Tblisi, Georgia, a city of contrasts

Tblisi viewed from Mtatsminda Park

We arrived in Tblisi on a short Azerbaijan Airlines flight from Baku. The Tblisi International Airport is not big and we quickly collected our luggage and summoned a Bolt car. We ended up using Bolt several times in Tblisi, always with very reasonable prices and typically short wait times. We knew prior to our arrival in Tblisi that massive protests had been going on in the city over objections to a proposed anti-free-journalism law. I messaged our hotel from the Baku airport to verify that the street our hotel was on (the same avenue on which the Georgian Parliament sits) was still open. Thankfully, the hotel confirmed that it was so I could reassure our Bolt driver who at first told me the road was closed. read more

A Photo of Baku leads to 12 Nights in the Caucasus

This photo is my own, but similar to the one that originally caught my attention.

I can’t say how many times an interesting photo has caught my eye and led me to plan yet another trip, but Baku, Azerbaijan, was definitely one of those times. I don’t even remember where I first saw that intriguing image of a classic Islamic medina (“old town”) with three flame-shaped skyscrapers looming in the background, but I do know I started researching straight away. Baku. Even the name was unfamiliar and intriguing. Azerbaijan I knew nothing about. “The Caucasus” for me was a region usually in the news because of some conflict involving Russia and/or Turkey. I clearly needed to know more. read more