While Georgia and Armenia are not the largest countries in the world, the variety of impressions they offer is impressive. You can jump into the Black Sea after breakfast and climb around on mountains before dinner on the same day; dive into busy markets with colorful vegetables, fruits and all kinds of meat, and enjoy the serenity of the outdoors just a short ride away. Some recommendations are summed up in the first post here.
The easiest - and cheapest - way to get around there are the so-called Marshrutkas, minibuses that have a fixed starting point and destination, but are fairly flexible in between. Passengers can enter and exit at basically any point and while we did take cabs to go to some locations, we chose the Marshrutkas for most of our travels in the region.
A bunch of marshrutkas next to the Tbilisi train station
Before heading down to Armenia for a few days, we took a Marshrutka to a place right at the border of Azerbaijan: David Gareja. Located in the Kakheti region of Eastern Georgia and with a history going back to the 6th century, this monastery complex was built right into the rock and offers unique views and fresco paintings. We took a cab for the last 20-30 kilometers to the monastery, but given the bad conditions of the roads, you might want to opt for a 4x4 if you can. Our taxi actually broke an axle on the way back. While it is a little remote, the place is well worth the effort to get there.
The cave dwellings are still used by a number of monks who live there and take care of the complex.
They must need a LOT of repeaters to get proper WiFi coverage in the rock.
Going further up the hill, one can see the dozens or even hundreds of small cells which were hewn into the hillside. It was insanely windy on the narrow path and on a few occasions we were nearly blown down the hill - which would probably lead to an illegal border crossing, since the monastery is so close to Azerbaijan that parts of it may or may not be in the other country. A source of an ongoing border dispute, obviously.
The century-old murals and frescoes in the hill are unique and very impressive, even if time and inconsiderate visitors have taken their toll over the years. More serious were the years of the Soviet War in Afghanistan, when the monastery's territory was used as a training ground for the Soviet military. As one can imagine, they inflicted quite the damage to the invaluable paintings. Yet despite of that, the views and the atmosphere of the place make it more than worthwhile to visit. We were the only visitors there and it genuinely felt like we were discovering the place as the first people in centuries.
Borderlines: Armenia & Turkey
Living in the EU, the word "border" does not have the same ring to it as in other regions of the world anymore. You can just hop from one country to the next without paperwork and extensive passport controls. As a German, even when you go outside the EU, you have a big bonus: "The German passport is the most powerful in the world" (UK and US come next, before you ask). But it is not like that in many places, for many people. In Armenia's capital Yerevan, which lies next to the border to Turkey, one gets reminded on a daily basis that those borders on the map are not only abstract and somewhat arbitrary lines, but can be an actual line of division. From basically everywhere in Yerevan, you can see the twin peaks of Mount Ararat - the place where according to the Bible Noah's Ark came to rest. It is a place of yearning for many Armenian people, who however are not able to visit it as it lies on Turkish territory. We watched the Turkish air force flying maneuvers around the mountain, marking its country's territory. The situation between the two countries is one of ongoing conflict, due to numerous reasons prominently including the Armenian Genocide and the Turkish position that it never happened.
Echmiadzin and Geghard
Leaving the border disputes behind, we traveled on to the cathedral of Echmiadzin and to Geghard monastery, two highlights of our stay in Armenia. Echmiadzin houses not one or two, but three biblical treasures: the Holy Lance (the weapon used by a Roman soldier to pierce Jesus' body on the cross), a splinter of said cross and a wooden fragment of Noah's Ark. If you believe that sort of thing. The first church was built there as early as in the 4th century and the place is still the religious capital of the country.
A further Marshrutka ride away lies Geghard, a medieval monastery, which was carved into the the surrounding mountain and was the original holding place of the Holy Lance before it was brought to Echmiadzin. Walking on paths which were cut into the rock and listening to your echo in the wide church rooms is as Indiana-Jones-esque as it gets. It is simply spectacular:
Georgian hospitality and unfamiliar dangers
From our excursion to the South of Armenia, we took several Marshrutkas back up North, through Tbilisi and onto the Georgian Military Road which leads to the Russian border. The drive took a full 14 hours and we had looked forward to catch some sleep on the way, but that was not to be: The bus driver was a huge Modern Talking fan and blasted us with a never-ending medley of his favorite band. And as if the cherrycherrylady-ing was not enough, a slightly deranged-looking passenger entered the bus in Tbilisi. He spent the next couple of hours opening and closing a big hunter knife, examining the mechanism closely while murmuring to himself - not exactly a behavior which encourages falling asleep when you sit right next to it. The fact that we were driving through dark forests without a single light outside did not help to calm our nerves either. At some point the guy shouted something to the driver, the bus stopped, he left the vehicle in the middle of nowhere and disappeared in the snow-covered woods outside.
After an endless and slow zigzag drive up the Military Road, we arrived at the mountain town of Kazbegi. Leaving the bus, we asked a girl in the row in front of us about the location of the only hotel our guidebook featured for the town, only to learn that it was closed. While we were still processing this information and before we could even start to think about alternatives, the famous Georgian hospitality showed when the girl without hesitation invited us to stay at her place. This place turned out to be a huge house with high ceilings and antique furniture - and in it lived a whole group of young Georgian women working at a luxury hotel further up town. They cleared a large room for us, where we put our stuff in a corner, sat down on bed, looked at each other and agreed: "Nobody at home is going to believe us."
We had a fun evening with our hosts, during which we had quite a few glasses of wine while the girls tried to teach us Georgian songs and dances. Needless to say we failed miserably. The next day, following a hiking tour, I returned to the apartment while Chris wanted to have a last drink or two at the bar of the luxury hotel up the road. The girls, looking outside the windows, asked me where he was, and added: "He should come home now...because of the wolves." I laughed at first, but the looks I got convinced me it was not meant as a joke. While we had noticed a couple of stray dogs during the day, apparently the streets fill up with wild dogs and wolves from the surrounding area after nightfall. There are actual shuttle services to get people home at night. I have to admit, that was a first for me. As a Western European traveler, you usually check on things like "What's the traffic like?", "What's the crime rate?", maybe even "Can I drink the tap water?" - but up to that day, wolves had not been on my radar as a potential travel hazard.
Wild predators aside, we left the Caucasus with way more memories and new experiences than you can normal squeeze into two weeks. It's rich, diverse, a bit raw and very friendly - go take a look yourselves!