Turkey Trip 1

Day 1 May 28,2007

Mingechavir/Ganja, Azerbaijan to Akhaltsike, Georgia

Last week, Mike and I embarked upon a much needed vacation through Eastern Turkey. Our first plan was to go to Istanbul for a week but once we learned how much flights cost we decided to travel overland to the lesser traveled eastern parts of Turkey, passing through Georgia to see some of the historical sights there as well. Our goal was to see as much as possible in 8 days without spending more than $1,000 between the two of us. Needless to say – we had quite an adventure!!!!

On Monday May 28th the journey began- for some a bit earlier than others!! Mike had to first catch a 7:10 AM bus to Ganja from Mingechavir. I rolled out of bed at about that time! Ha ha! I ambled down to the main road into Ganja around 8:30 where I was going to flag down Mike’s bus and hop on and continue with him to Qazax-the last ‘city’ close to the Georgian Border in Northwestern Azerbaijan. We were hoping to find more convenient and less expensive transport (ie. NO TAXIS) into Tbilisi. This had proven to be a problem on our last trip to Georgia. Luckily when we reached Qazax about 2 hours later, there was a mini-bus filled with people ready to head to the border. We squeezed in- made friends with the locals- and bumped and jostled our way to Georgia. About halfway into the ride I heard some mysterious peeping noises coming from what I thought was inside the minibus. I looked out the window for evidence of small winged creatures and saw a family of geese walking down the road but the noise continued after we had passed them. Sure enough at the next mini-bus stop a large older woman got off followed by 20 baby geese which she proceeded to load off the bus by wing and foot.

We navigated the border with no problem and then looked forward to our next challenge- Finding transportation into Tbilisi. The taxi drivers spotted us from a far and immediately swarmed to greet us once we crossed the bridge into Georgia. They were asking incredible prices so we refused. Luckily there was also a minibus charging a much lower fare but it wasn’t going to Tbilisi rather, Rustavi, a smaller city about 12 kilometers outside of Tbilisi. We figured that there would be another minibus into Tbilisi from there and at worse- if there wasn’t, the taxi fare would be much cheaper from there. In Rustavi, the driver dropped us off right where a Tbilisi bound minibus was loading up. We hopped on and continued on to the Georgian capital. Much to our delight- we ended up at the central minibus station, and after asking some drivers, were easily able to find our minibus to Akhaltsike, where we were planning to spend the night.

At about 2:45 the bus left for Akhaltsikhe, a 3 hour journey past Mtskheta- the spiritual capital of Georgia, Gori -the birthplace of Stalin, and Borjomi- famous for its mineral water, skiing and national park.
At about 6:00 we blew into Akhaltsike – a pretty run-down but promising town. The most noteworthy aspect of the town was the weather! It was very blustery pretty upon arrival and getting worse!! With a little help from the locals we found our hotel then we got ready to start our first sight-seeing tour to Sapara- an ancient mountainside monastery.

We could hear thunder grumbling around but nothing too serious. While we were settling in- we were startled by the sound of glass breaking outside and then the power went out. We debated as to whether we should still venture out or not. We opted to go quickly and hope to be back before it started to pour. On the streets there were already several downed trees but undeterred we headed for a taxi and arranged a ride to the monastery tucked away in the hills not far outside of town. Luckily our driver spoke some German so I was able to communicate simple things with him. As you will find out later- German as opposed to English came in much handier in Turkey as well.

After 30 minutes of scrambling up roads intended only for 4 wheel drive vehicles (we were in a husty trusty Lada) we arrived at a beautiful old monastery and fortress in the hills. We asked the driver (Levon) to wait about 30 minutes- (we would have stayed longer but the bad weather was closing in fast) We walked around and clamored up old fortress ruins- looking for the perfect photo shots. We walked down to the largest church, hearing chanting coming from within. I didn’t realize the monastery was still active and was a little nervous about disturbing the monks. We stealthily walked in and upon realizing that we didn’t speak Russian,one of the monks called another over who spoke English and he gave us a brief tour of the complex. There are 10 of them living there and they are almost subsistent- but they do carry cell phones! During Soviet times the monastery was used as a camp for the soviet youth group “the young pioneers” and the little guys had defaced a lot of the ancient frescos. The monks are slowly restoring everything but it all takes money and time. Unfortunately because of the weather we had to cut the visit short. During the taxi ride back we arranged to have Levon take us to Vardzia- the next days adventure. We decided to meet at 8 AM outside the hotel.

Back in town we admired the carnage from the windstorm- fallen trees all over the streets and still no power in most of the downtown area. We hunted down a place to eat- and dined by candlelight! Fitting as we were also celebrating 6 months of coupledom.
Back at the hotel, exhausted we fell into bed.