Pagan and World Heritage Armenia

Today is probably our final day trip in Armenia. We are taking a marshrutka (minibus taxi) to visit Geghard Monastery and Garni Pagan Temple. The ride lasts about an hour and costs 250 dram (£0.40) and you find the marshrutka stop next to the Mercedes Benz garage in the Nor Nork part of town, northeast...

The Long Way Round Armenia

My hitchhiker's guide to this beautiful country filled with so many friendly people. This is one of my favourite trips to reminisce about already.Seb and I hitchhiked our way around Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh for around a week. It was awesome! We spent time with so many lovely people and had some really different experiences.Through the...

David Gareji Monastery

This morning I found a blog that mentioned a direct bus to the David Gareji Monastery complex so we've walked to Pushkin Park next to Freedom Square to check with the tourist information centre. I didn't twig that the bus was more of a tour, it's a return journey for 25 Lari (£7.30), but that's...

Arriving in Georgia – a few days around Kutaisi

I'm in Georgia!! I managed to arrange to meet some friends here so the next couple of weeks are with Seb and Emma and involve plenty of hiking, then Seb and I will carry on for another few weeks in Armenia and Azerbaijan. I liked Kutaisi and enjoyed having a few days to explore the...

Kyiv Walking tours and Lavra Monastery

Adam and I did a couple of walking tours in Kyiv, which were good and gave different insights and covered different regions of the city. Kiev or Kyiv? So the BBC and other institutions continue to spell the name of the Ukrainian capital as Kiev. But I choose to type Kyiv because that's how the...