We've now made it to Europe! Although only for 48 hours...
After a great birthday trip to northern Armenia we travelled back to Tblisi and then, after changing buses, up to the mountains in northern Georgia. The town of Kazbegi is only about 10 km from the Russia border (with North Ossetia) in dramatic rocky mountain scenery. It's a great place to see the number 1 Georgian scenic speciality - churches on top of big hills. It is also just on the northern side of the watershed of the Caucus mountains and so, technically, in Europe by most definitions. We had a great time walking and picnic-ing, although we got a bit bored of the only cafe in town and its two menu options!
After a great birthday trip to northern Armenia we travelled back to Tblisi and then, after changing buses, up to the mountains in northern Georgia. The town of Kazbegi is only about 10 km from the Russia border (with North Ossetia) in dramatic rocky mountain scenery. It's a great place to see the number 1 Georgian scenic speciality - churches on top of big hills. It is also just on the northern side of the watershed of the Caucus mountains and so, technically, in Europe by most definitions. We had a great time walking and picnic-ing, although we got a bit bored of the only cafe in town and its two menu options!
[Gemma, church and mountain]
[Big fierce bird]
[View towards Russia: North Ossetia starts just at the bottom of the ridge on the back right]
Today we headed back to Asia for a while - at least until we repeat the 2 days in Europe trick in Istanbul.
We're now in Batumi on the Black Sea coast after a painful 9 hour minibus journey across Georgia. It's swarming with tourists, and seems like a nice town. However, we're only here overnight before crossing into Turkey tomorrow. The plan is to briefly head East to Erzurum to catch an overnight train across most of Turkey to Cappadocia. It's a bit of a shame to miss so much of Turkey, but we'll only pass the half-way point in terms of distance on the train tomorrow night and we're already 2 weeks past half-way time-wise. This is a bit worrying given that we have 8 countries left in our current plan (excluding the vatican..), so we're also spending a lot of time inconclusively debating whether we should change our route a bit.
T.
We're now in Batumi on the Black Sea coast after a painful 9 hour minibus journey across Georgia. It's swarming with tourists, and seems like a nice town. However, we're only here overnight before crossing into Turkey tomorrow. The plan is to briefly head East to Erzurum to catch an overnight train across most of Turkey to Cappadocia. It's a bit of a shame to miss so much of Turkey, but we'll only pass the half-way point in terms of distance on the train tomorrow night and we're already 2 weeks past half-way time-wise. This is a bit worrying given that we have 8 countries left in our current plan (excluding the vatican..), so we're also spending a lot of time inconclusively debating whether we should change our route a bit.
T.
1 comments:
and I don't think its fair to call Gemma a 'big fierce bird'. She's not THAT big.
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