The Southern Caucasus

After spending a few days in Kars, Turkey, I hopped back on the bus (two, actually) and crossed into Georgia, my debut in the Southern Caucasus.

Georgia carries the connotation of war since most people heard about Georgia for the first time when it was invaded by Russia back in 2008. It's difficult to see any evidence of this though. Georgia is a very developed country and is practically begging westerners to come visit it. The country's tourism board is pumping out glossy pamphlets by the millions and renovating buildings all over the old town in an effort to match European standards - at least in the capital, Tbilisi.

After spending three days in Tbilisi I was ready to get out and see some countryside. So, this morning, I hopped in a minibus and drove three hours up to the border with Russia - the REAL Caucasus mountain range with peaks like Mt. Kazbegi reaching over 15,000 feet. Physically, the mountains are amazing, but sitting up on a monastery wall overlooking the green valleys below me and the lines of tourists making their way up the mountain, it was hard to believe that I was in the Caucasus Mountains. Less than 20 miles away was the the town of Vladikavkaz - where the remainder of the North Caucasus (think Chechens) resistance to Russia is hanging out. A few more miles to the west and nearly three years ago, Russian tanks were filing their way through the mountains "liberating" South Ossetia.

Mt. Kazbegi and Gerge Trinity Monastery just to the left

Sitting in those peaceful mountains, I was struck (as I have been so many times on this trip) by the difference that a few miles and few years make. It's amazing to think that one valley can be made up of Georgian nationals who drink wine and cross themselves three times every time they pass a church (my bus driver went hands free for a few terrifying seconds on a mountain road as he crossed himself and talked on the cell phone at the same time) but just a few miles to the north, the inhabitants are Muslim and are part of a nation (Chechnya) that has been vilified throughout the history of the Russian empire as bandits and savages.

Walking up through the villages at the foot of Mt. Kazbegi, watching pigs slop around in mud holes in the middle of the road and buses full of tourists pass me, I couldn't imagine that there could possibly be violence here. Yet I know that at some point in history, there was most certainly violence in this little valley, and that only a few years or a few miles separate it from past and current military struggles. It warps my mind to think about and I find it hard to get across here in words. My journal entry today was full of frustrated attempts to try to explain my inability to comprehend how parallel mountain valleys could be so dramatically different. I hope one day it makes better sense to me.

Maybe I'd be able to understand it a little better if I could go to South Ossetia or Abkhazia, the two Georgian districts that saw most of the Russian attention in 2008. It is extremely difficult to get in to those place though as they are still under de facto Russian control. I met another American teaching English here who finally got all his paperwork together and is going to Abkhazia next week just to check it out. He's been living here for 6 months though and has spent a great deal of time figuring out how to get the visa, enter and exit without getting arrested. I'm opting to just skip those two provinces for now.

Pig mentioned above

My visa to Azerbaijan proved hard enough to get. I found out that the country had changed its visa requirements and that I now needed a letter of invitation to get in so that required a trip to a tour agency and about $145 to take care of. Still, I won't get my Azerbaijan visa until Friday (July 15) because, apparently, the Azerbaijani embassy here in Tbilisi has run out of stickers for the visa. I've also been told by several people that even WITH the visa, I may find it necessary to slip a $20 in my passport to make sure it gets processed efficiently at the border. To be honest, I've never paid a real bribe, so I'm kind of excited by that prospect, but I'm also pissed enough that I'm paying $145 to go through tiny Azerbaijan. It's stunts like these that make me lose sympathy for countries when they end up getting invaded years down the line.

While I'm waiting for the stickers to be delivered to the Azerbaijani embassy, I'm heading out of town to visit some villages east of Tbilisi in my quest to see both the rural and urban side of life in each country. I'll actually be staying with American guys who are teaching English here but staying with host families. It'll be nice to get the Georgian experience while having a compatriot to guide me through it all.

Hope you all had a happy 4th - I spent the day sick in bed in Kars, Turkey. I didn't hear one firework. I had meant to at least hum Star Spangled Banner, but my bowels were doing plenty of their own "bursting in air".

Me and Gerge Trinity Monastery