September 28th, Day 58, Tbilisi, Georgia
Today was Wednesday and we got up early to go on a walking tour of Tbilisi. The traffic in the city was a challenge when walking because pedestrians did not have the right away. The whole idea was to keep the flow of traffic moving. So pedestrians walked and let cars drive past while they crossed the street. The pedestrians had to adjust their stride to let the cars keep moving without braking! The cars did not even stop for emergency vehicles when their lights were flashing and sirens on. The emergency vehicles just drove down the center of the moving vehicles.
We walked to the historical center of Tblilsi where there was the remains of a city wall. In the 19th Century wooden houses were built on top of the stone walls surrounding the city. These houses were very interesting with large balconies across the front of them. How they have lasted for more than 200 years on top of a wall was amazing. We have too many building codes in Canada! We would never be allowed to build the railings they used for their balconies in Canada never mind building a house on top of a wall.
The style of the houses built in Tbilisi were brick and stone. But the bricks used were square and thin. Approximately, one inch thick and six by six inches square.
At one time there were 70 sulpher baths (hamans) in Tbilisi. The water in the sulpher baths was 25 to 40 degrees C. and very good for your health. In 1795 the Persian Ruler was disabled and sick, he had heard about Tbilisi’s sulfa baths. He ordered his army not to destroy the baths when they conquered the city because he wanted to try them out. After the Persians occupied Georgia he came to Tbilisi and spent a week in their baths. When they did not cure him, he was so angry, he ordered the city to be destroyed. His army destroyed most of the baths and churches in the city and only a few remain standing today.
There was a monument to the city cleaners. The cleaners were respected and well paid in Tbilisi because they helped to keep the city clean and disease free.
Armenia became Christians first, in 301 AD and Georgia became Christians in 327 AD. The first Georgian churches were basilicas which were rectangular buildings with support columns inside the church. Later they built their churches in the shape of a crucifix. We toured a basilica from the 5th Century that had been restored many times because it had been destroyed by invaders. It had frescoes inside but nothing else because everything else was stolen.
Today 70% of Georgians were Orthodox Christians but they were tolerant of all the different religions in Georgia. Russian was compulsory at school, then Georgian. English, German and French could also be taken if the student wanted to learn languages.
We walked across Peace Bridge, a pedestrian bridge constructed with steel and glass. It was ultra modern and surrounded with buildings hundreds of years old. This walking bridge went across the river and looked very beautiful but to get on the bridge we had to walk over gravel and rubble because there was so much reconstruction going on in the historical center. Apparently the government was paying for all of the reconstruction but in the future when the owners sold their buildings 40% was to be paid back to the government. That seemed very fair to me, free renovations now, pay later when you had the money.
Inga explained to us what happened to her family (and many other families) here in Georgia after the collapse of the Soviet Union.
Georgia received it’s independence in 1990/1991 and the new Georgian government replaced their Soviet Rubles with new Georgian currency “Lari”. The only problem for the population was that the new currency was not worth the same amount as their Soviet rubles. If someone had 1,000 rubles they would receive one dollar in the new currency. There was a rush to the bank, people carrying all their Soviet rubles, sometimes with bags of money, all trying to exchange it into the new currency. Inga said they only had 48 hours to convert their money and the queues at the banks went for blocks.
From 1991 until 1995 the population of Georgia had to start their lives over again. Those four years were called by the Georgians the dark years in Georgia’s history! This type of thing happened to all the Soviet countries after the collapse of Communism. Even Russia changed it’s rubles from Soviet to Russian rubles, the Soviet rubles were worthless worldwide.
Prior to 1991 all jobs in the Soviet countries were controlled by the government which collapsed. After 1991 all jobs were lost. The populations of these countries had to start again with very little or no money. The lucky people who had keys to facilities took what they wanted. Some people started up the manufacturing or farming previously controlled by the Soviets again but with much less employees. Because now they had to be efficient and profitable or they would lose everything again. Therefore, the proactive and/or connected person got ahead faster than the average person.
For Inga and her family, times were very tough! Her father was sick with cancer at the time and he needed medication everyday for his pain. Inga’s mother had to line up at the police station every morning and every night to receive his medication. Not the hospital but the police station because they controlled the medication given out. They would only give one pill at a time and she had to be approved by their doctor and she had to sign for the one pill received every time. So twice daily she had to line up at the police station. Inga’s sister had a baby and Inga with the sister had to queue up all night to receive milk for the baby in the morning.
Inga and her family sold everything of value they had over the next four years to survive. At the start of 1991 this family had 2 apartments. One for the sister and her baby, another for Inga and their parents. They sold these apartments and all lived together in one apartment. But before they sold their apartments they sold their car, chandeliers, dishes, jewelry and anything of value they owned just for food and medicine.
The apartment they all lived in was on the 8th floor and all power was off, with no heat or water! They had to walk up and down again from the 8th floor apartment as the elevator did not work. When they managed to buy meat they cooked it outside on a fire and shared what they could with the neighbors. The neighbors would do the same and it became a real community effort to stay alive and well.
Remember also that Georgia had a civil war in 1992/1993. Those that were pro socialism versus those pro democracy. Everything was destroyed during this time.
Inga was a teacher but she had to stop teaching at the school because she had no boots, warm coats or transportation to get to the school. She began tutoring children in the city of Tbilisi from her home. Sometime after 1995 she read an article about guiding and because she spoke several languages she was hired. This was the start of her independence and progress.
After her father passed away, her mother and sister moved to Moscow because her sister got employment there and their mother went with her to look after the sister’s child. Today Inga, does very well with her guiding, has her own apartment and lots of friends. But she remembers those four dark years 1991-1995, very well!
In the center of the main square in Tbilisi was a very large golden statue of St. George. I had explained earlier that Georgia was not named after this saint although they liked him. They called their country Sakartvelo, not Georgia. The English called their country Georgia!
There was a huge statue of a lady up on the hill looking down on Tbilisi. It was called “Mother Of Georgia”. In one hand she held a sword and in the other a wine goblet. Wine was for friends and the sword for enemies. But Inga, said the Georgian men inTbilisi said the wine goblet and sword meant that if you did not drink all your wine she would cut your head off!
Today one Lari was worth sixty cents. Statistically Georgia’s unemployment rate was published as 35% but Inga said realistically it was closer to 80% because many of the villages had no employment opportunities. I personally thought that 80% was too high but no one knew for sure what the actual rate was.
That night for dinner we went to a Georgian dancing and music restaurant. We had a lot of fun!
September 27, Day 57, Alaverdi, Armenia to Tbilisi, Georgia
Today we left Armenia and drove back to Tbilisi, Georgia. We were very sorry to be leaving this hotel. The Dilijan Hotel on the river was fantastic and we just loved staying there with sounds of the river flowing past. As I said yesterday, from the highway we crossed a stone bridge to arrive at this unique hotel built alongside a river bank in the middle of no where.
Driving through Armenia we noticed several small homes made from shipping containers. Sometimes there would be two containers but usually just one was used as their house. These houses were right beside the highway and I guessed the reason for that was, how would they get the container up the mountains or down the valleys? It would be much easier to just park them on the roadside and set up their home.
We walked across several suspension bridges that went across rivers. But they were so dilapidated we had to put our feet on the cross bars or the outside edges otherwise we might have fallen into the river, there were so many broken boards on the bridge. We did this for fun not because we had to cross the river! Now I know for sure we were crazy!
After we walked over one suspension bridge we saw a dilapidated car bridge which we drove over into a village. Just because we could! Guess what, we found a school in this village. We stopped in to visit some classes and spoke with the teachers. When we arrived at the school they were feeding the kids breakfast. This school used to have 750 students and now they have 140 students. The villagers were leaving the village to look for employment elsewhere!
It turned out that this village used to have a brick factory but at the present time it was cheaper to purchase bricks from Russia, so the factory was closed. There was no employment in this village everyone had to be self sufficient or starve. These teachers made two hundred dollars per month. They said it was difficult for the young men to marry here because they had no jobs and the women left the village to find employment and husbands with jobs. The only opportunity for the young men here was to join the army for employment.
In the school hallways there were photographs of previous students now in the army. Photographs of army heroes and martyrs. War was always close and on people’s minds daily.
The heating system in Armenia was pipes above ground that carried heat into their homes from a factory in a distant location, controlled by the government. They turned the heat on and home owners had no control over the amount of heat they received, neither could they turn it on or off. This system was the same all over the previous Soviet Union countries.
Next we visited a monastery from the 11th Century. Called the Haghbat Monastery built in the center of the Lori Region of Armenia. This monastery competed with it’s brother monastery called Sanaheen Monastery.
Haghbat had an academy and a scriptorium for the copying and illustrating of manuscripts. They had a library with an extensive list of books on religion, philosophical, historical and scientific text. In the 11th Century there were 500 people living in these two monasteries of Haghbat and Sanaheen.
The Mongols captured both Monasteries and sacked them. Then the monasteries were further decimated by the legions of Timor and Ottomans. In 1639 Eastern Armenia became part of Persia. (Western Armenia became part of Turkey). The established peace after Persian occupation was favorable for the monastery. The monastery revived and resumed it’s mantle of a place for learning and as a manuscript center.
Behind the walls of this Monastery there was 3 churches, library, gallery, bell tower, refectory and mosoleum. They also had a wine room where the wine jugs were permanently under the floor, only the lids could be removed to access the wine. This kept the temperature of the wine constant.
There was a carving on one of the churches of two founders of this church holding a model of the church up between them. It was built in 991 AD.
As we entered Georgia from Armenia, it immediately felt more spacious than Armenia. Just inside the border of Georgia we drove through a district of Azeri’s (from Azerbaijan) living in Georgia. Apparently they had moved out of Armenia into Georgia because Azerbaijan and Armenia were at war with each other. Their homes were different from the Georgian’s houses because they had walls around their one story houses with animals amd gardens behind the walls. Georgians liked two story houses built right up to the street with balconies across the front of the house on the second floor. It appeared that the Azeri’s were very private and the Georgians were very social.
According to Inga our guide, the Azeri’s had a custom that if their gate was open you were allowed to visit because the man of the house was at home. If the gate was closed visitors were not welcome. I like that custom, I think I will try it at my house! Also if there was a red ribbon tied on the wall or gate that meant there was a girl living there 14 years of age or older who was eligible for marriage.
Inga told us that the Azeri people were very hard workers and they didn’t spend their money so they were usually very wealthy. The people from Azerbaijan were slightly shorter and a little bit darker than the Georgian population.
Previously, there was corruption in Georgia but they had a new government that put a stop to the corruption. To remind the population of the crackdown on corruption by the government they built new police stations. All theses new police buildings in Georgia were made of glasss because it was symbolic that Georgians did not take bribes and they had nothing to hide; therefore their buildings were see through!
September 26th, Day 56, Yerevan to Alaverdi, Armenia
The two places I had wanted to see in Yerevan I missed because I wasn’t feeling well. They were the historical museum and the handicraft market. The others went and had a very good time at both sites.
While driving we noticed a lot of casinos in Armenia! We were told that many people from Israel flew here for the weekend to go gambling! There were also many abandoned Soviet buildings. Besides broken windows the buildings themselves looked in fairly decent condition. As we exited Yerevan we noticed lots of half finished private homes and even some that were completed but had been abandoned. We were told this was because of their financial crisis. This financial crisis has been a global crisis.
Most of the villagers in the small towns we drove past had left to go work in other countries. I’d say more than 50% of the houses were abandoned.
The roadside merchants were now selling a bright orange coloured juice made from berries. We think the berry was called “see buck horn” or something close to that.
That day we climbed up approximately 200 steps to another church on top of the hill in Sevan. This church was built in the 12th Century and the hill used to be an island in the lake below us. There used to be a monastery constructed in the 5th Century which did not survive the wars plus a palace from the 11th Century for the Armenian King. In the 11th Century Armenia was fighting with the Arabs and this island protected the King from their attacks. Today there was a village below the hill that previously was an island!
As we toured the church Kelly was told by the guard not to cross her legs! That was different, all she was doing was sitting down quietly waiting for us and she had one leg over the other. Apparently that was against protocol.
In the early 1900′s Stalin had the rivers which fed this lake damed for hydro power. The water in Sevan Lake dropped 18 meters in the 1930′s. The lake and all aqua life in the lake was being destroyed because it was loosing too much water each year. After Stalin died, Armenia stopped using hydro power and switched to thermal power fueled by gas. The Soviets built an artificial canal from the mountains to bring water back into the lake. They were planning on building another canal to bring additional water to the lake but construction stopped when the Soviets pulled out of Armenia. We could see trees and wharfs under the water due to the lake’s water level slowly rising back up again from where it had been drained down to. But it had a long way to go if the hill was ever going to be an island again! I did not know what they were planning to do with the restaurants and homes below the hill which would be under the lake if the hill was made into an island?
We had a nice lunch at a restaurant at this site that was built onto the side of the hill. We also bought moonstones from the roadside vendors at the bottom of the hill. They told us these stones came from Sevan only. That Moonstones could not be found elsewhere in Armenia. We believed them and all bought something made from moonstones!
Armenia had Zoroastrian worshipers. Zoroastrian’s were people who whorshipped fire, wind, earth and water. I had never heard of Zoroastrians before this trip. It was very interesting researching about them and their fire temples. We were told that a large population of Zoroastrians presently lived in Iran and India.
There was also a cast of Kurds living in Armenia that had a different religion and married their siblings. Zoroastrians also married friends and relatives! They believed that would keep their blood pure by marrying each other.
Later as we drove to our next destination there were men standing at the side of the street with both of their arms opened out sideways, stretched out as far as they could reach. We asked Karin what they were doing and she replied they were selling fish and showing us how big their fish were by stretching out their arms. Sure enough as we looked closer we saw plastic tubs or bath tubs with live fish in them. Cute! They told fish stories in Armenia just like the Canadian fishermen!
Next we entered a long tunnel, the terrain before we entered the tunnel was
no trees with grassy hills and when we exited the tunnel it was all forest. It looked very much like the Okanagan with their pine trees.
We then drove through another village of Old Believers in Armenia. This village was very similar to the Georgian Old Believer’s village. Interesting they all spoke Russian and looked very peasantry. Blonde, blue eyed with clean clothes. Dirt streets, chickens running free and Russian looking homes with blue shutters and wooden decorations above the doors and windows. Lots of flowers in their yards as well as straw stacks for their animals. We gave away pencils, toys, stickers and hats to the children.
Next we stopped at an Armenian fire hall to give away some Canadian hats.
They had one fairly new truck whereas the other two were old and antiquated. They had two fire halls for a hundred thousand people! White Rock has one firehall for 18,000 people!
The hotel we stayed at was fantastic, located right beside a fast flowing river. This hotel surprised us because it was right in the middle of a forest with nothing around it. We had to drive across a bridge crossing the river to get to it. The hotel was built by a wealthy Armenian carpet manufacturer and surprisingly it was busy with groups of bus tours!
We had dinner at the hotel and a great night’s sleep listening to the river!