Georgie, Armenie, Nagorno-Karabakh

--Also on http://deswami.blogspot.nl/, go and read it there instead!

Reason why I’m writing this in English is because some people I met on the way asked me to tell them as well, and everyone is probably able to read this anyway...

So, I’m on some kind of trip. After the fantastic Sziget Festival in Budapest I left for some unknown territory. First stop: Tbilisi. After a boring flight that actually took way too long I was happy to see myself traveling all by myself again, for the first time in the last three years. This is what I had wanted in a long time, even though I had some serious doubts before I actually went. Totally worth it though. No phone, no camera, and I even lost my Lonely Planet. Feels awesome.

Georgia

So. Tbilisi, Georgia! Got picked up from the airport by the awesome taxi driver Irakli, with whom I even had dinner a couple of days later (Georgian food - look it up if you want: khachapuri, khinkali, lobios and the always fatal chacha). First day - sleeping after being awake for way too long. Second day - exploring old town Tbilisi and climbing up to the fortress overlooking the city. Tbilisi is fairly old, and its old core mainly consists of old stone and wooden houses, often half or wholly destroyed by war, negligence or time. When walking in town, we found an old church that, apart from the facade, existed of nothing but ruins. We found hidden, crumbling synagogues from old times and there was an overall feeling of being warped back in time by at least a hundred years. Though less than 10 minutes walking from these places, the most futuristic and megalomanic structures are arising from something that seems to be a totally ignorance, if not even denial of the existence of any history at all. Seldom have I seen such a black-and-white contrast between two extremes - poverty though atmosphere vs. exuberance and metropolitanism.
But I wanted to get some rest from all the urban buzz, so I went up hiking in Borjomi National Park, central Georgia. With a Couchsurfer who replied to my outcall for companionship, I set up for a two-day hike in the mountains. Lush forests and an abundance of nature everywhere, I liked it. Unfortunately for me, my previously-hedonistic lifestyle had made me less of a man than I had hoped: after the hike, my left big toe started to swell up until it didn’t fit in any shoe any more. I postponed plans for some more mountains and decided to take my time in the hostel. Not in a hurry anyway. After a day trip with two Hungarians to Stalin’s birthplace in Gori and the Jvari Monastery near Mtskheta I couldn’t walk anymore at all. I decided to wait for the big bad mountains in the north of the country and wanted to go to Yerevan in Armenia instead. So I did.

Armenia

And a new love was born. Just as all the post-Soviet countries, Armenia is a country with many faces. Though it would be too simple to leave it to that. Armenia is an ancient country, the first country in the world to adopt Christianity, and is populated by a people that indeed seem to be blessed by at least some kind of divinity. It so far hasn’t been possible for me to walk the streets without being impressed by the beauty that encompassed almost every single human being walking on the same streets as me. Sounds weird but that really is how I’ve been experiencing it. Add to this the metropolitan atmosphere that Yerevan breathes and you’ve got yourself a city bustling with excitement and people wanting to see and be seen. Every night, the fountains on Republic Square (former Lenin Square) dance to music and light, a spectacle reaching up to 15-20 metres with people parading around, enjoying the cooler times of day. During morning and daytime the Mount Ararat looms over the entire city, admired yet unreachable. My comrade during my Yerevan times is called Nikolai, from Norway. For three days we roamed the streets in and around Yerevan with a near-superhuman fatalism and nonchalance, a combination that appeared ideal to keep our senses together in all the distraction and chaos that the place offered. We went to see the ancient Geghard, a monastery partly hewed out in rocks, thus creating a cave church. It was nothing less than impressive to hear your own voice being resonated for over 20 seconds in a candlelit church that is actually hewed out of massive stone, in the middle of the Armenian wilderness.

And it is the Armenian wilderness that attracts. Looking for some more off-trail adventure I had decided to visit a country that nobody has ever heard of, simply because it’s too far away from any other kind of neighbouring civilization (and also because it’s only recognized as a country by South-Ossetia, Abkhazia and Transnistria maybe).

Nagorno-Karabakh

Early this morning I left Yerevan. I was heading for Nagorno-Karabakh. The very name consists of different languages: Nagorno is derived from Russian, meaning ‘mountainous’ or ‘highland’. Karabakh is derived from Turkish and Persian meaning ‘black garden’. The people themselves refer to the region as Artsakh, meaning as much as ‘woods’ or ‘garden’.
Whatever translation to choose, I was heavily impressed by the actual accuracy of them. After a long drive with Mt. Ararat in sight, I could not believe that it would be possible to actually drive far enough to not be able to see it anymore. But then we got into some seriously mountainous area. Imagine driving through mountains. Now imagine it for 7 hours, nonstop, underway not finding a single strip of road of longer than two hundred metres without hairpin bends or severe climbs or descends. Welcome to eastern Armenia. Then, welcome to Mountainous Karabakh. Then, welcome to the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic.

After the exhausting drive I did something unusual. Instead of finding the cheapest accommodation available, I decided that I could do with some luxury. So now that I have my waterfall-shower, king size bed, minibar, airconditioning, flatscreen LCD tv, room service and shoe horn I will go out and explore the territory tomorrow. That is: the territory that I have a permit for: Stepanakert and Shusha. Nothing else. The history and actual situation of the region is very complicated: I cannot and will not expand on all the political happenings. I don’t know if it would be wise either, since I really do not know how this place works, what’s allowed to say and whatnot. So, for further information: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nagorno-Karabakh_Republic.

As said, I will explore this hidden piece of the world tomorrow. For now, I think I will order some ice cream, have another drink and go and have a very long and comfortable night of sleep. More stories developing as I’ll be on my way, without a doubt...