Latest Articles
- $7,035.57 = How much it costs to travel around the world through nine countries over five and a half months
- Revisited: How to pack for an independent traveler with no set return date
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- Beijing to Ulaanbataar Mongolia: The nitty gritty of independent travel
- How to get Chinese and Russian visas as a United States citizen: My experience
- Writing assignment: "Inside The Candelaria Festival of Puno, Peru"
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Latest Destinations
- Romania: WWOOFing in Transylvania and back to the US
- Bulgaria: Nice cities, tipped off about an isolated beach, and getting perspective from a prostitute's cigarette burns
- Istanbul, and a few tips on curing impotency from the Hittites
- Giant carved heads, incredible valleys, camping on the Mediterranean, and a heavy dose of Roman ruins
- Lessons from a Kurdish-Swede rapper about Kurdistan, and finally getting my hands on an AK-47
(The Republic of) Georgia
Flight over the North Caucasus mountains to Mestia (Svaneti) from Tbilisi, Georgia
Written by Tyler Cole | 14 June 2011
Flight over the North Caucasus mountains to Mestia (Svaneti) from Tbilisi, Georgia from Tyler Cole on Vimeo.
More about my visit to Georgia: http://bit.ly/kSqyl1
After learning about a $40, one-hour flight to the difficult to access town of Mestia in the northwestern region of Georgia tucked away in the Caucasus mountains, I abandoned all intention of getting there by minibus and bought a seat on the next available flight. Luckily, there was amazing weather over the mountains and the views were stunning. Towards the end of the video I have a few shots if Ushguli, considered the highest inhabited town in "Europe", located about 45 km and three hours from Mestia over bone-jarring roads. The nice old lady you see toward the end was the caretaker of a 9th century church in the area with some incredibly ancient frescoes.
(The Republic of) Georgia: So beautiful it makes me angry
Written by Tyler Cole | 31 May 2011
After leaving Kazakhstan, I met with Anna in Tbilisi (capital of Georgia) and plan to travel for a month or so together through Georgia, Armenia, and Turkey.
She arrived from a flight to Istanbul to Tbilisi by overnight bus; her ride seemed eventful, including an instance where someone was shot in front of her at a bus stop and a huge fight broke out. The gunshot victim was bleeding out while the Turkish men fought, and because of the fighting the ambulance wasn’t even able to take the dying man to a hospital. The bus left before the situation was resolved, although I think with a few less passengers. Anna was unharmed and kept safe.
Compared to that, my flight from Kazakhstan was uneventful with a layover in Ukraine. I got mild amusement by peculiar word usage in an English-language newspaper from Kiev and a brilliant article that listed the number one potential use for Chernobyl in the future to be a nuclear waste disposal site.
For the sake of time I combined all the cities we visited in Georgia into one post, with pictures after each city. So here we go:
