Azerbaijan..

Hello!

I write in haste and excitement! I am in my hotelroom in Baku. the capital of Azerbaijan. Its currently midnight, the light is off, Denis is asleep and we are catching a ferry across the Caspian Sea to Turkmenistan at 3am! So as I say to all the girls, I'll make this quick!

So what has happened since we last talked? Well we made our merry way from Tblisi the Georgian capital to the East of the country. This is the wine region and we visited a very nice winery that is run by an American artist in a very nice small town who's name I have forgotten. Georgian wine is some of the best in the world and the brewing technique they used in the winery we visited can be traced back to 8000BC. So can the guy's beard..

We slowly made our way across Georgia with a few Bushcamps one where I got bitten to shit by bleedin Mosquitos but apart from that it was very relaxing (apart from the thunder!) One of the highlights of the next few days was a little monastery we visited that was carved out of rock. Truly spectacular!

Oh and we saw some really cool cloud formations!

We then arrived in a small town called Telavi. Again, small town life so strange and surreal. We stayed in a homestay with a woman who didn't quite live up to the Mrs. Doyle of Mestia but who was very nice and had a seriously posh gaff! We celebrated Georgian Independance day in the house and old vino did flow! There are no pictures from the night because none exist and thats the way it wil stay forever...

Soon it was time to leave the eastern European, Soviet ravaged Georgia for the Oil rich madness of Azerbaijan. Border day was relatively smooth across in about 2 hours which was amazing considering the hassle we had with the visas. It was a short drive to Sheki our first port of call. This was a small town and we stayed in a Caravansaray which is a really old hotel where the traders used to stay. The ground floor was for their animals and the traders slept upstairs. No animals stay there these days except me and Denis!

The following night was one of the highlights of the last few weeks. We had a really cool bushcamp on the side of a monutain right next to some mud volcanoes. These were really cool as they spurted out of nowhere and the lava spilled down the side of the mini volcano. there was also a lake that you could wade through and the ground gave way as you walked and you'd sink into the volcanic ground super awesome man. By far the best bushcamp we've had to date!

Today we made the short trip to Baku. CJ and Jim, our guides, dropped us at the hotel and headed down to the port to beg borrow and bribe our way onto an oil tanker across the Caspian Sea to Turkmenistan. They returned 2 and a half hours later and announced that we were leaving at 3 am so get to bed f**kers!

I had a siesta this afternon then headed around Baku with Denis. To sum up the place from what I saw in a few hours is the place has bags and bags of cash! Oil money is just pouring into the place and its full of rich little kids and overdressed women and extortionate prices. It feels like we took a step back into the west for one night only before we head to the unknown desert of Turkmensitan. Having said all that they seem to be spending the money well. The city is beautiful and I will say if you're into construction get to Baku there's cranes everywhere!

So only an hour till we meet so I'm gonna get packed. This ferry journey can take anywhere between 16 and 36 hours depending on weather and reliability of the port so I think "interesting" may be the word to describe it.

Wish me luck...

An Eejit Abroad in Georgia!

Hello!

Christ almighty so much to say so little time. In case your wondering since my last post I have been dubbed "Ireland's answer to Karl Pilkington" so that will be the theme of the blog from now on even though being compared to a dumb Mancunian  isn't something I would usually shout about...

Alrite...

So Georgia. We arrived I dunno how many days ago after a few bushcamps in some mountains in Turkey. Those of you who know me will be aware that camping in Bush is something I usually enjoy so I was quite excited.. It is a lot of fun. Some days I feel like a "Traveler" as we stop on a flat piece of ground and just set up, we don't shower and we go trying to sell gates to people. Ok the last ones not true but you know....The good thing about it is great scenery. The first night though there was a huge thunderstorm which was really cool because it seemed to happen either side of us so we could see it happening but it wasn't really raining on us..

Oh and for those of you wondering about the field shitting.. In a word: Liberating.

So when we got to Georgia we headed to a place called Batumi the second city. Strikingly different to Turkey the streets were all rubble because of the harsh winters and every second shop was a place where you could exchange money. Vodka was bloody cheap though. We had a bit of a strange meal in a restaurant shaped like a boat where we got hunks of meat and salad. We didn't care though because the hotel had a shower. We're easy to please after three nights bushcamping.. You know how it is after a long stint in Bush.

The next day was a bumpy 14 hour journey to a village called Mestia in the North West of the country. You might think this was a drag but not so my friends. At lunch we stopped on the side of the road and were setting up when these drunk guys came over with shit loads of wine and chocolates (only for the girls) and a party was in full swing before CJ reminded us we had 8 hours driving left so we continued the party on the truck all the way to Mestia (without the drunk guys!) and drank every drop of alcohol on the truck including Wine, Beer, Vodka and Gin. Accompanied with an ipod and speakers and drunken singing we managed to piss off everyone at the front of the truck. But good times and a good Birthday for Susie Q.

We stayed at a homestay where we had a Georgian Mrs. Doyle looking after us. If you stood still long enough you got a cup of tea that was the rule!

The following day we had a tour of the village and a hike up one of the mountains to the top (that only 2 of us managed cos everyone else was wrecked from the day before) which was amazing scenery. The village was incredible. Its the first time my eyes have been properly opened on the trip. I consider where I live to be remote. I live 10 miles from a town about 15 mins drive away and an hour from a city. These people live 8 hours drive from ANY form of civilisation along a bumpy mountain road and in the winter they are completely snowed in. They only built a little airport there about 5 years ago and there was NO road in at all until the 1950s! They didn't even have a McDonalds!

The top photo above is a local church. The next one is Steve inside one of the old traditional houses they used to live in. The next one is Katya the 17 year old guide who took us around with her dog. They have huge dogs in Georgia and train them to look after the sheep and fight off wolves! The others are the view from the hike and the snow on the mountain.

From Mestia we went onto a few Bushcamps. We stayed in a place called Nakalakevi next to the ruins of Sheki Palace which unfortunately was closed. Here CJ our guide showed off his Russian by chatting to the cops who came over to see what we were at. They liked him so much we had two Policemen sitting watching us all night for our own protection as well as them showing us the way for a few miles the next day. They either didn't trust us or they were extremely bored not sure which!

The next day we headed to another Bushcamp beside a river and beside these really cool caves that me and Denis had a look around. More feckin dogs hanging around the bleedin Bushcamp this time barking and keeping us awake.

From here we went to a town called Gori (Co Wexford wha?) which was Stalin's hometown. We had a look around the Stalin museum where the guide was very pro Stalin and didn't mind telling us that he was a great man who had bad staff working for him! It was incredible to hear here talk about him like she fancied him. But then I am a great believer that History is written by the victors so who knows maybe she was right? We had a look at his house where he was born and his personal railway carriage. Pretty Cool.

Next up was two more nights of Bushcamping in a place called Kasbergy. This was a really scenic drive through the Caucaus montains and I was sitting up in the cab so got a great view. We were at our highest yet 2400 metres going through some of the tunnels was surreal.

We had two nights Bushcamping where the scenery was just amazing. Once again we had a load of friendly dogs just hanging out with us. It was strange because we have a special tent for going to the toilet and the dogs seemed to hang out around the tent and they'd sit there while you tried to go and wouldn't move. Then they make eye contact with you when you're going for a poo so frickin weird! Why make eye contact? Why??

We had a hike up to a monastery overlooking the campsite in great weather and chilled out around the camp for the evening.

Yesterday we arrived in Tblisi the capital city. The shower. What can I say? Words just can't describe my appreciation! As Mel said "Heroin addict no more!"

We were all cultured out so we went for dinner to an Irish bar to watch the Heineken Cup Final. All I'll say is we made the most of it!

Today our Georgian guide Zaza took us around Tblisi and it is a really nice city, very modern and different to the rest of Georgia. There seems to be a lot of money being spent on it and the good weather helped us out!

Right well that took ages you better appreciate these you ungrateful sons of bitches!

Off out to dinner now heading to the Georgian wine region tomrrow and the saga of the Azerbaijan visas is sure to continue.

As KP would say: Alrite...

Cappadocia

Christ. I keep bigging up the places I've been. You're sick of hearing me going on about how great everything is but blimey (I haven't used that word in ages) this place was good craic!

Out of the city and into the country. We arrived in Goreme, a small town in the middle of Cappadocia which is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. A 12 hour drive from rainy Istanbul was a bit of a drag but arriving here you can see why its a backpackers mecca.

I learnt today that millions of years ago a volcano erupted in this area. The result was a huge plateau that covered the entire area. Over millions of years erosion has sculpted the landscape into what it is today. The beauty of nature however has reared its head again and convinced me that Mother Nature is definitely a woman..

However, things aren't all that way. She must have a boyfriend...

So anyway.... Yesterday, hungover from our first "boy's night out" which for the record was uninspired by the landscape, we headed into Goreme and had a chicken Kebab for lunch (when in Rome) I encountered my second brilliant waiter moment. This waiter was really irritating and kept sitting down with us and taking the piss in an annoying way. We were all eating and he was sitting down with us but Jen's food hadn't come.

Crazy Waiter: "What are you thinking about?"
Jen: "I'm wondering where my fucking food is.."

(Pause)

Crazy Waiter: "I go check..."

Brilliant.

(She didn't actually say "fuckin" I added that for comic effect)

After lunch we went for a SAVAGE 3 hour quad bike around the landscape with a guided tour, which proved to me that there's no rules in Turkey.

Then this morning, highlight number two of the day was a balloon ride around Goreme. This cost €110 but was worth every penny. We had to get up at 4.30 am but it was worth it definitely the highlight of the trip so far. I couldn't get over how low we went to the ground and how high up we got. One word of advice though: Don't look down!

Then today we went on a bus tour around Cappadocia. However, we were all so bleedin wrecked from getting up at half 4 that we weren't bothered by it and asked her to finish early poor woman thought we were a bunch of miserable old todgers (is that a word?). But it was still fun as we looked around an underground city and saw some more rocks.. Oh and a random Camel with an American trying to pay for a ride on it until the Camel tried to bite her when she went near it..

Turkey has been great so far. The only problems being I'm spending shit loads of money and eating way too much food so it ain't too bad.

Tomorrow we head off North towards Georgia for our first Bushcamp i.e. Camping in the middle of nowhere with no Showers or Toilet! Remember last blog when I said it was starting to get interesting? Yeah we'll see tomorrow how interesting shitting in a field really is..

Adios Amigos