NOTATION LOG DATED: May 15, 2008 Armenian / Georgia Border

LOCATION:  Armenian / Georgia Border Crossing

“…….At the Armenian border, we went through the usual procedure as at the Georgian / Azerbaijan border five days before:

  • Bus stops before the border
  • The Azerbijian or Georgian Guide collects all the passports
  • The Guide proceeds to the crossing
  • We all wait in the bus
  • Meanwhile there are hordes of people wanting to go both ways (I am not sure why the ones that have been cleared to proceed are still detained by the Customs people)
  • There are Border Guards all over with stern, serious faces and armed to the teeth
  • We wait some more
  • The bus goes through the first gate
  • We wait
  • Then everyone is ordered off the bus and all baggage is claimed (on the Georgian border, the bus was cleared into Georgia from Azerbaijan)
  • Everyone takes their baggage and files one by one by a border guard that checks your passport, looks into your eyes and gives you that look that would paralyze a spider
  • The Tour Guide is feverously encouraging the process
  • Other people are trying to jump the line
  • The Tour Guide is chastising these people by telling them that she can lose her job if she doesn’t get all her sixteen (16) tourists through in order
  • There is an argument. The people return to their place in line but slowly edge up again
  • We make it through for a waiting bus and a new Armenian Tour Guide
  • 1 ½ hours have passed
  • We all want washrooms
  • Then we are off and the new Tour Guide tells us about the best parts of her country Armenia
  • We listen and try to get used to this new accent
  • The Guides are just super, there is nothing that they would not do to accommodate our comfort and pleasure
  • Usually the 1st stop is a Monastery and a tour
  • Next stop is our introduction to the cuisine of the new country with food galore
  • In Georgia and Armenia, the first stop is a family-run restaurant. Very homey and intriguing
  • In Georgia, there were the Singers and the wine kept flowing
  • Also in Georgia the wine toasting was exceptional

So I had recounted the story of how Georgia became “God’s Land” with a “twist” by the Armenian Guide which went like this:

“…..the Georgians told you how God was handing out the lands to all the people but the Georgians were busy drinking wine and making toasts. They showed up late for the allotment of land. God told them that there was no more land available. The Georgians pleaded with God for sympathy to their plight as they were good hospitable people and deserved the best. All their toasts had been to God and so God relented after this intensive pleading display by the Georgians and gave them the land he had reserved for himself. So, that is why Georgia is referred to as “God’s Land”

The Armenians were also late and found out to their dismay that the Georgians had already received the best land and so God had no more to give out; therefore, this is why the Armenians got the stones and rocks for Armenia.

But Noah had landed his Ark on Mount Ararat and so the first people of God and the Christians were Armenian. After Christ’s crucification, Gabriel (I think), came out in the 1st century and was able to dismantle the pagan temples and establish the church. Gabriel spent thirteen (13) years in a dungeon, put there by a Pagan King……….”

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