Hi,

I hope I found the right section for posting some pictures I took last year during my 10 day trip to Non-US-Georgia .

It's a beautiful country if it comes to nature, however, people are very poor there in most cases and for me as a European (German) it wasn't hard to comprehend how a country could be in such a state of almost complete destruction and decay...
But what kept on fascinating me right from the beginning to the end were its people. They are very religious and try to make a living with everything they got. They also pay a lot of attention to their clothes which means you can be in the country where you can't even find sewerage (that's not the exception!) but people are dressed like Italians .

Anyway, if you are interested I'll share some pics I took their to take you on a little journey through this beautiful country between Europe and Asia.

Cows, cows, cows... everywhere and everytime! It was really breathtaking to see how Georgians drive! There seem to be no rules except for "who brakes loses!". As a German you better not dare to drive there... but Georgians now how to pass cows like slalom poles.

Picture no. 4 shows the town of Signaghi in the east of Georgia close to the border to Azerbaijan. In the back you can see the Caucasus mountains. The fifth picture shows the main street there. The houses there have the typical Georgian balconys.

[Kerrowdown]

Thanks for posting an interesting series of shots by way of a mini travelogue.

[Na Horuk]

Ive never been to that part of the world. Really interesting photos and well-done

[Canada_Rockies]

Thank you for posting these pictures.

[patrick9]

Interesting place thanks for sharing. The cows in the road made me think how lucky we are we only have to worry about possums

[volley]

The first shot is just great! Thanks for sharing this serries.

[GeoJerry]

Enjoyable! I really like it when people post pictures like these from faraway and unusual places like Georgia.

[zeitlos]

Thank you very much for your feedback! I appreciate it!
If you're interested, there's more to come.
Yes, Georgia is really an interesting place since it's somewhere in between the European and Asian culture.

[zeitlos]

So, as promised some more pics. Still have to find out how I can implement the pictures directly into the thread so it's easier for me to comment on them.

These pictures were also taken in Sighnaghi, a town of only 2,000 people but somehow the pride of Georgia (besides Tbilisi and Batumi). Again, you can see the Caucasus mountains in the back. In the foreground an orthodox church. Most people don't know that Georgia is a very old christian country with lots of islamic neighbours (except for Russia) like Turkey and Azerbaijan.

People are very poor. As I've already wrote last time, they try to make a living with everything they have. This old lady is selling goods from her garden, here mainly sunflower seeds and some apples. Georgians love sunflower seeds. You can also buy them at the streets of Tbilisi form old people.

And there's one more thing Georgians really love: Tshutshrella (don't know how to spell this in English). It's dried grape juice covering walnuts or hazelnuts. You can buy them everywhere.

In the last picture you can see the view from the town of Sighnaghi down at the plains at the bottom of the hill/mountain the town was built on.

If you're still interested, there's more to come.

P.S. I'm running out of upload space. I have to increase it by donating, right? Hm...

[daacon]

Very cool - thanks for sharing a part of the world I have never seen. It's amazing as you say with all those cows on the road there are not more accidents , but people there are well versed in the beef obstacles I guess.

There are several free hosting sites you can use (Flickr, etc) that you can use to post your photo's.(you can ask or do a search) While it's always great to support the forum financially, if money is an issue there are free alternatives for hosting your pictures.

[slowpez]

Great series to view. Enjoyed all your images. Someone needs to feed that cow in the first photo though. Look forward to seeing more.

[paulh]

Nice work! Really enjoyed these photos & commentary.

[scratchpaddy]

Wow! Just... wow! The title threw me at first. That's not the Georgia I grew up in!

These pictures are just stunning. I love that we get to see pictures from people all over the world. It's clear you're someone who knows how to take pictures, too. These aren't just some snaps from a road trip. This is National Geographic material.

Donating gives you plenty of upload space if you don't want to bother uploading pictures to an external site. I look forward to seeing more from you. Keep 'em coming!

[Na Horuk]

Great landscape there. The series has this feeling of rough authenticity.

If you're still interested, there's more to come. P.S. I'm running out of upload space. I have to increase it by donating, right? Hm...

Or you can get an account on a free photo website, but that can get complicated.

[zeitlos]

Thank you all for your feedback! I really appreciate it. If you have any questions, feel free to ask me.

So if you're still on board, I'll take you to the next stage of the journey (Btw. I've made a donation to get more uploading space).
Today's post is about refueling. It was interesting to see that almost all Georgians use gas to drive their cars, since they cannot afford regular petrol. It's really adventurous and bizarre to say the least. They simply put a gas tank into their cars without any safety measures they would care about. They even smoke at the gas station... When driving they try to shut down the engine of the car whenever it's possible to save fuel (while they are driving). So it goes on and off, on and off... (that's stop-and-go-technology at its best! )

By the way they only drive cars from two countries: Russia or Germany... Never have seen so many (old) German cars in one place! Not even here in Germany! I once counted the cars on a car park. There were 30 cars, 23 of them were German...

1. The first picture shows a Georgian "shopping promenade".

2. In the second picture you can see a new Georgian gas station.

3. Then an old one.

4. The man in picture is looking for his gas tank in the trunk... he first hast to clear away some melons...

5. Taxi, taxi...

6. I dubbed the last one "Waiting for the great leap forward.

7. That's the way they do it...