Categories
Africa Algeria

Into The Sahara

One of the challenges with traveling within Algeria is the internal flight schedules. Air Algérie has a fairly small fleet, so the way they solve this is by having their international flights running at normal times of the day and then having many of their domestic flights in the middle of the night. So we left Ghardaïa at 12:45 am and landed in Djanet at 2:20 am.

This airport photo is one of my favorites from this leg of the trip, because it really captures the vibe. You can see the time stamp with the clock, and you can also see where the arrival screen above the baggage claim wants an update to Firefox. Anyway, it took us ages to leave the airport because the local police had to check all our passports, but we did finally get to a hotel in Djanet to sleep for a few hours before we headed off into the desert.

Djanet is all the way south, at the corner where Algeria meets Libya and Niger. It is solidly in the Sahara. We were there because it’s the best gateway to Tassili n’Ajjer National Park!

The biggest surprise for me in this region is that it was not just sand dunes. Maybe that sounds dumb, but I feel like every mental image I have of the Sahara is these beautiful undulating sand dunes that go as far as the eye can see. And we did see dunes! But most of what we saw and visited were cool rock formations. From some angles, I could be somewhere like Arizona or southern Utah.

One of the coolest parts of Tassili n’Ajjer is the prehistoric cave art! The oldest art is estimated to be 12,000 years old, which is an unfathomable amount of time. There’s something so amazing about standing where humans have been standing for millennia, looking at the etchings and drawings that they made that have somehow still lasted this long in the Sahara Desert.

Another favorite part: Elephant Rock! Definitely my favorite rock formation from Tassili n’Ajjer.

We camped out in the desert while we were there. I haven’t done a lot of camping in my life, but it was a good way to experience the Sahara. It was a little chilly, but not too bad once I put on an extra layer, and I ended up sleeping pretty well to catch up after our overnight flight!

One of the other peak experiences of this portion of the trip was when I finally saw the proper Sahara sand dunes! We climbed to the top and watched the sun set, which was beautiful.

In case you’re interested in what the city of Djanet looks like, we also visited that. It wasn’t a huge “main street.” Wikipedia informs me that their most recent census put them at a population of 14,655. The town itself might not have seemed huge, but it did have some very nice, brand new looking highways that ran from the airport to the city and around the area. Most of our trip was out in the desert, driving through the sand, but when we did get on the highways I was impressed.

By the way, this is the region where the visa on arrival is intended to incentivize tourism! Our guides did tell us that tourism provides the bulk of their economy, which was interesting. They still get a tiny fraction of the tourists visiting Northern Africa – obviously, Morocco and Egypt have tons, but Tunisia has rebounded after the Arab Spring and even Libya has more tourism than Algeria despite being less stable in recent years.

It didn’t seem like there were lots of tourists in Djanet. That said, we did actually see other tourists there. They were on some sort of multi-day trek through the desert, which sounded personally hell-ish to me but hopefully they were having a good time. I loved seeing the North Face and Cotopaxi bags on the camel.

Most of the time the weather was good, but we did have a random wind storm and it even rained on us. Just a little, but it was pretty surprising to get rained on in the Sahara!

Also, big shout out to our guides for showing us how to tie the scarves in the traditional way. These were clutch when the wind picked up and the sand was whipping against our faces – I can see why this is the style that developed in this region!

I had a great time in Djanet and Tassili n’Ajjer. I had not been to Northern Africa before this trip, and so I was so excited to go and do a proper visit to the Sahara, which is one of those places that you grow up hearing about. I would definitely recommend visiting this area if you’re going to Algeria!

Categories
Africa Algeria

South to Ghardaïa

From Algiers, we headed to Ghardaïa! We flew down in the evening and spent our first night in a very nice hotel that had hallways that reminded me of The Shining. The next morning, we did some exploring.

Ghardaïa is culturally unique. They practice a specific form of Islam, separate from Sunni or Shi’a, with a different architectural design of their mosques and different beliefs. There’s also some interesting community aspects built into their culture. If you look up Ghardaïa on a map, you’ll see that it looks like it’s in the top fourth of the country. In the relative scheme of Algeria, it looks pretty far north.

In fact, looking at it, you think, “oh, it’s not that far from Algiers,” especially when you think about how big the country is. Fun fact, Algeria is the largest country in Africa by land, which I did not know before I started planning for my trip. I have lived my whole life thinking that honor fell to the DRC. But it is actually 7 and a half hours drive from Algiers to Ghardaïa. It’s quite a bit outside the populous coastal band near the Mediterranean, and while it isn’t deep into the Sahara, there is this sense that they have to band together as a strong community to survive.

One of the other traditions that is unique to Ghardaïa is the one-eyed women. The M’Zab women wear these white abayas, and once they’re married, they only show one eye to the world. They’re very sensitive to photographs – the one below was not taken by me, as we were asked not to take photos of them on our tour.

Because they didn’t want us to take pictures of people in almost any of the areas where we were, most of my photos of Ghardaïa feel a bit like a movie set. There’s something sort of haunting about the amount of photos I took trying to set motorcycles against the buildings to give my pictures some kind of focal point or interest.

Thankfully, we did get to go somewhere livelier – the local market! I loved the market. As Algeria is ambivalent (at best) to tourists, it is not catered to foreigners at all. No stalls are trying to solicit your business, which is so pleasant as a tourist there. Instead, we just got to go through and buy nuts and vegetables and get a better sense of what day-to-day life looks like there.

This butcher stall was a real trip, I was so startled to see that cow’s head hanging from the top.

While I’m on the subject of food, it’s so funny to see which parts of French culture ended up sticking once Algeria kicked the French out. One of the main ones I noticed was French bread. Bread was served at almost every meal and it was good bread. This is one of my favorite photos I took in Ghardaïa:

Ghardaïa also had some great viewpoints from the tops of the hills. The architecture was so interesting. Technically, it’s only one town in a collection of five, although the whole area often gets called Ghardaïa from a tourism perspective (not unlike Amalfi or Cappadocia), so the buildings sprawl over the nearby hills and create a very cool skyline.

As far as visiting Ghardaïa as a tourist, I do have mixed feelings. On one hand, it is one of the more interesting and unique cultures I’ve had the chance to learn about. The market was great and the landscape and architecture were beautiful. On the other, with the strict restrictions around photos and some of the comments from our guide, it didn’t feel like that was really a place that wanted us to visit.

I touched on this a bit with the visa process, but Algeria is not particularly interested in tourists on the whole. Still, in most places, even if structurally it didn’t seem like they wanted foreigners there, most individual people were friendly. Ghardaïa seemed to be the exception, where even on an individual level, the locals weren’t thrilled that we were there. Which is fine, not everywhere has to welcome in foreigners, but it did come as a surprise compared to the other places where we went in Algeria.

And with that, it’s off to a place much farther south!

Categories
Africa Algeria

Welcome to Algiers

I have never been so close to being denied boarding on a flight until I tried to go to Algeria.

Algeria is considered one of the more difficult visas to get, historically, although they have been loosening the restrictions a bit recently. Part of that is introducing a visa on arrival that can be used as long as a portion of your trip is going to the southern part of Algeria. That was my method, and it basically required filling out a form, getting a pre-approval notice, and then when I arrived in Algiers airport, the plan was to get the visa at the counter. But first, I had to board my flight in Marseille.

I arrived at the airport early, because I was worried about getting my boarding pass. And it turned out I should be. Basically, when the employees for Air Algérie arrived and opened up check in, they told me that they didn’t believe that the visa on arrival would allow me to stay in Algiers at all, and that they were only familiar with people using it to transit through Algiers directly to the relevant regions. This was complicated by the fact that I didn’t have my domestic Algerian flight information because the tour company was booking them on my behalf. I tracked those down while the Air Algérie employees checked everyone else in, then they circled back to me and told me they would need to get someone in Algeria on the phone to confirm what I was telling them. This proved difficult because it was early in the morning, but after 4 or 5 phone calls, finally, someone picked up. And thankfully, they said that my pre-approval for my visa on arrival was sufficient to let me board.

Other people on my trip did report some friction at the airport, but none of them had quite the same experience as me of being pulled aside. It sounds like at the other airports that people were flying through, like Istanbul, Cairo, and Barcelona, the airline employees were skeptical but let them through without more than a cheeky “good luck.” For me, though, it was a stressful morning. I was very thankful to be let on my flight.

Once I landed in Algiers, I went to the immigration counter and they brought me to a room and took my passport to handle the visa paperwork. I paid my fee and got my stamp, and with that, I was all set!

I started with about a day and a half in Algiers, and then there were a couple more times where I was there passing through, so I’ve combined all my photos and thoughts into the one post. To start, Algiers is beautiful. A lot of the architecture is very French, which is not surprising given they spent 130 years under French rule. It’s right along the coast and there were some really nice cafés near the water where we had coffee. The first day we were there, it was some sort of holiday or a festival or something, and there were tons of families out in the streets enjoying themselves.

In preparation for this trip, I had watched The Battle of Algiers, which is definitely worth a watch if you’re interested in the history of the region. It is a fairly accurate reenactment of the guerrilla warfare that took place in Algiers during the Algerian War, where the local Algerians were fighting French colonization and ultimately gained their independence. There were a few areas highlighted in the movie that we saw on the tour, including the Milk Bar Café. The Milk Bar Café was once the site of a bombing. It was particularly popular with the French, and so the rebels picked that site to target and ended up killing several people.

The movie also largely takes place in the Casbah, which is the old town and medina of Algiers. During the Algerian War, it was primarily where the local Algerians lived and it was often targeted as the French tried to strip away their rights, so it is where the rebels organized during their war for independence. We spent a large portion of our tour in the Casbah, which is a very interesting part of the city. It has a higher concentration of Islamic architecture compared to the rest of the city.

One thing about walking around the Casbah – it has so many stairs! Thankfully, it did reward us with a very cool view of the city.

It’s hard to even pin down everywhere that we saw in Algiers, because we spent so much time walking through the city!

One of the parts I was very excited about was taking the metro! It’s something I love to do in new cities. Our guide was not very complimentary about their metro, but I found it clean and nice and easy to navigate. I don’t think they have a ton of lines but it’s certainly better than a lot of American cities have in the way of transit.

Another fun part of Algeria was the coffee culture. There were tons of cafés everywhere we were, and it seemed like a lot of them were great gathering places. It’s also the only place I’ve ever ordered coffee with milk and been handed a coffee in one hand and a cup of warm milk in the other, so that was kind of fun.

On the other hand, another interesting aspect of Algeria was the lack of drinking culture. It’s not shocking that it doesn’t have much drinking, to be clear. It is a predominately Muslim society. What did surprise me was that some places sold alcohol but it was treated almost more like speakeasies during American Prohibition. When I’ve been to Muslim countries before, they either sell alcohol or don’t. Some, like Yemen, are fully dry; others, like Saudi Arabia, just don’t sell much and the few places that do are hard to find and expensive. Or most just sell it normally, even if there’s slightly less availability than non-Muslim countries.

Algiers had places that sold alcohol but they wouldn’t let us in, or they would tell us they were full even when they clearly weren’t, or they would open the door a tiny crack and tell us we should try going around the corner, to another bar that opened their door a tiny crack, determined we were okay, and then welcomed us in. Big shout out to the one bar that did let us in while we were in Algiers, it was such a fun vibe. I am obsessed with the license plates they chose to put on their walls.

Algiers also felt pretty distinct out of everywhere we went in Algeria. I was in Algeria for about ten days, and got to explore a huge variety of different areas of the country during that time. Given how much trouble I had with the visa, I was glad that I could go to everywhere that interested me on this trip, because I’m not sure I could get back in!

I also found Algeria, across the board, to be a pretty easy place to eat as a vegetarian. They had lots of couscous with vegetables, and while I’ve had couscous before, I’ve never had it as good as I did here!

From there, it was time to head south! There’s a lot more to come in my trip to Algeria – we’re just getting started.

Categories
Europe France

Nice is Nice

Once I had finished exploring Monaco, I headed back to Nice to celebrate the New Year! I didn’t have any particular plans – I headed into town to figure out dinner and drink some champagne, and then I went down to the beach, where there was a crowd of people gathered for a countdown and some fireworks. I’m usually with friends for New Year’s Eve, not out in public, but there was something really special about celebrating with a bunch of strangers. And then after it was over and I was walking back to my hotel, everyone was cheering and wishing each other “bonne année” in the streets. I loved the experience.

The next morning, I went on my own unofficial walking tour around Nice! I started with breakfast near the famous rocky beaches.

Nice is beautiful. It was a really nice city to just walk around in. I imagine it was a bit quieter than normal, given that it was both New Years Day, and the winter season more generally. I would absolutely return in a different season and spend more time across Southern France.

When I was looking up places to explore, I did find an unusual place in Nice. Welcome to the Cathédrale Saint-Nicolas de Nice, which is a Russian Orthodox cathedral! It was built with in 1912 and mostly paid for by Tsar Nicholas II. They named the street where it was built after him and had a plaque honoring his contribution. They also honored one of the Romanov children who died in Nice and built a statue of him near the church. The church is officially owned by the Russian government after a long legal battle in the French court system.

Once I’d explored the cathedral, I made my way to the metro so I could visit the other side of the city. This is the area with the marina, as well as a short hike to a viewpoint.

I loved the views of Nice from above! It was pretty windy but absolutely worth it. The park up at the top of this hill was cool, too. There were Odyssey-themed mosaics on the stairs and near many of the lookout areas.

Once I had gotten back down to street level, it was time for a late lunch and a quick stop at my hotel to pick up my backpack. And then I was off to the next part of my journey!

I loved Nice. Within Southern France, I’ve spent time in Nice, Monaco, and Marseille, and I would definitely say Nice was my favorite of those three. I would love to go back and base myself there and explore more of the region, because it seems like there are so many beautiful places nearby. But no time for that now – it was time to board my train for Marseille so that I could fly out to Algiers the next morning!

Categories
Europe France Monaco

The Principality of Monaco

I booked a trip to Algeria shortly after the New Year, and when I was looking at my flight options, Marseille was one of the best places to catch a flight to Algiers. So I headed to Southern France to visit one of the European microstates I haven’t been to yet: Monaco!

Originally, I was going to stay in Monaco, but as it turns out, you can’t just book a last minute hotel in Monaco for New Year’s Eve unless you want to spend a medium fortune. So instead, I based myself in Nice and took the train over to Monaco to do some exploring. It was an easy 30 minute train ride. If I’d had more time, I would have liked to visit some of the other towns along the coast – I’ve heard great things about Èze, but I also hadn’t been to Nice before this trip and I opted to spend some time exploring that city instead. (More about Nice next week!)

For me, part of the excitement of visiting Monaco was the Formula 1 connection! While today, the cars are so wide that it is undoubtedly the most boring race on the calendar, it has been so important to the history of the sport, and the race through the streets of Monaco has created some of the most iconic images of Formula 1. I was excited to see the marina in real life, and find the famous hairpin turn, and see the Prince’s famous car collection.

It was also so fun to be there during the holidays. The area near the marina had become a Christmas market! European Christmas markets are one of my favorite things in the world, so it was nice to get a chance to go to one while I was there. There were still plenty of decorations up all over Monaco.

Beyond Formula 1, the main things that Monaco is known for are the Monte Carlo Casino, and more generally, being wealthy. It was particularly interesting to visit within a year of when I had visited Las Vegas, as these are both sort of the cities that gambling built. The house always wins, as they say.

I didn’t end up going beyond the entryway of the Monte Carlo. Frankly, I didn’t want to pay $20 to go gambling. I’ve been to casinos before and it’s not really for me. But it was an interesting people-watching experience. There were so many people trying to put on an illusion of wealth, photographing themselves with the fancy cars parked outside the casino or walking down the street in beautiful dresses. It felt so fake to me, in a way that I didn’t feel in Vegas. Vegas, for better and for worse, is authentically what it is, and most of the people I saw were living in the moment instead of trying to create content there. Maybe it’s Vegas’s reputation – “Sin City” and “What Happens In Vegas Stays In Vegas” are part of their core tenets. Vegas is also a more accessible kind of wealth. The kind of new money that Americans can dream of, whereas Monaco exudes exclusivity and old money. There’s more of an incentive to try to make it look like one belongs there.

Which is not to say that I didn’t enjoy my experience of walking around Monaco. It is a beautiful place. It was really cool to see the areas of Monaco where the Formula 1 race takes place, and it’s been on my list to visit for a long time. It’s a good inclusion on an itinerary in Southern France!

My visit to Monaco was a great way to end 2025! And the start to 2026 was pretty fun too – more on that in the next few posts.

Categories
Asia Georgia

Tbilisi Time

For the whole time we were in Georgia, we stayed in Tbilisi and took day trips from there to explore the countryside. I’ve gone through all our day trips, so now it’s time to cover what we did while we were in the capital!

On the first day after Alan and I arrived from Armenia, we took a cooking class. It was with Georgian Flavors, who I had found online from recommendations on blogs. They noted that she was good at adapting for vegetarians as well which was a big selling point for me. It was a private class, so just Alan and I in her home.

It was a really fun experience. We made vegetables with walnut paste, which is a classic Georgian dish, and of course, the classic Georgian cheese bread! All of the food was delicious, and it was nice to get a pretty authentic look at Georgian culture immediately after we got there. Irma told us all about the culinary traditions of Georgia, and we also had great conversations about the general culture and history of Georgia.

The next day, Colin had arrived and we did a sort of self-directed walking tour of the city. In total, I had about three full days in Tbilisi, so I did get a pretty good sense of the city.

I quite liked Tbilisi, I think it has an interesting mix of old and new and it feels cool. Georgia went from very off the radar to a big tourist destination, and with that came more remote workers, more expats, more people who want to be in Tbilisi. It felt very cosmopolitan.

Tbilisi, like Yerevan, also has a large metal woman on a hill. We took a gondola up to the top to go see her and then walked back down. I would definitely recommend doing this on a clear day, because the views of the city were amazing!

We also went to the National Museum. There were a lot of animals that are native to Georgia featured, and I thought the natural history portion was pretty solid.

At the top, there’s a hallway that describes the history between Georgia and Russia, which was interesting but could have used a little more broad context in my opinion. While we were there, we saw multiple protests about Russia and the fact that their government seemed to be supporting Putin. We had local guides express negative opinions toward the country of Russia and the number of Russians living in Georgia. I think I have a decent sense of it all from my own knowledge of USSR history and other tours across the week, but I do think the museum itself could have more of that information accessible for someone who is starting with the basics.

One of the other interesting cultural experiences we had in Georgia was trying chacha. Chacha is a local brandy, similar to vodka or grappa, and it is made from the grape residue that’s left over from making wine. Georgia really is out here inventing all the new ways to drink liquor!

We went to a chacha bar and asked the guy for a tasting. It was sort of half bar, half liquor store, and he was clearly an expert. We tried three different types between us so we could each take a sip of each kind. It was very strong. I had the flavored one, which I was happy about because it went down a lot smoother than the original!

We also visited the Holy Trinity Cathedral of Tbilisi. Every time we found ourselves at a church in Georgia or Armenia, it was very well attended. This one seemed to be having some sort of confirmation or performance for children or something – there were tons of families there and the kids seemed to be in fancier outfits.

During our last night in Tbilisi, Colin was heading to the airport and it was just Alan and I again. We started talking about how we were both missing the chance to see Wicked: For Good with our friends at home, so we decided to see if it was available anywhere in Tbilisi in English. We found an English-language screening at the theater in the mall near the apartment we were renting and so we headed to the movies! I haven’t gone to the movies when I’m abroad very often, but it was kind of a great way to finish out our trip. Although I do wish the movie hadn’t been in 3D since it made the sets look a bit fuzzier than I remembered in Part 1.

I had an amazing time in Georgia! I feel like I saw a lot, but I would go back to explore more of the western part of the city and just spend more time there. I found the culture very warm and the food and wine there was great. I will definitely be back to the Caucasus region to visit Azerbaijan, and I would happily stop back in Tbilisi at that point.

Categories
Asia Georgia

The Birthplace of Wine

For our last day trip out of Tbilisi, we headed east into wine country! One of Georgia’s claims to fame is that it is the birthplace of wine. Archeologists have found evidence of grape cultivation and wine-making pottery as early as 8,000 BCE in Georgia. There are also still unique wine-making practices in the region. While we also got to see that a bit in Armenia, I was excited about a tour that was focused on Georgian wine-making tradition.

We went with a tour company called Eat This! Tours, and they were great. It was meant to be a small group tour, but it ended up just being the three of us, so we had a private experience at the various wineries. We started at a larger family-owned winery and got a tour of their vineyard.

So what does make the Georgian tradition unique? (And not 100% unique, to be clear, as we saw the same traditions in Armenia. Maybe I should rephrase to the Caucasus tradition.) They age their wine in ceramics instead of wooden barrels, and then those ceramic jars are buried underground for the aging process. It looks like this:

Once we had learned about the process, we had an elaborate lunch with wine and food pairings. Georgia definitely takes their food and wine seriously. Everything was delicious!

From there, we headed to Sighnaghi, which is one of the most well-known towns in the region. It was beautiful – I can see why it’s risen in popularity for the tourists coming to the Kakheti region for wine tasting. It has a cool set of city walls that were used to fortify it in the 18th century.

We had a short tour of the town before our next wine tasting!

Allegedly, if it was a clear day, there would be an amazing view of the mountains behind this town

We headed to our second wine tasting, which was at much smaller winery. It’s also family owned but it’s on a much smaller scale than the first place where we had lunch. It was nice to get a sense of the wine industry in Georgia. Not just the fancier ones that cater more to tourists, but also the places that are a little more off the beaten path. The wine was delicious!

Our last stop was a family home that makes their own artisan wines! They cooked an amazing dinner for us and showed us their own personal vineyard and wine-making set up.

All in all, it was a great day! Georgia’s food and wine and hospitality are excellent, and this was such a fun way to experience it. I think anyone who visits should do some sort of food and/or wine tour during their time in Georgia. I’ll have one more post from Georgia to summarize our time in Tbilisi, and then it will be on to the next destination.

Categories
Asia Georgia

The House of Stalin

The next day, we hired a driver and headed east from Tbilisi! I had read about a service called GoTrip, which worked so well. It functions as a long distance taxi service, and gives you a flat rate for a specified route. You can match with people in various languages as well which was helpful to have a driver that we could talk to. The route I picked started at the Uplistsikhe archeological site.

The site is from around 1000 – 2000 BCE, and is a town carved out of the rock. It was really cool, and we got there pretty early so we had it practically to ourselves. The one negative is that there isn’t a ton of information about it on site, so most of what I know about it I’ve gotten from Wikipedia. Still, it was interesting to climb over the rocks and explore the various structures.

Fun fact, when we first bought our tickets, the woman at the counter asked us if we wanted to see the wine cellar. It was a little extra, but it was interesting, she said. So we paid a few extra dollars and went on our way. When we got to the part that said wine cellar, we learned that what we had actually paid for was a wine tasting – at about 10:30 am! It was fun to try a couple different wines, but it was also quite a bit earlier than any of us had planned on drinking that day.

Once we had our glasses of wine, we got back on the road toward Gori. Basically the only thing that Gori is known for is being the birthplace of Stalin. There are statues of him, the house where he was born, a park named after him, and a museum that talks about his life.

As you know, I am fascinated by propaganda, so I had a great time at the Stalin museum. Which, by the way, gives an unexpectedly rosy view of his reign. I would say the general narrative is that he was a part of the Russian Revolution alongside Lenin, then he defeated the Nazis, and then he died. Here’s a photo of him signing a new law! A law that does what, you ask? Don’t worry about that at all!!! He got rid of Nazis!!! Did we mention that part???

There is a small annex in the ground floor that mentions some of the death and prison camps and exile to Siberia, but you have to go looking for it. The majority of the museum is beautiful oil paintings and Central Asian carpets with his face on them and gifts that were given to him from various other world leaders. It was very interesting to see the way they presented this period of history.

Once we were done at the museum, we headed to the Memorial of Georgian War Heroes. My friends were deeply unprepared for the scale of this monument as we rounded the corner. The statues were super cool, especially with their location at the base of the Gori Fortress.

It took us a while to find lunch in Gori. There weren’t a lot of options and most of them seemed to be closed. But we eventually found a place to eat more of those delicious Georgian dumplings, and then it was off to our last stop of the day before we headed back: Borjomi!

When you go here, you’re going to be tempted to try the water. You will not enjoy the experience of drinking the water

Borjomi is a resort town known for its mineral water. There’s a brand of bottled water called Borjomi, although I certainly hope its water tastes better than what we tried out of the spring. Allegedly, it has some sort of healing qualities, although I would have to be pretty sick to want to drink its hot and sulfurous stream again.

The park was pretty nice, and we walked along for a while until we were ready to go back to Tbilisi. During our walk, we found another probably-haunted Soviet amusement park, which is still one of my favorite aspects of this region.

Borjomi was unlike anywhere else we went in Georgia, but it was also pretty small and didn’t have much to do. There is a Romanov palace near by but it’s now on private property and not accessible to the public, which is a big bummer. Maybe in the summer more of the park would be open, but that also seemed like it was more designed for children. There might have been more to do on the other side of the river in town, but it didn’t seem worth having our driver take us back into town to wander around when we could just go back to the city. It was beautiful, though, and it wasn’t that far from Gori, so definitely worth the visit as a part of this day trip.

My friend calls this the Sonic the Hedgehog bridge

It was a really interesting day out of Tbilisi. I think this is the most “off the beaten path” we managed to get in Georgia – Tbilisi is very popular, and the two other day trips we chose are the two top choices for most tourists. And with good reason, I loved Kazbegi and I loved the wine tasting tour. But it was also nice to get a different side of the country, both literally and metaphorically. Also, if you’re like me and you’re interested in propaganda, the Stalin Museum is top tier. 10/10 would recommend.

Categories
Asia Georgia

The Georgian Military Highway

The image that I’ve always had of Georgia is of one specific landmark – the Gergeti Trinity Church in the Kazbegi region. The photo of it on a hilltop, surrounded by snowcapped mountains, is perhaps the most iconic image of the country, and it was a top priority to see it while we were here. I scheduled it for our first full day out of the city so that we had some flexibility just in case there was weather up in the mountains.

We started at the Zhinvali Water Reservoir and the Ananuri Fortress. The reservoir is man made, created from a nearby dam. Ananuri sits on the water’s edge and has beautiful views of the valley.

Ananuri was built in the 13th century and is on the tentative list for UNESCO status. It’s famous for surviving a siege. It has secret tunnels that allowed the inhabitants to continue to get food and water. The name comes from a woman named Ana from the town of Nuri, who was captured by the enemy and tortured in an attempt to reveal the entrance to the tunnels, but she chose to die rather than betray her people.

After we had explored the fortress, we continued north to our next stop, which was a honey tasting! I’ve done one or two honey tastings before, and I’m always amazed at how different the honey tastes based on which types of plants the bees are pollinating.

As we continued north, the landscapes became more stunning! We stopped for lunch and then made our way to Stepantsminda, which is the closest town to the Gergeti Trinity Church.

We even had to switch from the small bus to cars that had 4×4 enabled to get up to the church! Thankfully, we were doing this all on dry roads. There was snow on the tops of some of the nearby mountains, and we saw a few patches of snow near the road, but our weather was perfect.

Once we were done at the church, we had one more stop on the way back to Tbilisi! And outside of Gergeti, this was the one I was the most excited for.

Welcome to the Russia – Georgia Friendship Monument! Our guide put the “friendship” part in very heavy quotes. Anyone who knows me should know that this is exactly the sort of Soviet-style pseudo propaganda I’m looking for when I travel. This particular monument was created to commemorate the 200th anniversary of the Treaty of Georgievsk, which was signed in 1783 between the Russian Empire and the Kingdom of Georgia. By 1983, Georgia had been subsumed by the (soon to be defunct) USSR, and the narrative on the monument reflects that.

Our guide went through all the symbols with us, and while I don’t remember all of them, the gist is that Russian folklore and national symbols are to the right and Georgian folklore and national symbols are to the left. The center depicts a maternal Russia holding Georgia, her child, on her lap, and has an inscription in both Georgian and Russian. The design of it is absolutely stunning. I loved the vivid colors of the monument, even if its message is quite patronizing toward Georgia. It was interesting seeing the Russian perspective toward Georgia, especially since the majority of our trip was giving us the other side of the story.

And with that, it was back to Tbilisi! Heading up to Kazbegi was amazing. I would love to spend more time in the Caucasus Mountains. This was our only day trip into the mountains, because I wasn’t certain if it would be snowy or bad weather; that said, I think the hiking and trekking in the summer and fall are some of the best of what Georgia has to offer, and I would love to spend more time in the region. But we did have a few more fascinating stops that were included in our itinerary. More on that next time.

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Armenia Asia Georgia

North to Tbilisi

It was time to make our way north to Georgia! We woke up very early in the morning to head up to the border. On the way, we made a few stops. First, we headed to Sevan Lake, where the temperatures were absolutely frigid and we watched the sun rise over the misty lake.

We were flanked by a few dogs, who tried to follow us all the way back to the car. The whole region is full of mostly friendly dogs. In Georgia, they even have an ear tag system that indicates they’ve had their shots and whether they are friendly, with a green-yellow-red system to show you whether or not you should try to pet them. All the ones we met were friendly!

From there, we went to another monastery complex, Haghartsin. We arrived right as they were opening the doors, so it was very peaceful during our visit.

Armenian cross-stones, or khachkars, are a part of Armenia’s history and culture, and have actually been registered with UNESCO on the list of Intangible Cultural Heritage. They date back to the 9th century and have elaborate artwork and motifs based in medieval Christian Armenian art. Some have been lost to time, and others have been lost to genocide and conflict with Azerbaijan, but you can still see them around the various monasteries in Armenia!

Something that we saw signs for but didn’t get to experience was the corn of Northern Armenia – either it was too early in the morning or out of season or both, but it would have been fun to try that if we had been in the right time frame.

One aspect that I found fascinating as we made our way north was the border with Azerbaijan. As I mentioned in my last post, they do have a complex relationship, and a lot of that stems from conflict over the borders. The border had barbed wire across it and each side would put their flags all around the border, on various hills so that it was clear they had marked their territory. You can see the Azerbaijani one in the image below.

The border between Armenia and Georgia was smooth. One of the better land crossings I’ve done, really. And then we were in Georgia!

Once we crossed, it wasn’t too long to Tbilisi. I’ll have a lot to post on Georgia, but my first impressions were very positive. Georgia had been very high on my list for a long time. It had been under the radar for a while, but at some point it got popular and I was seeing it everywhere in the travel community. I was excited to check it out for myself!

We quickly discovered that the relationship between Russia and Georgia has gotten… strained, in recent years. We saw multiple protests against the Georgian government for capitulating to Russia during the time we were there. Various local guides we had over the course of the week also talked about their negative relationship. It stood in contrast to Armenia, who seems to have a much friendlier relationship with Russia. Armenia’s primary taxi app was Russian and we heard a lot more Russian on the streets. In Armenia, the signs were in Armenian, then Russian, and maybe English; in Georgia, they were in Georgian and English. I suppose Armenia has a lot of other enemies surrounding them. Compared to how Azerbaijan and Türkiye have treated them, Russia probably looks a lot nicer by comparison.

I have a lot more pictures from Tbilisi and from the Georgian countryside for next time! Can’t wait to share the rest of this trip.