Of Cities and Mountains (Part 3): Dmanisi, Georgia

Reed has been participating in research at Dmanisi going on four years now. I wanted to see the place I have heard so much about. 

View of the region from the site of Dmanisi with plateaus and river valleys.

Unfortunately, Reed’s friend who usually drives was not available, so we had only one option: the bus. I have been on such buses in Turkey; this was a new experience for Reed though. Considering the last of the open seats were in the back row and that our heads were almost touching the ceiling, it was not too bad.

The road leading up to the dig house snakes through the town and Reed gave me a tour as we walked along. At the dig house, I was finally about to put faces to so many of the names I have heard about and enjoyed meeting everyone. The remainder of the evening was spent drinking around a hookah (I forgot the Georgian word for water pipe).

The remains of the Medieval fortress from the inside.

The next morning, I rode in the back of the truck with the excavators to complete my rite of passage. Luckily, since we were just visiting for the day, we did not have to get dirty and excavate; instead, I had the full tour compliments of my experienced tour guide of a boyfriend. The site rests on top of a large plateau which used to be next to a lake. The view from the edge is spectacular! I saw all of the different areas of the excavations that I had previously only known by name. It is incredible to see Medieval ruins and excavations just above early Paleolithic finds (apparently nearly everything in between has been washed away over the past million years or so).

Part of the old church. 

I did not snap any photos of the excavation (and to the untrained eye, you would not see much other than dirt – some things were even tricky for me to spot and the camera does not help matters). The Medieval fortress, however, had some nice ruins and a charming church nearby which had elaborate carvings in wood and stone dating between the 12^th and 14^th century. Medieval Dmanisi is particularly interesting because it was part of a major crossroads along the Silk Road, and there exists evidence for Christians, Muslims, and others who all lived in this area at one time or another.

A Muslim burial from the Medieval Period. 

After our exploration around the site, we had a quick lunch, and then went to a special swimming spot down in the valley. The water was cool at first, but was not too bad after moving around a bit and it felt great on such a hot day. There were abundant wildflowers and wild herbs filling the air with a sweet fragrance. One fatality occurred while I was fording the river on my way back to the site: goodbye, dear red flip flops…you were cheap, but you served me well. It was a really perfect and beautiful day.

Hand-carved wooden doors of the church.

 The next morning we hopped a bus back to Tbilisi. Unfortunately, it was not the same type of bus we took out to the site and it ended up adding another hour or so to our drive because it stopped at nearly every corner of all of the surrounding villages. We were quite relieved and grateful though because there was a sign inside that we were trying to read which made it seem as though we’d be on the bus for five hours; we were thankful for the mere three hours instead.

Thus concludes my adventures in Georgia. It was nine days well spent and it was wonderful getting to know a new country and a new people that are so warm to Reed’s heart.

Reed has just started up his blog again and you can read about his experiences at Adventures inGeorgia: The Search for the Persian Leopard. 

Carving of a ram from the Medieval Period.

Of Cities and Mountains (Part 2): Shatili, Georgia

On our trip to Shatili (and around Tbilisi) I learned a lot about driving in Georgia. For example:

·         Two lanes equal enough space for three cars;

·         A leapfrogging method is used for passing cars that are backed up, but this does not appear to be very effective because the car you passed will inevitably pass you after two minutes;

·         Honking should also be used as much as possible and at seemingly random moments;

·         Honking means more than “watch out”, such as “get out of my way”, “you are too slow”, “I am going to pass you so do not turn”, “Hey, Friend!”, and so on;

·         Seatbelts are optional, unless you are in the front seat;

·         And cars do not break for pedestrians, but will break for cows.

I found it better to just not watch. This was actually beneficial because I could focus on the beautiful landscape during our journey. Our destination was the village of Shatili on the recommendation of Reed’s friend/driver and his wife. They said “It is a very special and beautiful place, trust us!” And since we trust them, we agreed to go.

The village is located in Upper Khevsureti, one of the mountainous regions of Georgia. While it was only about 75km/50miles away, the drive took about four hours partly because of the slow climb and curving roads of a mountain, but also because of the road itself which was mostly unpaved, narrow, and rather treacherous at times (this made the Road to Hana in Hawaii look easy).

 The first major feature we passed was a giant reservoir for one of the rivers (sorry, no photos -- I was trying to ignore the fact that we were driving right on the edge of a cliff). It reminded me a bit of Scotland because it looks like the hills just rise up out of the water. The area was flooded in the not-too-distant-past covering a small town. Apparently when the water levels are a bit low, the top of the local church begins to appear. Not today though, there was plenty of water and it was beautiful!

"I gotta go, we got cows!"

Most of the journey was a typical mountainous ascent: switch backs, narrow curves, pulling over for other cars to use the road, changes in vegetation. Reed and I observed that unlike the Rocky Mountains, these hills have vegetation growing all the way to the top. There are plants that thrive on every level, which make the mountains really beautiful. There are also a huge variety of beautiful, colorful wildflowers which grow all the way up, as well as wild herbs, and a plant that looks like giant rhubarb.

Shatili

After about four hours of passing through the hills, seeing an occasional house (some of which appeared to be abandoned), and breaking for many cows, we arrived at our destination. Unlike the lower habitations and many of the other regions of Georgia which have traditionally used wood for constructing their homes, Shatili used dry-stone construction with just a bit of mortar in some places. This may not seem very impressive at first glance, but then when you learn this collection of houses date to the 12^th century and have been nearly continuously occupied since…it is incredible. Along the journey we saw many other stand-alone houses built like this. There were also many towers that sort of appeared across the landscape too, which were erected for signaling in case of invading armies (think Lord of the Rings when they light the fires in the towers which are seen by another tower who lights a fire in theirs quickly, and so on).

Stone signaling tower from the nearby area. 

Reed exploring Shatili. 

A cow enjoying the shade inside.

We had some lunch next to the river flowing nearby, walked around for a while, and then made the four hour trip home again. The scenery was lovely, the village incredible. It was a worthwhile trip, just leave the driving up to the Georgians. 

Of Cities and Mountains (Part 1): Tbilisi, Georgia

Some of Tbilisi's modern architecture mixed with the old.

The Republic of Georgia has been keeping me busy. After the change in my flights, I ended up arriving, picking up my bags, and getting back to the apartment with Reed around 3:30AM. After three nights of a combined 12 hours of sleep, my body made me sleep...for about 10 hours. 

After finally getting up and out of the apartment, Reed showed me the museum area where he works each summer and where the bones from the excavations are stored, and yes, it is as hot as he says it is. Wow. I had my first authentic Georgian meal just around the corner which consisted of the standard cucumber, tomato, cilantro, and hot pepper salad; Khachapuri (a dough stuffed with cheese); and meat, potatoes, and peppers cooked in a cast iron dish. It was all delicious! Reed took me over to Old Tbilisi for a while to see some of the older and charming areas which are also within view of the highly modern architectural style which is popular in Tbilisi today. Then we headed home to sleep more. 

House from the Museum of Ethnography.

The next few days were full of different activities and sites all across the city. We visited the Museum of Georgia, which has a fantastic display of gold and silver objects dating from the late Neolithic/Early Bronze Age to the Roman Period -- Georgia is the land of the Golden Fleece from Greek mythology! The Museum of Soviet Occupation is housed in the same building and describes 70 years worth of fighting, oppression, and the road to independence in Georgia. 

Another house with a view of Tbilisi.

My favorite museum was the Open Air Museum of Ethnography located on one of the hills surrounding the city. The park extends further up the hill and is full of houses collected and brought to the park from all over Georgia. The houses demonstrate a variety of building traditions (wood, wood and stone, and stone) and their placement on different levels of the hill correlate with where they would be found in their original region (i.e. valleys for some, high mountainous points for others). Many of the houses in the lower areas are open and have many of the original furnishing as well as interpreters who describe (in Georgian, Russian, or English) the history of the house, the use of the objects within it, and the social hierarchy and roles of the family. Some of the houses are in rough shape, but in general, it is interesting to walk around the park to see the diversity of architecture all found within a single country. 

Fortress and a tree of wishes!

One afternoon (trying to avoid some of the heat) we took the gondola up to one of the surrounding hills for a view of the city from Narikala Fortress. Within the fortress is a small Georgian Orthodox Church full of brightly colored murals of various saints highlighted with gold leaf (Reed got kicked out for wearing shorts and I had to cover my hair while in the church -- nothing wrong with a little propriety in a sacred place). A short distance from the fortress was the colossal statue of Kartlis Deda, or Mother Georgia, who holds a cup of wine to greet those coming to Georgia as friends and a sword to keep away enemies. The National Botanical Gardens are located just behind the fortress. While the gardens are not the well organized and well maintained types found in western Europe with abundant signs, they are a nice place to escape the heat and to soak in some nature in the city. Vake Park, located just down the street from Reed's apartment, is another nice place to escape the heat and has several impressive monuments and memorials within it. 

Inside the fortress. I did not climb up those stairs -- yikes!

Eating has also been a bit of a pastime. I have heard from Reed for the past three years how great this-and-this is or how much he likes that yummy thing. Well, as a person who loves to try new foods, this was a priority. Many of the restaurants we visited are actually in basements or cellars making them a cool reprieve from the summer heat. I already mentioned the traditional salad and Khachapuri, which you find everywhere. Meat in general is pretty popular and cooked in a variety of ways. Last night I tried Khinkali, aka Georgian dumplings, which can be filled with a variety of meat with greens, potatoes, or cheese. They look like little money pouches you see in Medieval movies except sealed shut creating a little knob. These must be eaten with your hands and there is definitely some technique involved. The meat ones, and the best kind, create their own broth as they cook. To eat these, you must bite a hole in the site of the dumpling and slurp the juice out, then you may continue to eat the meat and dough, but never the knob (apparently since its just a big wad of dough people don't like it and the knobs can also be used to see how many you have eaten). Well, they are delicious...and filling; I had seven and felt like I could be rolled home. Another well known dish which I get to try tonight is Shashlik, or meat on a stick. 

Reed and I. The tower is not leaning, its my camera.

Lemonade is rather popular and is super refreshing in the heat (have I mentioned its been in the 90s since I arrived??? -- major change from the 70s we were having in Minneapolis when I left...). While it is called "limonade," it isn't really lemonade in the American sense, rather, it is carbonated water with a bit of sugar and specified flavoring added to it (e.g. lemon limonade, peach limonade, or the most disgusting, tarragon limonade). I will miss lemon limonade when I leave...

I am glad I decided to do this in several parts. This is only a fraction of what I have to say, but I think this is enough for today! Stay tuned for my trips to Shatili and Dmanisi!  

Animals in America

Most of my travel time these days takes place in Europe. When I think of traveling, my default setting is packing for an excavation, museum research, and maybe a few days of sightseeing in France. I know what I need, what it will cost, and what I will encounter. It is sometimes a bit of a shock for me when I actually get to travel in my own homeland. The climates, the cultures, the landscapes, the food, vary so much considering we are all part of the same country. One of the most striking contrasts is in nature and wildlife.

Growing up in the U.S., I think we often take for granted how lucky we are to have old forests and diverse species of animals still running around. Our continent has only been inhabited by modern man for about 20,000 years whereas modern man has existed for at least 45,000 years in Europe. The cultures and societies that thrived in both areas differed significantly as well, i.e. the ever-expanding Western world consuming vast quantities of natural resources versus the smaller indigenous societies of the Americas using less and connecting with nature on a different level. The results of these relationships are evident today. We have tons of national parks in America, and within these parks, as well as in less populated areas in the country, we have many thriving animal populations.

As human populations grew, European societies learned domestication from the Mesopotamian world, but still supplemented their diets with wild game. Some of these species were hunted into extinction, or were killed off more recently because they were threats to farmers who raised domesticated animals for their livelihood. In all of my years of travel, the only wild animals I have seen roaming free across the European landscape are red deer (which I saw for the first time last year!), a fox, snakes, squirrels, and a variety of birds.

After my research in Europe this spring, I came back to Michigan to see my family for a few days, returned to Minneapolis for a week, then headed out west on a road trip with Reed to visit my friend Ami and her husband, both of whom are archaeologists. We traveled through South Dakota and stayed in the Black Hills for five days. Our journey continued west as we drove through Nebraska, into Wyoming, and arrived at Rocky Mountains National Park in Colorado. During this trip alone, I saw an incredible diversity of wildlife: pronghorn, white tail deer, mule deer, elk, moose, bighorn sheep, yellow-bellied marmots, prairie dogs, bison, snakes, turkeys, hawks, eagles, squirrels, chipmunks and a huge variety of smaller birds. On a trip to Yellowstone in 2007 I also saw bears, wolf tracks, and a large male moose walking in a stream about ten feet from us. Granted these animals were mostly in national parks, but the fact is you can see these creatures outside of parks as well, such as in northern Minnesota.

Here are a few highlights from my recent trip as well as a few from my trip in 2007.

Reed was either afraid of rattlesnakes, or he was disappointed we didn't see any... (Badlands, SD - 2013)

Deer in Ami's backyard (Custer, SD - 2007)

Prairie Dog! (Custer, SD - 2013)

Bison...I just want to cuddle with one! (Custer, SD - 2013)

Pronghorns -- saw lots of these on both trips. Their butts are white and easy to spot (Custer, SD - 2007)

Wild Asses are apparently a thing (Custer, SD - 2007)

Not-so-fearful Chipmunks on our hike to Harney Peak (Custer State Park, SD - 2013)

Bighorn Sheep owning the road (Custer State Park, SD - 2007)

Funny story, after walking out of the visitor's center I said to my friend Randan, "Wow, their  fake deer look quite real..." And his reply, "...Yeaaahhhh...because they are." (Garden of the Gods, CO - 2007)

Chicaree (Rocky Mountain National Park, CO - 2013)

Reed and I had a surprise visitor show up for breakfast (Rocky Mountain National Park, CO  - 2013)

I named our Elk, Missy.

She even smiled for the camera!

Brown Bear just noming away (Yellowstone, WY - 2007)

This moose came walking down the stream just after we crossed (Yellowstone, WY - 2007)

Seeing such animals in their natural settings is a humbling reminder that we are lucky to have them because they simply do not exist in other parts of the world, and that we must consider their well-being too, and not just our own. Hope you all enjoyed the photos and are inspired to get some nature today!

And be sure to stay tuned, I am heading out in two weeks for the Republic of Georgia for the first time! Yay for someplace new!

4371 Miles Away, But Not Far From Home

I am a big Jane Austen fan surprisingly. I find her stories relaxing to read and rather clever. Sometimes while I am traveling I cannot help but recall some of these scenes where friends talk about writing to one another while away on their travels or in a different city for the summer (I found this excellent archive of old correspondences between friends called the Victorian Women Letters Project). It seems so sweet and it often makes me wonder if we have lost the art of letter writing today. Sure, we may send the occasional postcard, but they are often short due to lack of space or sometimes they do not arrive at all (like the batch I actually wrote last year from Vix). With today's technology, is it even necessary to write letters while traveling? If not, are today's technological advancements a good replacement for this old tradition? Do we talk about different things in letters compared to digital technology? Answers to these questions will be different for everyone I think, but I will share my thoughts on the matter.

The world in general is a smaller place. The average person probably knows hundreds of people rather than just a select few from their family or town as was the case during Jane Austen's time. If I had to write hundreds of people while traveling that is all I would be doing. Even if I select people I am in contact with most on a regular basis, it is still a rather high number of people to correspond with. Usually I am not a huge fan of technology and being connected 24/7, but in the case of modern travel, I find it a helpful thing. For a very obvious example, I am able to write about my travels and share my tales of triumph and failures in this blog. I can reach, potentially, an infinite amount of people, so everyone who knows me, or is interested in hearing about my trip, can easily keep up.

Other options include email and Facebook for more personal correspondence. While the blog typically has the highlights or summaries of my travels, I use email and Facebook messages for sending the occasional longer explanation fitting for only one person, a private joke, or just random complaints or embarrassing stories that are just too much for the entire world to see. Even when I am lacking internet access I can still keep in touch with my regular American cellphone. I have AT&T which has a "World Traveler" option which let's me pay a bit extra to use my phone abroad. I can call home and keep in touch easy as that.

All of these features are great, but I have to say that video chat through Skype or Google is by far the best advancement in technology when it comes to travel. You can actually see the other person and can still share a moment or 120 minutes together through the miracle of the internet. If I did not have Skype, I would have missed out on this epic moment of cuteness:

Regal Kitty patiently waiting for his dinner (in Reed's face), just like when I am at home! 

I do not think that it is necessary to write an actual letter while traveling, but I think we certainly make up for this in other ways. Everyone still loves to get letters in the mail I think. It is still just as exciting for me to see I have a new email from a friend or colleague checking in to see how the trip/research is going. In a way, we still talk about the same things people previously talked about in letters, we just have more ways of communicating these ideas. One thing letters cannot replace is seeing a smile from a loved one or hearing your cat purr while you are 4,000+ miles away. Yes, sometimes it is hard to be away for so long from family and friends, but with all this modern technology, sometimes its like I am not even gone...

And probably one of the cutest moments I have ever had on Skype...

The boys trying to figure out this darn technology...

From Paris With Love!

Well, I didn't have internet for a few days and was distracted the rest, but now I'm back for the remainder of my stay in France.

Reed and I met up in Dijon a week ago and drove to Switzerland and Germany, then to eastern France, and arrived yesterday in Paris. We head back home on Wednesday, so I'm not sure if I'll get to write again from France. I figured for this evening I can at least include a link to my photos which I posted on Facebook last night, and if I get around to writing a summary of my past two weeks, then great, but if not, then at least you have these to see what I've been up to!

Bonsoir!