Kazbegi and Ananuri

Mt. Kazbegi and the village of Stepantsminda

At the beginning of May, Sam and I headed up from Tbilisi to the Georgian village of Stepantsminda (St. Stephen).  This is a big destination for tourists of all stripes.  It's got beautiful hiking, challenging climbing, tall mountains, unique plant and bird life and, maybe the key attraction, it's not too far afield from Tbilisi.  Minibuses go regularly, north up the Georgian Military Highway, through some striking scenery that winds up and up through the Caucasus.  Mount Kazbegi is the big landmark (and most people refer to the area just as "Kazbegi"), a 5000+ meter dormant volcano right near the Russian-Georgian border that dominates the skyline (when it's not too foggy to see).  

When we got in, we had some light rain and lots of fog, so we did the the logical thing--stopped into a restaurant and ordered some khachapuri and limonati.  (Limonati is usually translated as "lemonade," but is actually just a carbonated fruit-flavored cola.  Some of the most common flavors in Georgia are pear, lemon, grape, and tarragon.  There is a brand called "Kazbegi," but this was surprisingly not the brand carried in the restaurant we went to in Kazbegi.)

Sam, checking out our hiking route as we waited on our lunch

After lunch, our skies cleared enough for us to risk the climb.  We headed out for a hike up to the Gergeti Trinity Church.  Like most Georgian churches, Gergeti Trinity is impossibly sited.  Situated at the top of a cliff-hill with Mt. Kazbegi in the background, it's hard to imagine a more beautiful spot.  It's so pretty, it's often used as the cover model for books about Georgia (it's the cover picture for the current Lonely Planet on Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan).  

We started our hike by scrambling up to the ruins of a watchtower

We really thought we'd get rained on as we climbed

But we made it to the church!

There are some really intricate carvings and masonry on the church

Around the church were more hiking trails, but many were still closed by snow.  Others led up to some prayer spots, where people light candles and say prayers.

A blustery (but thankfully rain-free) self portrait

We waited around up at the top of the hill near the church for a while before hiking back down, thinking all the time that it would rain.  Finally we gave it a shot and ambled down another way, happily running into a group of Swedish bird watchers who were excited photographing a bird.  

As we came down to the bottom, we saw the cows hanging out right near the butcher's shop.  Cows aren't the smartest animals, are they?  (The sign by the door just says "Meat")

At sunset shy Mt. Kazbegi finally started to come out from behind the clouds for us to see (just a peek)

On Sunday morning, the sky was clear and we finally had some of the beautiful views that the area is famous for.  We spent some time walking along the Terek River bank, soaking in the pretty weather and craning our necks up for another look at the mountains.

Finally, a picture worthy of a book cover!

The sun rose, cresting over the mountains on the other side of the village

Not sure what this head is, but it looked pretty cool

One more look of the village and its surroundings

By midmorning, we had to leave Kazbegi behind.  Our last minibus from Tbilisi to Akhalkalaki leaves at 5pm, and we didn't want to miss it.  The drive back toward Tbilisi, which had been obscured by rain clouds on our way to Kazbegi, was almost as impressive as anything else we saw.  

Sometimes the landscape was almost lunar

Other times it was Antarctic

But it was always impressive

I was glad our driver didn't take any of the bends too quickly and that we didn't go careening off any cliffs

We did a short pit stop.  The women were selling homemade churchkhela and pastegh, as well as knitted socks and hats

About 40 minutes away from Tbilisi, we got off the bus to see Ananuri, an old castle/church complex.  Again, we really thought we were going to be rained on, but our luck held out and we just had a moment of sprinkles before the rain passed.

Impressive even from the road, but it gets even better inside

The walls had Georgian squiggles engraved on them

Lots of cool masonry work here, too

There's a pretty impressive reservoir below the Ananuri

It was (I think) a beautiful combination of reconstructed, still-standing, crumbling, and tumbled-down

The towers of the two churches against the friendly, thoughtful rain clouds

Everything was so lush and green

We wandered down towards the banks of the rivers by the reservoir...

...in order to take one more happy self portrait without rain

Back up in a tower of Ananuri

This was the view I was looking at

There were some incredible frescos in the church

When we'd had our fill of Ananuri, we waited patiently for another minibus to come take us back to Tbilisi.  And we waited.  And we waited.  Tons of kids showed up at the castle for a performance of some sort.  The vendors selling souvenirs outside of Ananuri wandered over and asked us if we didn't want to sit at their booths and rest some.  We waited.  Finally we caught a ride back to Tbilisi, just in time to eat a quick dinner and catch our bus back to Akhalkalaki.  A trip well worth it!