Thanks for adding your link

Pam — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 15:00:32 -0500

I actually sent your stuff on to a friend who was asking me for travelbloggers on Georgia just the other day. Good stuff. I'm glad you posted it here.

Nerd's Eye View

Georgia - a beautiful country with amazing people

Audrey — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 13:15:41 -0500

It will take some time before Georgia is not associated with war and a Russian invasion, but I imagine it will be safe for travelers before the negative image dissipates. Reading the news from Georgia this past week was tragic - that region (Georgia, S. Ossetia and Abkhazia) has suffered so much in the last two decades.

Tourism was just starting to take off when we visited last June-July 2007). It's still relatively undiscovered and locals were so excited to see foreign travelers. We were welcomed and fed like family guests on numerous occasions - it was humbling as many of our "hosts" had very little, but refused payment.

After eighteen months of travel, Georgia is still one of my favorite countries - it has beautiful mountains and sights, but it's the people that make it so special. I highly recommend a visit when things calm down.

If you're curious to read more on Georgia: http://www.uncorneredmarket.com/category/caucasus/georgia/

Audrey

www.uncorneredmarket.com - measuring the Earth with our feet...

Georgia Made Real

Pam — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 10:38:37 -0500

I don't understand enough about the conflict in Georgia to have an opinion on it, but I do know that the former Soviet Republics are still a sort of promised land for travelers - still a bargain, not yet jaded by the influx of tourist hordes, still offering the possibility of connecting with the locals.

Unfortunately, it looks like much of Georgia will be off-limits to travelers for the foreseeable future. Violent clashes between Georgian and Russian troops over the breakaway region of South Ossetia erupted on Friday and intensified over the weekend, causing waves of civilians to abandon their homes to seek shelter elsewhere until the fighting subsides. --Jaunted

Fifty Foot Foghorn has recently published accounts of his travels in Georgia.

There was a brief mention of some trouble in Tshinkvali but Suliko dismissed it as a routine occurrence. I thought nothing of it and stumbled off to bed.

here are some older traveler's accounts from Georgia:

But Georgia itself was also really great. Everyone talks about the hospitality and friendliness of Georgians, and I certainly encountered nothing to challenge that legend. I had heard that not many people speak Russian anymore, so I’d been nervous I wouldn’t be able to communicate much with folks. It’s true not so many young people speak Russian these days, but pretty much everyone over 30 I encountered spoke Russian. Their accents were another story though! I took a short guided tour of one ancient church, conducted in Russian, and frankly couldn’t understand 90% of what the guide said. But she was a nice lady! --MoldovAnn

Georgia is everything I expected it to be. How many Peace Corps volunteers can say that about their country? The people here are incredibly friendly and very warm. The landscape here is beautiful. There are mountains and rivers everywhere...--Peace Corps Volunteer Maritza

Russians crowded the waterfront cafés, and their presence felt oppressive. The bewitching beaches have beguiled them from noticing the bitter irony, that to escape the misery of Mother Russia they make a lavish holiday in a war zone. I minded this irony more than they did. After days in Sukhumi, I had seen aspects of Abkhazia that reminded me of Moscow, of Miami Beach, of the Italian Alps, and of Plum Island Animal Disease Center, but little that was distinctively Abkhazian.--Greetings From Abkhazia

I see a picturesque abandoned shop with two flags flying out front—South Ossetian and Russian. The South Ossetian flag is almost never seen here without a Russian flag alongside. I snap a picture, and another policeman comes up and asks to see the last photo I took. I figure he thinks I had taken one of a policeman or some other forbidden subject, so I confidently show him the photo of the shop. "Come with me," he says, and we get in his Lada Niva jeep and drive to the nearby police station.--Travels in the Former Soviet Union on Slate

Photos from gorlanova.kris and thebirdfam on Flickr.

Pam blogs about travel and other adventures at Nerd's Eye View. Join the conversation in the Travelblogger's Forum.

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Thanks for adding your link

Georgia - a beautiful country with amazing people

Georgia Made Real