Monasteries

Cool libraries in Prague

Theological Hall, Strahov Library.

Although I had already been to Prague twice there were several places we visited this trip that I had not been to before. When googling a few days before our arrival I came across a recommendation to see a few libraries in Prague. I wasn’t sure what to expect but decided it sounded like something a bit different to the usual churches and castles. First up was a visit to the Klementinum complex. The Klementinum complex includes the Mirror Chapel, Baroque Library Hall, Meridian […]

Kakheti – Georgia’s Beautiful Wine Region

Alaverdi Monastery, Kakheti

Along with beautiful snowy mountains, vineyards and friendly Georgians, Kakheti is home to a few interesting monasteries. I’ve mentioned one already in the workaway post. On our last day at the Sanavardo Wine Hostel (workaway place), we went with our lovely host Ucha to Nekresi monastery a bit beyond Kvareli. It was positioned on a hill and the only access was by the monastery bus which went up the steep one lane road. A church has been here since the 4th century! One part […]

Workaway at a Wine Hostel, Georgia

A week spent in the stunning wine region of Kakheti, helping out at a wine hostel was just fantastic. We had missed the wine harvest by a few weeks so there weren’t any wine-related things to do (aside from drinking the wine) but we kept busy with various other tasks. Ucha was our host, a young Georgian guy with fantastic English and a relaxed and friendly personality. He opened up his home (which he shared with his father) to many travellers throughout the year […]

Vardzia

Vardzia Cave City

Vardzia is listed as one of the highlights of Georgia in our guidebook. We made it here on our second trip to Georgia, in October. Basing ourselves in Akhaltsikhe, we got a driver for the day to take us to the old cave city and other spots along the way. Although it is only 60km to Vardzia we spent an entire day away. The journey from Akhaltsikhe is along the Mtkvari River and the scenery was just gorgeous with canyons, green valleys and also […]

Akhaltsikhe & Georgian Food

Rabati Fortress, Akhaltsikhe

We took a marshutka from Kutaisi to Akhaltsikhe and when we got off we were admiring the cars set up as hardware shops and were trying to work out which way to go to get to our hotel when a bustling woman approached us offering accommodation at her guesthouse. We had already booked a room a hotel so politely declined her offer. Not giving up she offered home cooked meals and a husband who could drive us to Vardzia and other places of interest […]

Kutaisi, Georgia

Wizz Air flies in and out of Kutaisi from all over Europe for very few euros so it’s likely the budget traveller to Georgia will fly via this city rather than Tbilisi. Our first visit to Georgia saw us finish in Kutaisi where we then flew to Warsaw. Our second visit had us arrive in Kutaisi from Munich and leave from there to Budapest.  Kutaisi it turns out is more than just a place for budget airline arrivals and departures. The town has quite […]

Last day in Armenia – Debed Canyon

Impressive frescoes in the ruins

We stayed in Vanadzor for two nights with a guy who is also involved in the ARK Armenia organisation we helped out with in Kapan. We arrived after our Lake Sevan trip and the following day we were off exploring again, this time hitch-hiking and on buses. Our target was the dramatic and beautiful Debed Canyon and a few monasteries there. Our attempts at hitch-hiking out of town didn’t last long as a very crowded mini-van bus came along and we jumped in that. […]

Lake Sevan Sights

Sevanavank Monastery, Lake Sevan, Armenia

Our final trip from Yerevan was via Lake Sevan to Vanidzor. We used the services of Artyom, our driver from Yerevan who took us on our two wonderful daytrips there. He was pleasant, a good driver and was set very reasonable prices. This time he’d leave us in Vanidzor instead of taking us back to Yerevan at the end of the day. Lake Sevan is set 1900m above sea level and covers 940 sq km making it one of the largest freshwater high altitude […]

Daytripping from Yerevan

Garni Temple

Armenians have a pretty cool alphabet. Created in 405 CE by Mesrop Mashtots, a linguist and church leader, it originally had 36 letters and now has 39. Aside from a letter which resembles U and another one O most of the letters are completely unfamiliar to me. On the occasion of the alphabet’s 1600th birthday, in 2005, a series of 39 giant carved letters were strategically placed near Mashtots’ final resting place. We happened to drive past this place on the first of two […]

Armenian Stonehenge & Monasteries; Tatev to Yerevan.

After a lovely introduction to Armenia, workawaying in Kapan, we were off exploring on our own. First up was our visit to Tatev Monastery. Tatev Monastery sits on the edge of a plateau overlooking a deep gorge and many hills. Despite the fact it rained and was misty when we were there we got glimpses of the dramatic views . The monastery complex is from the 9th century. Armenians are very proud of their Christian heritage. It was pointed out to us on several […]