Georgia – Day Two

My cold seems to be holding off, maybe sleeping 20 hours was a good idea.

Up early to meet my guide for the day, Georgi, and head out of town with him.

Drove about an hour up and up and up to a 6th century mountaintop monastary, Georgia is one of the oldest Christian countries in the world (before you say anything Guy, the oldest is probably Ethiopia but Georgia and Armenia wouldn’t have been far behind) and despite centuries of differing occupations from Arabs and Persians and Turks and the Soviets and the Mongols their religion remained unchanged so they are rightly proud of it.

The monastary dates to sometime around 550AD and was built on the site of a pagan (possibly Zoroastrian) temple which had been built around an ancient oak tree, the centre of worship at the time. The tree was cut down and this cross was made from the wood.

Next we drove to Mtskheta, the original capital of Georgia, walked around gorgeous ancient stone homes in a green river valley, feeling goosebumpy and mythical. In the Greek tale of The Golden Fleece it was to Mtshketa that it was brought to strain the gold from the river here.

Best part of Mtskheta however was Churchkhela, a chewy tube of grape juice, wine, nuts and wheat flour dried in a sausage casing, like an ancient wine gum, crazy delicious, I made Georgi go back for more.

Lunch!

I don’t know the names of anything, Georgi told me a few times but Georgian is hard. This was a soup made from pork and sour plums, I loved but Georgi thought it should be better and informed the waitress of this.

Chicken liver salad. Loaded with unusual herbs, also great.

My fav thing though was this, fresh warm flatbread with a layer of soft semi-cooked egg inside, salty and amazing.

Georgi and the two waitresses debating which dishes to have me try, Georgi said he has only ever had one other Canadian customer and he and the women were excited to have me try the foods. The waitress on the left was a hoot and gave me shit for not speaking more Georgian.

After Mtskheta we did a little mountain hiking, glad for my new and improved legs, hiked up to see a town that was carved out of the rock around 4000 years ago, long abandoned and a UNESCO Heritage Site it was amazing, unfortunatly most of the cave town was destroyed by Russian air strikes during the 2008 Russo-Georgian war. From the peak we climbed to we could see a huge swath of Russia, the border is less than half a kilometer away at this point.

The church is only about 1100 years old but the caves around it are estimate from around 2000BC.

Next we drove to the village of Gori, famously proud of their hometown boy Joey Stalin…. the most mass murdering fuckhead in the history of mankind… they love him there, seriously.

The Stalin museum was trippy, we lurked around behind an official guide giving a tour in Russian with Georgi quietly translating the Orwell level double-speak of the guide into english for me, amazing experience.

Stalin’s childhood home.

His death mask

The rest of the day was driving and walking and talking our way through various mountain villages, Georgi was a perfect guide, well informed, passionate, interested and interesting, we covered a lot of ground and solved most of the Western world’s issues by days end.

He dropped me off around 9pm and I went hunting for dinner, found a great place, jazz trio playing, impressive Georgian foods, I would get into it more but I had lots of Georgian wine and am tired.

Tbilisi, Georgia – Arrival

Because my flight got in to Tbilisi airport at 3:30am my airbnb host was nice enough to send a driver and to allow me to check in crazy early, airbnb ftw.

Border control asked me zero questions and Oleg spoke no english so it was a quiet middle of the night drive into the city (never had someone standing in the airport with my name on a sign before, saw it and started laughing, confused Oleg).

Oleg let me in, gave me keys and used all his non-verbal skills to show me the water hearter and furnace and such and then I climbed into bed. Gorgeous suite and comfy bed.

Woke up around noon and am sick, all my concern for this trip was around my weak stomach but this is just a boring old cold, I feel awful.

Went out for a few groceries and then back to bed.

Got up around 6pm and went out searching for something to eat and perhaps a human voice.

Walked through the old city and stepped into a random little bistro, Kala. Great place, friendly chatty waitress, helped me with my Georgian (completely impossible language, not part of any other language family, unrelated to anything).

I’ve blathered for months now to all of you about the history of wine in Georgia, suffice it to say that they have been doing it longer than pretty much anyone and make really unique wines, like this Saperavi. Georgian wines are unique enough that my waitress insisted I try it first as lots of people don’t like it. The wine is great, powerful, meaty, tannic.

With the wine she suggested an appitizer that I forget the name of, basically fancy cottage cheese in this amazing unbaked dough.

Main course of a cheesy cornbread that I also really should have written down the name of, so good, heavy and salty and a potato and pork stew, also great and also some traditional dish that I forgot the name of.

My waitress also told me proudly about the local mineral water and brought me a bottle, she was correct, the water is freaking fantastic, really fizzy and minerally.

Back home and back to bed, going on a big countryside tour all day tomorrow and feeling pretty rough and snotty right now.

Something something quitting cold Turkey… laughter…

Last day in Turkey, on to Georgia tonight.

At 9:30 this morning I had never been to Asia in my life, as of 10:00am I have. How did I get there? The FREAKING subway, yay! This is the only place in the world you can take a subway to another continent.

What wonders did I find in the exotic lands of the Orient….

This mysterious beverage is known as “tea”.

I also sampled another local beverage, I believe the name was “coffee”.

Much as I enjoyed my time in Asia I do feel I got the general idea of it pretty well, not sure I need to see the rest.

…pause for laughter and continue…

Another great day here, a little colder but sunny, spent the morning wandering around the asian side of the city, lots of Turkish coffee as I need to get my fill while I can. Then more kokorec for lunch.

Wanted to go to the main city art gallery but despite information to the contrary on their website it was closed, walked through the spice market instead.

Turkish Delight places here are like sushi places in Vancouver, they even look like maki.

With a little time before I need to leave for the airport I laid out in the gorgeous park beside the museum of archeology. Was just dozing off when a young couple and their baby laid out their blanket beside me. They seem nice and cheerful and were having a picnic.

After a bit I can see out of the corner of my eye that the dad is lining up all the food along my side of the blanket. Sure enough he tugs my sleeve and motions to me to eat, no English at all, just hello. How awesome is this, I snack a bit from their goodies and we make friendly gestures.

Suddenly! My phone rings, it is my Airbnb host Adar asking if I would like to join him and his friends for tea before I leave. I thank my picnic friends and head to a nearby office where Adar and friends are having Apple tea, not much English other than Adar but still had fun. Drink tea and raki until it’s time to leave for airport.

Midnight flight to Tbilisi.

Istanbul day three

It’s difficult to even post stuff about Istanbul, the city is so big, so pumping, moving all the time, three days here now and feel like I’m melting into it now, zero scammer attempts launched at me today, I like to think it is because maybe I don’t look quite so slack jaw today.

Got up painfully early to make it to the Archeology Museum right at opening, totally worth it as I had this incredible building entirely to myself for the first while, I’m not going to bore you all with museum chat but just looking at a cup in front of you that was found under the city and dates to at least 6000BC… how can that not get you going?

The cup in question

I asked my guide Sofiye the other day for the best donair place in the city, she told me to go here, she was correct.

In the Grand Bazaar, these two jewelers were so warm and friendly, John and Marco, John used to live in Montreal, we chatted and they told me so much about the Bazaar.

The Bazaar, a maze of these passageways, 4000 shops, some of them in the same family for 3-400 years.

Sampling of the stuff I like, I would say there are about 2-300 just jewelry shops alone.

Geeking out in front of a piece of the walls of Jericho/

My kokorec van, so tasty, man food here is good.

Welcome to Istanbul! Don’t talk to anyone.

Bit of a tiring day…

Actual conversations I had today:

Guy “Friend! Friend! You are American, yes?! Do you want cigarette?”
Me “Hayir” (Turkish for no, which I now know well)
Guy answers with many Turkish things, I walk away.

Guy #2 “Hello America! Blue Mosque closed, I take you somewhere good”
Me “Hayir!”
I am heading to the metro token machine to add tokens to my card, he sees where I am headed and runs ahead of me and leans on the machine, smiling. I still have a couple actual tokens so I head the other way and get in line for the tram.

Guy #3 “Hello, do you know the way to Sulleyman’s Mosque”
Me “Walk up that hill for a while and you will start to see signs”
Guy #3 “Oh, with your beard I thought you were a local, I am new here too, I am from Cyprus”
Me “Yeah, I’m from Cyprus too”
I turn around and walk away.

Guy #4 starts speaking in Turkish
Me “Sorry, I don’t speak Turkish”
Guy #4 “Oh, with your beard….”
Me “Fuck off”
I walk away.

Guy #5, a shoe shiner, walking past me with his gear, I can see he has dropped a brush, I pick it up and run it back to him, he starts talking, uh-oh.
Guy #5 “I shine, no charge, very good, very good friend”
He starts soaping my shoes before I can say anything, he washes and brushes them, I can feel what is coming…
Guy #5 “Ok! $20 lira please” (about $10)
Me “You said no charge, sorry”
Guy #5 “Ok! $19 lira”
I walk away, he follows, yelling that I am cheating him, follows me for a good while…

There weren’t just 5 either but I’m tired.

They mostly come out at night…. mostly

Was walking between the Blue Mosque and the Hagia Sophia looking for a place for dinner and taking this photo when a guy came into frame, he apologized for walking in front and we started talking, nice guy.

He told me he was from Cyprus and just in town for 3 days, I told him where I was from and such. Chatted a bit more and he asked if I had had dinner yet or at least a drink, said I should join him so two solo travellers don’t both eat alone.

He was super nice but my cautious brain tapped me on the shoulder and said Hey Now. I told him I had already eaten and walked away feeling like a bit of a loser, hoping I hadn’t just snubbed an honest invite.

About five minutes later a guy asked me something in Turkish, I said I only speak english and he said Oh, with your beard I thought you were a Turk (unlikely), then he said he was from Cyprus, only in town for 3 days….

I said I already heard this one and walked away to his repeated invitiations that I go and fuck myself.

Note to self: steer clear of Cypriots, they are not that nice.

Totally not Constantinople

Flight from Chisinau to Istanbul ended up delayed 4 hours, got into Turkey around 10pm, changed money, cleared customs, got metro tokens and off to my Airbnb, met my host Adar and got settled in for the night.

Out the door at 9 to meet my guide for the day Sofiye, walked 2-3 minutes and realized we are walking ON the Roman Hippodrome, crazy already, staring at Egyptian obilisk in Roman stadium sitting on Ottoman base…. yay history.

You’re my boy, Blue! (mosque)

Hiya, Sophia!

The Blue Mosque from a little window in the Hagia Sophia, thanks to Sofiye for pointing this out.

Sofiye was exactly as much fun as it appears in this pic.

Lunch, lamb with tomato on a bed of pita with lots of yogurt, crazy good.

The Basilica Cistern… I’m not even adding descriptions, what would I say, everything I saw today was mind bending, history punching me in the brain for 12 hours straight.

There has GOT to be an easier way to make rugs than this, lol. I loved seeing this and seeing ALLLL the different styles of rug, way out of my price range though… even for a small one.

Istanbul!

Sofiye was nice enough to treat me to this unusual dessert, basically candied pumpkin with nuts, pretty wonderful.

Parted ways with my guide and went home for a little rest before dinner, which was these two lovely big squid.

I might be drinking alone but at least it’s the good stuff

My first half day in Transnistria was a torrential storm so I decided it was better to stay in and drink.

Kvint Cognac is pretty much the only thing Transnistria produces and it has a reputation going back a couple hundred years. (Seriously, Kvint is rumoured to account for nearly a quarter of the republic’s GDP)

They don’t export it many places outside of the Russian sphere so I’ve never tasted it but today the distillery was right next door to my hotel so I ran over in the rain and bought a sample pack of their four best.

RESULTS

14 Year Old – a bit woody and alcoholy, nose burn, mild but pleasant flavour. Very similar to a Courvoisier VSOP.

20 Year Old – immediate hint of caramel in the bouquet, stronger taste, niiice, hint of booze burn in the nose, very drinkable

25 Year Old – perhaps less caramel but more of a fruity nose, more taste indeed but a case for the 20 year old could be made. Less burn tho

33 Year Old – like it came from a different producer, intense and smooth, nearly zero booze-nose, this stuff is better than any French Cognac I have tasted, a full size bottle of the 33 equates to about $110 Canadian.

At this point I had a nap.

Last day in Transnistria

Did 33,000 steps today and legs/feet don’t even hurt, toughening up is fun.

Took a long morning walk along the Dniester river, fell asleep on a bench and was moved along by a friendly soldier, lol. There are soldiers EVERYWHERE and mostly they seem to just be looking for anything to do, mostly they are watching that you don’t take pictures of certain buildings or monuments.

Lunch at a cafe, amazing cabbage rolls, waitress refused to accept that I did not speak Russian, talked a mile a minute the whole time, lol.

Saw those few sights that Tiraspol has in the afternoon before dinner at the same place as last night, The Larionov, then back to the train station for the daily back to Chisinau.

PICS!

The strangest tasting mineral water I have ever tasted, my mouth rejected it on first swallow, very interesting.

This guy is about to have a bad day, he’s sitting on the same wet paint I just set my pack down on, went over to tell him and noticed he was extremely drunk, explained the paint which he seemed to blame on me, made myself scarce.

Cabbage roll and beer lunch, different than any I have had before and really good, if pungent.

The bartenders at The Larionov, ate there both nights, he was friendly but spoke no English, she was friendly and kinda goofy and unlike most people spoke some English, both meals there were excellent, cheap and fun.

Tonight was seared pork cheeks with this sauce of tomato, cottage cheese and navy beans on a bed of polenta plus lots of the local Tiraspol beer, really good and really well prepared, $5 Canadian.

Hank/Frank’s Transnistrian cousin?

I was sitting near this Ferris Wheel when a little girl, about 3 or 4, came up to me with her bottom lip trembling, she said “Mama?” and started crying, she continued on in Russian, getting more and more upset, people were starting to look, I took her hand and walked her over to the first couple who could actually speak to her then we set off in search of Mama, found her after about five tense minutes, no one spoke any english so there were some awkwardly sweet sign language bits for relief and thanks. This whole thing lastest less than ten minutes but I won’t forget it for a long time, the idea, unlikely as it would be, that we might not find the girl’s mother… ugh.

Remember the toilet in Trainspotting… I think this one beats it… I had no choice.

So many cool old Ladas

This Lada wagon was really stylish

A Volga! Never seen one before

Lots of Russian Orthodox Church presence

Doing my best Dermot, camera on the ground, tough guy shot

This coffee shop had impressively good cappaccino, the woman working there spoke not one word of english but we got along fine and had some laughs, until I motioned with the camera, like most people here she did not want to have her picture taken, fair enough.

This awesome statue of Lenny sits in front of one of the buildings that I knew I wasn’t supposed to photograph, I thought I was very stealthy shooting from across the street but as soon as I snapped this a door opened behind me and a young solder came marching over, he scolded me a bit but was pretty halfhearted about it, then he asked if I might have a cigarette he could bum, at least I think that is how the discussion went.

Russian T-34 tank on display as a monument to the Russian liberation of Tiraspol in WWII.

"Tiraspol’s sewer system is state of the art." – wikitravel

I’m looking out my hotel room window and can see the hammer and sickle waving right in front of me on the flag….

Where?

I am in Tiraspol, the capital city of Transnistria. A tiny, tiny breakaway (uber Russian) republic squeezed between Moldova and the Ukraine border.

What?

Transnistria is the only place left that flies the Soviet hammer and sickle on their flag. The reason being that they are a pro Russia part of Moldova that announced their separation from Moldova and their aliegence to Russia about 20 years ago… problem is no one noticed, including Russia. Currently Transnistria has it’s own currency, the Transnistrian ruble, their own army and passports and none of it is recognized by any other country in the world. You can’t even get the currency from ATMs here, you withdraw US dollars and then go next door to convert them to rubles.

Why?

Why not visit! Time machine, the place is as close as you can get today to a Soviet state from the 1980s, tanks and MIGs on display, statues of Lenin everywhere, rumours that the entire place is run by ex KGB agents and that the hotel rooms are bugged.

How?

Train from Moldova take two hours and $1.50. Being very Soviet there is really fun stuff to do to enter. I literally spent the first few hours walking from building to building getting stamps and forms needed to visit, they want to see them all when you leave so it’s not really optional. They dont stamp your actual passport tho, they know actual countries would not be cool with that, instead they stamp a piece of paper and insert it in your passport. Moldova on the other hand couldn’t care less, as far as they are concerned you never left Moldova.

Pics

Waiting to change dollars to rubles

Local grocery store

Paperwork involved getting forms on train, taking forms to police in train station for stamps and more forms, being interviewed about who my father is, taking new forms and stamps to my hotel, hotel staff give me more forms and directions to this building across town: