Tbilisi, viewed from the fortress on the (This picture has been shamelessly acquired from a Google image search)
We spent the past two days exploring Stepantsminda, also known as Kazbegi, a quiet village nestled in mountains of Northern Georgia, where bread is apparently hard to come by, or only delivered once a day from a bigger town...but never when we were there to buy it. Our first afternoon there was spent hiking the "long way" to reach a 15th century holy cathedral/monastery on a mountain, overlooking Mt. Kazbek where legend holds that Prometheus was chained by Zeus back in the day. Our legs none worse for the wear and enjoying the opportunity to work out, we spent the next day wandering an equally long distance in search of khinkali (meat filled dumplings), our only hot meal in all of Georgia. See, since Baku we've been surviving on a combination of bread, sausages, and random vegetables, finding these options cheaper than eating out. We love bread, so it's no real hardship, but a little variety is nice too!
Kazbegi: Tsiminda Sameba Church(This picture has also been shamelessly acquired from a Google image search)
Speaking of money, Em and I need some. Badly. So we spent the afternoon today planning our assault on the job market in various European countries. While sipping Turkish coffee (Jess) and Black tea (Em), we planned our route to Athens, beelining through the rest of Georgia and Turkey. We'll get to do Turkey a second time on our way down to Syria next summer, inshallah, and are anxious to get a job for the winter. See our previous post if you have any European job contacts!
Ok, backtrack... Uzbekistan is the best stan of all stans everywhere! Seriously, who knew that a doubly-landlocked country could be so cool? Especially one formally owned by Russia (sorry, Russia)! We were happy to have the opportunity to Couchsurf in Tashkent with Tristan, a french ex-pat with a few great friends and a lot of great card games, notably Uno, played with reckless abandon until 2am. Leaving our big bags at his place gave us the opportunity to travel to Bukhara, Samarkand, and Shakhrisabz with only a small backpack and a spare change of socks.
These cities were incredible -- the pictures on our last post speak to the intricate detailing on the exterior facades of the many medrassas, minarets, mosques and mausoleums in each of these Silk Road cities. As all good budget travelers should, we snuck into many of the main sites in each of these cities, rather than paying the often exorbitant ticket prices. Bukhara was spectacular -- arriving early in the morning before anything was open (and before it got hot), we wandered around and watched the town come alive, feeling like we had the place to ourselves.
However, Shakhrisabz, a small town 90km south of Samarkand, was to hold our most interesting experience in Uzbekistan. It came in the form of a 79 year old man named Zora, the father of the man who ran the hostel we stayed in. Apparently a retired calligraphy artist, he also became our guide on a hike to the area around Langar, a "paradiscial mountain retreat" according to Lonely Planet. Speaking zero English and with pockets full of almonds, Zora galavanted up and down mountains like a native goat, gesturing wildly at anything that would surely capture the interest of us and the French couple joining us on this adventure. Our lunch of bread, honey, cheese, and watermelon took the form of about 6 installments, as the old guy stopped us approximately every 20 minutes to eat just a little more. At one point, Jess was sure she was going to die as we scrambled up a crumbling rock slope...only to go back down the other side, a grassy pasture.
But the adventure didn't end there. We went on to a canyon, through which ran a river, through which we ran as there was no other way through to the other side where the van was waiting. The French couple refused to go, even after Zora offered to piggyback them across (and we made 10 crossings, at least) so they wouldn't have to get their feet wet. They walked down the road, while Em and I kept up with the old guy. We were grateful to come to the end of that cold, wet walk and get back to our hostel, where we were greeted with a feast fit for kings... or very tired travelers.
Post-Tashkent, we flew to Baku, Azerbaijan, where we met our next CSer, Nick. Not expecting much from Azerbaijan, we were pleasantly surprised by the juxtaposition of modern European architecture and old city ruins that made up Baku. Whether strolling along the boulevard by the Caspian Sea, or watching English movies on Nick's big screen TV, we had a few relaxing days before heading to Tbilisi.
Baku, Old City(you know the drill)
