Another epic journey has come to a close and we are awaiting our homebound flight in yet another airport lounge. We are the last of our little group to leave Armenia so we have had the day free, which has given us plenty of time to talk about what we have seen and learned over…

                         On the seventeenth day of the seventh month, the ark came to rest on the mountains of Ararat. ~~Genesis 8:4   Mount Ararat, in the Eastern Anatolian Region of Turkey, is revered by Armenians the world over as sacred and as the site…

April 24, 1915 was a very dark day for the Armenians of what is today eastern Turkey. There had been rising resentment of the Christian Armenians by the Young Turk government before and during World War I. For centuries, the Christian Armenians had been part of the Ottoman Empire inhabiting Eastern Anatolia. The Armenians had…

  The wine world has definitely acknowledged that Georgia is the official birthplace of wine, so we were quite excited to get to the epicenter of viniculture in this fascinating country. The region of Kakheti is ground zero for Georgia’s industry, so a visit to that region was imperative. The road to Kakheti was flanked…

It’s not often that a hotel inspires me to write about it, but the Stamba is just one of those hotels. Located in old Tbilisi, Georgia, it is housed in a former Soviet publishing house; it’s a great example of Soviet architecture. The first Communist newspaper in Georgia was published in this location. The decor…

The Khachapuri Index: It’s a genius way of describing something in terms that all Georgians can understand and relate to their life. All Georgians know and love khachapuri. It’s the national dish. Georgians eat it at home, they eat it on the street, they eat it in restaurants. If they don’t personally bake it, they…

  “A single death is a tragedy; a million deaths is a statistic.” ~~ Joseph Stalin Ioseb Besarionis dze Jughashvili was born in Gori, Georgia in December of 1878. At the time, Gori was part of the Russian Empire. The little kid from a poor family was nicknamed “Soso.” He went on to have more…

  “He was a bold man who ate the first oyster.” It is anybody’s guess exactly many times we have all heard that famous quote from Jonathan Swift. I think another person who deserves a bit of credit for boldness is the person who looked inside a dead sturgeon and, upon seeing all those eggs,…

Probably few people are aware of the connection between the Nobel brothers and Azerbaijan, but it is strong and it is fascinating. Incidentally, it is worth noting that more than one Nobel had prizes given in his name. Ludvig and Emmanuel ((Ludvig’s son) also had prizes bearing their names. The Ludvig Nobel Prize was actually…

Just imagine being Marco Polo visiting strange and wonderful lands all along the Silk Road. The amazing things he saw surely shocked the average European and left many people skeptical of his writings. His first glimpse of Azerbaijan’s Fire Mountain had to be quite the sight for him; it’s one of those places you have…