Home from abroad

After being away for nearly six weeks, I’m getting used to being at home again.   I’m settling back into the routine of cooking, dreary admin, yoga, book club, gardening and all the many things that make up daily life. In fact, I was washing the dishes the other night and it occurred to me that it was the first time I’d washed a dish in six weeks. I certainly hadn’t missed it. I also hadn’t missed cooking, but I do enjoy eating food that I have specifically chosen rather than what happens to be available on a menu.

I know that my travel choices are not everyone’s. Before I left someone asked if I was going anywhere nice. I said “Well, that depends what you mean by nice. I’m going to Azerbaijan, Georgia, Armenia and Turkey.” She nodded, “I see what you mean.” Another person asked if I was expecting to come back, which I think is an odd question. Who sets out on a trip thinking that they won’t come back? This is the 21^st century – I wasn’t exactly looking for a new trade route to India. “I was planning on it,” I reassured her. And I did.

I don’t know which of those countries strikes the most fear into people’s hearts. Possibly all of them. Even Turkey, such a popular tourist destination, hits the headlines these days for political unrest. Georgia was an incredibly dangerous country in the 90s after the Soviet Union fell, but it’s so peaceful now it’s hard to believe. A presidential election took place while we were there and people were out demonstrating on the streets, convinced that the vote was rigged. But it didn’t feel threatening in any way. I was amazed that our guide kept her phone clearly visible in an outside pocket of her backpack – I don’t think it would have lasted long in London. Although we associate Armenia and Azerbaijan with a long-running war (let’s be honest, when we think of them at all), it is confined to a small disputed area and I felt completely safe everywhere we went.

Our perception of danger often has little bearing on reality. I was in Uganda and Rwanda last summer, both places that sound scary to western Europeans, but I felt perfectly comfortable there. Meanwhile at home in England riots were breaking out across the country.  South Africa is a popular destination for British tourists, despite having one of the highest crime rates in the world. I found a listing of the world crime index and South Africa featured at number five, worse than both Yemen and Syria. Azerbaijan was apparently safer than Norway. Can this be right? Maybe it depends on your definition of crime. Still, I’d feel safer in Pakistan than South Africa and I know how most people would react if I said I was going there. It’s very tempting…