The flight from Budapest to Yerevan (though Prague) should have been been boring but they spiced up with some delays. They said there were some weather issues while at least a dozen people watched the plane through the glass of the terminal and the van parked next to it with huge ’Bomb check’ signs on the sides. Finally we took off and also landed in one piece.

After landing around 5AM and getting through the money changing – visa buying – passport control processes I got to the hostel around 6 meaning not much sleep for that night.

Giving up the sleep project I went to one of my favourite Yerevan restaurants, ’Kavkaz’ to have my favourite dishes and of course the first Kilikia beer! Once in Yerevan everyone should try that place. A huge dinner with beers for 10 dollars in a downtown restaurant? Sounds good, huh?

Later on I met Gevorg, the manager of Envoy, Yerevan’s best hostel as I remembered he offered me help some time back with both the charity project and dealing with cars teams intend to leave in Armenia.

By 5 PM I felt like I can’t move anymore so I gave another (successful) try for the sleep and in the evening I met another friend, Levon and his wife+kid for a drink… Levon was the guy who organized us a Kalashnikov shooting in Karabakh back in 2008. He’ll try to do the same this year as well, hope things haven’t changed much.

Today I was up pretty early and went to the car rental agency to pick up my work-mate for 2 weeks, a Suzuki Grand Vitara… actually the same car I got last year! When the guy marked the scratches and dents on a sheet he told me these might happen while driving in forests, etc… ’Uh-huh’ I said and remembered last year’s mapping trip in Northern Georgia with the same car, losing the sump guard but kept silent.

The weather was absolutely lovely, 24 degrees Celsius, a nice drive to the border of Georgia. After finishing the paperwork (5 minutes on Armenian plates) and leaving the border post I saw a guy and a girl hitchhiking and I thought I’ll be a good guy today and give them a lift… then a surprise hit: the man was Gio, the funny Georgian guy who opened Tbilisi Hostel last year and we spent some great time together (drinking loads of chacha). Now apart from managing the hostel he’s importing bananas from India and growing his hair to be a rasta man. The funniest Georgian I’ve ever met. The hostel was (and will be) our alternative accommodation in Tbilisi.

Dropping them somewhere near downtown I drove all the way to Kutaisi (and I was trying to stay alive amongst those idiots who probably bought their driving license on the flee market) and drove directly to the guesthouse we usually stay with CC. The old lady, the owner of the Beka hotel recognized me and after some help (’lots of strange foreigners with funny cars, remember?’) he remembered the CC crowd too. I’m trying to do reservations for August 24 but apparentely business is booming in Kutaisi: she said she got reservations for August in December last year…. and I remember she was almost crying being so happy when 4 years ago we showed up just 2 weeks after the Georgian-Russian war when there were basically no tourists in Georgia at all.
Anyhow, I asked her to prepare me a small dinner and I got the following: two fried sausages, some excellent chicken stew, fried potatoes, 3 different salads, cheese, etc. One thing is sure, you can’t stay hungry staying at their place.

Tomorrow is another great ride and lots of work with the challenges through the beautiful Borjomi-Kharagauli national park and the whole length of Adjaria to the coastal town of Batumi.

I’ll also post some photos later…

EN

I recently found an interesting page – it’s trying to give us an idea how many Armenians live worldwide and how they’re spread on the Globe.

I always knew Armenian is one of the nations who’re virtually everywhere and that’s not just the result of the genocyde of the early 20th century, but that’s the case for centuries. I remember visiting an Armenian church in Chennai (Madras), India (!) and also climbed the staircase built by an Armenian merchant to the cave where St. Thomas (Doubting Thomas) lived – and died by a spear.

By the way – did you know that there are only 3 cathedrals in the World built above the grave of an apostle? Yes, one in Chennai for Thomas… and you know the other two?

You can continue the list of places where you met Armenians – I bet you could.

See the link below and see the approximate number of  Armenians in your neighbourhood!

Funny, there are more Armenians on Ivory Coast than in Japan!

Click HERE for the details.

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HU

A minap találtam egy érdekes oldalt, amely azt mutatja be, mennyi örmény él világszerte és hogyan oszlanak el a Földön.

Azt már korábbi utazásaim során felfedeztem, hogy örményekkel gyakorlatilag a világ minden táján, a leglehetetlenebb helyeken is találkozom, vagy legalább ott létük nyomaival.

Jártam örmény templomban Chennai (Madras, Tamil Nadu állam, India) belvárosában, ugyanitt felmásztam a szobrokkal ékesitett lépcsősoron, melyet egy örmény kereskedő pénzéből épitettek s amely Szt. Tamás (a Tamáskodó) barlangjához vezet fel – itt élt (és itt halt meg) Tamás.

Tudtátok, hogy összesen 3 katedrális van a világon, melyet egy apostol nyughelye fölé épitettek? Noshát, ebből az egyik Dél-Indiában, Chennaiban található… (na, melyik a másik kettő?)

Akárhogy is, katt ERRE a linkre és lásd, hol mennyi örmény él.

Vicces, hogy Elefántcsontparton több örmény lakik, mint Japánban

Some years back we found a very nice photo album on the coffee table of our favourite guest house in Mestia, Georgia. It was about Vittorio Sella, a world famous Italian pioneer, photographer and mountaineer.

The album had a good introductory section about Sella’s life, his addiction to climbing high peaks and photography and a very nice collection of  his expeditions to the Svaneti region of Georgia, one of our favourite spots in the country. He did several expeditions around the turn of the 19th and 20th century.

It was amazing to see how little the village and the region changed -despite the Soviet rule and the fact that we’re in the 21st century now. Thanks to its remoteness it still reserved its uniqueness and charm. (The first roads has been built by Stalin in the 1940′s! Frankly, not much maintenance happened since then… )

If you can find this album somewhere  – check Amazon, they have some Sella albums – it’s definitely a must buy. Edited and published by the Vittorio Sella Foundation and edition supported by the Embassy of Italy in Tbilisi.

See also this link and this one for some brief info of Sella and the Caucasus mountains.

SCROLL DOWN FOR ENGLISH!

(HU)

Kétségtelenül sokan a Kaukázus Rali egyik csúcspontjaként élik meg, amikor megérkeznek Mestiába, az Észak-Svaneti régió fővárosába (valójában egy kis falu, de helyi léptékkel megacity).

Lenyűgöző a táj, elképesztő a nyugalom és nagyon barátságosak az emberek, még ha nem is igazán értik, hogy mit keres ott minden év augusztusában egy rakás külföldi furcsa autókkal. Mindig óriási a buli és nehéz a másnap reggel, de a napsütötte 5000 méter körüli csúcsok feledtetik a megpróbáltatásokat.
Eddig csak mosolyogva – ugyanakkor borzongva – néztük a városka mellett elterülő, inkább libalegelőhöz hasonlitó repteret, nem gondoltuk komolyan, hogy oda valaki képes le- vagy onnan felszállni. Különösen nem turisták.

A hirek szerint a Grúz elnök is elérkezettnek látta az időt némi fejlesztésre, mert ahogy az alábbi cikkből is kiderül, megépült az új terminál és immár a helyieknek sem kell szégyenkezniük az emlitett libalegelő miatt.

Más kérdés, hogy (szerintem, és ezen persze lehet vitatkozni) rettenestesen tájidegenre sikeredett a “terminál”. Értem én, hogy a művész szerette volna, ha visszaköszönnek a hires, 6-700 éves tornyok, melyek a világörökség részévé tették a várost… ugyanakkor szeretett volna valami modernet vinni a koncepcióba, de ilyen megoldással?
Persze ahogy a cikkben – feltehetőleg büszkén – meg is jegyzik: a tevrezés és a kivitelezés 3 hónapot vett igénybe…

Egy itt, egy másik pedig (nagyobb fotókkal) itt.

Érdekes elgondolkodni az épület méretein, ha megnézzük a mellette parkoló autókat.

A lényeg, hogy minket nem különösebben érint a repülőtér, bár sok sikert kivánunk nekik és hozzanak sok turistát. Mi továbbra is remekül szórakozunk majd akár a helyi rendőrökkel, akár azért, mert “Mesztiában diszkó lesz” (2010. augusztus, világzenei fesztivál. Nagyon komoly.)

(EN)

Without doubt, one of the highlights of the Caucasian Challenge is arriving to Mestia, the ‘capital’ of the North-Svaneti region of Georgia. In fact it’s a small village, but true: considering the population of the region, it is a major settlement.

The landscape is astonishing, the place is ultimately relaxed and people are really friendly even though they don’t have a clue what all these funny guys do there every year in their funny vehicles. We always have amazing parties there and a solid hangover the next morning. However looking at the 5000 meter high peaks over the loud Inguri river we instantly forget all our physical troubles.

So far, when driving out of the city we only looked at the Mestia airport with a smile on our face and wouldn’t put a penny on anyone flying in or out of that place resembling mostly a cattle grazing.

Maybe the president of Georgia had the same idea as he started to invest in boosting tourism in Mestia and the brand new terminal recently opened its gate(s).

I know it’s completely subjective and I know that the artist wanted to incorporate the famous Svaneti towers into the design, still think this building is completely a wrong approach and does not fit to the environment and heritage this region represents. Well, it was designed and built in 3 months according to one of the articles below…

See a link here and another (with larger images) here.

Funny to see the size of the building compared to the cars parking next to it.

Anyhow, sure we won’t really do any business for the airport but wish lots of success for them, at the same time we will continue enjoying our time at this marvellous place. With the local police (like in 2009) or with hundreds of locals at the World Music Festival (as in 2010).

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(HU)

Érdemes elolvasni az alábbi, 2010-ben a Kaukázus Rali során iródott blogokat (némelyikben lehet, hogy kicsit vissza kell görgetni 2010 augusztusig).

Nem csak azért érdemes megnézni, mert végre nem a hivatalos, szervezői rizsát olvashatjátok – minden szem mást lát -, hanem azért is, mert felettébb szórakoztató és humoros irások.

Némi betekintést ad a Kaukázus Rali mindennapjaiba.

Az ETORA csapat naplója – http://www.sysman.hu/bamako

A CSONTBRIGÁD csapat bejegyzései: http://csontbrigad.blog.hu/

Az L&L’s csapat blogja: http://csontbrigad.blog.hu/

Az angolul értőknek javaslom a YEREVAN EXPRESS blogját ezen a linken: http://7000kmtogo.com/wordpress/

Itt ragadnám meg az alkalmat, hogy megjegyezzem: a karitativ munkában ez a csapat oroszlánrészt vállalt, ugyanis ők egyedül 8,967 USD összeget gyűjtöttek össze és ajánlottak fel különböző karitativ szervezeteknek.

GRATULÁLUNK!

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(EN)

It’s always good to read (also for the organizers!)  about how a team experienced a particular event.

Let me recommend you reading the blog of YEREVAN EXPRESS, hit the following link to reach their pages:

http://7000kmtogo.com/wordpress/

I’d also take the chance to announce, that they were the most active team in fundraising and they alone raised a total of 8,967 USD supporting various organizations in Armenia.
See the details in their blog.

CONGRATULATIONS!