When I was with Mass in York.. Stalin's birth place..I saw a few EU flags with EUMM
I did not realise that following the brief hostilities in 2008, that the EU was still involved in peace keeping
When you drive to Batumi from Tbilisi one passes a few metres from a Georgian check point..a track the leads to a village in S Ossetia.
Both Poti,.the main port, and Gori were occupied by Russian forces in 2008.
11 years on and older Georgians speak Russian, but the young study English.
Russian tourists are welcome, and can serve without a visa, but Georgians need a visa to visit Russia......
When one drives on the highways one sees signs to 'Sukumi' which is in 'Abkhazia' ..Russia's Kosovo...
Russian regards this as an independent state and one cannot drive to Sukhumi...referred to as Sukhum by Russians and Abkhazians.
War is sad..
It would be great to be able to drive up the Black Sea coast to Sochi..
This is the mess created by Stalin...who put Abkhazians is Georgia SSR and split Ossetia.
I am fascinated by places like these.....from Ireland, Cyprus and this region of the Caucasus... Centuries of constant movement of borders still goes on....((
All the people are lovely and I can see the deep roots many Georgians have in SW Russia..especially cuisine.
Until you visit a place..One never really can feel what you see on a map.
Russia is less than an hour's drive up the road.. Armenia the same time to the east... Azerbaijan is close and I walked to the Turkish border, near Batumi and saw a sign for Tehran..approx -600 mil...
Georgia is incredibly beautiful and the food wine...AMAZING..
I can even recognise the letters in their alphabet.36 characters...
I hope it will not be too long before we return to explore more
Maxx has chosen well