[Republic of] Georgia on my mind

[kileskus]

Istanbul - Batumi - Tbilisi - Baku (and some stops in between)



With the recent intriguing political developments in Georgia, and having not been to a CIS country in several years, I thought now would be a good time to visit. I had a few Velocity points to use prior to the upcoming changes so redeemed reward tickets on Qatar to Istanbul and then from Baku on the way back.

Georgia is a country of 3.7 million people. It's located east of Turkey, south of Russia, and west of Azerbaijan. It's known for being one of the first countries to convert to Christianity, having a lot of cholesterol-raising but tasty dishes, and hosting a part of the Caucasus mountains, although the most beautiful part is purportedly in Abhazia, the Russian-backed breakaway region that forms one of today's post-Soviet frozen conflicts.

I had wanted to go to Abhazia but my visa application waa denied. According to a local friend, it was likely because entry is not permitted via the Georgian side, although nominally on the Abhazian MFA website they do recognise it as a crossing.

The weather was bad for many days and this was my first time in seven years holidaying with checked luggage. Also, the older I get the less adventurous I become. Therefore, I planned my activities to maximise sleep, minimise having to drag luggage around, and avoid any hint of rain. (The one time I did venture out into a storm, I experienced an inexplicable loss of friction whilst walking along the beach and had an unplanned and unwelcomingly invigorating bath in the Black Sea. Thankfully I had been carrying only my old phone.)

I hope you find something interesting in this report. Feel free to share thoughts/questions/experiences - I feel that coming in winter and not being a wine drinker my views and experiences would differ from others'.


The Mother of Georgia statue meant to represent the Georgian nation. In the left hand she is holding a wine bowl

 

[kileskus]

Istanbul



'Sailing to Byzantium' is my favourite poem. A reflection on the physical frailty tethered to the inexorable process of ageing, it describes the narrator's journey to Byzantium, the erstwhile seat of Western civilisation and religion, for spiritual reinvigoration. 'Ulysses' by Tennyson runs in a similar vein; that narrator however searching more for intellectual and physical renewal.

I have tattoos inspired by both these poems, with the Hagia Sophia featuring in one of them. So it was with some sadness that, having finally arrived to see Istanbul in person, I wasn't allowed to access the ground floor of the mosque, although of course the views from the upper floor are still stunning and there were some of the exquisite mosaics remaining.



At the Grand Bazaar, my Turkish-speaking friend tried to ask permission from management for us to go onto the rooftops, a desire inspired by James Bond and International (a movie based on the sordid story of the Bank of Credit and Commerce International). We were politely told to leave them in peace, but did see an interesting carpet along the way:


The Istanbul war museum has a daily performance of a mehter band, Ottoman military bands associated with the Janissaries, an elite infantry unit comprising Christians from the Ottoman territories, usually from the Balkans. While the Janissaries were not Turks, most mehter music was composed by Turks and was the inspiration for 'Rondo alla turca' among other pieces of western music experimenting with ideas from the Orient.


The band members even dress up in Ottoman military costumes for the performance.

The city also has several shooting ranges that are open until 11 p.m. and include the opportunity to fire Turkish pistols, so that made for a pleasant evening activity after the museums closed and it was too dark and rainy to walk around outside.

I flew Turkish Airlines to Batumi in western Georgia. Check in and boarding were mildly chaotic (no formal priority boarding for business/*A status holders either). The flight was almost completely full. In economy they provided a cold lunch that I thought more than sufficient for a 90-minute flight:



Batumi was raining, so I headed straight to my hotel and finished off the rakı I got from Turkey. I would recommend the Efe brand - they were the first private company to produce rakı and it is delicious. Despite the similarity in name and method of production, I thought it tasted less like rakija and more like mastica. The rakı ran out but the rain did not, so I made a quick trip to the shops to get some Georgian chacha, which is a grape vodka that tasted slightly like rakija and a lot like hand sanitiser.

 

[SuePa]

I'm following with interest, as I'll be visiting Georgia, along with Azerbaijan and Armenia, in September, on a group tour.

 

[kileskus]

Batumi



The Georgian people used to be divided into two tribes by a mountain range. The western tribe was called the Colchis and the eastern the Iberians. It was to the Kingdom of Colchis that Jason and the Argonauts came in search of the golden fleece. The origin of the myth likely stems from the fact that western Georgia is rich in minerals including gold and archaeological evidence attests to advanced goldsmithing techniques employed by the Colchis when it was an ancient Greek colony.


This statue of Medea holding the golden fleece stands in central Batumi. Georgian culture has a strong focus on family (the concept of the clan seen throughout the Caucasus) so I find it a little ironic that they choose to venerate Medea despite her killing her own brother to elope with Jason.

The Colchis and Iberian kingdoms eventually broke up into smaller groups. Unification of the Georgians started in around 1000 AD but it wasn't until around 1100 under King David the Builder that the process was completed. However, the kingdom would split apart again over the coming centuries due to Mongol and Turkish invasions.

Present-day Batumi is the capital of the Adjara province, a semi-autonomous region mainly populated by the sub-group of Adjarians. It's a resort city so in winter there is mainly construction on the beach and many restaurants and entertainment venues are closed. There wasn't a lot to do and the weather meant that the Kolkheti National Park that I wanted to see in the nearby town of Poti wasn't open.


There are a few nice buildings to look at but it takes about 20 minutes to see the whole of the city centre.

The most iconic food in Georgian cuisine is probably khachapuri, cheese bread. The archetypal khachapuri, and that which you will find served overseas in Georgian restaurants, is the Adjarian style. Batumi is the place to get authentic Adjarian khachapuri:


The 'boat' shape is distinct to Adjara, whereas khachapuri from other parts of Georgia will be round like a pizza or square. The filling is cheese with an egg on top. You eat it by putting a pat of butter on it then mixing the cheese, egg and butter together. Once mixed, you rip off pieces of the bread from the sides and dip it into the centre.

The dish on the right is kharcho, a soup made of beef and rice and seasoned with a distinct Georgian spice mix.

Kuchmachi is another western Georgian traditional dish. It's made of chicken or beef offal with chopped walnuts and pomegranate seeds. It's better than it sounds and is quite warming (I had it after falling into the water while walking along the beach), but is quite heavy as I find most Georgian dishes to be.



I took a bus from Batumi to Sarpi on the Turkish border to have a look at the church there, dedicated to St-Andrew.



He's the same guy of the Scottish flag and is the patron saint of Georgia, Russia and Ukraine for his proselytising work. While he didn't convert Georgians to Christianity, he did a lot of preaching here and first landed on the Black Sea coast before heading to Ukraine and then Russia.


In Georgian Orthodox iconostases, Mary will be on the immediate left of the holy doors (the centre doors) and Jesus on the immediate right. Then, right of Jesus would be the patron saint of that church. So in this iconostasis, the icon on Jesus' right is of St-Andew with his distinct wavy hair.


This is the customs checkpoint building in Sarpi. According to the German architects, its design is meant to represent "coming together" and Georgia's "progressive spirit".

After that it was on the train to eastern Georgia. I bought a first class ticket as it was the last ticket remaining. First class gets you more legroom but isn't very helpful if you end up in the 4-seater rows.


The windows are shaded so I couldn't get any good views of the countryside either. The main entertainment of the trip was the English announcement when we were departing Batumi: "Dear passengers, the train is about to depart. Please leave the train."

 

[kileskus]

Kakheti

Kakheti is the eastern region that borders Azerbaijan. It's the most fertile land in the country ("you can throw a stone into the soil and a tree will grow"), characterised by mild winters and hot summers, a valley with two major rivers running through, framing mountain ranges that form a protective barrier from frosts, and black and brown soils with moderate-high clay content. Georgia has the oldest viticulture in the world with clay wine storage pots (qvevri) dating back to 8,000 years and most of its wine is produced in Kakheti.


Farmland in Kakheti

Wine tours are therefore popular in this region. I consume Khayyam's rubaiyat with pleasure ("There are no riddles wine knows not to read") and can drink any glass of homemade wine that a host will put before me, but I don't know a merlot from a cab sauv. So I went to look at churches instead.

The last settlement before the border with Azerbaijan is called Udabno, which means 'desert'. The government created the town by bringing over Svan people, a sub-ethnicity from the west known for being adept shepherds and fierce warriors, to help keep Azeri shepherds out.


Udabno

At the border is the David Gareji monastery. David was one of 13 Assyrian monks who came over in the 6th C. He initially settled in Tbilisi and was a healer who was frequently petitioned by the locals, so he closed up shop and went with some of his disciples to the remotest area he could think of, a mountain in the desert. They lived in caves that helped protect from the harsh mountain wind.

Over time the monastery grew and it was fairly well protected geographically but still had a watchtower and walls to help fend off attacks. In 1617 the Persians invaded Georgia, which was then part of the Ottoman Empire, and killed up to 100,000 Georgians including 6,000 monks at this monastery.


The cave at the bottom right was his and has been left open. The other caves have had doors added to them and are where the current monks live.

2 hours' drive north brings you to the Bodbe nunnery in the name of Ste-Nino. Nino is an extremely important figure in Georgian history. She was a Roman missionary who came to Georgia in the 4th C to preach Christianity. She camped out near the garden of the then-king Miriam in a bramble bush and stayed there for 9 years trying to gain an audience with the king, and converting some people during that time.


Nino's cross and a symbol seen all over Georgia. The horizontal bars are angled down as she made her cross from a grapevine. She also tied some of her hair to the cross so that might be present in some imagery

King Miriam refused to see her even when she healed the queen from a serious illness. Then when he was on a hunting trip, there was a solar eclipse. He tried praying to the pagan gods to get the sun back but it was only after trying Nino's god that the eclipse ended. Miriam then declared Georgia to be a Christian country, becoming the third country to convert after Armenia and the Byzantine empire.


After converting the king, Nino went off to this place called Bodbe and died quietly. The king built a church around her burial site. After Georgia became part of the Russian Empire, the Russian tsars took a liking to the church and turned it into a nunnery.


The iconostasis, very Russian in its painting style and extravagance.


One of the murals inside depicting the final judgement

Nearby is the town of Sighnaghi, which I wanted to visit to see the mosaic on the town sign.

Spoiler: Click for a diversion on Soviet art and Georgian mosaics

Art in the USSR had to follow the doctrine of socialist realism whereby it had to have depictions and interpretations in line with Marxist-Leninist ideology. The period under Khrushchëv's rule after the death of Stalin was known as 'the Thaw' and saw some relaxation of censorship. Artists were allowed more freedom of expression and national expression in the form of folk motifs began to seep through into visual arts. For example, we see grape ornamentations on Moldovan buildings and storks on Belarusian ones.

Mosaics in particular began in the 1960s and accelerated under Brezhnev's regime. They appeared at bus stops and on public buildings, most often completed by local artists from local ceramist workshops. And, a lot of the time, they had a national flavour. Even, slowly, noncomformist art such as abstraction began to appear; in Stalin's time such art was violently opposed as it was the exact opposite of socialist realism.

Georgian Soviet mosaics are not well preserved, with many having been destroyed when the buildings they were on were sold to private enterprises. Passive if not active societal intent to erase remnants of a traumatic part of history has likely accelerated the decline of Soviet mosaics. It's only been in the past few years that there has been public dialogue on preserving and reclaiming them as works of art, and as national, Georgian art.

So, what excited me about this Sighnaghi sign: an abstract Soviet mosaic welcoming you to a small Georgian town, half erased but still hanging on.

It's also a charming town to look at from its fortress, which was built in the 18th C as a sort of Great Wall to help fend off invasions but was not needed as the Russians annexed Georgia and there were no further attacks.


View of Sighnaghi town from its fortress

Finally, to Telavi the capital of Kakheti for the night.



Dinner was at a popular restaurant known for its khinkali.

On the left is a type of salad called pkhali, made of minced vegetables like eggplant or cabbage with chopped walnuts inside and pomegranate seeds on top. On the right of course is khinkali, large dumplings usually made of pork and/or beef and eaten with friends. The best khinkali comes from the east as they add more broth inside. You're supposed to hold it with your hands, bite off a bit, sip the broth out and continue eating. The stem is left so you can keep track of how many you've had.

 

[RooFlyer]

I really like your trip reports with the history and informative insights. And having visited Georgia and enjoyed it immensely, I can follow the story, and you, around.

 

[craven morehead]

Istanbul - Batumi - Tbilisi - Baku (and some stops in between)

View attachment 427493

With the recent intriguing political developments in Georgia, and having not been to a CIS country in several years, I thought now would be a good time to visit. I had a few Velocity points to use prior to the upcoming changes so redeemed reward tickets on Qatar to Istanbul and then from Baku on the way back.

Georgia is a country of 3.7 million people. It's located east of Turkey, south of Russia, and west of Azerbaijan. It's known for being one of the first countries to convert to Christianity, having a lot of cholesterol-raising but tasty dishes, and hosting a part of the Caucasus mountains, although the most beautiful part is purportedly in Abhazia, the Russian-backed breakaway region that forms one of today's post-Soviet frozen conflicts.

I had wanted to go to Abhazia but my visa application waa denied. According to a local friend, it was likely because entry is not permitted via the Georgian side, although nominally on the Abhazian MFA website they do recognise it as a crossing.

The weather was bad for many days and this was my first time in seven years holidaying with checked luggage. Also, the older I get the less adventurous I become. Therefore, I planned my activities to maximise sleep, minimise having to drag luggage around, and avoid any hint of rain. (The one time I did venture out into a storm, I experienced an inexplicable loss of friction whilst walking along the beach and had an unplanned and unwelcomingly invigorating bath in the Black Sea. Thankfully I had been carrying only my old phone.)

I hope you find something interesting in this report. Feel free to share thoughts/questions/experiences - I feel that coming in winter and not being a wine drinker my views and experiences would differ from others'.

View attachment 427495
The Mother of Georgia statue meant to represent the Georgian nation. In the left hand she is holding a wine bowl

Signing on

 

[kileskus]

Mtskheta

The three consonants at the start make this place hard to pronounce, but it's far from the longest consonant cluster in Georgian. There can be up to eight consonants in a cluster, and when you throw in ejectives (consonants that kind of sound like they have a snare hit after them, listen to the full alphabet here and you'll notice them), it makes Georgian a notoriously difficult language for anglophones to learn. While preparing for this trip I was practising these consonants on my commute, and found that on busy Melburnian trams people leave more space around you if you sound like you're half-beatboxing half-choking.


A view of Mtskheta, enclosed in a triangle by mountains as the hypotenuse and the rivers Aragvi and Kura making up the sides

Mtskheta was the first capital of Georgia and remained so until the 5th C when that honour was passed to Tbilisi. It's a holy city of the Georgian Orthodox Church (meaning no entertainment venues like bars or casinos can be operated there). Three of the religious sites here are collectively on the UNESCO World Heritage list as the Historical Monuments of Mtskheta. I note with amusement that the UNESCO website acknowledges challenges with "preventing inappropriate interventions in the landscape setting of the property". One such inappropriate intervention, presumably, was the building of the police station. Since 2004, police stations are built with glass to represent transparency, but the glass would not be congruent with what UNESCO was trying to preserve. So a compromise was reached - grass growing on the roof of the station.



On a mountain overlooking the town is the Jvari Monastery, built in the 6th C and more or less intact since then with minimal renovations apart from the roof. On this mountain used to be a statue to the pagan gods. After Georgia was converted to Christianity in the 4th C, Ste-Nino (from the previous post) took down that idol and erected a cross. The Jvari monastery was built around this cross.



On the outside walls there is quite a bit of graffiti dated from the 40s and 50s, likely by soldiers who were at the nearby military base. There is also fresh graffiti from recent visitors - I saw some even from the day of my visit.

In Mtskheta proper is the Svetitskhoveli cathedral. The name translates to the Life-giving Pillar. At 84 m high, it was the tallest church in the country until 2004.



The story goes that when Jesus was crucified a Georgian Jew (there is a significant population of Jews here) took his robe and gave it to his sister, who was clutching the robe when she died. She was therefore buried with it. Ste-Nino came in search of that burial place and found a cedar tree had grown over it. She wanted to build a church with that wood and had the tree cut into seven pillars. However the workers couldn't budge the seventh and final pillar at all and it was needed to support the centre of the church. Nino prayed about it and an angel came down and lifted the pillar up, and when he touched it the pillar began to produce myrrh that could heal ailments.



This is the seventh pillar and underneath it is where Jesus's robe is buried


St-Andrew's relics are here too. This model of a foot has a compartment that contains a fragment from one of his foot bones.


The iconostasis

Spoiler: Digression on Russian literature

The Caucasus was a source of inspiration for Russian writers during the 19th C and more specifically the Golden Age of Russian poetry. The Caucasian war from 1800-1864 saw the addition of new territories to the empire that brought with them warmer climates, breathtaking mountains and peoples with martial cultures and atavistic traditions - in short, everything that was missing in St Petersburg.

Tolstoy, Pushkin, Turgenev, and Lermontov are some of the writers who drew inspiration from the Caucasus. Lermontov, the quarrelsome army officer who would seduce women with his verses and die in a duel at 26, was exiled twice to the Caucasus, much to his pleasure I'd imagine as he adored the mountains and got along rather well with the Circassians and the Georgians. A Hero of Our Time is set in this region, with the opening seeing Pechorin on the Georgian military road from Tbilisi.

While best known for that novel, Lermontov was also a painter and a poet. His poem 'Mtsyri' is about a young monk in what is believed to be the Jvari monastery due to first verse:

A few years ago, where
Merging and murmuring,
Embracing, like two sisters
The rivers Aragvi and Kura,
There was a monastery.*

As I mentioned earlier, Mtskheta sits at the confluence of these rivers. Later on in the first verse there appears to be a reference to the Svetitskhoveli cathedral:

Now there's a greying man,
Half-dead guardian of the ruins,
Forgotten by people and death alike,
Who dusts the tombstones
On which are etched
The glory of the past, and about
How such-and-such king, weighed
Down by his crown, in such-and-such year,
Handed over his people to Russia.*

This sounds much like King Erekle II, who ruled until his death in 1798. He was constantly harried by the threat of Persian invasion and sought assistance from the Russian Empire, it being also a Christian state. The Russians sent troops to protect Georgia. When Erekle's son King George XII died in 1800, Russia simply swept in and annexed Georgia, using Erekle's treaty to establish legitimacy of the annexation. Both Erekle and George (the last king of Georgia) are buried in Svetitskhoveli.


Erekle II's tombstone

* My translation. Intended to preserve meaning rather than meter. I make no claim to being a lyric poet.

There is also the Samtavro nunnery. It is on the grounds of what used to be King Miriam's palace, which was completely destroyed.



As I mentioned in my previous post, Ste-Nino spent years camping in a bramble bush in the king's garden:


This is purportedly the original bush. Apparently the Soviets tried to burn it but it would keep coming back.

On the outskirts of Mtskheta is the Shiomgvime Monastery, named after St-Shio who was one of the Assyrian monks along with St-David. He also founded a cave monastery that has since expanded.



The interior of the church (not the original frescoes) looks like an art museum.


Four churches is enough for one day for me. It was back on the road and a quick stop to grab some bread and coffee. There is a traditional bread called shoti that is made in a clay oven called a tone. The bread is stuck to the sides of the oven and peeled off with tongs when cooked.




The next destination was the mountains.