Go West

Wednesday, May 9 was a holiday here in Georgia, so we got the day off from school.  (It's Victory Day for Soviets, but I learned it as being Victory in Europe Day in my high school history class.)  Sam and I wanted to make one more trip together out to the west of Georgia before he heads off (our next post will be all about next steps), and we each only have a few classes on Mondays and Tuesdays, so we made a loooooong weekend out, leaving for Kutaisi (our third trip to the city) on Friday after school.  We spent Friday evening and Saturday tooling around the city, loving the warm weather and green everywhere.  We stayed with another PCV, Tami.  She's only been in Kutaisi for a year, and Kutaisi is the second largest city in Georgia, but it seemed like every 2 minutes she ran into another person that she knows.  She's obviously been a winner at integrating into her community and doing all the great things that PCVs are expected (and hoped) to do!

There's an impressive new fountain in Kutaisi that was opened for Kutaisoba

An old Kutaisi movie theater, apparently celebrated as the birthplace of Georgian cinema

Me, a new Kutaisi statue, Tami and Caitlin

On Saturday morning the weather was so beautiful that we decided to go out to the Motsameta Monastery just outside of Kutaisi and walk around and soak up some more greenery.  When we visited a neighboring monastery last year (Gelati), there were hiking trails that purported to lead between the two monasteries.  We were hoping to find the trail pick up from the Motsameta side, but had no luck.  Regardless, we walked in the woods some, saw a wedding party entering Motsameta and had a really nice time overall.

Me and Sam enjoying the beautiful weather and green scenery at Motsameta Monastery near Kutaisi

Motsameta

The view from the Monastery

On Saturday night we hopped a marshrutka for a village, Dimi, about 30 minutes from Kutaisi to stay with another PCV, Caitlin (she's up in the picture above).  Caitlin came to visit Sam and me in March because she'd been itching to start a fitness club for girls at her site since arriving, but faced some challenges and wasn't quite sure how to attack the project.  While she was in Akhalkalaki, she came to my fitness club and picked my brain about how we worked things out here, which helped her to get back to Dimi and start her own club.  On Sunday, I got to go with her to her club's meeting, where 8 girls from her 8th and 9th grade classes showed up to jump, run, do sit ups and push ups, and just have a good time while exercising.  Caitlin has done a fantastic job and walking around her village it was clear that she's had a huge impact there already, too.

A beautiful spot just near Caitlin's host family's house in Dimi

Dimi

Dimi's summer hot spot, the river (Caitlin is a former college swimmer and lifeguard, so her community definitely benefits from having her there in the summer!)

On Monday, our hooky day, we left the Kutaisi region behind to head to the coast.  We arrived in Batumi on a foggy, drizzly mid-morning, found our hotel and did the only sensible thing one can do when arriving into Adjara.

First things first in Batumi: eating an Adjaruli khachapuri

After surviving the cholesterol bomb that is an Adjaruli khachapuri (but seriously, these things are delicious--just don't eat more than one a year), we went walking around to burn off a fraction of the butter-cheese-egg-dough goodness.  A lot has changed in Batumi since we've been in Georgia, and a lot is still under construction, so we saw a lot of new things or things previously obscured by torn up roads or scaffolding.  Sam said (and I think he's right) that it'll be interesting to come back to Batumi in another 2-3 years and see what the city looks like then.  

We wandered through the "zoo" and past the biting zebras

Then we spent too much time with Sam being freaked out by the pelican...

...which is understandable, because look at those soul-stealing eyes!  Gaaaaaghhh!

In the museum of Adjara we wished they had a gift shop with the old town flags 

Every time Sam sees or thinks of something that would have made our wedding better he says we need to have a second wedding.  So far, our second wedding will include an accordian, Elvis Costello, Chipotle catering and these outfits.

Cool, weird new building in Batumi.  Looks like it's either plotting world takeover, or belongs on the MIT campus

Beautiful Batumi

On Tuesday, we had plans to continue our travels into mountainous Adjara, but we managed to sneak in a visit to Gonio, a town just a few kilometers from Batumi that boasts an old fortress.  I'm so glad we made it, because it was definitely worth the trip.  (Mom, Dad and MaryBeth--I'm sorry we didn't take you here when you came to visit!  When you come back to Georgia, you can be sure to go.)

Gonio fortress, outside of Batumi

Sam, looking at archaeology

Fortress ruins

Pipes!

Fortress walls

What's a Georgian ruin without some old wine vats?

I'm hoping Sam can one day find a little clay cross-eyed dude, too!

Little castle crawl space

After a quick turn-around in Batumi, we loaded back onto a marshrutka and headed up away from the sea and into the mountains.  Our first stop along the road was a village called Makhuntseti, where a PCV from our group, Jen, lives.  Jen has set the bar high on community integration--she recently got married to a Georgian man she met from her village!  They're a wonderful couple and have a fantastic plan--they'll be heading to America when Jen wraps up her service (his immigrant visa paperwork just came through yesterday, on Jen's birthday--that'd be a tough present to top!), and have said they want to spend 2 years in America so they're on equal footing, then they'll make a decision about where they want to live, in Georgia or America.  

In Makhuntseti, in addition to seeing Jen again, we wanted to see the big attractions, which understandably draw tour buses.  First, there's the waterfall.  Now we've heard some stories here and there in Georgia about places having incredible waterfalls and then shown up to find a little trickle.  This waterfall was impressive, though, and Jen says it's a godsend in the hot, humid summers, since it's always cool and nice sitting by the bottom of the falls.  The other big site is a reconstructed stone arch bridge, that's really beautiful.  Jen says it scares her in the summers because kids jump off the bridge into the river and the men like to have some evening wine drinking on the far side of the bridge, walking home across it after imbibing.  

Makhuntseti waterfall

This was a serious waterfall, and none of my pictures seem to do it justice!

Makhuntseti bridge--guardrails are for wimps

After too-short a time catching up with Jen, Sam and I piled back onto a marshrutka to head a little further up the mountain to the next town of Keda.  Tom, another PCV from our group, has just finished one of the biggest-scale projects our group has attempted.  He raised funds and built a fitness facility at the local sports school for folks in his community to use.  Cooler still, he's convinced the facility's manager to dedicate two nights a week for use for women only.  Tom, being a male volunteer, asked me to come to run a training for the women on the benefits and importance of exercise.  I held the training on Tuesday evening for 13 women and girls, discussing exercise and health and showing the group 10 exercises they can do at home with no equipment on days when they can't make it to the fitness center.  I think it went really well, and I loved the community.  Tom's hard work and dedication have really paid off and energized people in Keda, which was really great to see.

Keda was another really pretty Adjaran town

Wednesday morning came too quickly, and we had a long road ahead of us--a 1 hour marshrutka ride from Keda back to Batumi and a quick change to another bus for a 6-hour marshrutka ride to Akhaltsikhe, followed by one more quick change to a third and final marshrutka for our last hour-and-a-half ride back to Akhalkalaki.  It was a tiring way to finish up our journey, and we'd had a busy couple of days, but it was a trip well worth the efforts.  I have been, and continue to be, absolutely impressed and amazed by my fellow Peace Corps Volunteers, and was excited and proud to be able to see their sites and projects and help out a little.

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!

A few random recent pictures

Well, I had big plans to write a nice blog post all about our trip last weekend to Kazbegi, but got bogged down in way a lot of projects and visiting and so on and haven't gotten around to it yet.  In the meantime, here are a few random, mostly unrelated pictures we've taken recently, none of which would probably get around to getting a full blog post, but all of which are still worth sharing!

We went to Ninotsminda, the small town/village 20 minutes south of Akhalkalaki a few weekends ago to visit with some other volunteers and got to sit in on a performance of little drummer boys.

Even though the sky was threatening rain (and dropped some on us, too), we hiked out across a big field at the edge of town.

In Akhalkalaki, I bought a Coca-Cola with a Canada Dry cap.  I wish they sold ginger ale here!  I have no idea where this rogue cap came from.

Tbilisi is already bright and green, and this guy just doesn't know what to do about it.  

In an ice cream shop in Tbilisi (gelato, actually), I peer pressured Sam into buying a sundae called "Hot Love."  It was way pricier than our usual double scoop cones, but was tasty and worth it, if only for the picture

April 24 was Armenian Genocide Remembrance Day, so people in town all went to the church to light candles and put out flowers near the memorial.  I went pretty early in the morning (like at 11am or some extremely early hour like that), so the pile of flowers wasn't too big yet, but by evening (when I'd left my camera at home) the whole churchyard was littered with flowers.