Distractions, Part 2

With SELF camp done, I started the long trek across the country back to Akhalkalaki.  If you try to go directly from Kobuleti or Batumi to Akhalkalaki, it involves at least three bus changes (actually, there is a direct bus, but the driver seems to only go when the spirit moves him, so it's not especially reliable).  However, I think even the most serendipitous traveler couldn't find a way to make all those connections on schedule and do the trip in a day.  Knowing that it'd be a tough slog to make all my buses, I decided to break the trip up, first stopping in Kutaisi for one last visit.  

I arrived and headed straight to happy hour.  One of the great PCVs in Kutaisi, Tami (with whom I stayed while visiting), has an adult English conversation group that meets three times a week.  To make things more interesting and attract more native English speakers for her students to meet with, she holds one of those meetings at a bar or outdoor cafe.  It's a fantastic idea, really--the students (all adults) get to practice English in a real-live setting, with lots of English speakers around (all are required to sit Georgian-American-Georgian-American); it's a way of sharing a bit of American culture, by explaining what happy hour is and why Americans go out for happy hours; and it's a great way for the other PCVs and Americans (or other native English speakers) in Kutaisi to get a little bit of that feeling of normality, of home, speaking English and drinking a beer.  After a week at SELF camp, I certainly was pretty happy with the arrangement.

Tami and another PCV stationed just outside of Kutaisi, Josh, had planned a weekend adventure, and I was invited to tag along.  We spent Saturday traveling around to monasteries and churches that were pretty inspiring and inspired, to say the least.  First was the women's Mghvimevi monastery (just try to say that one time) in Chiatura, about an hour and a half from Kutaisi.  

Mghvimevi from the street below

The view of Chiatura from out front of the monastery

Inside the cave part of the monastery

It was nice and cool inside the cave church

Inside the stone church there were a lot of really well preserved frescos from centuries ago

A ceiling fresco

You know it's a good, serious monastery because they have skulls on display

We walked from the monastery back into the center of Chiatura and had some lunch at an outdoor cafe near the river.  Chiatura was a major manganese mining town, and some production is still ongoing.  The look of things on the outskirts of town reminded me a little of Granville.  After lunch, we headed out for more monasteries.  First up was the Katshis Monastery.

Katshis Monastery--it was a pretty unique shape for a monastery in Georgia

Statue outside the 11th century Katshis Monastery (notice the wine kvevri in the background; I guess this monastery isn't entirely atypical for Georgia)

 Our last stop on the monastery tour was the Katshis Pillar.  I'll let you look at the pictures, rather than explaining it.  I'll just say that going to the church would really be a test of your faith.

Katshis Pillar

Me and Tami, with Katshis Pillar in the background

Closer up picture of the pillar

Wanna get up to the church?  Go ahead--climb this metal ladder!  (Only men are allowed to go up, or I totally would have. Totally.)

Another view of the pillar

On Sunday, we spent some time resting and relaxing, and I met up with a bunch of other PCVs in Kutaisi to take pictures of them exercising (more on that later).  Given how hot it was in Kutaisi, sitting in a park, eating ice cream and drinking cold coffee was a great way to spend the day.  Monday I was planning to head back closer to site, stopping in Akhaltsikhe.  I was persuaded to take a side trip for one more Kutaisi adventure in a cave called Prometheus.  Josh, the PCV who went with me and Tami to Chiatura, works at the Prometheus Cave, and told me he could give me a private tour on Monday, when the site is closed.  I couldn't say no to that, so I headed off to Tskaltubo, a small suburb of Kutaisi that had been a big Soviet spa resort town.  Josh knows a lot about caves (he worked as a geologic hydrologist or something like that in America), and kept saying that Prometheus was world class.  He said it would be a shame to leave Georgia without seeing it, so I decided to risk not catching a direct marshrutka in order to see it.  It was incredible.  Look on below.

Headed down to the cave entrance

An incredible Karst cave

Seeing caves like this helps me really imagine how dinosaurs existed

In addition to being really freaking cool to look at, it was nice and cool in temperature in the cave, too

Pretty sci-fi, huh?

I loved this--on emerging from the cave after nearly 2 hours (it's a huge freaking cave), blinded by the sun, we come out to see the big "National Parks of Georgia" signs, right next to a bunch of cows.  There are cows in every single national park in Georgia.  Even the caves. (Well, next to the caves).

And, in typical Georgian fashion, things somehow worked out.  The walk from the bus station in Tskaltubo to Prometheus cave is about 4 miles, and it was hot and I had my backpack.  Josh usually can flag a ride or catch a bus, but on that Monday, there were no takers, so we just walked, stopping to pick blackberries or plums from trees and bushes that grew over the fences every now and again.  Just before arriving at the bus station, a car stopped to give us a ride.  It was already after 1pm (the scheduled time of my bus departure), but we were grateful for a lift and to get out of the sun.  The car was actually headed into Kutaisi to the bus station, so they gave us a ride all the way there.  Even though I arrived at 1:35pm (a full 35 minutes past scheduled departure time, mind you), my direct bus to Akhaltsikhe was still sitting there.  And, praise the lords or serendipity, it was right next to an ice cream vendor.  10 points to Georgia, for letting me see an amazing cave of wonders, pick fresh fruit on the walk back, catch a ride with some friendly Kutaisians, make it back in time to take a direct bus, AND still have time for an ice cream (actually, I ate 2).  Win.