Welcome to Georgia

Posted on August 21, 2014 by The Wandering Nomads

“Happiness is not a state to arrive at, but a manner of traveling.”

This morning a couple (and their baby cow) in a horse-drawn carriage slowed as they passed the tree we were sitting under for a break in order to hand us an ice cold beer and a handful of candies. Already this morning a man had approached us as we were buying our daily Georgian bread in order to hand us an enormous hunk of watermelon. By noon, we would be given a bag of fresh tomatoes, two bottles of homemade wine, walnuts, frozen sprite and orange juice (which on a 45C day is absolutely wonderful) and more cantaloupe, watermelon, and little sweet fruits (which I found out later were figs) than we could handle. Oh, and a room in someone’s house to nap in which turned into a two night homestay at the neighbors with a fun-spirited grandpa and his wonderful teenage grandchildren. Welcome to Georgia, a country which in just three days has lived up to its name as “one of the most hospitable places on earth.”

The Georgian Valley

Posted on August 20, 2014 by The Wandering Nomads

“We are torn between nostalgia for the familiar and an urge for the foreign and strange. As often as not, we are homesick most for the places we have never known.”

45C is about 35C higher than I typically enjoy. For those of you who don’t know me, I’m a mountain girl through and through and if there isn’t snow on the ground, chances are it’s too hot by my standards. Cycling through the countryside in the Georgian valley has proven to be extremely difficult due to the heat, though in all honesty, it hasn’t diminished my already growing love for this country. If this isn’t proof that cycling (and really life in general) is just a mental game based on your attitude, I don’t know what is. Despite the heat, there isn’t anywhere else in the world I would rather be as Georgia has already proven to be full of wonderful countryside and hospitable people.

Success Inside and Outside the Classroom

Posted on August 16, 2014 by The Wandering Nomads

“Our system of elite education manufactures young people who are smart and talented and driven, yes, but also anxious, timid, and lost, with little intellectual curiosity and a stunted sense of purpose: trapped in a bubble of privilege, heading meekly in the same direction, great at what they’re doing but with no idea why they’re doing it.”

A 900 point score on the SATs is in the bottom two percent. No school, not even a state university, will accept you with a score that low. With a score like that your teachers will consider you a lost case, your peers will humiliate you, and you will begin to believe the lie they all tell you, that you have failed in life before even turning eighteen. Though you may not want to say it out loud, you too are thinking that this person is a failure.

A New Beginning: Exploring Tbilisi

Posted on August 14, 2014 by The Wandering Nomads

“Every so often a bird gets up and flies some place that its drawn to. I don’t suppose it could tell you why, but it does anyways.”

You know that feeling when you first realize that you are in love? When you just can’t get that person out of your mind, and when everything they do just seems so perfect? Well that’s how I feel about Georgia. I’m absolutely and irrevocably in love with this country already and I have only been here a week.

Hostel Hopping in Europe: How to Stay For Free

Posted on August 12, 2014 by The Wandering Nomads

“Not all those who wander are lost.”

Before arriving in Tblisi, the capital of Georgia, I checked hostel prices only to find that they were quite a lot more than they had been in India. Though ten to fifteen dollars a night may not seem like a lot in the west, when you are use to living our of your tent (for free), or in a two dollar a night guest house, it’s hard to imagine spending that much. I decided to email a half dozen hostels with a proposal. In return for a free room, Kevin and I would work a few hours a day (cleaning, checking people in, or doing whatever else is needed). Much to my surprise I got two different places saying sure, we can work something out, come on over.

Georgia: A Bit of History

Posted on August 10, 2014 by The Wandering Nomads

“When the spirits are low, when the day appears dark, when work becomes monotonous, when hope hardly seems worth having, just mount a bicycle and go out for a spin down the road, without thought on anything but the ride you are taking.”

If you are anything like me you can probably hardly even place Georgia on a map (to the east of Turkey, south of Russia, north of Armenia) unless you have already been there, so a little history lesson is in store before we enter into this beautiful country. As a small country of five million inhabitants Georgia is a predominately Eastern Orthodox Christian country which is filled with vineyards, beautiful old churches (due to the fact that they adopted Christianity very early on, in the fourth century), small farming villages, and mountains. The Caucasus, which run down from Russia, host a range of peaks over 5,000m and an array of different national parks and beautiful landscapes to go along with it.

Bikes In Boxes: How to Fly With Your Bike

Posted on August 8, 2014 by The Wandering Nomads

“I suppose that was what attracted me to the bicycle right from the start. It is not so much a way of getting somewhere as it is a setting for randomness; it makes every journey an unorganized tour.”

Many people have asked me how I got my bike to Asia (no, I did not cycle across the ocean) so I have decided to dedicate this post to the laborious process of boxing up a bike in order to fly with it.

Continue Reading..,

India Through the Lens: A Year of Memorable Moments Part 3

Posted on August 6, 2014 by The Wandering Nomads

“Ultimate freedom. An extremist. An aesthetic voyager whose home is the road.”

365 days of homestays, high altitude cycling, and beautiful landscapes throughout India (a second time).

Nepal Through the Lens: A Year of Memorable Moments Part 2

Posted on August 4, 2014 by The Wandering Nomads

“If adventure has a final and all-embracing motive, it is surely this: we go out because it is our nature to go out, to climb mountains, and to paddle rivers, to fly to the planets and plunge into the depths of the oceans…”