8 Weeks in the Caucasus and Eastern/Central Europe (LARGE post)

[Jimbojack]

Hello everyone,

I have not posted here for a while, but that's because I was travelling in the Caucasus and Eastern/Central Europe. Here are some details of the trip:

I just returned from an 8 week trip to the Caucasus and Eastern/Central Europe. I started the trip by flying into Baku, Azerbaijan. From there I went south to Qobustan, north to Sumqayit and around the Abseron peninsula. From Baku I took an overnight train to the Georgian capital of Tbilisi. In Georgia I went to Mtskheta, Gori and Kazbegi, then went south across the Armenian border to Alaverdi. There I visited the Haghpat and Sanahin monasteries and continued to the capital Yerevan. I spent a few days in and around Yerevan going to Echmiadzin, Garni Temple and Geghard Monastery. Since the borders between Armenia and Turkey are closed, I took an overnight train back to Tbilisi (18.5 hours), ran across the city in 45 minutes to catch a bus to Istanbul (27.5 hours).

In Istanbul I met a friend of mine (Klaus), and we spent a few days in the city before taking the overnight Bucharest train and getting off in Veliko Tarnovo in Bulgaria on the way. We spent a few days there and went to Varna on the Black sea coast. From there we took a bus to Ruse on the Romanian border and another one to Bucharest. Klaus flew back home from Bucharest and I took an overnight train to Sofia (Bulgaria), spent some time there and continued to Skopje (Macedonia). From Macedonia I went to Prishtina in Kosovo, then came back to Skopje and continued to Ohrid. From Ohrid I crossed the Albanian border on foot, and continued to Tirana. After Tirana I took a bus to Shkodra and crossed the border into Montenegro and went to Bar. From there I went to Kotor by bus, then to Dubrovnik in Croatia. From Dubrovnik I went to Mostar in Bosnia and Herzegovina, then to Sarajevo. From Sarajevo I took a bus to Belgrade in Serbia, then an overnight train to Zagreb in Croatia. From Zagreb I took a day trip to Plitvice Lakes National Park, then continued to Ljubljana in Slovenia. From there I went to Vienna for a few days to visit my friend Klaus, then took an overnight train to Poland to meet Aggie.

After spending a few days in Poland, we took an overnight bus to Vilnius in Lithuania. There we went to Trakai and Siauliai before going to Riga in Latvia. From Riga we went to Tallinn in Estonia and spent a couple of days with another friend of mine (Arvo). From Tallinn we took a ferry to Helsinki, then an overnight ferry to Stockholm for a couple of days before flying back home. All this was done completely overland (no flights at all) and was somewhat rushed, I only had 8 weeks, but it was an excellent trip.

Here is an outline of my route:






Here are some photos from the trip. So far I'm only posting 2 photos from each country, many more will be added to my site soon along with descriptions and I'll post them here.


Azerbaijan

"Dom Soviet", old parliament in Baku. Recently restored thanks to the billions of $ Heydar Aliyev got for contracts from western oil companies for exploration rights in Azerbaijan. The building is unique because it combines traditional Muslim architecture with the generous use of soviet concrete.



Mud Volcanoes, Qobustan. The mud coming out of the ground is cold.




Georgia

Samtavro Church in Mtskheta, built in the 1130's it was the former residence of the lords of Mtskheta, now it is used as a nunnery (one of the resident nuns is in the picture)



Tsminda Sameba Church, built in the 14th century and located at 2170 meters above sea level next to the town of Kazbegi. Hiking in these mountains, less then 10 kilometers from the Russian border, was one of the highlights of my trip. While not exactly in South Ossetia, many people living here (including the family with whom I stayed) have Russian citizenship and do not speak any Georgian.




Armenia

Woman picking flowers in front of an old church in a village near Alaverdi



Inside of a cave church in the Geghard Monastery in the Upper Azat Valley. The oldest of the cave churches date back to the 7th century (Geghard was founded in the 4th century according to legend). Everything you see in the picture (except for the candles and stand) was carved out of solid rock.




Turkey

The ceiling of the Sultan Ahmed Mosque in Istanbul



Tea sets for sale at the Grand Bazaar in Istanbul




Bulgaria

Wall painting showing devils and mortal temptations, Preobrajenski Monastery, outside of Veliko Tarnovo



Sveta Nedelya Cathedral, Sofia




Romania

Building in central Bucharest, much of the city was destroyed in the 1977 earthquake. Many buildings are still standing but cannot be occupied, the next earthquake will most likely cause them to collapse completely.



Old woman sitting at an entrance to a subway station, Bucharest




Macedonia

Liman Ismail, Imam of the Sultan Murat II Mosque in Skopje (built in 1451). He studied in Medina before coming back to Macedonia and taking over this mosque. It was damaged but not destroyed during the war.



Street in Ohrid




Kosovo

Memorial to those killed during the war



Bill Klinton (yes, it's spelled with a K here) Boulevard, one of the main streets in Prishtina. Above his picture it says "Welcome to Bill Clinton Boulevard"




Albania

Two bunkers in the countryside. From 1950 to 1985 the super paranoid Enver Hoxha had around 700,000 of the bunkers (one for every four Albanians at the time!) built throughout the country to repel imaginary invasions. Today they are pain for everyone, very expensive to remove and very hard to destroy, they sit in farms, backyards and on beaches.



Et'hem Bey Mosque, Tirana. Built in 1789-1823, it is one of the few buildings that escaped intact during the atheism campaign of the 1960's




Montenegro

A square in front of the St. Nicholas church, Kotor



View of the Kotor Fjord (largest fjord in southern Europe) from the trail leading up to the old fortifications above the city.




Croatia

Main street of the old city of Dubrovnik



One of the many waterfalls in Plitvice Lakes National Park




Bosnia & Herzegovina

Old bridge in Mostar. Originally built by the Turkish architect Hayrudin in 1557 at the request of a local businessman, it was destroyed on November 9th, 1993 by a unit of the Croatian Defense Council. The new bridge opened on the 23rd of July 2004. The bridge linked the two parts of the city, Muslim and Christian, thus it is an important symbol of Mostar.



New cemetery in Sarajevo, many of the people buried here were among the almost 11,000 victims of the Serbian siege of the city which took place from April 5, 1992 to February 29, 1996.




Serbia

Band rehearsing on a stage in the Kalemegdan Citadel, Belgrade



Flight suit and a part of an American F-117 stealth fighter shot down by Serb forces during the American bombing campaign. The Serbs used 1950's soviet radar technology to track the "invisible" billion $ planes and shot it down using anti-aircraft missiles. The remains are now on display at the military museum in Belgrade where I took this picture.




Slovenia

A very colorful building in Ljubljana



Statues at the dragon bridge in Ljubljana, the dragons are now the city's mascots.




Austria

Turkish football fan, this was the day Turkey won against Croatia in the Euro Cup



Inside of the Abbey Church outside of Vienna, built between 1114-1136.




Poland

The underground complex Riese near Walbrzych. Huge tunnels and halls were dug out of the Sudetes mountains by Nazis using workers from concentration camps. This was thought to be an underground military factory to be used for the creation of V2 rockets. The works were never completed due to the advance of the Soviet Red Army.



Guards standing outside of the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, Warsaw




Lithuania

Statue in the Church of the Holy Spirit, Vilnius



Czech band playing in front of the Island Castle, Trakai




Latvia

Town hall square, Riga



Restored building in the old city, Riga




Estonia

Alexander Nevsky Cathedral, Tallinn



Door knocker in the old city, Tallinn




Finland

Tuomiokirkko, (Lutheran Cathedral), Helsinki



Inside of the Uspenski Cathedral, Helsinki




Sweden

Changing of the guard at the Royal Palace, Stockholm



Facade of a building, Stockholm




I hope you enjoyed these photos. I'll be posting a lot more about individual countries as soon as I have the time to go through the 14,000+ pictures I've taken and write about them.

Here is a page about the trip on my website, I'll be updating it often
http://www.jimbojack.com/Caucasus_&_Europe.htm

[ian408]

Man, I hope you're writing a book about these trips. They've been spectacular to follow along. Giving us a look in places many will never see.

Thanks

[T. Bombadil]

Originally Posted by Jimbojack

I hope you enjoyed these photos. I'll be posting a lot more about individual countries as soon as I have the time to go through the 14,000+ pictures I've taken and write about them.

These are spectacular. So many sights I have never seen - your post inspires me to many possible trips (I'm not tough enough to do it all in one 8 week journey).

Very much looking forward to more images from you.

[cmorganphotography]

Definently not the Georgia in USA.
The Armenian Church pic is . Beautiful light and composition.
I hope you picked up some of those tea sets in Istanbul. Gorgeous glass work!

[Justiceiro]

These are fantastic pictures! I really like the Armenian Church one. Makes my feet itch and want to hit the road.

[Tee Why]

Looks like a very interesting trek.

[cj99si]

Very cool, I like them all.

[strikingviking]

Nice job amigo. Love the quality pics.

[Awais Yaqub]

Spectacular !!
will love to see it again and again again .....

[richtersl]

Fabulous!

[Anselina Adams]

wow, Georgia great shots!

[matasa]

Amazing pics


P.S. Was not expecting to see photos of Georgia on dgrin :)

[summerz]

Those are wonderful, thanks.

[mountainhouse]

Beautiful collection of photos. Great variety and technically very consistent.

[Owen]

A precise, well edited and well executed photo story.. bravo.

[Darren Troy C]

Candles in the cave church....Amazing!

[BadMonkey]

Jim,

Wow it must of ben a remarkable trip! beautiful landscapes and interesting people as well.

I did notice however that some of the pics look a little over-saturated, what'd use for post processing if at all?

Always curious what people take for photography gear on long trips like these??

Cheers,

[Jimbojack]

Originally Posted by BadMonkey

Jim,

Wow it must of ben a remarkable trip! beautiful landscapes and interesting people as well.

I did notice however that some of the pics look a little over-saturated, what'd use for post processing if at all?

Always curious what people take for photography gear on long trips like these??

Cheers,

I used photoshop CS2 for processing, just basic adjustments and curves. I realize they look over saturated a bit, there are two reasons for it.

I use the nikon d200's, they are set to vivid as I like the colors this setting produces. The real reason they are over saturated is my monitor though. I use a 22" Acer LCD that I bought on sale, while it is a good monitor the colors on it completely suck. So while the pictures look good on my computer I recently saw some of them on my friends properly calibrated monitor and they are a bit overdone. So I came to the conclusion that you can't use super cheap LCD's for picture editing, I'm saving up for a better one.

I backpack whenever I travel. My main backpack is the Gregory Palisade (which holds everything except photo gear) which is normally only 1/3 full, even for a 8 week trip.

My photo backpack is the lowepro computrekker, which is sometimes actually more heavy then my main backpack. On the last trip it had:

Nikon d200 + 17-55 mounted
Nikon d200 + 70-200vr mounted
Sigma 10-20mm, 30mm 1.4, 150mm macro
Nikon 50mm 1.8, 1.7x TC

So it's a fairly heavy and comprehensive setup, on this particular trip I used the 10-20mm a lot and the macro very little, but I takem them all because I never know what I'll be doing.

[Jimbojack]

Originally Posted by BadMonkey

Jim,

Wow it must of ben a remarkable trip! beautiful landscapes and interesting people as well.

I did notice however that some of the pics look a little over-saturated, what'd use for post processing if at all?

Always curious what people take for photography gear on long trips like these??

Cheers,

I wanted to add that this setup is for fairly "safe" countries. Last year when I travelled in El Salvador, Honduras and Nicaragua all I had with me was a old cloth dufflebag, which held everything I had including my old Nikon d70 + 18-70mm kit lens and a 50 1.8

That way I wouldn't really care if I was robbed. I plan on doing the same next year when I go to Colombia

[BadMonkey]

I can understand about the monitor, sorry to hear that your monitor is some what lacking :( Have you tried a monitor calibration on your LCD, perhaps it might help???


Wow!!! That's good rig, backup body in case something happens, good range s well: 15mm - 300mm (35mm equiv.) w/o Tele-Converter and no lens changes, brilliant!

Cheers!

Originally Posted by Jimbojack

I wanted to add that this setup is for fairly "safe" countries. Last year when I travelled in El Salvador, Honduras and Nicaragua all I had with me was a old cloth dufflebag, which held everything I had including my old Nikon d70 + 18-70mm kit lens and a 50 1.8

That way I wouldn't really care if I was robbed. I plan on doing the same next year when I go to Colombia