Watch to see what it’s like to travel through Georgia and Turkey on TDA Global Cycling’s Trans-Caucasus cycle tour. This route includes highlights like the cities and towns of Tbilisi, Lagodheki, Erzurum, and Istanbul, vast mountain views, vineyards, and more.
Learn more: https://tdaglobalcycling.com/trans-caucasus
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foreign [Music] and you precious little about Georgia so it was a complete um complete Blank Slate [Music] arriving to Blissey was a new experience it was the kind of city that I’d never been in before it wasn’t anything like the Middle East and it wasn’t anything like Europe and it wasn’t even a crossover between the two to something a little bit different lots of local little dishes and Georgian salad cucumbers and tomatoes that’s we have that everywhere oh it’s so delicious looking forward to writing ready to write tomorrow morning the first day was hell with rubble and very lunar style landscape about a 12 kilometer grade and gravel which was tough recycled right up to the Border Azerbaijan through Countryside that was almost semi-desert O’Donnell was really interesting people were super warm like the the guest house was so lovely we went to signaki next uh which was quite charming and unexpected it was up on the side of the Hill quite dramatic we climbed out of town passed a we call the dog Hill there’s a traffic jam was a big trucks a big cattle and and a guy on a bicycle logo Deku I was really looking forward to went to the National Park through the hike really pretty waterfall that we hiked up to and then we ended up here in ikalto in the uh in in the wine country and as you can see there’s there’s grapes here I remember my grandfather when he first time uh give me taste the wine his own homemade wine buy also three or four years old Georgia does appear that it’s the oldest wine making country in the world George and wine industry I’ve heard is is something like 8 000 years old during this 8 000 years we had to make your wine in same tradition let me cycled in 90 kilometers and I I’d hate to come I mean probably went past 100 Vineyards or maybe two or three hundred had road signs along the road you know with an arrow pointing wine route wine route their wine making methods really haven’t changed very much everything all together these schemes teams the seats everything go for the fermentation together and it’s all drunk very fresh there isn’t an aging process [Music] wine it’s not just beverage for the alcoholical it’s great reason to share your emotion to your friends I didn’t dare to try Cha-Cha yeah those three glasses of wine were way enough for my capacity yeah I was feeling happy after yeah why don’t they have flat mountains [Music] [Applause] [Music] the history of this part of the world is so interlaced between Persians Mongols Russians Armenians Ottomans Byzantium and it goes on and on it’s quite complex to try and wrap your head around going through towns and and saying hi to people like sometimes you wouldn’t get a response there’s just kind of a stone face I’d like to wave to people try to engage with people and they’d be hesitant to to respond generally people are pretty doer and I wondered whether that was part of The Hangover being under control of the USSR for so many years it’s a slow process you cannot just get rid of the past even if you want to I noticed in like the countryside if I would say hi to like Farmers they’d all say hello they’ve got a modern Outlook I would say on on tourism and they’re I think it seems like they’re looking worldwide trying to encourage people to come to Georgia [Music] I really kind of formulated more of a impression of Georgia after I left and came into turkey because of the contrast [Music] going into turkey immediately there was a welcoming smile a kind of warmth that I hadn’t experienced at all in Georgia and it was astonishing to me that a geopolitical border could actually Define personality as much as that did [Music] those imaginary lines are just like time machines Everything Changes you’re gonna TDA tours are known for being long you know 100 kilometer days or even more riding 60 miles riding every day you know two days in a row with no not taking a break I mean those are things that we’re new to us yeah there were some long days and certainly like in the heat it was very hot and when it’s hot when you’re climbing you can’t get generate any kind of Breeze around you that’s difficult this one really did push us this was really really hard I don’t look at the next day’s climb until I started because it is what it is and I’m not gonna change it I’ve been practicing a lot of like self-talk positive self-talk on the bike nice the camaraderie and we all got through as a team effort I’m enjoying it you know I’m not as fast as I was when I was 45 but the climbs are a huge challenge for me but I don’t have the I don’t have a granny here well I brought the wrong bike probably I was immediately struck by that feeling of the the friendliness the landscape didn’t change immediately upon Crossing from Georgia to Turkey [Music] that struck me was a people smiling coming into the first town it was vibrant it was easy-going there was Commerce going on the shops were full [Music] it was a small town and I feel like in Georgia you would have gone through and it would have been quite quiet we came through and I mean there are people everywhere and everybody’s out on the courtyards having coffee that to me was like oh we’re in a different country like this is the culture change [Music] there was a guy standing next to his truck and he saw me coming so he wiped me down out comes an apple just this is for you our car pulls up a little girl gets out and hands a candy bar and then gets back in the car and they drive away [Music] everybody is just very curious where are you from why are you here where are you going do you want to do tea do you want to do this how can I help [Music] I had a group of like 12 people surrounding me all asking me a rapid fire questions about like where we’re from what we’re doing why we’re doing it why is a big one like what [Applause] are you gonna find it it was really hot why don’t I stay at the office a hot drink and a hot soup [Music] you’re coming home and there’s soup ready for you nourishing healthy kind of warm soup and then there’s a there’s a bit of a routine foreign there is something special because it hotels people all sort of scatter into their rooms and you don’t see them but at Camp there’s nowhere to go [Music] intimacy of it I thought they say Everybody Poops everybody’s personal kind of movements are are on display and if you heard sleeping bag Zips farts yawns you know right right in the whole in the whole thing is just completely totally intimate the camping really gets people together because you really spend the whole like breakfast and dinner and together so I really enjoy the dinners that get put together you know they’re in the field with simple equipment and delicious in it everything always tastes better when you’re camping good how they’re made also they’re being prepared by a little family there’s there’s Mama cook uh Mitch and and all the little helpers kind of chipping in and people watching and it’s nice to see a nice experience and to be the beneficiary of that wonderful meal always it’s great the sight smells and sounds you’re immersed in them you see normal life gives me the ultimate freedom to be me by myself you get to see things that you would have never seen foreign [Music] the bicycle gives you the advantage of moving fast enough to get from one place to another and have changes along the way which often with walking you don’t get or a car which you move so fast you don’t get a time to actually smell Fuel and experience the environment you’re passing through here in Turkey it feels like the perfect vehicle to interact with people like it is an immediate opportunity for them to be like where are you from what are you doing why you stopped on the road in the vehicle and tried to engage with someone that’s a completely different feeling environment you know one of the great things about riding a bicycle through some places you see the cows walking down the road going to the fields when you’re coming into town on a bicycle when you’re seeing things on a bicycle it’s just inherently more interesting you’re not watching the world go by you’re involved in the world as it goes by I assume when we get to Istanbul we’re going to be like wow that’s so different than where we started and what we saw along the way [Music] I do see a shift maybe starting at a massive now the cities get bigger their Industries people are not working in their Farms they are not making agricultures [Music] amacio surprised me it was kind of a center for Ottoman Empire for a long time I’m Asia now that was clearly a tourist town but it was Turkish tourists I actually don’t think I’ve heard any other languages than Turkish I don’t think it’s on a general tourist map or destination beautiful setting on the river there with the houses built over the river immensely Charming the the river running through saffron bolo right here which is a UNESCO world heritage site you can see the history the stone where you can hold it you can see it you can touch it sites in The Monuments just here in the downtown area and the old Ottoman palaces that are just everywhere and also uh Commerce like this is a very vibrant place foreign ly it’s the first time that we’ve been close to the Sea getting to ride along the Black Sea is an experience that I’m really looking forward to like finally sitting and seeing that will really Mark like over at the end ah why do I ride my bike because the feeling is great I know it’s very common ordinary there is a psychological process that’s going on that I haven’t quite figured out while you’re going up a large climb instead of being so focused on that end of The Climb stopping and turning around and looking at everything that you just passed through is yeah phenomenal when I’m sitting on my saddle and I’m really thinking about the top of the climb and I think in in life too often people focus on a destination rather than the journey and the pleasure of riding a bicycle is it’s the journey that matters getting is less important I don’t come just to write that like the the destination is not it is a journey absolutely you’re not going to remember getting into Camp you’re going to remember those moments in between where like you get to interact with folks and see sites that yeah that you might not have noticed if if you were so focused on the destination for me it’s true adventure because every day there’s been for me a meaningful encounter it’s increased my understanding I guess a little bit of of how other people live and function and helps me understand myself endorphins from the from the exercise from The Challenge you’re lost in thought you’re observing what’s going on around you spend that amount of time on my bike today three five hours okay what were my thoughts much cycling up the hill okay oh enjoying the views enjoying your delials it’s very Zen but no big thoughts about the sense of meaning of life nothing like that [Music] I’ll get you [Music] foreign [Music]