I’m sorry for my blogging absence, it’s been a very busy
last few weeks! Two weekends ago I
needed to renew my visa, which means leaving the country for neighboring
Georgia. Why must it be Georgia,
you say? Well, the borders with
Turkey to the east and Azerbaijan to the west are both currently closed (more
on that in a bit), and my American passport won’t help me get into neighboring
Iran to the south. So that leaves
Georgia! It just so happened to
also be a four day weekend so my friends and I had a spontaneous adventure to
the Black Sea and the city of Batumi.
(I’ve been four months without an ocean so the withdrawals were
beginning.) Here are a few of the
highlights:
• Of three
nights away, two were spent in a moving vehicle (bus and train). Everyone should at least take one
overnight bus trip during their life.
It’s serious character building.
• My mom taught
me from a young age that free stuff is great. This inspired us to sneak ourselves into a tourism
conference at the Sheraton, Batumi.
The man dishing out coffee samples knew we were frauds so he made us
pay, but we did manage to score some awesome free food samples.
• We scaled an
old Roman fortress.
And I posed with the weapons.
• I got my feet
wet in a new body of water!
Then last weekend I went on a four day trip with Birthright
to Nagorno-Karabakh, or Artsakh, as Armenia calls it. If you plug Nagorno-Karabakh Republic into Google Maps
you’ll be taken to the western part of Azerbaijan, but after years of war in
the early ‘90s, Armenia now claims the territory as its own. The war is the reason for the current
border closures with Azerbaijan and Turkey. At present, a ceasefire signed in 1994 rules the region, but
all peace talks in the last 20 years have thus far failed. Today both sides play the waiting game
and it’s difficult to imagine them reaching a compromise in the near
future. I’ve had my own
established opinions of the conflict, but it was an important experience to
visit the region myself, interact with people who had fought in the war, see
the destruction which took place, and walk in the trenches (literally). I can’t say that my opinions have
changed, but I feel I have a better idea of where Armenians’ motivations and
views stem from, which feels good.
Here are some other highlights from the weekend:
• Did you
know? Armenia is home to the
world’s longest reversible aerial tramway. Now there’s an important fact! But really, this cable car is an incredible feat of
engineering (thank you, Switzerland) which allows for year-round access to
Tatev Monastery. I’ve seen my fair
share of monasteries in Armenia, but this was by far the most impressive! Perched amongst the mountains it’s easy
to think that when the monastery was originally established in the 9th century the
builders felt closest to God at this location.
• I almost lost
my Red Sox hat. Twice. Both times I was reunited with this
prized possession by my friend’s dad who had come along on the trip. I had found peace in knowing that Red
Sox Nation had made it to an unrecognized republic, but it certainly was good
to get it back.
• I almost had
a panic attack on the shakiest shaky bridge ever!
• I was short
enough that I could stand up straight while walk through the trenches on the
Armenian front line without the fear that an Azerbaijani sniper would see my
head over the top. I spied through
a tiny crack past no man’s land to the other side. (Birthright has a longstanding relationship with the
military in Artsakh to allow us to visit the front lines. Sorry, no pictures allowed.)
It’s certainly been an eventful last few weeks. Last week I finished work at AUA
because the semester is over and there are no longer students to tutor. So now I’m splitting my time between
AEN and another environmental organization, FPWC (Fund for the Protection of
Wildlife and Cultural Assets).
They’ll be a test on these acronyms upon my return!
Contrary to what these pictures might show, I do have more than one pair of pants...
