Holiday in the Caucasus (7): into Georgia
It was a second consecutive travelling day because our holiday moved from Azerbaijan to Georgia. Leaving our hotel in Sheki at 8 am, it was a two hour drive to the border crossing at Postbina. We had to carry our luggage up a long passageway to the Azerbaijan crossing and then down a similar length passage to the Georgian crossing, but it was quickly done and we were in a new country.
Georgia is a bit smaller than Scotland. The population is only 3.7M which is a little larger than that of Wales and a third of them live in the capital. The people are overwhelmingly Christian. But ethnically Georgia is more diverse than the other two countries in the region: some 11% are Armenians or Azerbaijanis. The currency is the Lari which is a bit over three to the pound.
One of Georgia’s greatest claims to fame is that it has been growing wine for 8,000 years, so the country insists that it is the birthplace of the drink. Georgia has a particularly interesting modern history since, from 1918-1921, it had a popular and successful social democrat government. This experience is well-described in “The Experiment” written by my good friend Eric Lee.
Following its new occasion of independence, Soviet-era Eduardo Shevardnadze was overthrown in a peaceful Rose Revolution of 2003. The new President Mikheil Saakashvili was initially popular but fell from favour with his disastrous attempt to retake South Ossetia in 2008. The Saakashvili era came to an end with the victory of the rival Georgian Dream coalition in the elections of 2012 and 2013. However, the government has increased control over the media and the judiciary and it is positioning itself as closer to Russia.
Once in Georgia, we met our guide Nick Mazanishvili and we were immediately off visiting cultural sites. First was the nearby Nekresi Monastery. This is set on a hill which can only be mounted comfortably by a special bus. The location and the interiors are really atmospheric. Then we drove the short distance to the Gremi Fortress. Inside this citadel is the Church of the Archangels which was built in 1655.
It was now 31C and we were ready for refreshment. Lunch was in the town of Tevali where we sat outside at a restaurant called “Kapiloni”. The afternoon journey to the capital Tbilisi should have taken two hours, but the shorter and more scenic route was closed during the day for repairs and the longer and less scenic route took a full three hours.
The Voyages Jules Verne group for the main tour was not due in Tbilisi until the early hours of next morning, so we three now had the evening and following morning free.