Baku and Back to

August 23, 2010

We flew to Baku Azerbaijan, a neighbor of Georgia on Saturday Aug.14th and returned Sunday night, Aug 15th. We got up at 3:00 a.m. so it was a short night. We went with our friends Laurie and Jock Conly. Jock works in Baku one week each month so we timed it on a week he would be traveling there. Our flight was a brief one hour and 20 minutes. After checking into our hotel which was quite lovely, we went upstairs to the 20th floor for breakfast in a glass dining area where we could look out over the city and Caspian Sea. Let’s just say, air quality is non existent here. By 1905 Azerbaijan was supplying half the world’s oil. You can see oil derricks everywhere including in the Caspian Sea which was described in my tour book as ‘polluted with raw sewage, oil, pesticides and chemical fertilizers.’ Much of this took place under the Soviet regime. Baku sits on the Caspian Sea surrounded by semi desert. It is a city of four million people, the same as all of Georgia.

Because it is a richer city than Tbilisi, we saw newly paved roads, buildings in good repair, and real sidewalks that were paved, level and didn’t have any open manholes without covers like we have in TBS. Many of the Soviet era apartment houses seemed to have been replaced within the city or upgraded so they didn’t have that Soviet look that is so depressing. After breakfast we walked to the carpet museum. What a treat that was! They had 1000 carpets from all the regions of Azerbaijan as well as some from Iran and Dagestan. So much beauty in one place. It is easy to see how people living in this region can get ‘addicted’ to buying carpet. They cost much less than at home and you have so much variety. More about that later.

After the carpet museum we went to the Historical Museum that was recently restored. This museum is housed in the 1896 former home of one of Baku’s greatest oil barons. It was filled with furnishings from the period and it also an enjoyable experience. Baku was hotter than TBS so we meandered towards the hotel for a rest but stopped at a sidewalk café near the sea for a cold drink. We noticed most Azeris were drinking hot tea while we ordered cold water. Back at the hotel, we napped and showered before ventured out again. The highlight of the trip was the ‘Ali and Nino’ tour. Ali and Nino is a novel written in the 1930’s about a romance between an Azeri Muslim boy and a Orthodox Christian girl from Tbilisi that took place in Baku in 1917-20. The tour guide was fabulous, a passionate man who created this tour because he loved the story so much. So we walked the streets that Ali and Nino walked, we sat in the park where Ali and Nino courted, saw the house where they had their graduation party. All the while, our guide read passages from the book. In addition he had collected over 800 photographs of the area from the turn of the century so we could see how it looked in Ali and Nino’s time. All four of us had read the book shortly after coming to Georgia so we were familiar with the story. It was a two hour tour that started at 6:00 so afterwards we walked to a rooftop restaurant again overlooking the sea and city and had a good meal. We walked back to our hotel and headed to bed.

On Sunday we slept in and after breakfast walked to Old Town where we wandered streets and visited the Palace of the Shirvanshahs. This is a sandstone palace mostly unfurnished that was the seat of northeastern Azerbaijan’s ruling dynasty during the Middle Ages. It was restored in 2003 and is a beautiful complex but it was hotter than hell inside with no air conditioning and very small windows. We didn’t tarry. We sat in the shady courtyard and visited for a while before leaving. Jock suggested stopping in a carpet shop. We ducked into one and it was stifling so I had no interest or energy to even look at the wares. Further along we saw another shop and ‘popped’ in for a look. It was air-conditioned so guess what? We lingered…for three hours! Ron and I bought two carpets and another mafrash. Laurie and Jock once again out spent us and bought three carpets. They swore it is their last carpets. Ron also said this was our last one. We did a similar escapade with them in Istanbul if you remember reading about it in an earlier blog.

Afterwards, we went around the corner to the restaurant we had tried to get into the night before and had a lovely lunch sitting in the shade outside. We meandered back to the hotel to rest before grabbing a bite for dinner and boarding our plane to return to TBS. The Conlys stayed on as Jock was spending the week working there and Laurie was returning to TBS on Tuesday. As it turned out she flew to TBS and the plane had to go back to Baku before landing due to a trerrible rain storm. She spent a few hours at her Baku hotel and they flew back to TBS in the morning. Although it was a short trip we were able to a pack a lot in and see everything we had hoped to see in the two days.

On Saturday Aug 22 we went on a CLO tour (embassy sponsored) of Dmanisi, a town about two hours from TBS that has a wonderful archeological dig. Here they have found four skulls of hominins that are 1.8 million years old. Boy do I ever feel young! These early species of Homo erectus appear to be the first hominins to have left Africa. The site sits on top of a wooded plateau and two rivers flow through deep gorges on either side of the plateau before meeting at its tip ‘where the land rises like a prow over fields and pastures’.

Almost two million years ago a series of volcanic eruptions flooded the site with lava. Later more eruptions dumped tons of ash on top of the rock. Buried by later ash falls, the bones of these early humans lay entombed until the 1990s when archeologists excavating the medieval ruins nearby began finding very old bones beneath the crumbled cellars. We visited the current dig site and the researchers were working on removing a complete bison skull very close to the area where the four skulls were found. Scientists continue to analyze the more than 50 human bones found at the site, which holds the largest cluster of Homo erectus remains ever found in one place. An archeologist from Wellesley College gave us a tour of the site and showed us replicas of the four skulls found there as well as letting us walk down close to the current site where they are working. It was a thrill of a lifetime. Can you tell my undergraduate degree was in anthropology?

After an hour here we walked up to the medieval fortress and 13th century church where a Georgian archeologist gave us a tour of the remains. Dmanisi dates to the 9th century. The site encompasses 32 acres enclosed by fortress walls. An entire city of residential buildings, baths, artisans’ workshops, caravanserais and public buildings once flourished here, of which only a small portion was excavated by archeologists in 1932, again in 1960 and in the years following. This site is located 12 miles from the Armenian border. This city thrived in the 13th century but Tamerlane’s invasions of the 14th century ended its glory days and by the 17th century no one was living here. We were allowed to climb all over the area and go into the building that was once a bath house and see how the water was brought into the building and heated before going into the bath.

Afterwards we boarded our bus and headed to a nice spot by the river for a lovely picnic lunch. Most of us seemed to fall asleep on the way back to TBS. Another great adventure in this beautiful country.

Kazbegi or bust

August 11 2010

We went on an embassy arranged outing to Kazbegi, a town high in the Upper Caucasus. We left Saturday morning around 9:00 with about 25 or so folks from the embassy and a few who do not work there. We were treated to a big tour bus which makes for a much more comfortable ride and a guide, Marika, who does lots of tours around TBS. The Community Liaison Office (CLO) arranges various activities throughout the year for the embassy ‘family’. We participate in many of these: everything from local carpet and art tours to longer out of town and even out of country trips. All are well planned and very affordable. Throughout the trip we had snacks provided: fresh fruit, chips, pastries, candy. Much of it was junk food but it was nice for those who hadn’t brought any snacks as we didn’t eat lunch until 2:00.

Friend Dorthy Bell

unknown Author

We stopped along the way by a small waterfall where a few villagers had gathered to sell their crafts: sheepskin hats, knitted wool socks, hats and classic Georgian snacks of fruit leather and churchela, walnuts on a string covered with fruit leather. The site also had a bust of a famous Georgian author. We stopped later at a hotel for a toilet break. We arrived in Kazbegi, parked the bus and walked to a guesthouse where lunch had been arranged. We are led into a very crowded room where the table had been set with the exact same meal you get anytime there is a preset meal: eggplant, tomatoes and cucumbers, cheese and bread. There was no meat at this meal but a small bowl of what looked like oxtail soup to be shared with four other people. Since we didn’t have bowls or soup spoons, I put a piece of bread on my plate and spooned some liquid on the plate. It was one of the poorer meals we have had on these trips. There was some fresh fruit for dessert. Then we walked back to the bus, got our bags and checked into the hotel. We had a room on the back side that overlooked the glacier fed Tergi River and Mt. Kazbegi and the Holy Trinity Church. It was too perfect. Many of Ron’s photos of Kazbegi were taken from our balcony at the hotel.

Mt. Kazbegi is the third highest mountain in Georgia (after Mount Shkhara and Janga) and the seventh highest peak in the Caucasus Mountains. The summit lies directly to the west of the town of Stepantsminda and is the most prominent geographic feature of the area. The name in Georgian, Mkinvartsveri, translates to "glacier" or "Ice Mountain". It’s current name is for Kazibek Chopikashvili, a local feudal magnate who was in charge of collecting tolls on the Georgian Military Highway. His grandson, Alexandre Kazbegi, whose most famous work, the novel The Patricide is about a heroic Caucasian bandit named Koba, who, much like Robin Hood, is a defender of the poor. Koba has nothing but contempt for authority, a proclivity towards violence, and a firm belief in vengeance. Kazbegi's work was a major inspiration to Iosif Jughashvili, later known as Joseph Stalin, who used Koba as a revolutionary pseudonym.

Most of the group, including Ron, chose to hike up to the church. However seven of us chose to hire two jeeps to take us up. I was still recovering from my fall on the hike two weeks ago and had no desire to walk for 90 minutes straight uphill! I am smarter than I look! Ron said the hike was all work with very little in the way of scenery, other than some wild flowers.  Shortly after we arrived at the church it started raining but before we headed back Marika told us about the church which was built in the 14th century and is at 7,110 feet. Ruins of another church were found in 1913 at 13,000 feet on the slopes of Kazbegi. Go figure! While we were there a service was being conducted in the church. There are always several (4-6) priests/monks involved in the service. Women were required to wear skirts and headscarves to enter and no shorts for men were allowed. Wrap around skirts and scarves were provided.

We rode back down the hill and Ron joined us. We walked around town and visited Alexander Kazbegi’s home which is now a museum of his life. He is a famous Georgian writer who became mentally ill at the end of his life. The town is about three blocks long with about 4,000 residents. The mountain was first climbed in 1868 by a man from London with local guides to help. The mountain is 16,560 feet and it is the highest mountain in this section of the Caucasus range. It is an extinct volcano. The town is at 6,000 feet.

We returned to our room and rested for about 40 minutes then went downstairs for our dinner. We sat in a little corner of the hotel for a few minutes afterwards and decided to go back to our room as both of us were tired. We turned out light out at 9:00! We kept our door to the balcony open and got to hear the rushing river below us all night.

Ron got up at 5:00 and started taking photos of the mountain once it was light enough. The mountain reflects early morning light and casts vivid colors. 

We had breakfast at 9:00 and at 10:00 got back on the bus and were driven to the Dariali Gorge which goes to the Russian border. The Georgians are building a church near the border as a way to claim the area in the event of future border disputes with Russia.  We looked for Sarah Palin’s place since we were right next to Russia but weren’t able to see it. We turned around and headed for Tbilisi.

We stopped several places on the way home.  The first was a naturally carbonated mineral spring where the site was encrusted.  Then we went to a lookout which commemorated the signing of a peace treaty between Russian and Georgia in 1783. The memorial was built in 1983, the 200th anniversary of the treaty, had some wonderful ceramic tiles depicting life in Georgia and the structure overlooked several canyons.

Later we stopped for lunch and it started to rain as we were finishing our lunch outside in the garden. We hurried back to the bus and made our last stop awhile later at the 16th century fortress in Ananuri. Here there were two churches, one built in 1689 with wonderful carved external decorations, with a huge cross that stands on the backs of two dragons flanked by vines being eaten by deer above two mustachioed angels and two lions. According to my book, the pagan elements of the design show Persian influence. The second church was built in the early 17th century. The interior is brick and the remaining frescoes had been marred by graffiti, mainly Russian.

It was a great rip, easy to arrive at our destination. My dear friend James Wall is coming to visit in September and we will do this trip again.

Doing the Svaneti!

August 1 2010

Last weekend we went to Svaneti, a mountainous region in Georgia. This province is in the NE corner of Georgia, nestled against some of the highest mountains in Georgia that border with Russia and Abkhazia, one of the two breakaway regions within Georgia. This area is so remote that it was never tamed by any ruler and even during Soviet times it largely retained its traditional way of life. The airplane and wheel arrived in Svaneti in 1935!!! To this day they still use sleds and oxen to transport loads. This area has numerous defensive towers that were designed to house villagers during times of invasion and strife. There are 175 towers, most built between the 9th and 13th centuries that still survive today. Because this is the most remote area of Georgian during times past when Georgia was invaded, the icons, art and other religious artifacts were brought here for safe keeping and many remain in private homes. We did not have the opportunity to see any of them however.

Our friends Jock and Laurie Conly and their daughter Claire asked us to join them on the trip. Jock hired a van, driver and guide since there were five of us. We headed out on Thursday at 4:00 and drove five hours due west to Zugdidi where we stayed the night in a guest house. The owner had dinner waiting for us and we were so grateful for a nice simple hot meal. The next day we left about 8:30 for a grueling drive on the worst road you can imagine! We had pavement for about the first 45-60 minutes and from then on is was a very bumpy ride. I thought my teeth would fall out! But the scenery was spectacular!

We rode next to the glacier fed river Enguri that was very fast moving and full of silt. They were no pools or eddies, just rushing water the entire time. At times we were very high above the river, maybe 500 feet or more. The road was narrow and winding as we climbed the entire route. There were no guard rails. At times I would look out the side window and couldn’t see road below me, only the sheer cliff down to the water. I gasped, squeezed my eyes shut and prayed numerous times. It took us 5.5 hours to go 65 miles. That gives you a clue about the condition of the road. One of the more striking things about traveling in Georgia it how many abandoned factories there are. Huge hulks of building missing the doors, windows and in some cases interior walls and the roofs. It is a reminder of Georgia’s past. They are every where we have traveled here. When the breakup of the Soviet Union occurred all the factories closed and Georgia was thrown into a very turbulent time.

We arrived around 2:00 at our hotel in Mestia, altitude 4600ft. There were pigs and cows on the road much of the time slowing our progress. After lunch we walked around town and visited one of the many defense towers that still stand. These towers have walls three feet thick and are three stories tall. The house was attached to the tower at the second floor which would serve as the living/cooking area. The first floor was for food storage and the third floor was for sleeping. The six of us squeezed into the tower and we realized how difficult the living conditions would have been as there were no windows and the space was quite small. The chimney for cooking was on the second floor and went up through the roof on the third floor. The entire town of Mestia is under construction. Because the road paving from Zugdidi to Mestia will be completed in another year or so, they anticipate many more tourists and all the store fronts are being redone to have more appeal to tourists. However due to construction, the town is filled with mud, dirt and dust. Every time a car or truck passed by we were coated in dust!

On Saturday we got up at 7:30, had breakfast and set out for Ushguli, altitude 7200 ft., highest village in Europe, 29 miles from Mestia, a two hour trip on roads worse than the day before with even more cows and pigs!!! I couldn’t believe the road (I use that term loosely here). We forded many streams adding to my anxiety. But again the scenery was worth the agony. We saw farmers dumping cow manure into the pristine stream from a sled (remember they didn’t get the wheel here until 1935 and some farmers have yet to accept it!) We saw an older woman riding a horse to the next village. I doubt that many can afford a car here and the horse is much more serviceable in this remote area. If you had a car, you would need to be a mechanic also. There are no services like that in these tiny villages of 30 people or so.

We hiked for three hours, facing Mt. Shkhara, the highest peak in Georgia and the 4th highest in Europe at 16,627 ft. and passed so many colorful wild flowers: pink yarrow, queen’s Anne’s lace, Canterbury bells, buttercups, the most intense blue flower imaginable, forget me nots, thousands upon thousands of beautiful flowers. On the return hike we had to jump across a stream so I thought if I got a running start it would help. Bad idea. One foot landed in the stream and I lost my balance. I landed so hard on the rocky bank it knocked one of the lens out of my glasses. I got pretty banged up. Then Jock jumped across and the same thing happened to him only he landed on top of me as I was sitting there trying to recover. Damn! So now both knees hurt, one ankle, ribs on the right side, my right shoulder all hurt. I limped back to the van, which was about 40 minutes from where I fell. We had a nice lunch on the deck of the only restaurant in Ushguli and endured the difficult trip back to Mestia.

On Sunday we got up early and left for a hike to a glacier. This was a shorter ride to the trail head but again the road was wretched. I walked about 100 yards and was experiencing pain every time I put my right foot down: my ankle, my knee and my ribs screamed out STOP! I quickly decided to let the group go ahead and I took a gentle sloping walk along the river bank.

I managed to trip once and wreck my left knee. What a goof I am. I sat by the bank and watched the roaring river then got into the van with the driver who spoke no English and he shared a map of Georgia with me. After studying it for awhile, I tilted my seat back and slept lightly as did he. We were awakened by Ron tapping on the window. Their hike was about three hours long and two members of the group said ‘be glad you didn’t go. It was all uphill and very steep’. I was glad but the truth is I could never have made it. The intrepid group made it all the way to the base of the glacier where the river emerged from the base of the ice.

We drove to the hotel, checked out and went to the newest hotel in town and had a fabulous lunch, our best meal since leaving home on Thursday. We piled back into the van and drove back to Zugdidi, about 4.5 hours. We had dinner and walked to the nearby main street and walked through the city park before going back to the guest house and going to sleep since we were starting the day at 5:00 a.m. As planned we got up at 5:00 and were on our way by 5:30, arriving in Tbilisi at 10:30. We quickly changed clothes and headed to work. It was a grand weekend but I will never travel those roads again unless the new road is completed. I still feel it was worth it for the scenery but we came home pretty worn out. I ended up with a lot of pain from my injuries and lots of lovely purple bruises on my right leg, right arm with a contusion, and my ribs were incredibly sore. I had x-rays on Friday and was told no fractures then Ron got a call from the Physician's Assistant at the embassy saying they wanted to look at the x-rays again as it appeared that I had a fracture in my ribs. Either way I am getting better every day. Our next trip with be next weekend when we go to Kazbegi, another mountain in the Upper Caucasus but much closer to Tbilisi.

Looking for roots in Riga

July 17, 2010

After Sandi and Bill left on Tuesday, we took off on Friday for Riga Latvia. Ron’s father’s family immigrated from Riga to the US via Scotland. He has long wanted to go to the lands of his ancestors so off we went. We were thoroughly charmed by Riga. For starters we had been in a two week heat wave in TBS. Riga was 15-20 degrees cooler. We stayed near Old Town, in a wonderful old art nouveau hotel. The hotel had been apartments and the story goes that a man taught classes in the building and decided he wanted to buy it and did. He lived there with his family until they had to leave and go to Sweden because of the Nazis. Years later he returned with his family to visit Riga, post communism, and was walking in the neighborhood and realized he was near his old apartment house. They found it and ultimately the building was returned to him. His family has converted in into a hotel and runs it now. The interior in decorated in a Swedish style, quite pleasing but austere. It was reasonably priced and that included breakfast and dinner. We arrived in Riga at 9:30 a.m. and went to the hotel and checked in. Then we went around the corner to get breakfast and explore our neighborhood which turned out to have beaucoup art nouveau buildings that had been fully restored. Riga’s collection of art nouveau buildings has been recognized by UNESCO as unparalleled anywhere in the world. Needless to say we did a lot of ‘wow, look at that, oh my look at this’, and on and on. It was spectacular. See photos attached. Afterwards we wandered over to the Old City passing through two parks along the way. We were a short 10-12 minute walk away from Old Town. What a thrill. The entire place has been restored. Cobble stoned streets, freshly painted building, incredible details on the buildings. It was a feast for our eyes.

One of the oldest buildings was a cathedral built in 1211 which has endured many changes since then. We got to see the ‘guts’ of the tower clock. The organ here was the largest in the world when it was built in Germany in 1884. I don’t remember what we visited each day or the order but here is a list of some of the things we did see in the three days we had there. The Museum of Riga’s History and Navigation was founded in 1773. It was interesting and quite varied in its contents.

The Three Brothers are a row of buildings covering three distinct architectural styles. The oldest of the three was built in the 15th century and is Riga’s oldest stone building; the second and third buildings were built in the 17th and 18th centuries respectively. We walked through the Swedish Gate, the sole remnant of the eight city gates built in 1698. The Cat’s House is an art nouveau building with two black cats poised on top of the roof. The story goes that the merchant who owned the building was refused entrance into the Great Guild because he was Latvian and membership was reserved for Germans only. In retaliation he put two black cats with arched backs and tails up positioning them so their backsides faced the guild hall. After a lengthy court battle the merchant eventually gained entrance into the guild and turned the cats around.

We visited the House of the Blackheads, one of Riga’s most impressive reconstruction projects. It was originally built in 1334 for the city’s guilds. Over time, the Blackheads, a guild of unmarried foreign merchants, became the sole occupants. Their name derives from their patron, St Maurice (who was often depicted as a Moor) and they were known for their riotous parties. The ground floor was occupied by shops, while the guildhall was on the first floor. The step gabled Dutch Renaissance façade was added in the late 16th century, the astronomical clock in 1622 and the Hanseatic emblems and four figures (Neptune, Mercury, Unity and Peace) in 1896. The building was devastated by bombings in1941. The current structure dates from 1999. We enjoyed touring this building and were impressed with the reconstruction. We also went through the Mentzendorff House, built in 1695 as the premises for an apothecary. It was extensively restored in the 1980’s and 1990’s. It is now a museum devoted to the life of Riga’s merchant class in the 17th and 18th centuries. Each room including a saloon, kitchen and dancing hall is decorated in period style.

On our last day we went to the Museum of Decorative Arts and Design (1890’s to present). This building was formerly a church and is the oldest surviving stone building. It was built in 1208. We really enjoyed seeing the high end crafts by Latvian artists: wall hangings, rugs, light fixtures, weavings, wood carvings, ceramics, etc. Our final stop was at the Museum of Jews in Latvia. This was a small three room museum with documents and photos depicting the Jewish community in Latvia which began in 16th century. There was a photograph of an L. Bergman, a soldier who fought for Latvian independence. Ron’s father’s name was Macks L. Bergman…Ron got the name of a local woman who does family history research and emailed her to see what she might be able to tell us about his grandfather and grandmother who immigrated to the US via Glasgow in the late 1800’s. She has responded and said she had a ‘thread’ and would be in touch with Ron soon. It was a super trip with beautiful things to see, weather that was pleasant (we had a two and a half week heat wave of 100+ temps in TBS) and great food. We managed to work in a nap or rest period each day so we balanced our ‘tourists on speed’ with ‘PMB’ (park my butt).

Our plane departed at midnight on Sunday. When we checked in we discovered we had made a mistake with our online booking and had clicked on Sunday the 18th not the 11th. Unfortunately the plane was overbooked and no seats were available, EXCEPT for business class! We got to buy some very expensive tickets home. I had envisioned seat that fully reclined but alas it was not to be. Because they had overbooked the plane and had changed planes (different size) they spend one hour post-take off time trying to seat everyone. So they squeezed the excess passengers into business class by removing the consoles between all the seats except ours. Obviously we were the only one with business class tickets as we were the only ones served a meal. They changed our seats twice during this period of chaos. And our seats did not fully recline. Bummer. We arrived home an hour late, 5:00 a.m. The fell into bed and Ron got up at 10:00 and headed to work. OY!