Gamarjoba ojakhi da megobrebi!
(Georgian for Hello Family & Friends)
We left you in the last dispatch at the Russia-Georgia Friendship monument, which ‘friendship’ is in serious question as we write, and has been for quite some time. We’re back on the road, leaving Gudauri for a 2 night stay in Borjomi, a resort town in southern Georgia with a population of 10,000. Our drive was filled with precipitous mountain crevasses and dramatic indentions in the hillsides, whizzing by a sign showing a man and woman with hands over their private parts, denoting a toilet ahead. Would love to have captured a photo, but the ‘whizzing’ prevented such. As we descended from an elevation of 7,000 foot elevation down a few thousand feet, lushness prevailed, the rivers grew fuller, wider and swifter, bringing us to the Ananuri Fortress high above the Aragvi River and its reservoir, to a spot where smoke signals were sent in centuries past, warning of potential assaults. Tunnels had been built under the river to allow access to food and drinking water in case of siege. Of course it had the classic tourist trap for taking photos of yourselves dressed in chain mail armor and/or Papakha hats set out on the path to the Russian Orthodox Church. There we saw paintings which were more colorful (in our opinion) than those of the Georgian Orthodoxy.
Parking alongside the Mtkvari River (known as the Kura River in Turkey, its source), 900 miles long and flowing eastward into the Caspian Sea, we crossed over to reach our destination, the ‘town’ of Uplistsikhe (meaning: Fortress of the Ruler), a 2,500 year old rock-hewn cave town dating back to 1,000 BCE and covering 8 hectares (20 acres). It is the oldest site in Georgia. Pagans were the first settlers, followed by Orthodox Christians. Sacrifices would take place here, where there are 5 foot diameter pits that cannot hold water and assumed to have been used for gifts or sacrifices. Cuts in the rock faces were the old ways of accessing the caves versus wood stairs and metal railings available today (for tourists of course). As the story goes, slaves were using 2-sided axes (1 side gold, 1 side iron) to do the carving. If they worked hard enough to wear down the iron, they would get the gold AND their freedom. Prisoners were relegated to tapered holes, 8 meters deep, with a grate over the opening. The most majestic edifice was the Queen Tamar Hall, the 1st woman ruler to be called ‘King’, ruling from 1184-1213. A lot of restoration has gone on here, with this hall having new pillars now to replace the deteriorating ones, but it does not deter from the extraordinariness of the site. From the loftiness of this structure, we were able to view the vestiges of an abandoned village, once built upon a cemetery. When that was revealed in the 1970’s, the village was uprooted and moved across the river! For all our climbing efforts, we received some more chacha from our driver, Guram.
Many of our longer drives provided time for stories from our guide, Mariam, like the following: If people are seen walking down the middle of streets, they may be asked if they are ‘from Gori’. Apparently, 100 years ago in the town of Gori, after a severe earthquake, citizens took to walking down the middle of the streets to avoid being hurt or killed. We live in a neighborhood where people do the same…walking down the middle of the street since we have no sidewalks. We now kid each other, “Are you from Gori”?
More sightings of multi-story Soviet concrete block-housing with peeling paint, coming to and leaving Gori, the birthplace of Joseph Stalin, whose museum we visited mid-afternoon, wandering the various rooms with the quintessential photos depicting his rise from revolutionary status to dictator…and more depictions of the strife and slaughter in these 3 Caucasus countries. Before finally arriving at Borjomi, we heard stories of the 12th century Georgian population of 8 million, now numbering 3.7 million! Mariam also mentioned something they refer to as WWIII. This began in 2008 and continues today with the slow encroachment of Russia (which borders Georgia on the north) into South Ossetia, where Georgians can go to sleep in Georgia one day and wake up in Russia after a nighttime movement of barriers southward by the Russians. Mariam, a teenager at the time lived through the 2008 bombing in Tbilisi, related to the Russo-Georgian War, giving us her personal descriptions of the effects on her and her family. Back now to the present, we arrived in Borjomi, where the Kura River wildly rushed through the center of this nestled town of 10,000, with an artistic looped sculpted bridge to cross over. We were on the road by 10:00 a.m. the next morning, driving alongside the Mtkvari River, which we would continue to be associated with for quite some time. Our roadway was a 2-laner, rough, requiring some detours, passing by a Turkish-built dam, now sharing hydroelectric power benefits, but will be Georgian-owned in the near future. Terraces prevailed to our left, with stones and risers for vineyards and grapes which were being ‘brought back’ after the 2008 ‘war’.
Late morning we came upon a photo op, with the Khertvisi Castle, a fortress, in the distance, and an oscillating/swaying wooden foot bridge over the Mtkvari, which fellow traveler Don and I had fun with, walking like drunken sailors and feigning fear of bridge collapse in one of the photos. A bit later we arrived at our key destination for the day, the 3-tiered Vardzia Cave Town. The remaining caves are 1/3 of the original town which had once housed 10,000 souls. We are still at high elevation (4,000 feet at the base of the caves). We encountered a police roadblock that precluded us from driving any further, so had to walk 400 meters to a bridge to cross our river and made our way up to the mini-bus area to purchase our 1 GEL ($.35 USD) ticket and wait for a 20 person maximum bus to get all of us to the base (we weren’t the only visitors and had to do some elbowing on the late-coming Russian interlopers). At the 2nd tier of caves, in the Church of the Assumption, with more faded frescoes from the 12th century, Mariam was regaling us with the story of the Queen-called-King being married in this small 400 square foot church, dissing the Queen/King a bit, being overheard by the Nun attendant who called her over and severely chastised Mariam, as she confessed to us a bit later, somewhat ashamed. We loved her honesty and humility! We proceeded to pass through a number of caves/openings, one of which having great acoustics, where our own fellow traveler, Don, a Chinese Singaporean, made his cave debut, singing an aria from a Cantonese opera, in Chinese, which Maggie recorded. He feigned very emotive facial and hand gestures, as if he was really on stage. It quite made our day! We partook of some mineral spring waters in the back of one of the caves, as we had in the Children’s Park in Borjomi, this water, allegedly having medicinal and restorative properties, is exported to over 40 countries. Then some of us opted to exit the site via a downward spiraling 300 foot long tunnel that our guide did not recommend we do (of course now we had to exit that way to show this young whippersnapper what we were made of!). We ended up riverside, walking to a local restaurant and eating out on an extended dock with a tin roof over our heads, rain pelting down and thunder accompanying our beer chugging and dining experience. More chacha that afternoon in celebration of Guram’s 27th birthday, singing “Happy Birthday” to him as we quaffed his homemade brew.
Well, the theme keeps rolling along…another fortress coming up, the 18th Century Rabati Castle. You’d think there were wars, battles and brutalities throughout this region… This one was located in Akhaltsikhe, with a golden-domed mosque, reminding us a bit of the Hagia Sophia in Istanbul; Christianity became the majority religion here in the 19th Century. The morning we left Borjomi, moving eastward toward the current capital of Georgia, Tbilisi, for 2 nights there, Mariam answered questions on military conscription in Georgia and more on its religious history for a couple of hours, when we finally arrived in Mtskheta, the ancient Georgian capital, 20 kilometers north of Tbilisi, to visit the Jvari Monastery and the Svetitskhoveli Cathedral, hovering atop a mountain overlooking the confluence of the Aragvi and Mtkvari Rivers, one sporting muddy waters, the other, blue. At the Monastery, we were blessed with a polyphonic singing experience of 10 men in lite purple robes, singing across from each other in this small chapel with great acoustics. Though a sign said “no photo”, Maggie sneakily recorded part of this magical moment for the sound only. We had a peaceful lunch with another couple, alongside the smooth running river, small white puffballs floating around in the air from the trees. We then rejoined the group, entering the Svetitskhoveli Cathedral, one of Georgia’s largest places of worship, where we saw more lit candles and art work, passing by some youth outside on our way to the National Museum back in Tbilisi, which was closed except for exhibits on clothing and musical instruments!
Now waking up in the capital of Tbilisi, with a population of 1.2 million, walking high above the Mtkvari River, we were reminded again that much of where we have been is following the Old Silk Road trade route from China. Standing next to a huge statue of a soldier astride his steed, sword dangling at his side, looking over at the Narikala Fortress, we experienced a poetic moment. Entering a nearby church when we heard singing, 3 women cloistered to the side, our UK buddy, Keith, ever the recalcitrant one, was ‘chewed’ out for chewing gum in this holy place, although, unlike everywhere else, they had no problem with his shorts. We all took a cable car up on the other side of the river, looking back at where we stood earlier, meandering atop this hill, discovering an intra-city waterfall & tributary, a pedestrian bridge with padlocks (ala Paris), a loud frog below on the rocks, a Gypsy woman with a 1 year old tugging at my shirt with pleading eyes. On to Meidan Square in Old Town Tbilisi, entering an old tunnel discovered only in 2010, complete now with a wine cellar and handicrafts, e.g., felt products, hats, etc. Moving through Shavteli Street, near a Caravanserai (Silk Road Stayover), we passed street buskers and the Puppet Museum with a tilting façade sporting a mechanical on-the-hour figure coming out to hit the gong. Moved on to Rustavelli Street, coming across a gallery with fine handicrafts, where Maggie tried on a beautiful hat, very unique and looked great on her except for the price, $150 USD! So she came away with a beautiful, more affordable, scarf instead.
It was after this exposure to Old Town, that Maggie and I were finally on our own for the rest of the day to do what we do best: deambulando (Spanish for ‘’wandering around’). We had our sights set on Graffiti/Street Art and started by walking to the Baratashvili Bridge, using a convoluted pattern to avoid the congested car traffic following the Kura River, looping up and over, eventually accessing our target, the pedestrian walkway under the bridge car traffic, which was featuring the Kolga Tbilisi Photo Exhibition, consisting of 6 foot high by 7 foot wide artistic renderings of photos representing distressed peoples in the world, e.g., the Yazidis of Syria/Iraq/Turkey; Human Trafficking; Opioid Addiction Impacts; Societal Changes (Women in Iran); South Ossetian Conflict Impacts; Hambach Forest Issues in Cologne Germany and too many more to relate here… an extremely powerful exhibit!!!. After walking both sides of the bridge to view these, we came out to a tunnel with street art on the walls, snapping photos and continuing on to the 2nd scene of our graffiti hunt: the Fabrica District. Against all recommendations that we needed to take taxis to get there, we used the street map, inquiring along the way for directions, finally arriving at Fabrica around Javakhishvili & Ninoshvili Streets, a shabby part of town…just what we were looking for. On the way we came upon a scene directly in front of us, where a very distraught thin woman, her hair dyed pink, hands out in a pleading fashion, screaming at a parking enforcement officer over a ticket he had written. We thought we would wait around to see the result but after 10 minutes, we gave up and decided to cross the street and move on to our original agenda, marveling at the amazing art work on the sides of buildings still in use, versus those about to be torn down.
Our last night in Georgia was spent at a lovely restaurant, the Old Metekhi, where we were entertained with festive and fast-actioned folklore dancing, the dancers in local costume, whirling, high kicks, the traditional dance of Georgia having its roots in military moves, sports games and dances celebrated in the Middle Ages (5-15th Century), with one move that was pretty spectacular: one of the male performers picking up a cup of wine off the floor with his mouth and, without using his hands, drinking it without spilling and standing up. Brought the house down!!
We leave you here with the menu for our last night in Georgia:
Lobiani (bean stuffed dough); Mtsvadi (BBQ Pork); Chashushuli (Beef Stew with Tomatoes); Nadughi with Mint (Cheese Rolls); Wild Rice Salad; Adjapsandali (Georgian Ratatouille, or Eggplant Stew); Mushroom Salad.
The final dispatch for this trip will be sent out in the near future, taking you from Tbilisi to the border with Armenia and our 4 nights in Yerevan.
Cheers, Stan & Maggie