Landing in Georgia I couldn’t wait to get out there.
There are times when you land on a plane in a place and it’s business as usual — you stay in your seat when everyone is jostling for position in the aisle, pulling down their bags in a hurry as if they can go somewhere before the door opens. Sometimes you land in a place and you just want to get out there — you find yourself standing with the other idiots in the aisle, jostling for position, trying to get off the plane nanoseconds before the people behind you. Arriving in Tbilisi I found myself among the later group.
I’ve never been to Georgia before — this extremely complex country that sits in probably the most ethnically diverse corridor in human history. The Caucasus — the area between the Black and Caspian Seas — is one of humanity’s dominant historic superhighways. Peoples from all across Asia, the Middle East, and Europe have used it as a land bridge to access regions beyond their geographic spheres. Including a curious group of milk drinkers who took over much of the known world because their armies had a mobile source of food.
As successive movements of people came through here over the ages they’ve littered their people at every step, like seeds dropping out of a hole in a pocket. Some of those seeds grew up into little communities who can still be found today where they were deposited — many being very different than those on the next valley beyond.
This is no different today — with Turkey, the Middle East, Russia, and Central Asia encroaching on all sides.
This is a fascinating, complex part of the world, and I couldn’t wait to get out there.
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About the Author: VBJ
I am the founder and editor of Vagabond Journey. I’ve been traveling the world since 1999, through 91 countries. I am the author of the book, Ghost Cities of China and have written for The Guardian, Forbes, Bloomberg, The Diplomat, the South China Morning Post, and other publications. VBJ has written 3723 posts on Vagabond Journey. Contact the author.
VBJ is currently in: New York City
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