What a day, Ive learned so much about Georgia in the past plus current politics. I had to take notes!
Today was our first trip outside of Tbilisi and Glyn had booked it online before wed arrived. The meeting point was outside a metro station and we were the first to arrive. I heard Glyn talking to a lady with a recognisable accent, as she was from Manchester and on the same tour as us. The rain began to pour and we sheltered until we were directed to a nearby office where a few tours were to meet.
Our guide was a very bubbly Georgian lady, 28 years old from Tbilisi, Catherine, who gathered us by shouting ‘Stalin is calling us. We were a small group on a minibus, two blokes from Malaysia, a couple from Germany, two guys from the Netherlands, two blokes from the USA, two men from Greece, one lass from the Philippines, Tess from Manchester, the driver and us.
Catherine was asking us our reasons for visiting Georgia as its not a popular holiday destination. Reasons that were given included; wine, my friend brought me, it was and its a safe place to
travel, especially for lone females. We came because the flights were cheap and we knew next to nothing about the place, so decided and find out.
Georgia was originally called Sakartvelo, meaning ‘land settled by Kartli people. It was a Greek translation that ended them up getting renamed Georgia.
I asked why so many dogs have plastic tags in their ears and its part of a government program to vaccinate and sterilise stray dogs because they cant all be homed. I like this because in some countries they would be culled. I remember being very upset when returning to Athens after a few years to find a lot less stray cats and dogs because theyd been mass poisoned.
Georgia has four neighbours; Russia, Turkey, Armenia and Azerbaijan. You could do day trips to Armenia and Azerbaijan but not currently to the latter, because theres fighting between them both and the border is closed. Armenia might get closed too, well just have to see. If you have stamps to one of them in your passport, you cannot enter the other. Catherines tour guide buddy had many stamps for both countries (because he does tours there), so
Catherine ‘reassured us that theres no trouble here yet, as yes, they are an unstable country but not expecting anything crazy today as ‘everything is around us. Russia is busy with Ukraine, plus has soldiers within the Azerbaijan/Armenia conflict. Turkey is also involved, so Georgia is stuck in the middle with tailbacks of lorries because they cant use any other route. Tess had seen the tailbacks and claimed it went on for many miles and shed not seen anything like it. Like Dover then, I asked and the Germans laughed. Except the Georgians did not choose this.
The Georgians are not currently preparing for war, their bombshelters are filled with wine and pickles, theres no room to sleep in them. So if theyre not worried, Im all good.
Catherine remembers the war when Russia invaded for 11 days during 2008, her family were driving to a cousins wedding and noticed a lot of military on the road. Family started texting to check if everyone was ok. The wedding still happened but it was shortened and rather somber, with the best man unable to
attend due to being called to war. The groom managed to avoid war for the day due to having a general for an uncle.
We drove past refugee camps full of Georgians. Catherine said that the government was housing its own people whod lost their homes during the 1992/1993 and 2008 Russian invasions. She acknowledged that its odd having refugees from your own country, but pointed out that theres no neighbouring country to run to.
The Georgian people have been offering their homes to Ukrainian refugees, those who have summer homes have given them up to help. This is not through the government, just a people action. Refugees generally dont go to Georgia as the wages are low.
