I got my bags packed on a roll heading out there and I'm ready to go looking real good

in my passport photo.

Amateur Traveler episode 541. Today the Amateur Traveler talks about mountains and

monasteries, old churches, and a museum dedicated to Joseph Stalin as we go to the Republic of Georgia.

I know that I should be heading home, but maybe not, maybe not

to the amateur traveler. I'm your host Chris Christensen. If you were

sponsoring this episode we'd be talking about you but you're not so let's talk

about the Republic of Georgia.

I like to welcome the show Samantha Guthrie from Love at First Layover. BlogSpot.com, which is a very long U.R. Samantha has come to blog spot Now we have done a show on the Republic of Georgia which you were more or less satisfied with.

I would say you felt that there was more to say and that things have changed because it's been quite a while since we did that show.

Why should someone...

Well first of all, let's put it on a map. We're not talking about the state.

No, we are not. Georgia is a country in the Caucasus Mountains region. So the

Caucasus region stretches from the southern part of Russia, you have those republics like Chutchnya,

North Ossetia, Odigia, and then when you go south of the greater Caucasus range,

you have Azerbaijan, Armenia, and Georgia.

And now you may or may not have two other little countries down there depending on who you are

that would split off from Georgia. But that depends on your politics and what country you're coming from,

in the name of which I can never remember the name of the two of them, but...

Right, so it's quite contentious. The two regions are legally internationally recognized as part of Georgia.

They are Abchasia and South Ossetia.

In the late 80s, early 90s, there were a series of wars as the Soviet Union collapsed and these regions

...