Eurasia – Bellion Travels

Places to visit in Azerbaijan

We booked a tour for the whole day which included the Mud Volcano, Gobustan Park, Fire Temple, Bibi-Hebyat Mosque and the Fire Mountain.

Mud Volcano

Land form that erupts mud and gas. There is no lava and the eruption is caused by hot water deep below the Earth surface. I highly recommend you visit it because it’s one of the most interesting places I’ve visited. Very unique experience.

Gobustan Park

In 1930, a group of miners discovered the stone formations, carvings and man-made caves which is now available for the public to see known as the Gobustan Park.

There are approx. 6000 rock engravings and it believed it dated back 50,000 years. The place shows settles, burials and inhabited caves which were held during the period of the last Ice Age.

The engraved art works on the rock consisted of men, animals, dances, warriors and pictures of sun and stars. There are more but we didn’t really get to see them. The park is preserved by Azerbaijan government and it is registered with the UNESCO World Heritage site.

Highly recommend to visit the Gobustan Museum which is located near the ancient park. Over there you will learn a lot about the history and the objects which were used by the Homosapiens and about animals that inhabited the land once upon a time.

Bibi-Heyat Mosque

The Bibi-Heyat Mosque is also known as ‘The Mosque of Fatima’. It is a historic mosque built during the 13th Century. The mosque includes the tomb of Ukeyma Khanum a descendant of the Prophet Muhammad and is now a spiritual place for the Shia Muslims.

Ateshgah

Baku Ateshgah also known as ‘The Fire Temple’. It is a religious temple in a town called Surakhani. The temple was a holy place for Hindus, Sikhs and Zoroastrian. The temple was built during the 17th and 18th centuries.

Yanar Dag

Yanar Dag translates to Burning Mountain. Natural gas fire blazes on the hillside and the flames jet almost 3 metres high.

You can visit all those 5 places in a day.

June 1, 2018July 6, 2018

Nissreen1 Comment

3 Days in Georgia the Country

Tim, Mimi and I planned to celebrate Noor’s 30th birthday in Georgia the country. Since we all have a UAE residence visa, we are granted visa free entry. Noor travelled 2 days before us with her friend Jenneka. As for us, we spent 56 hours in Georgia.

Day 1:

We landed in Tbilisi, the capital of Georgia at 5AM and headed straight to the hotel. We left our luggages and decided to explore parts of the city before meeting Noor and Jenneka at the hotel.

Our first stop was Median Square to have Khachapuri for breakfast at a famous restaurant located infront of the ‘I Love Tbilisi’ sign. We went to a restaurant called Samikitno/Machakhela; the food was very delicious and affordable.

We continued exploring the area and took pictures by the bridge of peace, went crazy at Rike Park and walked back to the hotel.

Alex our half Georgian half Egyptian tour guide picked us up from the hotel and took us to 5 touristic locations.

Jvari Mountain: A sixth century Georgian Orthodox monastery, located in eastern Geogia.

Mtskheta: One of the oldest cities in Georgia. It’s a city that was founded in the 5th Century BC. We visited a church and the local market and bought lots of Churchkhelas which are Georgian’s famous sweets. (VERY DELICIOUS)

Post-116-BT-08 — The Delicious Churchkhelas

Gori: Is a city in eastern Georgia. The city was occupied by the Russian troops during the 2008 Russian-Georgian war. It is also known as the birthplace of the Soviet leader J.Stalin

Stalin Museum: The name says it all.

Uplistsikhe Cave Complex: Although it was raining a lot and quite windy, we managed to hike it. Uplistsikhe translates to ‘The Lord’s Fortress’. It contains structure from the Early Iron Age and Late Middle Ages. The structure was from Anatolia, Iran, Pagan and Christian architecture.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

As our tour ended, we headed back to Tbilisi and wandered around Sioni Cathedral Church, 3 Sioni St, Erekele II Square, Aerial Cable Car and had dinner at a vegan restaurant called Kafe Leila.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Day 2:

Alex couldn’t meet us on that day so he sent his cousin ‘George’ to continue our tour around Georgia.

On that day we visited 4 famous locations.

Ananuri: A Castle which was ruled from the 13th century. Tim and I took pictures wearing the traditional outfits.

Pasanauri: is a very small town surrounded by Causaus Mountains. We all were quiet in the car and admiring the nature while Jason Mraz and smooth 90’s songs were playing in the background.

Gudauri: A famous ski resort. We stopped to admire the view and take pictures. Honestly speaking I’ve never seen such nature. Georgia is really beautiful.

Kazbegi: a small town located in North East of Georgia and very close to the boarders of Russia.

Russia–Georgia Friendship Monument: is a monument build in 1983 to celebrate the friendship between Georgia and the Soviet Russia.

As we headed back to our hotel in Tbilisi, we agreed to separate for 2 hours and meet up later at the hotel to celebrate Noor’s birthday. Mimi, Tim and I continued to discover local markets and coffee shops.

At around 9PM, Alex picked us up from our hotel and took us to Shardeni Street. Known to have best clubs, pubs and shisha. Since it’s Noor’s birthday, we all had dinner and smoked Shisha till 1AM.

Post-116-BT-22 (2) — Celebrating Noor’s 30th

Day 3: TBILISI and back to Dubai

As we waited in line for the cable car, the sky greeted us with ice cold rain. We then visited Kartlis Deda and Narikala Fortress. Sadly, we didn’t manage to explore much as we needed to get back to catch our flight.

Ahhh! We all loved Georgia. The food, the nature and it’s history.

Post-116-BT-23 (2) — Tbilisi, Georgia (2017)

Visited: May 2017

*I’ve got lots of photos of Georgia which I will be posting on Pinterest.

September 28, 2017September 21, 2017

NissreenLeave a comment

Bellion Travels – 48 Hours in Armenia

So not a lot of people know we’ve been to Armenia so whoever didn’t know and is reading this post, SURPRISE!!! Tim and I visited Armenia.

It was long before it became a touristic destination. We booked our trip 3 days before our flight not knowing what to do or where to visit. All we knew was that Yerevan is the capital. So I quickly skimmed through places to visit in Armenia and wrote down Garni, Genocide Memorial and Yerevan Square.

We knew we were going there for the weekend so on day one, we explored the city of Yerevan by foot and discovered amazing local stores and restaurant which was located underground because of the cold weather.

After enjoying a delicious lunch, we took a taxi to the Genocide Memorial. Keep in my mind, our taxi driver didn’t know a word of English and he called his son to translate. We get there and pay our respects and head back to our taxi.

He then made hand gesture asking ‘Where?’, I looked at the list and said ‘Garni’. We ventured to the place forgetting what Garni offers and its location. As we headed outside the city and up to the mountain, Tim and I looked at each other in confusion. We asked again in a one-word question ‘Garni?’ and he just nodded. As it started getting darker and also started to snow; Tim got worried and I got excited because I’ve never seen snow before. We then got to Garni and were completely astonished by a Roman ruin on top of the mountain.

We then headed back to Yerevan and went to the Russian Cinema. Of course all the movies were in Russian and the subtitles were in Armenian so we just had different coffees at several coffee shops in the area.

Armenia is one place Tim and I will always remember because unplanned trips are the best and most memorable.

September 26, 2017September 15, 2017

NissreenLeave a comment

Tag: Eurasia

Places to visit in Azerbaijan

Like this:

3 Days in Georgia the Country

Like this:

Bellion Travels – 48 Hours in Armenia

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this: