Tbilisi, the "Hot water" city

Sudden decisions seem to be the best decisions. A friend of mine paid a visit to Georgie when she came last time to Baku. I refused going with her for two reasons - 1, my visa to Azerbaijan were only single entry ($40) and I would have to pay another $80 to get multiple; 2, I needed Georgian visa. Hence, I was not considering going to Tbilisi. BUT :o) my new visa obtained thanks to the Save the Children are multiple & for free and second, I found out that Goergia does not require visa from Czechs (EU) during the summer months!! And so 2 weeks ago I started to plan visitting Tbilisi and this weekend I already managed to see the city with my own eyes!!

I went with a friend by train. We left on Friday night so to arrive on Saturday morning. The ride was great except for damn 3 hours at the borders, first Azeri and then Georgian. There are a lot of Azeri going to Tbilisi while trying to smuggle things accross the border and the process looks likewise when going back from Tbilisi to Baku, this time having Georgian people on board instead. And if one thinks about it, all this happens for years already - every single time when the train passes the borders (at least once every day) there are pretty much the same people on the train and I bet there are also the same customs officers at the borders ... as if they could not have come to some sort of agreement to speed up the process.

Nevermind, so instead at 10 we made it to Tbilisi at 1, thankfully Tbilisi is one hour behind, so we came at 12 Georgian time. Got dropped by a Georgian friend at a hotel, hotel which we did not have to pay for as the owners were his relatives. Very unexpected, very convenient
but very akward as well.



Our first trip was to Jvari Monastery, some 30min away from Tbilisi. It is situated on a cliff while overlooking the Mtskheta village and offering great views of the surrounding mountains. Jvari, built in the 7th century, is one of the oldest churches in Gergia and it is functioning till now.

From Jvari we descended to Mtskheta. It is not more than a sleepy village by now lying on the confluence of two rivers, Mktvari (Kura in Azeri) and Aragvi. Mtskheta used to be the capital city of Georgia for some 500 years in pre-Christian times. In the center of the village you will find the Svetitskhoveli Church, thought by some as the most beautiful church of Georgia, built in 11th century.

After an extraordinary dinner in an outside restaurant placed along a little stream, while tasting different kinds of Georian specialities, we returned to Tbilisi. We took a stroll around the Old Town/Kala with number of churches around, remnants of city walls, colourful houses and plenty of cafes. The Old Town is being slowly rebuilt and very neat little streets are emmerging here and there. We stopped for a beer at a beer restaurant, opened only some month ago, with real brewery inside of the place, thus having the possibility to taste "fresh" beer :o). I am afraid that the beer here is as disgusting as everywhere else (my appologies to beer lovers), though of course Czech beer is still the least evil one :o)). After the restaurant we called it the night, although I could not resist taking few more photos of the night Tbilisi.



I will rather not mention the night as I shall feel sorry for myself :o) so while skipping that I will take us to some 11am on Sunday. Dima (our Georgian friend) picked us up at that time and we continued to wander around the old streets with the aim to make it to Rustaveli Avenue. I had the feeling that all the buildings you might want to see in a city, you will definitely find on this Avenue. First to see is the so called Children's Palace (former Russian viceroy's residence), next to the building of the Parliament. A modern building of the Plaza Cinema, hotel Tbilisi (Marriott), close with the Kashveti church emmerge further along the Avenue. The cars are not allowed to this street during Sundays so one gets to have nice views from the middle of the street (though the reflex of looking for a car coming is still there :o))). There is also the Opera house, Mitropane Laridze Soda Foutain, Academy of Science and other sights to be seen.

We ended up in a little Chinese restaurant for a lunch and returned through other streets to our hotel to fetch the car. As we still had some time left, Dima took us to a newly built church high up on a hill above the center of Tbilisi. Really an impressive building packed with people as it was a holiday that day.



There is another extraordinary sight to be seen on the hill facing Tbilisi, the Kartlis Deda Statue. This metal mother statue is holding a tea-cup to welcome friends and a sword to scare off the enemies. Some distance away from the statue there are the impressive ruins of Narikala Castle very well visible from the center of the city. I guess it is good to mention that Tbilisi is placed in a valley surrounded by hills :o).

The day ended by a visit to a Turtle lake within the woods that border with Tbilisi. The lake is a place where people like to go for a run, or to simply relax or have a swim, again with excellent views of the city.

At 6 we had a train back, and even with "the usual" three hour delay at the borders, we made it slightly after 9 to Baku. So I was sitting at my office with only some 40min delay ;o).

Xinaliq... the almost lost village

Xinaliq is a remote village situated high up in The Greater Caucasus mountains (around 2250m). The name Xinaliq means "The land where hena grows" as the mountains surrounding Xinaliq turn organge-brown during the sunset and sunrise. The village is very unsual as the people that live there have distinct origin (they are not Turkish), they speak their own language which differs from all other Caucasus languages (although they do know Azeri or Russian), have their own habbits and culture that is unique in Azerbaijan.

It is believed that there are some connections between this ethnic group and Scandinavia. Not only here, but also in Qobustan traces have been found that suggests so (Thor Heyerdahl has been visiting these places on numerous occasions).

And of course since the first time that I have heard (well read about it in Lonely planet) about the village I longed to visit it. And finally I had the chance.
I went with my sister and Ilja and except for them we met another 3 Czechs in the streets of Baku that decided to join us for the trip. So this unusual Czech group, together with one Azeri friend, headed to Xinaliq for two unique days!

We got up yet during the night hours (to be precise at 5.45am :o), to leave soon. We met at Baku "bus station", found a marshrutka that was going to Quba (city two hours north from Baku), filled the 7 remaining places in the bus (lucky us) and thus left straight away for Quba. The drive was ok, the weather was still cool due to early morning, and we made it before 10 to our destination.

At the Quba bus stop we searched for possibility to rent a jeep to go to Xinaliq. The roads are BAD so no other transportation (except for horse or your own legs) would make it there. Our Azeri friend managed to get us a good deal, we all placed ourselves in one cool old green Niva jeep (7 is the magic number as it seems) and left for Xinaliq.

The road is fine the first half hour, one passes little villages on the way, bumps regularly into restaurants / chaykhanas (tea houses), there are also tourist resorts being built there (hmm). First part of the road the jeep goes through thick forest, with green hills that further create sort of a gorge. The jeep follows a river the whole way. Here is also the part where the road gets extremely bumpy and one has to hold the seat with one hand, the jar by the ceiling with second hand, and take photos with the third hand... When reaching the place where the river splits into Alik and Xinaliq rivers, the nature again totally changes, there are brown more flat hills around, that very much reminded me of Iceland (for those who have been to Iceland :o).
As we got to this valley, we stopped at a village called Cek, that is where the driver is from. He arranged a dinner for us to be done when we return from Xinaliq and so we could continue with the pleasant feeling of shashlik waiting for us.
We slowly left the mountain road to enter a gravel desert, some sort of a big river basin surrounded by the "Hena" mountains. That is the last part of the road.

We entered Xinaliq and saw tens of little kids running around. As soon as we emmerged with cameras they were all ready to be photographed... I felt bit strange as when trying to imagine that someone would come to my place and start taking photos of me... but the people I guess must be used to it by now. I always asked if I can take photos as it was really cool to see the women in their everyday life... and they would smile and say thank you after each photo we took. We wondered through the streets, silently admiring the houses, the people, the mountains, it all looked simply incredible to us.

There are two mosques to be seen in Xinaliq, one from 12th and the other from 15th century. The people were supposed to be devoted followers of Zarathushtra, before becoming Christians in 4th century and later, in 7th century, converting to Islam. Several ancient cemeteries are to be found on the surrounding hills of Xinaliq.

We left the village some time later to stop at the river basin and have some food before continuing back to the village Cek. There we were ushered inside the house and got to sit at one room and play domino while waiting for the food. We got traditional shashlik, some vegetables and melons and at the end had to refuse the second course of boiled meat, as noone seemed to have any space left in our stomachs. We spent the night on the floor sleeping next to each other and the next day, after a yummy breakfast with home made cheese and honey, we returned to Quba.

The trip was brilliant and if anyone makes it to Azerbaijan I highly recommend visiting this place. I have not described the people, nor the houses, nor their behaviour... I am afraid that all has to be experienced. (Or meet me one night, give me few hours and I will try to describe it in words.) :o))

How did it all start...

I think the very first impulse came from my friend Dasa... some years ago :o) she was writing her diploma thesis on Mexico and went to Mexico and I thought then ... ONCE when I will be writing my thesis (I never doubted I will write them about some country) I will also go to that country! And there the idea was planted.

Few years of University lectures passed, a necessary nuisance for each aiesecer, and I got to the point of actually starting to consider writing my diploma thesis. That was also the time when I chose my minor, Developing studies, and so I was only a step away to deciding that I want to write about some developing country. Next was my "knowledge" of Russian that needed quite some dusting and the region was thus pretty much determined.

I fancied the countries in Central Asia (Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, these three particularly)... but suddenly I received an email from a friend from Azerbaijan who was telling me about a forum that is taking place in Baku and where I could apply. I was lucky to be selected among the participants and so thought... since I go to Baku, they do speak Russian there (well, I though they speak much more Russian than they actually do :o), I could try to contact few NGOs beforehand and ask for interview. That worked out, I met with some when being in Baku and one of them at the end offered me an internship.

And so the country that I was to write thesis about was chosen. I started to read more about the region, learnt more about the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict and was ready to come back in the summer to explore some more. It is really fascinating to be here... although of course it has few drawbacks (if you continue reading my blog you might sense what those are :o).

The NGO that offered me internship is called Save the Children. I have been working for them for 2 months now and I have some 2 to go. This of course gives me plenty of opportunities to learn more about the country, get to understand it a little and, of course, collect some information for my thesis. Except for that it is a brilliant possiblity for me to gain some working experience in non-governmental sector, not to mention the cultural impact ;o).

And as an old aiesecer I could not resist but to offer my services to Baxtiyar who is right now establishing AIESEC in Azerbaijan. And with reference to my age I can as well call myself ... the Senior Adviser, hihihi.

I would definitely pass for Azeri... ;o)

My sister is in Baku... :o)

Back to Nabran...

Last week I got to go to Nabran for three days again ... this time I was participating in a conference that was organized by one of our departments. The conference was devoted to one of the programmes that have been ending this month, so people that worked on the accomplishment of the programme the past two years in different regions had the opportunity to get together and relax a bit.

First day was thus arrival and afternoon and evening we spent in the pool and by the sea. Second day was the actual working day, but with a long lunch break to get to the sea again and in the evening, after a fancy dinner (well, all the meals were fancy :o) there was a disco. And the third day except for the departure was again more relaxing day.

The conference was organized in Atlant, a sea resort hotel. So the place was much more fancy than our previous place. But all the "comfort" was coming in the same package with tens of people all the time around you and with all the noise that loud music can make during the night/morning hours... so I was actually really looking forward to come back to Baku to rest a little.

Lada is the one...

The traffic is incredible in Baku, the streets are constantly full of cars ... with impatient drivers behind the wheel. They drive fast and if someone/something annoys them, they just blow their horn; the often, the longer, the better.

Pedestrians are one of the things in their way. Here they do not even pretend to stop, they just go... if you have courage and you jump in their way, they will just drive around you... they will simply not stop. There is green and red light for cars, if you as pedestrian want to pass the road and you wait for the cars in the parallel street to get green light, you are still not granted that you will pass the street as the cars that turn from the parallel street will not let you ...

And if you think there are a lot of Skodas on Czech roads, then you have never seen the amount of Ladas that are on Azeri roads. Where you look there are Ladas, all pretty much the same type. Some new, some old, some ancient (those hold together byt the willpower :o). When sitting in these (usually the taxis) you feel like holding the door and the seat and the roof to make sure everything stays together for the duration of the drive. (And you feel like putting a pillow under your but not to have it scratched from the road :o)).

But do not think there are no nice new cars around... on the contrary. If you fancy new cars and would want to see some newly released car on the street, come to Baku. This German tourist walks with Azeri friend in the streets of Baku and he notices this smashing car pass by... WOW, he thinks and asks his Azeri friend what car is it. The answer he gets, well that is the new version of mercedes of course! It seems Azeri people buy the new versions straight from the Auto Exhibitions :o).

Shashlik

Before:
You come to a restaurant and one of the meals they will always offer is shashlik. I first thought it is a name for some kind of meat that is done some kind of way... but it seems it is anything done one kind of way :o). So you take anything: any type of meat - fish, veal, lamb, or any type of vegetable - here it usually means tomato, pepper and aubergine (baklazan)... and then you stuck the meat, veggies on a stick and put it to gril using coal. And that is shashlik (well, at least how I understood it :o)).

After:

Have a look and choose...

I never saw it in Czech restaurants so here it caught my attention straight away. When you go to an average Azeri restaurant (the more expensive ones do it the "european" way) you usually never get a menu. You simply know what can be offered and if they do not have it they will tell you some other options.

After you order your meal, they bring this big tray where you can find a plate with different cheeses, plate with "priroda" (my name for vegetables/ greens/ grasses that Azeri love to eat here, eg. dill, chive, parsley - kopr, pazitka, petrzel) and some tomatoe or cucumbers, plate with fruits, bowl with pre-made salads, bowl with dovga (while boiling kefir you add "priroda" and make a very refreshing drink/soup), roasted potatoe, plate with bread etc. And you get to look and pick and since you are hungry, you pick several plates from the tray to cool down the hunger (in my case you stuff yourself so much that you cannot eat the actual meal when they bring it).

I really like this way although it is, of course, an excellent marketing strategy, as one would not order anything when seing it on the menu but as soon as you see it in real, you have this urge to get it... my case :o).

Petroglyphs and mud volcanoes in "Ravine land"

About 60km south-west from Baku is a village called Qobustan. It looks like any other village though has quite unusual surroundings. So of course a great place for a trip. Although maybe not too wise to go over lunchtime, one gets bit hot in the open sun. :o)

The first place that we visited were the mud volcanoes. They can be found some 15min away from Qobustan though the roads that lead there aren't really roads. As you reach the top of the hill this view suddenly opens. Tens of little volcanoes that constantly bubble and gurgle. It is really funny if you have along a person that gets easily frightened. Cause as soon as this "blub" sound comes up from the volcano, the person is likely to jump out of fright. Hihihi.

But so to continue, we headed back to the village and took another road that led us to a place known for its rock engravings. Firstly you are ushered to a small museum adjacent to the rock mountains. There you can see different stone objects, ceramics, tools etc. that were found in the caves around. Then you proceed to the rocks itself.

First to see is a huge stone called Gaval-Dashy which you can hit with another stone and it rings like a gong. Then a small path leads you to different caves where you get to see the petroglyphs. The engravings show people, animals, hunting scenes. Also the rocks itself have quite unusual shapes due to being weather-worn. The place is really amazing to visit.

By the time we finished this little circle around the caves and rocks, enjoyed the view from the mountain over the sea, we were too hot and too tired to spend more time there and so we headed back for the car and back to Baku (in search of air conditioning).

A way to travel...

Quite interesting thing happens when Azeri president or one of his family members decide to travel. In that moment there are police cars all along the route where he/they want to go in order to stop all the traffic on the particular road. You would not find a single car on the road in that moment (except those without drivers of course :o)). Then suddenly this fast fast group of secret police cars comes while encircling the car of the president and within seconds the cars are gone (I would give them ticket for speeding).

After the presidential convoy is gone, one can only see the huuuge huuuge cue of cars that were stopped and had to wait for the convoy to pass. So pretty much a great way of making traffic on the roads. :o)

But I heard it got much better now. As when the previous president (father of the current one) used to travel, they would stop the traffic for one whole hour on those roads which he would pass. What a way to travel!