then went to Sveti Tskhoveli in Mtskheta, where it is claimed that Christ's crucifixion robe is buried beneath the church.
The rest of the day was a lazy one, and got even lazier in the evening as we headed to the Radisson hotel spa, the views over Tbilisi were amazing, particularly from the swimming pool on thetop floor of the hotel.I also had a lovely relaxing facial by a male beautician; he had the most perfectly plucked eyebrows that I have ever seen on a man!
The rest of the week I spent wandering around Tbilisi mainly in the mornings as it was too hot in the afternoons to do very much, and besides, Carl has a swimming pool in his back yard which was very appealing in 38 degree heat.
A couple of the main sights included;climbing the hill to the statue of mother Georgia and the Narikala Fortress (via what seemed like a Georgian lovers lane!) and visiting the cathedral Tsminda Sameba, which was consecrated in 2004 and paid for by business people and anonymous donations.It's built on the site of an old Armenian cemetery, its absolutely huge and quite lovely I am not sure my pictures do it justice.
I much preferred the old town part of Tbilisi as it had more charm to it than the new area.I can also say that by the end of the week I got fed up of visiting churches as there seemed to be one around every corner.
I did have a couple of wasted days as both Carl and I got some sort of food poisoning, thankfully its far better to be ill in homely surroundings rather than a hostel or hotel room. Touch wood, I'll be ok for the rest of the trip.
Miss Deaf World 2010
For those of you will not have seen my posting on Facebook, let me explain further.I found out on the Thursday evening that Carl had been asked to be one of the Judges for the Miss Deaf World 2010 that was being held the following night at the main concert hall in Tbilisi.Needless to say Carl was very excited by the idea!I on the other hand decided to go along to see what all the fuss was about and to go to my very first beauty contest.
The contest started as I expected, I couldn't understand a bloody word, and then again it was in Georgian.The contestants came on did a little walk around and were introduced to the audience.Next what can only be described as the Georgian version of street dance dancers came on, that should have prepared me for what was to come?Two hours of the talent section with a couple of intermission acts, Georgian style.The whole thing in total lasted well over three long hours, made worse by the fact that the bar(s) at the national theatre were all shut (probably to stop the audience getting drunk no doubt!).
The talent section included; one contestant putting her make up, another on ice skates trying to balance on a chair, someone dancing around a beer bottle, others signing to songs and the majority dancing.Now the most amazing thing about all of this, the dancing!Most of those girls could put us normal hearing people to shame they all seemed to dance to time and had clearly practiced for hours.
Talent section over, we had another intermission section, some Georgian folk comedy thing , the next intermission had a magician who's whole trick centered around three pieces of string (i.e. turning them in to one long piece of string then separating them again!).
Much to the male audience's delight there was a bikini section, and then the votes were cast.There was probably another intermission act (I lost track of it all by this point).Finally the contestants came on in ball gowns/national dress and the winner(s) were announced.Well the big winner was Miss Russia who won both the Miss world and Miss Europe titles.
Stalin Museum
For my final day in Georgia, Carl and I decided to head to the town of Gori to visit the birthplace of Joseph Stalin and to visit what one guide book described as "the best museum in Georgia".Gori houses not only the Stalin Museum but also the last remaining statue of Stalin from the communist era (which had been pulled down the week before I believe so that it could be moved to the front of the museum).The museum was built in 1957 and is pretty impressive (building started whilst he was alive but Stalin died before its completion).The whole area was bulldozed apart from the 1 bed/room house that Stalin was born in; compete with what we were told its original furniture (yeah right?). Anyway the house is covered by another building to protect it and behind it is the museum; to the side is Stalin's train that he always travelled on.
We must have been the last to go to the museum as it was about to shut and the guide was pretty angry and she thought she was going home.Most of the exhibits were in Georgian and Russian, butfortunately the angry guide calmed down and proceeded to tell us about the glorified Stalin, i.e. all the good that he did and how he came to power missing out the atrocities that he is most famous for in the rest of the world.Two things stand out about the museum:
(1)Stalin was a pretty good looking bloke when he was younger
(2)They kept his death mask in a separate room, that looked like a mausoleum with pictures of him lying in state
That was my final day in Tbilisi as at 4am the following morning I had a flight to catch to St Petersburg via a 6 hour stop over in Prague, urghhh.
PS I AM HAVING PROBLEMS WITH THIS BLOG! ILL TRY AND LOAD SOME PICTURES LATER ON
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