A couple of weeks ago I returned to Yerevan from Turkey’s capital, Ankara. It had been a visit on humanitarian grounds, and hitchhiking there and back was done out of unavoidable necessity, rather than for the hell of it. Money was an issue – buses in Turkey were far more expensive than those on my previous visit to Iran – especially as everything in the country was comparatively expensive when comparing to Armenia.
I’ll spare you the play-by-play of this winter-time adventure. It was another chapter in my past year (almost!) of unforgettable adventures, and instead I decided I’d post some photos of the various shenanigans along the winding 1,500 kilometre trip through Armenia, Georgia and Turkey and back. It took just over two days to get to Ankara, and about four on the way back. The return journey took longer due to various bouts of hospitality and procrastination, and it was totally worth it.
This kind trucker, who picked us up in rural Georgia, bought us delicious khatchapuris one night. We didn’t share any common language, but his hospitable nature shone through at all times
A makeshift picnic lunch after crossing the Georgian-Turkish border on the Black Sea coast
Hulya (Left) our kind host just outside of Trabzon, Turkey
Impromptu tea party in a truck in rural Georgia. It was sunny but it was seriously cold – time for tea inside
Trucking through the night
Bulent, the kind trucker who bought us far too much food, and threatened to circumcise me if I didn’t finish it all. I did.
Camping in a half-finished gas station in Batumi, the Georgian border town with Turkey
Hitching out of Khashuri to the village of Khertvisi, on our way home
Hitching in the dusk out of Trabzon on the Black Sea coast
On our way home we stayed with Keti, a Georgian girl who we’d met on our way to Ankara. Her family was fun and showed us around their tiny village in the mountains of southern Georgia. They offered us a puppy to take home with us. I wish
Sleeping on the floor of a canteen next to a gas station in Turkey, a few hours north of Ankara. I was awoken at 5am by a policeman who told me he’d “make me a muslim’ unless I got up
Picnic-ing somewhere in Georgia with Recep, a trucker who picked Victoria and I up near the Turkish border. We cooked eggs. It was delicious
Finding a ride out of Ankara
We got a ride in a three truck convoy from Georgia back to Yerevan. The conditions were treacherous at best along the mountain roads and the trucks got stuck going up the snow-covered hills back toward Yerevan. Our truck was the only one to make it back to Yerevan that night. We arrived home at 3am.
