{"id":2606,"date":"2015-07-28T13:50:46","date_gmt":"2015-07-28T17:50:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/svetanyc.com\/?p=2606"},"modified":"2017-02-18T13:33:35","modified_gmt":"2017-02-18T18:33:35","slug":"index-html","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/192.168.2.119:1984\/svetanyc\/2015\/07\/index-html\/","title":{"rendered":"Georgia. July 2015"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Alps we already knew, and the Pyrenees, but this was finer than anything we had ever seen or even imagined in our wildest dreams! This was the Caucasus….How I wish I had brought my copy of Aeschylus!<\/em><\/p>\n

Alexandre Dumas p\u00e8re (1858)<\/p>\n

“It is a magical place, Georgia,” wrote John Steinbeck<\/a> during a visit in the late 1940s, “and it becomes dream-like the moment you have left it.” Georgia’s landscape, wine and extravagant people consistently win it friends. John Steinbeck heard from Russians about Georgia’s charm long before he set foot here. “Wherever we had been in Russia, in Moscow, in the Ukraine, in Stalingrad, the magical name of Georgia came up constantly….. They spoke of the country in the Caucasus and around the Black Sea as a kind of second heaven.” Indeed, Georgia<\/a>\u00a0perhaps is the world’s most beautiful country – from sublimely perched marionette\u00a0churches and fantastic mountain scenery to green vineyards and sunny\u00a0beaches. It is the second oldest Christian state in the world and the most “Caucasian” among its neighbors, Armenia and Azerbaijan. Equally special are its proud, high-spirited, cultured, loyal and compassionate people, whose generous spirit was rightfully captured in the 12th century Georgian poet Shota Rustaveli<\/a>‘s aphorism about his people “What you give is yours, what you keep is lost”. If I were to write about hospitality, Caucasian and, particularly, Georgian hospitality would have neither boundaries nor equivalents in the world, it is the very stuff of life. Locals\u00a0will greet\u00a0you as the most-welcome\u00a0guest, and often, as a blessing, and see you off as the dearest sister (or brother). Even though USSR dissolved over 20 years ago, everywhere I went, Georgians considered me as their fellow country-woman – we spoke the same language, Russian (lingua franca\u00a0<\/em>of\u00a0Soviet time) and we shared the same history. For old and young (unlike in Azerbaijan) I was one of them and all of them had a few good things to say either about Belarus or my people.<\/p>\n

A deeply complicated history and location, at the Eurasian crossroads, have given Georgia a wonderful heritage of architecture and art, from cave cities to the inimitable canvases of Pirosmani<\/a>. Georgia claims to be the birthplace of wine, but without doubt, as the inheritor of an ancient culture, it produced Byzantine-era emperors as well as remarkable figures, such as -Ioseb Besarionis dze Jughashvili, known by millions as Joseph Stalin<\/a> and George Balanchine<\/a>\u00a0– the founder of the American ballet. Georgian beautiful polyphonic singing is genuinely unique, a seldom claim among other Caucasian cultures, that look outward to Iran and the Middle East; its writing is like a re-arrangement of flower petals; its karakul sheep papakhas<\/a> and chokhas<\/a>\u00a0can never be mistaken with any other national dress, and its traditional dance is like nothing you’ve seen in your life.<\/p>\n

https:\/\/youtu.be\/ujo65bBRQ4I<\/p>\n

My very first encounter with Caucasus and Georgia, as I mentioned in my Azerbaijan blog<\/a><\/strong>, was through literary works of A. Pushkin<\/a>, M. Lermontov<\/a> and L.Tolstoy<\/a>. However, the image of Georgian people also came from the movies inspired by the WWII events – as there was always a\u00a0Georgian solder, fighting alongside his Red Army comrades. Despite the context and the tragic events of the Great Patriotic War<\/a>, the Georgian character was always the luminous one, the most uplifting, friendly and humorous. In the reality of war, and in my childhood\u00a0movies, all characters would eventually die, but I remember mourning the death of a Georgian solder\u00a0the most. Another childhood memory I cherish was the one of my grandmother, who as a doctor in Kapyl<\/a>, a small town in Belarus, was entitled to a yearly 30-day state-sponsored vacation at a sanatorium (recreational area) in Batumi, Georgia’s main\u00a0Black Sea resort. It was her favorite place on earth, and\u00a0according to her – a “paradise”. That is why and how my 11-day trip “Baku to Batumi” came about. My travels around Azerbaijan can be found here<\/a>\u00a0and could be considered as prequel to this blog.<\/p>\n

\"Screen<\/a><\/p>\n

Literature.<\/strong><\/p>\n