stop #4: TBILISI, GEORGIA
arriving at the tbilisi airport at 3 am was fun! i caught a ride into the city with a bunch of elderly men who smelled like beef jerky on a very typical soviet era minibus that was spewing smoke and stalled out every time it stopped. georgia is so interesting: it really is the modern buffer between east and west. you may remember that they had a huge war with russia in 2008 over a little territory called south ossetia, which almost ignited another cold war. to this day russia essentially controls south ossetia, which has declared its own independence, as well as another breakaway independent region called abkhazia. in the meantime, georgia is trying to join nato. and i had no idea until i got there, but there is another completely autonomous entity (thanks to a "strongman") called adjara. such a fractious and complicated region, which makes it super interesting to this guy! i would describe the georgian people for you (mom), but generalizing is wrong. i can say, however, that they generally subsist off bread, beer, perogies and pie. i spent 2 days in tbilisi: climbing mountains, exploring castles, marveling at countless georgian orthodox churches, not speaking a word of english, eating huge perogy-like kinkhali, breathing way too much second hand smoke, riding the <20 cent/ride metro system, feasting my eyes upon soviet era monuments, entering dilapidated, abandoned communist government buildings, etc.! the highlight was definitely renting a scooter for 3 hours on my last day. i scooted all around tbilisi (a city of 1.4 million), and up and over a mountain to some little towns in the countryside. it was the definition of catharsis for me.
all too soon, the time came to move on to armenia. i was going to take the night train, but it only goes every second night. so i showed up at the mini-bus station at 8 am to catch a minibus, which are supposed to leave "frequently" for yerevan, armenia, 6 hours away. well, these things wait until they're full before they leave. by 2 pm, there were still only 2 people waiting, and i was starting to get anxious. so i started the long process of bartering without language so we could get on the road. thank goodness for cell phone keypads so at least we can get the numbers straight! after an hour of unintelligible "discussion" and a little too much compromise on my part, we finally got on the road. it turned out that the guy who was driving the thing had spent his morning consuming alcohol; we were all over the road. one minute we'd be 4 inches behind the semi in front of us, the next he'd be getting a call on his mobile and forget to keep driving, and we'd coast to a stop, honking traffic piling up behind us. unless he unwittingly had us drifting off into the ditch, which happened a few too many times. an hour out of tbilisi we stopped, and waited for another hour while they brought one more passenger. probably a good thing for his blood alcohol level. at the georgian/armenian border we stopped for a 1.5 hour dinner break, so the driver could smoke another pack and pound back a few more beers. the other guy in the van insisted on buying me dinner; that was really nice of him!
stop #5: YEREVAN, ARMENIA
my friend brad has an armenian friend named veronika that he put me in touch with. and thank goodness, as when i arrived in at my hostel there was no one to be found. apparently no one ever stays there. it took about 15 calls in armenian, and finally someone got in touch with the guy who was supposed to be running the hostel. turns out it was really nice, and i was the only person there! veronika was super nice, and she even took a day off work to show me around the city! we went out to a town called etchmiadzin, where the oldest church in armenia is, from the 4th century. armenia is the oldest christian country in the world! and to this day their brand of christianity has its own independent flair. we then went to a museum devoted to the armenian filmmaker and artist sergei parajanov, whose work was heavily censored by the soviets. and we ate some really tasty armenian food. i was amazed at how cultured the place is. there is cutting edge art absolutely everywhere, and everyone is intently concerned with looking really, really good. as a group, they seem to hold themselves to a very high standard.
that evening i went to the armenian genocide memorial, which is on the crest of a hill overlooking yerevan. unfortunately the museum was closed by the time i got there, but there is an eternal flame and some evocative architecture that is very poignant. the armenian genocide occurred during the late 1910's: 1.5 million armenians were killed by the ottoman empire. this cause has been furthered by armenia's huge diaspora in the west. to this day turkey refuses to call it a genocide, resulting in a very antagonistic relationship between armenia and turkey. the border is completely sealed shut. armenia and azerbaijan, its neighbor on the other side, also unfortunately don't get along. i learned a lot about this from veronika, who is working to encourage dialogue between youth of the two countries. there was a big war in the early 90's, after which the ethnically armenian region of nagorno-karabakh declared its own (still internationally unrecognized) independence from azerbaijan. really interesting geopolitics that i could go on and on about, but i won't bore you. but the tensions and the complexities are one of the reasons that i really wanted to visit this part of the world, so it was great to hang out with someone who could explain it all. armenia = super interesting place, i'd highly recommend anyone to go there. as a parting gift, on my last day i finally got to see mount ararat, which towers over yerevan. its where noah's ark is believed to have run aground.
stop #6: DUBAI, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES
i flew home on this brand new low cost carrier called flydubai, which is super cheap! the first few hours of my layover in dubai were spent waiting in line with hundreds of afghani tribesmen who were on their way to mecca for the hajj. when i finally got out of the airport, i took the amazing metro system to the tallest building in the world, the burj khalifa. i learned that if you took all the iron re-bar used in its construction and layed it end to end, it would reach a quarter of the way around the globe! if you were to scroll down - way down - you could read about the last time i was in dubai. for some reason i really appreciate the place. on my way back to the airport i chanced upon the emirati equivalent of a walmart, and, realizing that everything was significantly cheaper than in israel, indulged in some shopping. managed to make it back to the airport just in time!
stop #7: AMMAN, JORDAN
i flew back to amman because it was way cheaper. after a night in a super sketch hostel, i spent a day getting back to israel. 5 hours at the allenby bridge border crossing. overall though, an amazing break: i almost forgot i was a medical student! but its good to be back :)
arriving at the tbilisi airport at 3 am was fun! i caught a ride into the city with a bunch of elderly men who smelled like beef jerky on a very typical soviet era minibus that was spewing smoke and stalled out every time it stopped. georgia is so interesting: it really is the modern buffer between east and west. you may remember that they had a huge war with russia in 2008 over a little territory called south ossetia, which almost ignited another cold war. to this day russia essentially controls south ossetia, which has declared its own independence, as well as another breakaway independent region called abkhazia. in the meantime, georgia is trying to join nato. and i had no idea until i got there, but there is another completely autonomous entity (thanks to a "strongman") called adjara. such a fractious and complicated region, which makes it super interesting to this guy! i would describe the georgian people for you (mom), but generalizing is wrong. i can say, however, that they generally subsist off bread, beer, perogies and pie. i spent 2 days in tbilisi: climbing mountains, exploring castles, marveling at countless georgian orthodox churches, not speaking a word of english, eating huge perogy-like kinkhali, breathing way too much second hand smoke, riding the <20 cent/ride metro system, feasting my eyes upon soviet era monuments, entering dilapidated, abandoned communist government buildings, etc.! the highlight was definitely renting a scooter for 3 hours on my last day. i scooted all around tbilisi (a city of 1.4 million), and up and over a mountain to some little towns in the countryside. it was the definition of catharsis for me.
all too soon, the time came to move on to armenia. i was going to take the night train, but it only goes every second night. so i showed up at the mini-bus station at 8 am to catch a minibus, which are supposed to leave "frequently" for yerevan, armenia, 6 hours away. well, these things wait until they're full before they leave. by 2 pm, there were still only 2 people waiting, and i was starting to get anxious. so i started the long process of bartering without language so we could get on the road. thank goodness for cell phone keypads so at least we can get the numbers straight! after an hour of unintelligible "discussion" and a little too much compromise on my part, we finally got on the road. it turned out that the guy who was driving the thing had spent his morning consuming alcohol; we were all over the road. one minute we'd be 4 inches behind the semi in front of us, the next he'd be getting a call on his mobile and forget to keep driving, and we'd coast to a stop, honking traffic piling up behind us. unless he unwittingly had us drifting off into the ditch, which happened a few too many times. an hour out of tbilisi we stopped, and waited for another hour while they brought one more passenger. probably a good thing for his blood alcohol level. at the georgian/armenian border we stopped for a 1.5 hour dinner break, so the driver could smoke another pack and pound back a few more beers. the other guy in the van insisted on buying me dinner; that was really nice of him!
stop #5: YEREVAN, ARMENIA
my friend brad has an armenian friend named veronika that he put me in touch with. and thank goodness, as when i arrived in at my hostel there was no one to be found. apparently no one ever stays there. it took about 15 calls in armenian, and finally someone got in touch with the guy who was supposed to be running the hostel. turns out it was really nice, and i was the only person there! veronika was super nice, and she even took a day off work to show me around the city! we went out to a town called etchmiadzin, where the oldest church in armenia is, from the 4th century. armenia is the oldest christian country in the world! and to this day their brand of christianity has its own independent flair. we then went to a museum devoted to the armenian filmmaker and artist sergei parajanov, whose work was heavily censored by the soviets. and we ate some really tasty armenian food. i was amazed at how cultured the place is. there is cutting edge art absolutely everywhere, and everyone is intently concerned with looking really, really good. as a group, they seem to hold themselves to a very high standard.
that evening i went to the armenian genocide memorial, which is on the crest of a hill overlooking yerevan. unfortunately the museum was closed by the time i got there, but there is an eternal flame and some evocative architecture that is very poignant. the armenian genocide occurred during the late 1910's: 1.5 million armenians were killed by the ottoman empire. this cause has been furthered by armenia's huge diaspora in the west. to this day turkey refuses to call it a genocide, resulting in a very antagonistic relationship between armenia and turkey. the border is completely sealed shut. armenia and azerbaijan, its neighbor on the other side, also unfortunately don't get along. i learned a lot about this from veronika, who is working to encourage dialogue between youth of the two countries. there was a big war in the early 90's, after which the ethnically armenian region of nagorno-karabakh declared its own (still internationally unrecognized) independence from azerbaijan. really interesting geopolitics that i could go on and on about, but i won't bore you. but the tensions and the complexities are one of the reasons that i really wanted to visit this part of the world, so it was great to hang out with someone who could explain it all. armenia = super interesting place, i'd highly recommend anyone to go there. as a parting gift, on my last day i finally got to see mount ararat, which towers over yerevan. its where noah's ark is believed to have run aground.
stop #6: DUBAI, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES
i flew home on this brand new low cost carrier called flydubai, which is super cheap! the first few hours of my layover in dubai were spent waiting in line with hundreds of afghani tribesmen who were on their way to mecca for the hajj. when i finally got out of the airport, i took the amazing metro system to the tallest building in the world, the burj khalifa. i learned that if you took all the iron re-bar used in its construction and layed it end to end, it would reach a quarter of the way around the globe! if you were to scroll down - way down - you could read about the last time i was in dubai. for some reason i really appreciate the place. on my way back to the airport i chanced upon the emirati equivalent of a walmart, and, realizing that everything was significantly cheaper than in israel, indulged in some shopping. managed to make it back to the airport just in time!
stop #7: AMMAN, JORDAN
i flew back to amman because it was way cheaper. after a night in a super sketch hostel, i spent a day getting back to israel. 5 hours at the allenby bridge border crossing. overall though, an amazing break: i almost forgot i was a medical student! but its good to be back :)
