Before I went to Caucasus I had read lots of books and guidebooks about this place. Already then, reading them I couldn’t wait to see the fabulous place located on the border of 2 continents, between the Euxine Sea and the Caspian Sea, around the Caucasus Mountains.
I badly wanted to go through the whole Caucasus’ area but didn’t have so much time. Finally, Caucasus is not a small area, it includes Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, southern part of Russia… unquestionably I need to go there once again. But let’s get to the point. The Caucasus’ territory is inhabited by over 70 different ethnical groups. They are different in terms of culture, language, ancestry, development level, national cognisance and so on. So, try imagine how hard was it to me to choose which part of Caucasus I go, especially since I really wanted to go to every part of the region, visit every city and meet people of all of those 70 different ethnical groups. Well, finally I ended up in Georgia.
I was landing in Tbilisi. What interesting the Tbilisi’s airport’s highest activity is at night, so an my plane touched down at 2:00am. And then when I got out of the plane, picked up my luggage and tried to catch a taxi, I saw this amazing view over the city of Tbilisi. The whole city is illuminated in so incredible way that you can’t catch a breath watching the view from the airport.
However, after a few hours in the air I was pretty exhausted. I went straight to my hotel in the city centre. I was surprised the people in Georgia are so kind and helpful. Everybody I was talking to was smiling, asking if I need a help or just giving me advices regarding my stay there – where to buy things and where not, where to catch a taxi, where not and so on. But apart of the amazing people and awesome food the country of Caucasus has its own interesting music – the one that is played in the radio and another one which is played by local people, old women, regional bands and vocalists.
Of course, a huge part of the music on the radio are a popular -mostly American or British hits but sometimes they play local pop stars that though play the same pop as all over the world, sound totally different. The Georgian pop is not like our American or Europeand pop, it’s like a new strange alternative genre. However, I like it and I must admit that even now, a few weeks after the trip I still listen to Georgian radio at my home country. My very favourite radio station is Радио Асса where you can hear pop music in every Caucasian language!
Regarding bands I like Тимур Муцураев – a typical chill out music – guitar, calm, warm, low man’s voice… And there is one more vocalist I like very much, it’s Хеда Хамзатова. More about it I will write in the next report form my trip to Caucasus.
