Georgia's Gorgeous
.jpg "Georgia, Georgian Holidays")
With many many thanks to Manana, my guide and Bondo, my driver, for without them my 9 days in Georgia would have been rather ordinary.
I was so keen to go on holiday that I arrived at Kathmandu airport a day early! What a chump; had to retrace my steps including handing back my departure tax tickets and getting a refund and paying for another taxi to return to the hotel. Of course the staff there thought that was pretty amusing. The sad part was I had been invited by two friends to partake in Eid festival (the end of Ramadan) where they pig out on delicious food to break the fast because I thought I would be winging my way to Doha.
Nevertheless the following day I had it all right and embarrassingly got the same check in girl at the airport. Qatar Airways to Doha where I overnighted, and then continued on to Istanbul. Unfortunately it was here that the flight connections were diabolical and I had to spend 10 hours in the airport, so I indulged in the airport hotel to rest, shower and watch crap on tele. The 2 hour flight to Tblisi Georgia left Intanbul at about midnight so it was about 3.20am when I crashed on my bed at the Georgian House Hotel, Tbilisi.
Up bright and early (though faded in the late afternoon) and in the small hotel restaurant acquainted myself with a staple of Georgian cuisine - thick sour cream. Something fairly yummy about fresh thickly sliced brown bread smothered in home made fig jame and topped with a dollop or two of sour cream. My guide Manana arrived and we hit it off immediately. She is a mid 30's highly educated young woman, multi lingual and passionate about her country, particularly the mountain area of Svaneti. I travelled for the entire trip in a rather new, swish 4WD, with Bondo our driver. A gentleman to say the least.
Tbilisi is a smallish city of about 2million on the banks (cliffs for part of it) of the river and Mtkvari and has a delightful Old centre with lots of churches and forgotten squares. It also has smart boulevards and tree lined streets and there is considerable construction going on. The unpopular President is building a nice palace for himself. Tbilisi is recovering from disputes with Russia, civil strife, revolution and gang violence but everyone is optimistic. There is an attractive area of renovated buildings housing cafes, outdoor eateries and trendy little shops. It is still not very touristy though.
Obvious on the city skyline is the Narkila fortress, the earliest walls dating from the 4th century citadel. Views are great. In the old town are the sculpture baths which are housed on a cluster of pinky brick domes. The entrance to the baths look like the facade of a mosque. Lots of churches of various periods and statues, a stop for lunch at a cafeteria. Unfortunately the fabulous collection of gold jewellery, reliquaries, religious things and other precious objects were on a world tour and therefore we did not visit the main museum. Flagged at about 4pm and had a 12 hour sleep.
Started the day well with wine and vodka after breakfast!!! and set off. There is no doubt I should have paid more attention to Sunday School classes because I couldn't identify one saint from another on the beautiful frescoes in the many churches I visited. Suffice to say they were beautiful. We visited many interesting and wonderful spots. The small town of Gori which is the birthplace of Josef Stalin. A visit to the museum dedicated (mostly) to his early life was interesting, if only for the wealth of material they omitted about the atrocities committed under his leadership. Some Georgians would like a character like him again in power as they say he would rid the country of corruption.
The mountain area of Svaneti is stunningly beautiful, all views like postcards. 5000M jagged rocky peaks with a lot of snow already, the lower hills covered either in pine/spruce forests or autumn colored deciduous trees, milky blue rivers, grey stone buildings and the interesting 10th century stone tower fortresses. Road obstacles abound - huge potholes, landslides, many cattle, goats, ducks, geese and pigs. Enormous numbers of pigs! Centre of Svaneti is the town ofMestia where we stayed for 2 nights with the beautiful Irma and her husband. Mestia is surrounded by snow capped peaks. To illustrate how cold it gets there the outdoor (very nicely tiled and equipped) squat loo keeps flushing all the time to stop the water freezing.
We had an all day drive to the village of Ushguli, at 2200M is the highest permanently inhabited village in Europe. It took us 3 hours to drive the 50kms, a combination of rough road and getting a little bit lost as there are few if any road signs. But the scenery was spectacular. Ushguli is a cluster of stone houses, and a few towers, a church on top of the hill and a small museum. It's home to a well known Georgian painter and other craftspeople, but there were also many tumbledown buildings.
Interesting places in Georgia are the cave cities and on my last day before Amenia we visited Vardzia. It is approached through a spectacular gorge of barren rock and you exit into a small valley and these amazing cave dwellings. They are usually a system of rooms carved out of the rock face, 13 stories high, connected by passageways and stairs, with churches as the main focal point. Vardzia is 12th Century and at one time housed 50, 000. The Church of the Assumption has some lovely frescoes, inside and out. As is usual in Georgia, photographs of the interior are prohibited, though I was so tempted to do so when I thought no one was looking.
We had a picnic lunch nearby. In the rural areas of Georgia lunch was often a picnic, purchasing fresh bread and tomatoes and other things as we drove along. Simple meals but so fresh with local ingredients, augmented with coffee or tea, and the pleasure of lolling about in a beautiful space, surrounded by mountains.
In Zugdidi I had to purchase batteries because I had forgotten my charger and I was snapping away happily. It's an area where Bondo grew up so he knew everyone in town. Zugdidi has a large population of displaced persons from the war in neighboring Abkhazia. once part of Russia/Georgia. And it is also home of the aristocratic Dadiani family whose palatial residence is now a museum, beautifully furnished with antique French objects and furniture, and some exquisite woodworked ceilings above the balconies. One of the best lunches was had in the nearby town of Vani in a small cafe (called Apaches) run by Abkhazi refugees. They had been professionals but now having to make business through running a cafe. To them this was serious loss of face, but the woman was a top cook.
Parts of Georgia are extremely fertile, and used to be the bread basket of the USSR. Now many of the food manufacturing and processing plants are closed, tobacco crops rot in the fields, but the land is still producing fruit, vegetables, nuts and grains. In the late autumn everyone is harvesting the crops for the winter and it is a time of great activity.
There were many beautiful cathedrals in the Kutaisi area and we witnessed a christening in the Gelati Monastery. The baby girl was called Barbara, a saintly name in Georgia. It is interesting to note that fathers do not attend their child's christening. But the background music was pleasing and nice to see the priest in colorful robes intoning the prayers for the child's future life.
We stayed one night in Bakuriani, a ski resort in an extremely comfortable lodge and were overfed. Menu that night: vege soup, chicken salad, the famous cheese pie, fried chicken with walnut sauce, spaghetti with herbs, cream sponge roll topped with thick strawberry jam, and mixed pear apple prune juice, along with more of the chacha! Oh, and lots of bread and butter. We were in the Borjormi area which has a lot of mineral spas and Borjormi Sparkling Mineral water can be purchased anywhere. It has quite a salty flavor, strong in comparison with ours.
I felt quite sad on departure from my friends Manana and Bondo at the Armenian border as we had, I thought, enjoyed ourselves very much. I had the comfort of knowing, however, that we would all meet again on a different border crossing when I returned to Georgia. Just as well, as I had left my precious gortex jacket in their vehicle.
GEORGIA: PART II
Sadly, I didn't see Bondo again, but his replacement whose name I now forget was a charming man. Are all Georgian men gorgeous? Well, I did only met nice ones. Manana was at the border to greet me (wearing my jacket!!) and this time I felt bereft at leaving my Armenian friends. Can't win, can you?
We had quite a long drive back to Tbilisi. We were supposed to go to THE cave city of Georgia, but the weather turned nasty and we could hardly see 30M in front of us, driving was difficult and it was cold and windy. Manana suggested we visit the Bodbe Monastery and Nunnery which is dedicated to St Nino who is buried there. St Nino brought Christianity to Georgia - short version of story. She converted the Queen and from then on it became popular. This church/monastery had beautiful paintings - from the church we should get good views but the fog had become even thicker. It was then a short drive down hill to the newly opened restored Italianate village of Kakheti, with its cobbled winding streets, pastel hued wooden house/shop fronts, overhanging balconies etc. Typical 18th century Georgian architecture, facades only restored, with the hope that visitors will come thereby boosting the economy. I see no reason why this would not happen. Late back to Tbilisi for late room service snack of boiled eggs, bread, jam and sausage and tea.
I conned Manana in to taking me shopping. I was desperate to spend money on my last day in Georgia, so some hours later we had had coffee and cake at the Marriott, a delicious typical Georgian lunch of large stuffed dumplings calledkhinkali, bread, beer, and mixed bean stew. I bought some Georgian music CDs and a gorgeous enameled silver pendant (got the idea from Wendy because she had one). Also visited Manana's office and downloaded all the Georgian photos for her - I think she ended up with the Armenian ones as well. More sad farewells - Manana had treated me like a friend/older sister and I hope we remain like that. She's an amazing lady. So the visit to Georgia came to an end with the unenviable departure at 5am necessitating my waking up at about 3am, but with another adventure to look forward to- Turkey.
Glenniss Pallier
Georgian holidays - tours, travel and visit Georgia
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