Time ticks away in Georgia

Hello everyone

Things continue here in Georgia, most days being filled with the English teaching and school matters. The weather here is diabolical - There was a day a couple of weeks ago when the weather in Batumi closed over something fierce and well, there was sleet and hail a plenty. And then some snow. The mountains surrounding Jikhanjuri (my village) are covered in snow. It's rather pretty.

This week I took a chance to visit the second biggest city in Georgia, Kutaisi. It's a pretty nice place all told, much nicer than Batumi or Kobuleti, with museums and statues. Unfortunately I visited on St George's day - a major holiday here as you can imagine. The main church was in use and the museums were closed. The weather was awesome on Tuesday when I left, but on Wednesday the weather was again freezing, sleet and snow.

Inside the church at Motsameta

Not far from Kutaisi is the church of Motsameta, set in a beautiful valley even with the bad weather it was clear that this was a special place.

Valley at Motsameta.

 Just a small church perched above a raging river and below snow capped hills. It was a 20 minute walk from the main road, which would be awesome - in sunshine. But the low clouds in the valley still made it quite a beautiful place to visit.

Interesting wall in central Kutaisi.

 Back in Kutaisi I enjoyed wifi at McDonald's before it disappeared. Ahh Georgia... reliable electricity? What was that again? The weather remained miserable and it took me two hours to dry out. I did enjoy my hot hotel room though and something a little different from the beans and borscht I get at home. No problems though - the food is great and plentiful with my host family, no cause to complain, I have had awesome hospitality here.

Houses struggle to stay up on the banks of the river in Kutaisi.

 It's hard to believe my time is running out. I realise that I have become pretty close with my host family. Now that winter is upon us the downstairs with the fire is much warmer than my room with its little heater. But I am surviving most nights warm enough, however Monday night the power was down (as is often the fashion) and things weren't so warm.

Time is almost up not just for Georgia but for the whole Trip 2011. A couple of weeks back I went to a wedding too so been able to enjoy some of the culture here.

Batumi covered in hail and snow,

Wedding celebrations Georgian style.

Trip to Tbilisi

Dear avid followers and those who just happened to visit this page by chance.

I visited Tbilisi, the Georgian capital, a couple of weeks ago. Strange to take a break from the daily routine of teaching here in Georgia which challenges and is rewarding too. But I have a series of photos needing explanations here for you!

A bride in Tbilisi.

Tbilisi is really quite an attractive city. The population of Georgia is around 4.7 million people, so the capital was never going to be a huge metropolis or even Almaty-sized, but with around a million people (so I am told) it is definitely the capital, where much is possible that isn’t in other places around the country.

Metro station - the escalators. 

 I must confess that staying in a hotel with a proper warm shower with actually water pressure was one of the highlights, as was the wifi. Tbilisi is not a flat place at all. The city follows the river Mtkvari as it winds its way through the Georgian hills. It stretches up to the top of the hills where castles, churches, a TV tower and theme park watch over the city’s life.

Freedom Square is one of the main centres of town, where celebrations the week before had been going on with the French President Nicholas Sarkozy making a special visit. Georgia sees itself as part of Europe, which according the map.. isn’t quite where it sits. It seems to have desires to join the EU at some point.

Freedom Square

The castles on the hills are typical of Georgia. I visited the Narikala Fortress, mostly in ruins but when I was there the church inside was hosting a bit of wedding. Or they were just there for photographs, I wasn’t quite sure.

Bride of Peace

 The stylish glass bridge, which lights up at night, is called the Bridge of Peace. It’s certainly one for the camera. On the other side of the bridge is a park and there was much activity going on. I also visited an amazing synagogue and a couple of churches in the old town. The next day, after getting some important business out of the way, I visited the amazing Sameba cathedral. A modern construction conforming to older orthodox designs. A very peaceful place to spend a bit of time – I was there for an hour or so, mostly due to the pelting hail and rain that I encountered.

 

Sameba Cathedral.

The journey back home to my village was a serious one. Nearly six hours in a marshrutka – a minibus like the ones in the ‘Stans, through the mountains winding around. Passing on blind turns – well of course they do. Since then I’ve had just over a week more of teaching. The classes are sometimes a challenge. But the kids are great! More soon!

Teaching it up in Georgia

Sorry for the long delay in posting folks, but yes I am still alive and have now been an English teacher for three weeks.I am teaching in the small Georgian village of Jikhanjali, up in the hills of the Western Adjara Region. Looking one way from my house you can see snow-topped mountains, the other side reveals the Black Sea.

Students from Monday English Club.

 I am living with a wonderful host family who feed me regularly. The house is a thirty minute walk from the Public School where I am working which is good on a sunny day and less good when it is pouring down rain. The region gets a lot of rain too. It is hilly and very fertile and green. I co-teach Grades one through to six. The children are fantastic - they love to learn! They are keen even though this is the first time that English has been taught at this school.

Main Street, Jikhanjali

 Hence it is all very basic stuff, we are about half-way through the alphabet and so far lessons are mostly vocab based. It's funny to see the kids struggle with the concept of hello/goodbye. We often get 'Goodbye!' as we enter the class room and 'Hello' as we leave.
In addition to classes I have taken it upon myself to take an 'English Club'. It has been divided into three groups, one for years 7-10, and two for 3-6 where I am building on the stuff in class and mostly doing songs and games. Classes are mostly repetition based, so it's good for the children to have a less strict environment. Two weeks ago I had 36 children in one English Club. Although the whole school wanted to be part I had to limit the numbers which was very hard. I found one class of 36 just to be too many, so that was divided into two which have swelled to 20-22 now. But instead of an incredible amount of noise, with a little shuffling of the students they were quiet and extremely attentive and keen.

View of the hill opposite where I am living.

The years 7-10 are a different proposition because they have no English class at all, so I plan to build their base knowledge for a few weeks before starting a couple of projects. The school is basic yet has a computer room, internet and a projector. On the other hand the printer has been out of ink now for a couple of weeks and their are no musical instruments to aid the music teacher. The teachers themselves are all keen to learn English and seem a committed tight team.
I am off today to Tbilisi to get a look at the sights over the weekend. Back to school on Tuesday, which I am enjoying immensely. Stay tuned for a report on my visit to Tbilisi early to mid next week!

Putting it out there Almost in Print!

 Dear followers of 'The Greater World',
As I mentioned a few or many posts ago, I was venturing into the world of e-publishing. Finally, I have managed to get a book up on Amazon for Kindle, and I thought I'd you something about it.

Hustle and Bustle of Delhi

 Before I started to blog, back in 2004, I set off with a mission to make it from Dhaka in Bangladesh to Dakar in Senegal - 'Dhaka to Dakar'. I am publishing in 3 stages the story of my incredible journey from Malaysia to the start line in Dhaka, across Asia, through Europe and then West Africa.

Kids in Darjeeling, India

 Each segment is pretty weighty on its own. The first book - 'Dhaka to Dakar - Journey Across Asia' is now available for Kindle (and devices which take Kindle, Kindle for PC).
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B005MJ0RKM

Enchanting Esfahan, Iran

 For those not up with Kindle, it's a device sold by Amazon allowing people to purchase books and read them from the Kindle itself. You can change the font size to help with reading, and books are downloaded straight to the Kindle after purchase and it can be used most places on Earth as long as there's some sort of mobile phone signal available.

My team on the Kyhber Pass, Pakistan

So why not start with my ebook? 'Journey Across Asia' sees me venture to Malaysia, Singapore, Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, Iran and Turkey. I take in some amazing sights such as the Ganges in Varanasi, Uch Shariff in Pakistan, Persepolis in Iran and the Gallipoli Peninsula in Turkey. Photos are included.
Will I die of Delhi belly in... Delhi? End up married in Iran? Will I survive long bus rides across the Balochistan desert from Pakistan to Iran? Who will I meet?
Dear readers of 'The Greater World', I thank you for your support.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B005MJ0RKM

Normal service will resume from Georgia in the next few days!

The next part of the Adventure - Georgia

Howdy folks, I am writing again from Tbilisi, the capital of the Republic of Georgia. I may have mentioned its location before but for those who missed it, it is to the east of the Black Sea, above Turkey and below Russia in the Caucasus region of the world.

I am here to teach English - I guess I should learn how to speak and write it sometime soon! On Friday the organisation - TLG (Teach & Learn Georgia) who organised this exciting opportunity will be sending me out  to an area called Kobuleti, to the village of Jikhanjuri. As far as I can see, it has a famous chapel and that's all the information I could glean from the internet.

One of the many castles in Tbilisi

 I arrived a week ago now and we have had a week of orientation since that arrival. Tbilisi is a very pleasant capital, and I am reminded a bit of my time in Central Asian capitals with a little bit of Luxembourg thrown in - lots of rocky hills and castles here to boot! However I have not got down to any exploration of this city as yet, save that for a long weekend later in my time here.

Road on the way to Batumi

 We are a group of 53 English Teachers - some, like myself, will be teaching for the first time. The majority are from the States, and in this group I am the only Australian. The orientation has been long and tiring. We have been given Georgian lessons and to be honest, not much has stuck for me. It's not easy and it's all so compressed. The days start at 9am and continue until 730pm or later, and when you are sitting and listening for most of that time, the back gets sore and the eyes start to droop somewhat. Who knows what I will find on Friday when I travel to Jikhanjuri? Outdoor toilets are a real possibility and the connection to the internet... well who knows how it will be.

Opera House, Batumi

We did have a treat though, we were taken (plus many other volunteers already teaching here) to Batumi in the west of Georgia to see a modern opera - 'Keto & Kobe', the story of two lovers who overcame the odds. The colourful and dramatic show was housed in the seemingly new (well seemingly unfinished, what with wires hanging out everywhere) Batumi Opera House.
If that wasn't exciting enough, the Prince of Monaco and the President of Georgia, Mikheil Saakashvili, were also in attendance! No they didn't have their own box, in fact they sat in the fourth row with some volunteers only a seat or two away! The bus ride showcased how beautiful this mountainous country is as well, although at 7-8 hours each way and only one night in Batumi it was rather exhausting to say the least!

So this new adventure lies ahead for me. What will it bring? A lot of challenges that's for sure. I will be teaching primary kids in a small village, and there's not much more that I know for sure at this stage. Stay posted!

Na na na na Nagoya

So here I am writing from Tbilisi, Georgia. What? Georgia? How did I get here? I have no idea life is strange and crazy and involves far too many flights.

I am way behind in my blogging, around two weeks. I traveled by bus from Yokohama. On the way I managed to get this below shot of Mount Fuji. It's the best shot I have and no, it's not great, especially after visiting Japan twice this year,

Mt Fuji from the bus.

The thing is nearly 4000 metres high and yet I've only seen it as a silohette. In my defence there were a lot of clouds this time around in Japan. I visited Nagoya also whilst in Japan this time.

Town Hall, Nagoya.

It's a pleasant sort of place with the usual temples and one grand castle that is not to be missed. The castle is mostly a reconstruction of the one on the site that was destroyed in the Second World War, although parts of the walls and smaller turrets still stand from longer ago. They are presently reconstructing the original entrance and the work can be seen where you visit the castle. Apparently it is still seven years away from completing, the woodwork on the rooves is intricate and quite amazing.

Restoration work at Nagoya Castle.

Inside the castle are many levels. From the top you get a great view over Nagoya, the other floors have an interesting museum spread out over them with traditional rooms set up for the tourist to view. One staircase is just for going up, the other for going down. As the photo shows, it's a stunning building on the outside. The curvy rooves are a feature, as are two gold dolphins on top.

Nagoya Castle.

 Also in Nagoya was the simply brilliant temple 'Kannon Osu', somehow the surrounding buildings have been built to connect in a way to it. It's grand with a serious staircase leading up to its quieter shrine for prayer. It's also right next to a long covered shopping strip, which is the place in town to get all manner of Japanese sweets and cakes.

Kannon Osu, Nagoya.

 Back in Yokohama I took one half to see the moving walkway, which extends from one of the metro stations to the Landmark Tower, the tallest building in Yokohama. I visited the Port Museum, where I learnt a lot about the history of Yokohama from the time when Japan started to open to world for trade to the present day. A few centuries back now, Japan was a completely closed country. Thanks to the arrival of a fleet of American ships to Yokohama in 1858 under the leadership of Commodore Matthew Perry, a treaty was signed and the port started to grow. It was devastated by an earthquake in the early 1900s, but bounced back. After World War Two a lot of Americans lived in Yokohama. Nowadays it still a bustling centre of imports/exports and has plenty of industry too.

The Nippon-Maru.

The Nippon-Maru, a retired navel training ship, is attached to the museum. It's a perfect museum piece which allows you to see how the ship functioned, where people slept, how they slept, ate, cooked and lived. A worthwhile museum to visit.


But NOW I am in Tbilisi, the capital of Georgia, a former USSR state located between Turkey and Russia. Why I am here and what I've been doing... that will be the next blog in a day or two! Stay TUNED!

Journey (back) to Japan

Now I know my journey is just getting confusing now, and has not been helped by lack of recent blogs, but right now I am in Japan, tomorrow I leave for Georgia and my last post was about France.

Yokohama.

So let's go back three weeks. If your time machine is not working, best just to read I guess. From Lyon I went south to a place called Carcassonne for two nights where it was 39 degrees and I did very little. To Paris the next day, flight the day after. Five hours in Kuala Lumpur, a night in Singapore, flight via Hong Kong to Tokyo. Yes, that was not the easiest and most logical of routes, enough said.

 I have spent most of my time in Yokohama. The weather has been hot and sticky every day, but hey, I've survived. Yokohama seems a pleasant enough city with a fair ground and large Ferris wheel and plenty of shopping. I have also managed a trip to Nagoya (more on that in the next post), into Tokyo, which is only a short distance away and to Enoshima and Kamakura.

 Enoshima is a little island on the east coast with a tower on top, escalators that take you to the top and you have to pay for (!!!) and also some interesting caves containing many religious statues and the like. Well worth a little visit. Kamakura is an old capital with amazing old temple I visited.

Through the cave mouth, Enoshiba.

 In Tokyo I visited the Senso-ji Temple, and clearly was not the only person. It lives in Akasaka, an area of Tokyo, and people from everywhere come to visit it. The streets around the temple have more touristy shops that I could imagine in one area, but the temple itself was rather awesome, with some of the best giant red lanterns you could want to see.

Red Lantern hanging in front of the Senso-ji.

 Finally in Tokyo, with the Sony Building shut on the day I wanted to visited, I went to the Shinjuku NS Building. It has an amazing atrium and I took the lift up to the 29th floor to see some amazing views across Tokyo. As it was free, I highly recommend it! More on Nagoya soon!

View from the Shinjuku NS building.

Relaxing a La France!!

My sojourn over in Bavaria, where I visited a food festival in a small village, watched some beach volleyball and ate cake, I had an interesting journey to France.

I took the train to Augsburg where I picked up a rideshare. People put a message online about where they are going and when, and if it suits you you pay to join them. Far cheaper than a train, this ride took me to Geneva in about six hours and I let some interesting people on the way. From there it was a 30 minute journey with my friends to a small town called Publier on Lac Léman, in the Savoie Region of France. It was four countries in one day, and quite the trek.

Lac Léman at sunset.

 I had a wonderful days and enjoyed some unexpected hospitality. Tried the local cheese, the local fish, the local mini-golf course with little luck. One day I was taken up to the nearby mountains where it was trés beau, and there were lots of goats and people with bmxes. The chairlifts had an attachment and they would take them up the moutain and ride them down.

Mountain village around 30 minutes from the lake.

 We also visited a quaint lakeside village full of flowers called Yvoire. A very beautiful little town indeed. The whole region is beautiful. I didn't get up to much else and yesterday moved on to Lyon. It's hot here, the European summer has finally arrived. But the trip is about to enter a new phase. More of that after Lyon....

Lac Léman, at a town called Yvoire

Colognee - the Dom, the art, the past.

Wilkommen to Germany! It's been a little while since I blogged and I apologise. I am on sabaitcal this week in the Bavarian countryside you see, but I did visit Cologne last week and recognise that I have an obligation to blog! 

On a more serious note, it appears I left the UK just before all hell broke loose. As an outside it is hard to comprehend how this just broke out. I know the government isn't so popular and has been making a lot of spending cuts, but from my understand the employment situation, at the moment, wasn't too bad. So now it seems a state of lawlessness has arrived and well, I have a lot of friends in the UK. I can only hope they stay safe.

Cologne is an interesting place. It is without doubt a big city, and along with that comes all the things that big cities contain. I was especially taken aback by the homelessness I saw there. Europe is struggling at the moment, but Germany is supposedly doing the best. So it was a little surprising and confronting because it was very clear and visable in Cologne. 

Typical square in Colgne.

 On the other side of the coin, it's a city with a lot to see and do. Many churches, inlcuding the 'Dom', one of the tallest churches on the planet if I'm not mistaken. Then there are lots of little squares and places for a meal out in the sun (ok, not so much when I was there, out in the rain?). Many people walk the street with a beer in their hand, this seems almost the norm in Cologne, even at 930am. There is no law against it.
So plenty of tourists in Cologne, there is also a series of Galleries and Museums as well to keep anyone interested for days.

The face of Colgne, the exterior to the Dom.

 And here we have the grandest of all churches and attractions in Cologne, the 'Dom'. The present building dates back to around the 12th century and has a lot of medieval and gothis influences. And it is really really tall! Inside are some beautiful stained glass windows, altars, small chapels dotting the far end, an organ that perches precariously some eight to ten metres in the air above the pews. I did a self guided tour and that took me over an hour. There were throngs and throngs of tourists yes, but wow, what a building!

Amazing windows in the Dom.

 Other churches were interesting too, including and espcially that of St Gerome, a Catholic church. There also is a grand bridge over the Rhine River. This was totally destroyed during World War II. The bombings devasted Cologne, however they dilberately kept the Dom untouched.

Bridge over the Rhine.

I also visited a museum for ecclesiastical artifacts including windows and statues. Very interesting, as was a gallery/museum to KatheKollwitz. Her art is a collection of sculpture, charcoal and etchings, with a very sad, sombre nature to them. Much of the work was done between the two world wars, and is very bleak. The lack of colour does not help, but at the same time her expression of pain and loss is very very moving. I was very glad to see this exhibition, I felt a connection not experienced with much of the modern art I have viewed on this trip. The time between wars was esepcially bleak for Germany, and this is certainly shown in Kollwitz's moving works.

El de Haus - basement/prison area in the Museum to Documet National Socialism.

Finally I visited something even darker, the Museum to Document National Socialism, or to the time of the Nazi Party. It is housed in a former gestapo building and prison, and the cells are as they were in the late 1930s through to the end of the Second World War. The prisoners' writings are still on the walls and translations are on display, it's very well done, creepy, moving, and add your own superlative here.
Upstairs is almost exclusively in German and documents the rise of the Nazi party and life in Germany under them. So with out the translation a fair bit is lost, the provided pamphlet was only basic.  Confronting but worth a visit. Full credit to Germany, they don't ignore their past and pretend it didn't happen.

So now only a short time in Europe is left, on Sunday I travel to France. Just over a week there and then I will be returning to Japan, so stay tuned!

Lovely, Lush Luxembourg

Hello folks.
I am writing from Cologne, Germany... Yes I do get around. But here I am to tell you about my time in Luxembourg, where I have just spent the last three days.

Aqueducts used to bring water, now trains to Luxembourg.

 I arrived in Luxembourg on the first of August after my Eurostar journey from early morning London. I was lucky enough to be the only person boarding the train to get my bags fully searched, and nearly missed the thing because of it. Still, soon I was on the 300kmph Eurostar hurtling towards the continent. I remember we entered the chunnel but there was no exciting fanfare as I imagined or an announcement that we were entering it, it just started. Then I woke up five minutes before Brussels!
After that it was three hours to Luxembourg I think. The capital was built on top of a giant rock in 963 AD and since then thez have burrowed into the rock to create tunnels which I visited called casemates. A small section is open and there are a lot of tunnels.
There's a few nice churches as well to visit and a plethora of museums and galleries. I took a Luxembourg Card and for 10 Euros could enter as many as I had time for in one day. The History of the City of Luxembourg Museum is one, that like some of its counterparts is built in a modernised building, that also goes into the rock. It showcases the city, as well it might with that title. The view across Luxembourg, across the valley is breathtaking. The rail bridges are very long and have a Roman-aqueduct design to them so they really suit the city.

Castle at Vianden.

 On the second day I ventured out with some friends I made in Vietnam (and then again bumped into them by pure coincidence in China) to other towns in Luxembourg. At Vianden is a stunning castle on a hill which was chok-full of people revelling in a medieval festival. The countryside is also gorgeous and perfect for a picnic. Then in a place called Remich it was time for mini-golf!

View of casemates, Luxembourg city.

As for the copius hours I spent looing at modern art... well I'm not sure I gained anything but an increased dislike for it! soooo pretentious! Someone puts a postcard over an old photo of Humphrey Bougart and that is apaprently art? Pish and Tosh I say. And galleries pay for that sort of thing! Then there was a 15 minute video entitled '15 minutes in Busan' as one guy is filmed, poorly, being put into various statue positions by two othes.

They are taking the piss right??

BUT Luxembourg is a little gem. That's all I can say. If medieval villages and cities is your thing, and you are running out of European countries you haven't yet been too, it might be for you. I think it's often over looked, and don't think it should be.

London - The Royals, Westminster and one last but of Geeking Out!

Well folks, I have around 12 hours left in Great Britain. It's funny, I have had 24 days here (not including the two before I went to Cameroon) yet I write from you so tired and this endless feeling of moving dragging me down. What to make of this place? It feels somehow different to the previous three visits. Maybe it's because I am tried and my shoulder hurts, I don't know. I arrived yesterday afternoon, and after catching up with an old friend I did some sight-seeing today.

Doctor Who Experience.

 I am styaing at a pretty grotty hostel all said, and sleep last night and I had about 3 hours sleep in total. However I am more concerned about tonight as I have to rise at 4.45am, around an hour after I finally fell asleep last night. Hopefully the others in my dorm will be quieter and less... weird tonight.
It was only one person really.

Ok the Doctor Who Experience. Told to go and see it by a few people I did. And as a fan of the original series more than the new one I felt let down. There is a sort of interactive mini-theme park section where Matt Smith has recorded video and you go from TARDIS console room to Dalek Motehrship and other places. I guess that's what the 18-20 pound entrance is for. Yes that's right. This had something to do with my dissatisfaction.
However for kids I imagine it's a complete hoot, and there is a couple of things from the first 26 years of the programme, but it's mostly based on the 2010 series with Matt Smith. What can I say? I'm a hard man to please! Madame Tussaud's is almost 30 pounds! The UK really fleeces people for any sort of tourist attraction.

Buckingham Palace.

 I walked around in London for a bit and saw Westminster Abbey, very impressive and gothic indeed, but not open on a Sunday. Then a walk around St James Park - 24 degrees today so everyone out in the best weather I have had all the time I have been here. Nearby was Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament, again brilliant buildings steeped in English History. Then to Buckingham Palace, lots of tourists everywhere. Oh the Throngs! It seems the biggest groups here are Spanish and Italian. Oxford street as busy as I remember it - more so. Whew time to get my tired carcus back here to my grotty hostel.

Westminster Abbey.

Tomorrow, 620am, the Eurostar. I hit the continent! I am making my way to Brussels and then to Luxembourg tomorrow... back on trains, which I am very happy ab out. So, until my next blog...