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As Maris wanted to practice teaching for 2 months in Estonia and spend some time with her family, I decided to travel alone during that time to areas that are somewhat off the beaten track and rejoin her in Estonia when her teaching practice was over.

Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan

Odv
2004-09-15 11:01:45

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Needless to say that nothing green can be detected there.

I took the night train from Baku to Tbilisi, a genuine Soviet experience, not only in the negative sense. The positive side: you get your own bed in a 4 bed compartment, you can get a good night's sleep, for the same price as a cheap hotel. The other people in my compartment where very friendly and did their best to speak some English, so it is a pleasant way to meat locals.

On the negative side, the toilet is dirty and dysfunctional. The border guards wake you up and then wait more than half an hour to come back to check your passport. Then they start to complain that you went back to sleep! The concept that you may not speak Russian is also entirely foreign to them. The Azerbaijani custom officer kept on nagging about Dollars, fortunately I had declared all my western currency when entering the country and showing him this declaration made him shut up and go away.

As no affordable accommodation seems to be available in Tbilisi, I opted for a family stay, this has the added advantage that you also meet local people. It turned out to be a very good idea as it made my stay in Tbilisi rather pleasant, not only because I talked a lot with the family and learnt a lot about Georgia and the Georgian language and alphabet, but also because Manuel, a German student, was staying there as well. I visited several of the sights in Georgia and had several dinners and nights out in town with him.

In all three republics good accommodation comes with ridiculous price tags. People seem to think that every westerner can easily spend 200 USD per night on hotels! The taxi driver that brought me from Baku airport to the center, could not imagine that I did not want a "good" hotel. I wonder where this illusion comes from? Unfortunately it does not make those countries attractive tourist destinations, because the hotels are simply not worth what they charge.

They ...