Jack, Merry & The Trumanator: Sixty-first Post From Türkiye: Georgia (you know, the country) & A Day in Armenia

This is trip number two of recent history where Jack said we would have fun and I thought, "The man is just crossing places off his bucket list. And I am not really interested!". But as I am an excellent wife (😉), I was willing to go along for the ride.

But guess what. The ride was so fun! Georgia is fantastic!

And I literally mean, along for the ride, as we decided to drive to Georgia, the road was long and Jack did most of the driving!

We drove from Ankara to Trabzon, Turkey on the Black Sea the first day.
And took a drive up into
the mountains of Altindere National Park
to see the Sumela Monastery.

It was such an amazing thing to see, perched on the side of a mountain as it is. Sadly, the monastery was closed for repairs but as we were walking back from the gate we spied this little souvenir Montana license plate in a Turkish car. It was a rare and weird sighting. We wanted to track the owner down to see if they had actually been there. But we needed to cross the border into Georgia, so we had to just make up a story for ourselves.

Little Ottoman stone bridge in the valley.

After a ridiculously tiresome and inefficient border crossing we finally got into Georgia. Just over the border is the resort sea-side town of Batumi. Apparently, back during the Cold War, this is where Soviets came to enjoy the beach. There is the ubiquitous ring of depressing communist era cement buildings but the center of town and along the Black Sea, the town is beautiful.

We spent the evening wandering through the old city center. Enjoying the old architecture from the 19th century and the new construction that was either made to fit in with the old or totally modern. It was great!

Orthodox church across from our hotel. Always nice to wake to Sunday morning church bells.

I love a nice Art Nouveau touch on a building!

Trum models a traditional woolly hat. Jack proceeded to buy two of these hats on this trip. One in black and one in white. The man needs no more hats!

From Batumi we continued our drive with a stop in Kutaisi. Kutaisi is the legislative center of Georgia and a lovely area as well. While there we stopped in to see Bagrati Cathedral on Ukimerioni Hill.

Kikvidze Park in downtown Kutaisi.

There is the most wonderful iron work everywhere in Georgia. Such beautiful craftsmanship!

Does this guy look like Jack? The debate continues in our family.

Gelati Monastery is a medieval monastic complex near Kutaisi, founded in 1106 by King David IV. It is recognized by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site.

If you look under the US flag on this banner you will see that the US government is helping to fund the preservation and restoration of the monastery. So give yourself a pat on the back, you are helping to preserve a world treasure with your tax dollars and to help my family have something interesting to see on our Spring Break!

Next we traveled to Gori, where we stayed the night. I wish I had taken a picture of the place we stayed. It was a guesthouse and really just a lady's house. We met some interesting fellow travelers and hung out with the woman's family.

Jack played some guitar for them and we had a grand ole time!

While in town we visited Gori Castle and the real reason we stayed in the town,

The Joseph Stalin Museum.

You see, Stalin was born in Gori and Jack LOVES to learn all he can about communist dictators.

He was in high heaven.

The joy on Jack's face!

The "I guess I am visiting this place" look on Trum's face.

Classic.

House where Joseph was born.

Personal train car.

Enshrined bust made from his death mask.

Fictitious meeting with Mao, lovingly created in inlaid wood as a gift for Stalin.

Oh-how he loved it!

From Gori we headed out to drive up the Georgian Military Road.

Now "closed" route through the Caucasus from Georgia to Russia.

It is a gorgeous drive, but the roads were beyond rough!

We stopped to visit Ananuri Castle on the Aragvi River. There was plenty of nonsense to spend our money on and I couldn't resist this little felted fox puppet. Oh-the joy on my face! Stalin brings joy to Jack and felty-foxes bring joy to me.

To each their own.

Hmm, should I go down into this little hole? Of course you should!

Then this happened.

Jack payed good money to force the boy into the costume and onto the horse. He'll thank us for it someday, I'm sure.

Heading higher and higher up the pass to Mount Kazbek.

Gergeti Trinity Church perched at 7120 feet with the mountain overlooking it.

After we drove as far as we could up the military road before actually entering Russia we headed down into Tbilisi the capital of Georgia. It is such a great city. We really enjoyed our time there. In the cobble-stoned old town you can see evidence of it's complicated history, with periods under Persian and Russian rule. It has architecture from all different eras, Eastern Orthodox churches, ornate Art Nouveau buildings and Soviet Modernist structures. There was a really great positive feeling there. Lots of new construction but they were building stuff to fit in with the older buildings. It was really enjoyable to just wander the city and see as much as we could.

Gorgeous wood and iron work everywhere you look in the old town!

Fancy-shmancy McDonald's.

Totally!

Commuters and daffodil salesmen.

Trum looks over the Kura River and Narikala Fortress above old-town Tbilisi from the Metehhi Neighborhood.

Metekhi Church of Assumption

We went into a lot of churches and some have a strict dress code.

I had to get all covered up for this one.

Did you ever want to have peacocks perch on your shoulders? Or monkeys or parrots for that matter? Plenty of people willing to give you the opportunity to do that in Tbilisi for a fee.

We took the cable car up to visit the fortress.

Plenty of time for some shopping! More felted stuff and Trum demonstrates how he feels when his dad stops in a rug shop.

Mmm, Georgian food is amazing!

More joy for Jack; used books for sale on the street!

Gorgeous views of the city.

The next day we headed out to visit the Giorgi Chitaia Open Air Museum of Ethnography. The open-air museum displays examples of folk architecture and craft-work from around Georgia.

Giant wine vats.

Next we spent some time at the Flea Market at Dry Bridge.

It's mostly full of stuff you don't need. Except for these drinking horns. We totally needed one of those!

We probably needed this bear rug as well, but we didn't buy it.

Our youth has not gone wild.

The next day we took to the road for a quick day trip into Armenia to visit

the Monasteries of Haghpat and Sanahin.

They are Byzantine monasteries and are both UNESCO World Heritage sites.

First we visited Haghpat, where an old lady yelled at us in Russian because she thought we were Russian and that Trum had used the bathroom without paying. Fun! But a different lady was calmly crocheting by the door and was perfectly nice. So we didn't judge the town by the first lady's outburst.

Pilgrims would have these ornate crosses and designs carved into the stone as a "we were here" sign for future visitors.

Crochet!

Next Sanahin, where a girl offered to give us a tour in English. The tour was awesome and her English was so good. At the end she told us her brother is a priest in Boston. Makes me want to look him up next time I am there for a visit.

Back in Tbilisi we headed up Elia Hill to see The Holy Trinity Cathedral of Tbilisi or Sameba Cathedral and to enjoy the sunset.

I am not up on the Orthodox calendar but it must have been a Saint's day or something while we were there because a lot of the churches we visited were packed. It was lovely to see so many gathered to worship and to hear the beautiful music.

Our last day in the area we visited Svetitskhoveli Cathedral. Which is also a world heritage site.

Beautiful!

Around the cathedral there are plenty of streets lined with goods and trinkets for sale.

Fruit leather.

Traditional candy, made with nuts on a string and jelly that air drys. In Turkey it is traditional Turkish candy, in Georgia it is traditional Georgian candy. Who can say? Not me, I just eat it.

Liquid bread drink? You won't trick us into drinking that again like you did in Russia, Jack Rowe!!

On the drive back to Batumi we stopped at one of the many roadside stands selling baskets and handmade wooden utensils and I indulged my joy of handicrafts. Much to Jack's delight!

We stopped in Batumi again on our way back to Turkey. This time we got a room overlooking the Black Sea.

Just 4 Kilometers from the border we stopped to see the Roman Gonio Fortress. The walls are all still standing and we had the whole place to ourselves. I even bought some nice pottery at the tiny gift shop. A great stop!

This tomb is considered to be the Apostle Mathew’s tomb – the disciple called instead of Judas. According to one legend, Apostle Mathew, after Christ’s death came to the Gonio Fortress and stayed there to preach.