A Journey Through Part of Georgia, Land of The Golden Fleece

Georgia is indeed one of the most beautiful countries I've been to. It is believed that it was this country that Jason sailed to in search of the Golden Fleece and to this day the locals in part of Georgia lay sheep skin down in streams to collect minute quantities of gold.

With the Caucuses as a natural barrier it has always been fiercely independent and was the first country to split from the Soviet Union, a fact that Russia has never forgiven them for and still wages an economic war on them. It is also the birth place of Lenin and being so independent and anti Russian you would think they would have torn down any statues of Lenin, but, this is not so, they are strangely nostalgic for this Soviet icon, well he was Georgian and famous.

It's language is linguistically unique although not difficult to learn and speak. It's script is another thing. Few people speak English, the young are learning it, so what with having to resort to sign language and finding it hard to read Russian and Georgian script it was not the easiest journey although very rewarding.

This was my first visit there and having to travel there across Turkey I only had just over two weeks to get a taste of it. I did want to travel through the national park on its trails which can be approached from Borjomi, but, in Borjomi I had a bad fall resulting in a very badly sprained shoulder, arm and wrist. Fortunately the hotel I was staying at there had a doctor who tended me insomuch as reassuring me it was not broken and would mend. I was stuck at the hotel for three extra days though as I had so little flexibility in it I could not dress never mind carry a pack across difficult trails. Still, it's an excuse to go back there, not that I really need one.

Incidentally, if you did not guess, those shots of quaint old, colourful houses with trees either side on them in the middle of the Tbilisi shots were not real. They were actually murals pained on a large wall which was part of a multi-story car park. They completely confused me when I came across them, it took me some time to figure out what I was looking at. Use the link in My Links to go to my Georgia photos on Flickr to see better reproductions of them.

The Music. I was in a quandary what to chose. I have no Georgian music, something I must remedy. The closest I had was various Turkish and Kurdish music, but, I didn't like to use that as I felt I was bound to upset someone knowing the sensitivities of those areas. In the end I plumped for something so culturally different I felt it would not insult anyone. It is two tracks by Isoa Tomita, "Mongolian Fantasy 3: Land of Great Khan" and "Ending Theme" both from his album "Storm From The East"