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Bullet holes in a monastery wall. There are always reminders of the 1993 war in Abkhazia.
I finished my morning circuit of Sukhumi and had to bolt for the Russian border, chartering a taxi to get me to Novy Afon Monastery, the premier tourist attraction in a land with no tourists. The setting is appropriately tranquil with a few local worshippers in the church and enjoying the sunny crowds on the bluff overlooking the Black Sea.
I pulled myself away, descended the mountain to another war monument and took up position in a giant oyster shell bus stop. I flagged down a bus heading west which got me to a market town and the another bus dumped me within walking distance of the border.
I left the eerie silence of Abkhazia and was greeted by a stern Russian border agent that…wanted to know who invited me and why I was going to Kaliningrad.
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[…] single out Rapid Travel Chai for a couple of interesting posts about off-the-beaten-path locales: Abkhazia and Transnistria. Neither one is located in or near the Maldives, and there are few, if any, […]
@guera- where have you been traveling lately?
@guera – with great difficulty. Though I did encounter more English in Abkhazia than Sochi (pre-Olympics). In Sochi some bus drivers were helpful, some just fed up in dealing with me.
How are you communicating with the locals? Seems like that would be the biggest issue there. Sorry if you’ve covered this in earlier posts. I’ve been traveling and need to catch up.
that shell is pretty sweet