Lost on the Way to Armenia

 It was time to move on to Armenia.  We had planned to spend more time in Georgia exploring the country but, fate had other plans.  As you already are likely aware from previous posts, I have an Armenian heritage on my father's side.  My grandparents arrived in the USA as a result of deportations from their Armenian lands in Turkey which left them country-less in their home lands.  The Armenian government has been actively assisting those who were displaced by offering repatriation to Armenia.  I took advantage of this program by visiting the Armenian Embassy in Washington, DC back in December of 2025 and applying.  While we were in Sivas, Turkey, I received an email notification from the offices in Yerevan that I had been given citizenship to Armenia.    With this exciting information, I realized that getting my passport and citizenship papers was of the utmost importance going forward.  Knowing this, we began an accelerated trip o...

 Tbilisi, Georgia. I had heard it's a nice place, but wow. Affordable, modern, historic, eclectic, creative, artistic...What's not to love? The country is bordered by Russia, Azerbaijan, Armenia, Turkey and the Black Sea. The Caucus mountains dominate the border with Russia, all the way to sea level. There's glaciers and palm trees, all in a country a little larger than Massachusetts. I'm starting to really like this place.  Other countries erect monuments to soldiers, generals, military leaders. In Tbilisi's parks we find Rustavel, a poet. Lado Guliashvili, a painter. Giorgi Chanturia, politician and proponent of non violence. Sulkhan Orbeliani, story teller, teacher, politician.  Seeing Soviet era infrastructure and architecture is to be expected. Blocky, gray, concrete, cheaply built, often decaying. They ruled here in the 1920s. But there is also much wonderful, classic architecture, with ornate balcony railings, caricatures car...