After a delicious breakfast prepared by the host of my little guesthouse, I drove to the Tsitsernakaberd Genocide Memorial and Museum on the other side of town. What I saw there was shocking and deeply depressing. The thing that struck me most was this: the Armenian Genocide appeared to follow the same blueprint as what … Continue reading Day 28: Yerevan →

I am writing this blog now that I have left Turkey. While I was there, I did not dare put any of this online. Erdoğan: Who he is and how long he has been in power Recep Tayyip Erdoğan was Prime Minister from 2003 to 2014, then became President in 2014 — more than two … Continue reading What I didn’t Know About Turkey under Erdoğans Government →

Armenia surprised me. Here are the things I did not know before I arrived. 1. One of the oldest civilisations in the world. Armenia has been inhabited for at least 4,000 years. It sits at the crossroads of Europe and Asia. Empires came and went. The Persians. The Romans. The Mongols. The Ottomans. The Soviets. … Continue reading 12 Things I didn’t know about Armenia →

Distance: 280km (by car) The morning started with picking up the rental car. The station was within walking distance. I had booked the second cheapest category and hoped that it would be big enough to fit Rosinante. Indeed, that turned out to be true. The car was Chinese. It was a Geely, a brand that … Continue reading Day 27: Tiblisi to Yerevan →

Distance: 139km Elevation: 984m Tiblisi: https://maps.app.goo.gl/mMrPuucBxfn8RwKU7?g_st=ic This was going to be the longest day of the tour so far. Almost 140 kilometers. I was on the bike by seven-thirty. I stopped at the first shop I could find to get something for breakfast. All the products on the shelf had a visible layer of dust … Continue reading Day 26: Chaschuri to Tiblisi →