From Sumela I head to the Georgian border. I stay at a homestay with a Georgian family in Kutaisi, and wander around the local ruined cathedral in the early evening, before spending the rest of the night eating and drinking Chacha (the local firewater) with my hosts. I leave early the next morning for Kazbegi, high in the Geogian mountains, not far from the Russian border, and spend a couple of nights at another, family-run, homestay, which is nice and warm. It's snowing outside. Over breakfast the next morning, and old, rugged and very drunk old man busts in and starts shouting and pointing at people. Everyone is stunned, but it bgecomes clear that he's the owner of the house, and wants us all to drink with him and toast the old 'better' Soviet, Stalinist days.
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