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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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My original plan was to visit the following 5 countries which I had never before set foot on: Moldova, Ukraine, Azerbaijan, Georgia and Armenia. It could be summarized by this phrase: "Traveling on the fringes of the former Russian empire."

Preparations became complicated by the fact that every country seemed to require a prearranged visa. Furthermore, as these are not popular destination, there were no cheap flights let alone, one way flights, that I could find in Holland.

The weather is what made me decide to start as much to the south as possible and work my way northwards as spring would be advancing. In other words: the Caucuses would come first, while Moldova and Ukraine would come last.

But how would I get there? The answer was to fly to Turkey and travel overland to Georgia. This would have the added advantage that I could visit my University time friend Kaya, who now lives in Istanbul.

I arrived in Istanbul late on a Friday, so that we could spend the weekend together and that I could prevent him from working another weekend!

Istanbul, is a what I would call a real city. Very diverse, very alive. There are many things to visit, so much that you probably need several weeks to see all of it. The Sultanahmet mosque and the Aya Sofya are just starters on the menu of what Istanbul has to offer. Istanbul is very westernized, it may come as a surprise to most people, but finding a woman wearing a headscarf in a busy shopping street in central Istanbul is not that easy!

I was curious as to why street dogs in Istanbul wear ear tags. Apparently street dogs are vaccinated and re-released. People like their street dogs. In the area where I stayed, some people have even constructed dog houses on the street for them. This seems to me much more humane than the western habit of euthanizing stray animals that are not adopted.

On Monday and Tuesday I tried to arrange my trip to ...