๐Ÿš€ Passport Ready

Share this post
83 | What's Happening In The Caucasus?
news.alesalvino.com

83 | What's Happening In The Caucasus?

Sep 19, 2022
Share this post
83 | What's Happening In The Caucasus?
news.alesalvino.com

Hey Friends,

The Caucasus is a region between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea; mainly comprising Armenia ๐Ÿ‡ฆ๐Ÿ‡ฒ, Georgia ๐Ÿ‡ฌ๐Ÿ‡ช, Azerbaijan ๐Ÿ‡ฆ๐Ÿ‡ฟ (you can now watch all my videos of the 3 countries) and parts of Southern Russia ๐Ÿ‡ท๐Ÿ‡บ.

Those 3 countries really combine many things that I love about travelling.ย 

The people are super friendly and some of the mostย helpfulย Iโ€™ve ever met. It was super fun to explore the region with Kristina.

It's impossible not to hear about the Silk Road, the Soviet Union, War stories and sensitivity between them. History in this part of the world is captivating, particularly for me growing up in South America.

Theย gastronomy is a whole new thing. Some of the best wines I've ever tried come from this region. In terms of food, yes of course being vegetarian is not the most qualified opinion but I can say flatbreads (lavash), pies and stews are incredible. To be fair, a lot of food was similar to Lithuania as they share some history with the Baltics and other ex Soviet countries.

What to do? Monasteries, mountains, valleys, rolling hills, vineyards, colourful villages and plenty of hiking opportunities. Absolutely underrated region. I still don't understand why tourism is so small in these places. In my opinion they beat many Southern European countries but have less marketing, that's the truth.

I explored a lot of Armenia, took a Soviet train to Georgia where I got super sick crashed my drone (almost jail if it was in another country) and faced uncomfortable questions in Heydar Aliyev airport (Azerbaijan) as my passport had an Armenian stamp. It was all good at the end and Azerbaijan took me completely by surprise, in a good way!

This is the only thing I'll say about the conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan. It's sad to see what's going on between them. I love both countries and people. Both are incredible countries and some of the most hospitable people I've ever met are there, in BOTH countries. I don't want and will not take any side here. Enough of division (Russia vs Ukraine, China vs Taiwan, Azerbaijan vs Armenia). Nobody wins here, we all lose. Is the world going nuts? It's hard to accept in 2022 that we need to fight each other and cannot agree in any possible way to avoid a conflict that will end up dividing people, nations and the entire world really. This is not about going with one or the other, it's about expressing both arguments in a civilised way and make a mutual agreement. I can't remember where I read this quote but this is exactly how I see it: โ€œThe more we sweat in peace, the less we bleed in war.โ€

Have a great week!

Alejandro

PS: if you gained value, please share this post with your friends ๐Ÿ’Œ


๐Ÿ—บ๏ธ Road To 197

Georgia ๐Ÿ‡ฌ๐Ÿ‡ช and Azerbaijan ๐Ÿ‡ฆ๐Ÿ‡ฟ have respectively been my 70th and 71st country but I've recently visited my 79th country in Moldova ๐Ÿ‡ฒ๐Ÿ‡ฉ and will hit the 80th and 81st very soon, keep an eye here in the next few weeks to find out! ๐Ÿคซ

I've received a bunch of questions about Africa. Yes, it's now my favourite continent and have 5 extra countries on my list to see this year such as Algeria ๐Ÿ‡ฉ๐Ÿ‡ฟ, Ivory Coast ๐Ÿ‡จ๐Ÿ‡ฎ, Ghana ๐Ÿ‡ฌ๐Ÿ‡ญ, Togo ๐Ÿ‡น๐Ÿ‡ฌ and Benin ๐Ÿ‡ง๐Ÿ‡ฏ. Still dealing with visas but after that I'm good to close the African year after those ones! ๐Ÿคช

As a reminder the first episode of the West Africa series will air in October on the channel. Believe me this has been by far the most challenging thing ever to shoot. West Africa is no jokes, logistics are a whole new thing so I cannot wait to share these episodes with you! ๐Ÿฟ

If you're already subscribed, make sure you have the notification bell on. Sadly enough only 1% of my subscribers watch my videos, the other 99% watching are non subscribersโ€ฆ so I hope you're on the 1% ๐Ÿฅน.


๐ŸŽฅ New Videos

Some of the recent videos I published on the channel. If you enjoy the video, please give it a Like and/or Comment, so YouTube can recommend it to more people like you. ๐ŸคŸ

Have you enjoyed the recent videos? Then please feel free to hit the button below to subscribe to the channel so I can keep making more free videos every week. ๐Ÿš€

Share this post
83 | What's Happening In The Caucasus?
news.alesalvino.com
TopNew

No posts

Ready for more?

ยฉ 2023 Alejandro Salvino
Privacy โˆ™ Terms โˆ™ Collection notice
Start WritingGet the app
Substackย is the home for great writing