Hitch Hiking through Georgia and Armenia

Since we were already in Eastern Turkey, we couldn't resist crossing over into her neighbors, Georgia and Armenia. We spent our first night in Akhaltsikhe Georgia, where we took a short trip to see the Sapara Monastery. It was located at the top of a fantastically green canyon on a serene, wooded slope. The monastery is still a functioning facility in the Georgian Catholic Church, so we were pleased to see a few of the monks in passing.

After one night's rest, we then hitched rides to see an amazing fortress at Khertvisi and another city built into the cliffs at Vardzia. People in Georgia were really generous about stopping to give us a lift, so we made it with no difficulty. The sites were both awesome, and we can't get over how many fortresses and under ground cities have been built in this particular region of the world. It is definitely a testament to the number of times this beautiful part of the world has been invaded and conquered.

One of the rides we hitched happened to be with a group of school children. They took a liking to us and even sang some traditional Georgian and Russian songs for us along the way!

After seeing these few places in Georgia, we hitched another ride to Armenia where we spent the night in Gyumri. Gyumri had a really nice central plaza complete with an amazing Armenian monument featuring violent cavalry and foot soldiers defending the mother land. Unfortunately, Gyumri was leveled by earthquakes which killed 25,000 inhabitants in the 1980s, so nearly everything has been rebuilt.

In Yerevan, Armenia's capital, we found it interesting that on a hilltop monument, they had lined up a number of weapons pointing toward Turkish owned Mount Arrarat. Mount Arrarat is the supposed landing sight of Noah's arc, and was part of the many lands taken from Armenia by Turkey during the early 2oth century conflict with Armenia.

Armenia has close ties with Russia economically, culturally, and militarily. Rusty felt that Armenia still has a very strong former soviet block feel to it. Many Armenians speak Russian very well, which allowed Rusty opportunity to use his Russian language. This Russian car selling apples out the back is a nice remnant image of former sovietism.

Our next Armenian destination was Sevan, which was a lake resort town for Armenia. It had a lovely peninsula with a couple of ancient churches and some really good food, but due to uncontrolled lakeside development, it certainly wasn't our top pick for prettiest place.

At Sevan, we rented a little cabin on the lake, checked out some ancient churches, and had some delicious fish before heading on to Vandazor and then crossing from Armenia back into Georgia.



We briefly saw Georgia's capital, Tbilisi before we moved on to spend the night in Sarp, which is on the black sea and close to the border with Turkey. Thus ended our short sojurn into this interesting area of the world, collectively known as "The Caucus."

Tramping Across Turkey

For thousands of years, Turkey has been torn between powers of the East and powers of the west. During the Ottoman period, Turkey herself became a major power. Because of this, Turkey has a rich historical heritage and a wealth of historical sites. Kelsi also wanted to mention that Turkey also has a wealth of frogs (they are absolutely everywhere in some places - it's hard not to step on them walking down the sidewalk), storks, and GIANT wild dogs. This aside, after leaving Alberto's boat, we began our journey in Turkey at the Spectacular Roman ruins in Ephesus, where the Apostle Paul taught the Ephesians.


During Roman times, public toilets were an important social setting. The men would sit around on the toilets and discuss local business while they took care of personal business. As you can see in the picture above (taken at Ephesus), these old Roman toilets are pretty tightly packed together to afford plenty of opportunity for personal contact. They even had a center fountain (located just in front of Rusty) to help drown out any awkward toilet noises. It isn't a far stretch to imagine that when Paul was teaching the Ephesians, the public toilets played a key role in his success by providing him with a "captive" audience.


Aside from public toilets, public baths also played an important socialization role in Roman society. Following Ephesus, we went to the ancient Roman bath ruins at Pamukkale. The baths are still in use, although the ancient Roman structure has fallen into the pool (picture above).

Pictured below is the amazing white travertine terraces flowing for hundreds of yards down the hill from the baths, which are located on top of the hill. They projected mulit-colored lights onto the terraces at night, which created a lovely scene. Rusty was relieved to learn that the travertine is the result of natural mineral leeching in the bath water, and is not a horrible case of ancient Roman bath scum.


After the Roman ruins, we headed in Turkey's heart, Anatolia. In the heart of the heart lies a magical place called Cappadocia. Since the times of the Hittites, this has been constantly inhabited, and has been an important stop on major trade routes. Because of its strategic importance, it was constantly under attack, so the inhabitants decided to build their homes inside of the mountains.


When outsiders first saw house lights glowing from the chimney rock formations of Capadocia, they thought that ferries were living in the rocks. Because of this, the rocks were called "ferry chimneys." The Chimneys are a geological phenomenon of erosian. They are formed from softer rock underneath, capped with harder lava rock on top.


Inside the rocks the carvings are often astonishing. Early Christians carved churches, wineries, graneries, and even stables into the rocks. To this day, the churches still have beautiful frescos inside of them.


To explore the area, we decided to rent mountain bikes. Rusty thought he looked really great with his hat sticking out from his helmet... you decide!

We even slept in a cave motel called "The Flintstones." Aside from being a bit cold and dusty, it wasn't too bad. We're glad that we aren't living permanently in a cave, though.

We are suckers for open markets and thought that this colorful collage of vegetables was particularly inspiring. Kelsi loves fresh cherry season, and Turkey was well supplied to please her!

On our way across central Turkey we stopped off at a bus station and noticed some of the local toys. Turkey boasts one of the largest armies in the world and service is compulsory. It is seen as a rite of passage for young men, and we were happy to witness a huge send off party at a bus station. You can see from the dolls below that the orientation toward military begins early in life... reminded me of my GI Joe army toys when I was a kid!


Our final stop on our West to East way across Turkey was the Kurdish town of Kars. It's located the far flung eastern edge of Turkey, and has a real Central Asiatic feel. The Kurds were an interesting people with a unique culture. Many of the Kurds dress formally, circa 1900 Europe (most men wore sports coats and wool caps), and it was a delight to stroll around the city. While in Kars our main activity was a visit to a site called Ani on the Armenian boarder which has a collection of churches remaining from thousands of years of constant civilization.

Ani has passed between many religions including Zoroastrian, Georgian Christian, and Armenian Christian. Turkey finally took the land from Armenia in the early 20th century, and built a mosque here. Armenia claims that they murdered 1.5 million Armenians in the process, although Turkey blames some tensions with Armenian allegiance to Russia as the causal factor. The Armenians are seeking compensation and claim that in modern history, this genocide is second only to that of the Nazis. Turkey denies the genocide claim, and this point of contention has become on of the obstacles for Turkey as it tries to gain entrance into the European Union.

In any case, the land and site were beautiful with a river gorge separating Turkey from Armenia. If you look closely, you can see two Russian backed Armenian military bases across the gorge, peering suspiciously back across at Turkey.

Gaia: Onboard a Sailing Yacht

We didn't say a lot about the sailing yacht we crewed in the Mediterranean, so we thought we'd say a few things here. The ship is named Gaia which means "goddess of the earth," and she has belonged to Alberto (our skipper) for about 35 years. Gaia was originally set up as a "ketch," a ship with two masts, but Alberto converted her into a "sloop" by removing the smaller of the two masts. She is a 52 feet long yacht with ample storage and living space. Basically, Gaia has all the comforts of home, although you need to be conservative with fresh water use and electricity (which is generated by two large solar panels on the rear of the ship). We'll show you a few highlight pics below so that you can check out where and how we lived while we were cruising the Mediterranean.

Above: Overview of the entire yacht looking in from the entrance which is located at the stern (back) of the boat.

Below: The galley (kitchen) where Alberto prepared Italian culinary delights. The stove is set on two horizontal hinges so that it will stay level and not dump scalding pots on the chef when the boat is rocking in the waves. The galley is also equipped with a large refrigerator.

Above: The command center where Captain Alberto runs the ship. Modern Sailboats are equipped with motors, gps, and even auto-pilot systems, so there is a lot of technical stuff going on.

Below: Living room/dining room/library. Under every floorboard and seat is storage space.

Above: Kelsi and Rusty's bedroom. The ship is quite wide, so the living quarters are divided into starboard (right) and port (left) sections. Our room was on starboard side, and there was an almost identical bedroom on the port side of ship where Alberto lives. Around and under our beds was a large fresh water tank and more storage space.

Below: Double beds in the bow (front) of the ship. This is where the other crew member, Melodie Fee, stayed. She was sweet to take these living quarters since the bow section moves more when the ship moves.

Above: Our bathroom. On the side of the toilet is a pump which sucks in salt water and flushes it back out... you can imagine how that looks! The faucet has a long, retractable hose so that it can be extended to use as a shower. The shower uses fresh water which is heated by the motor and drains through the floorboards after use. We shared our bathroom with the other crew member, Melodie fee. Our bathroom had a door to our room on one side and another door to Melodie's room on the oposite side. Because of the boat layout, to reach the bathroom Melodie eıther had to cut through our room or climb through her room's window (all windows opened up vertically to the deck). Alberto had an identical bathroom in his living quarters, although his bathroom was not shared with another room.

Below: The amazing crew and captain of Gaia!

Crewing a Sailboat in the Greek Isles

After Athens we jumped onto a sailboat with an Italian skipper named Alberto whom we met via internet on the website floatplan.com. We got the idea from fellow travelers we met trekkıng in Nepal back in October (our Alaskan friends - thanks Andy!). Before we became "salty" (that means "experienced" in sailor talk), the thought of sailing had conjured up two different images. The romantic one was of a luxurious boat sailing off into a beautiful sunset. The adventurous one had a captain with a peg-leg who would tell you to swab the deck or else you would be forced to walk the plank. As it turned out both images were a little true and we loved it!

The first part of our voyage took us to a recently active volcanic island named Santorini where we stayed on anchor in the harbor, which was located in the sunken caldera of the volcano... yikes! We were taken by surprise when Alberto, the ship captain, asked us (nicely) to swab the deck. We thought he was just joking until he handed us a mop and bucket! No threat of walking the plank was uttered by Alberto (he's much too nice for that), so we considered ourselves lucky.


In addition to cleaning, Captain Alberto and Melody (the other crew member), were really good about teaching us the ways of sailing the seas. We practiced sailing knots, changing and adjusting sails, mooring, and we even put Kelsi behind the wheel... Other than a few accidental circles due to insufficient wind she was an excellent helmswoman!

The boat we were on was named "Gaia," which is the Greek goddess of the earth, and she has been with the same owner for over 35 years. Alberto was our skipper and we were really happy to have such an experienced and enjoyable captain to learn from... not to mention a fırst rate Italian chef. It is going to take a little while to recover from eating copious amounts of pasta every day for a month during the gourmet sailing experience. We had dinner parties almost every night with Alberto's sailing friends we met up with at different islands.

We will show you more pictures of "Gaia" soon but here is a nice picture of her:

The great thing about crewing on a personal sailboat is that we got to stop off at many beautiful Greek Islands. Some islands were remote with no tourist accommodations while others were popular with really expensive accommodations, but the boat always provided a comfortable home base and Alberto always prepared amazing meals. Whats more... it was really affordable since we just paid for our share of groceries, fuel, and port expenses. AND... we were always trying to supplement our diet with a bit of bounty from the seas. It was our first experience eating and preparing octopus, although we have to admit that it is pretty tasty!

The Greek flag is a pattern of blue and white colors. These colors are very reminiscent of the dominating sea and sky landscapes of the Greek Islands, and the island locals have even elected to use blue and white as the main colors for most buildings. We stopped off at about eight or nine islands and they all had epic histories and heroes of biblical proportions (literally). Some of the islands we visited were Santorini, Ios, Naxos, Dhonousso, Patmos, Samos, Khios, and a couple other smaller islands surrounding these. Given that our blog is titled "The Odyssey of Rusty and Kelsi," it's worth mentioning that we hitch hiked across Ios to visit Homer's grave. Aside from that, we'll just let you enjoy a few snapshots we took of the beautiful Greek Island architecture we found so attractive:

We loved being on a boat with a captain and fellow crew member we could learn from. More than that we enjoyed exploring the islands together. Here are all four of us together: Kelsi and I with Melodie Fee and Alberto.

We also wanted to briefly mention some of the other friends we met along the way: Raimon, Pepe and Carmen who sailed with us in their boat for the first third of our trip and Carlo, Susanna, Max and Alessandra who sailed with us in their boats for the last third of the trip. We had so much fun meeting Alberto's sailing friends and enjoying their wonderful company and friendship as well as delicious dinners :)! Also, we need to mention one really sweet lady who gave us a grand goodbye of hospitality as we departed our sailing excursion through the Greek Islands. We drove our rental car across the medium sized island of Khios to the main city, Khios Town, to catch a ferry to Turkey. Once we arrived in Khios Town, we became lost in windy neighborhoods and stopped to ask directions from the sweetest Greek lady who decided to jump in her car and lead us out to the main road after giving us a tupperware container of homemade rose jam. It was such a sweet ending to our wonderful experience in Greece!

Cyprus & Athens, Greece

After Israel, we hopped a flight out of Tel Aviv, and had a wonderful opportunity to check out Cyprus during a day-long lay-over. It was all blooming with beautiful spring flowers, and made a lovely stop. Cyprus is a Greek speaking sovereign country, although the Northern half is mostly Turkish speaking, and is occupied by Turkish forces. During our time there, we took a nice tour of the town and discovered the church pictured above which was built in commemoration of Lazarus (the man Jesus raised from the dead), who may have finally died here in Cyprus.

After stopping off in Cyprus, we continued on to Athens Greece, where we saw the Greek Parthenon, one of the greatest architectural achievements in the world. The Parthenon was built to look large from afar, a sign of Athenian dominance in the region, but it also looks small and approachable up close, signifying the accessibility of the government to the citizens. The mathematics used to design this amazing structure follow the perfectly devised rules of proportion known as "the golden mean," which is a ratio found throughout nature. The pillars are angled in slightly so that if you follow their lines upwards, they would connect in a pyramid about 6000 feet in the sky (one of the techniques to make it look smaller up close). Unfortunately, the building was destroyed a couple hundred years back. It was being used to store explosives and was hit by a shell from a British warship... crazy!


We also happened to time our visit to Athens to see the very grand changing of the guards on the tomb of the unknown soldier on a Sunday morning.
We were impressed with this enclosed motorcycle... not that it has anything to do with anything but we saw it in Athens and wanted to share it with you!


Athens hosted the 2004 Summer Olympic Games. The olympics originated in Greece so naturally Greeks thought it a great honor to have the games return home. As a result of this collective pride they built an enormous and amazingly expensive olympic park which is now completely neglected with rust and grafitti and overgrown with weeds. At the current rate it will end up looking as ruined as the ruins in a couple years.