Getting out and about in Georgia for the first time.


Advertisement
Georgia's flag
Asia » Georgia » Eastern Georgia » Mtskheta
September 14th 2022
Published: September 14th 2022
Edit Blog Post

Day 5 Georgia. Wednesday 14th Sept.

Getting out and about in Georgia for the first time.



When we go on holiday we usually travel around and don’t stay in one place, but this time is different . Our base remains in Tiblisi while I have booked a few day trips so we can get out and see more things. Today was the first of those trips and I booked it through getyourguide.com. Doing so many things would be really difficult using public transport, particularly fitting all the below in in one day. Plus you wouldn’t learn as much.

We set alarms for the first time on this trip and headed to our meeting point which was a metro station only one steep hill away. Oh and an underpass as Claire was worrying I wouldn’t be climbing enough steps today.

A weird thing happened while we were waiting for our guide….it rained! I suppose it made us feel like we were at home and we did manage to shelter during the worst of it. As we walked across to the tour office it had pretty much stopped.

There were a variety of tours and operators running from this office and free tea and coffee were on offer for those that some git of a doctor hadn’t told them they shouldn’t have. Group photos were taken of each trip’s passenges as we were introduced to our guide, Catherine. We had also met a lady, Tess, from Manchester who hadn’t met any British people since she’d got here three weeks ago.

The tour set off in a quite new minibus and Catherine went round asking people where they were from and why they had come to Georgia. We had quite a mix with people from Greece, the Philippines, the USA, the Netherlands, Germany and Malaysia. Luckily for us though the whole tour was in English so only tne Americans struggled…..only joking!!

Our first stop is somewhere I won’t be winning any pronunciation contests for…..Uplistsikhe. That place is a cave city which, thank goodness, you have to climb a few stairs to get to….and then clamber uphill to see the rest. Rain was falling a bit but not enough to warrant a coat; the main problem was the wind. Catherine asked Claire to stay on the bus and that problem went away.

Catherine took us round various parts of the Up place (I’m not trying to write Uplistsikhe again) and told us about them, as well as giving us time to take pictures. The view was pretty spectacular and the cave city was fascinating. The wind was really strong at the top but not from Claire this time.

The end of the tour was about wine and the chance to try out some local wines for a few lari extra. I sat outside playing Words With Friends while the weirdos that actually like the stuff had some to taste. Claire must have liked it as she came out with a bottle; it is apparently a bit better than cheap Cava from Tesco.

Apparently Georgia is the birthplace of wine as it is the place where they found the oldest grapes. Maybe they were sensible and just ate the grapes and didn’t waste them by turning them into wine? Who knows!

Next stop was a place called Gori, the birthplace of Joseph Stalin. Yep, that Joseph Stalin! We went for lunch in a restaurant called Joseph’s and one of the salads was called Joseph salad. It was really nice though!

We sat at a table that already had lots of food on it and began to tuck in. Tess is a big fan of walnuts and helped herself to some swirly things with walnuts in, leaving none for anyone else….and then she didn’t finish them! There was plenty of food for me which was nice and the mere vegetarians had even more choice. As there were so many none-carnivores the actual carnivores could still be there chomping away. Soft drinks were included too and I opened a bottle thinking it to be lemonade or something, brought it up to my nose and smelt death, in a glass. It was an awful liquorice smell after said liquorice had been regurgitated by a hefty male gorilla.

I couldn’t try it as it was even more disgusting than the mushrooms on the table. Claire said it didn’t taste as bad as it smelt which it really coudn’t anyway and is hardly a recommendation! I shared her sparkling water as my glass was poisoned and I don’t think they’ll ever get the stench out.

Really enjoyed the food though and there was plenty of it. For our £14 we also got our own private Georgian dancers who performed two dances for us. It made my arthritic knees hurt just watching them! Lots of stomping, sliding, jumping and all in traditional dress was quite a sight and made the whole experience well worth the money.

Next stop, the Stalin museum.

Now I didn’t know a lot about Stalin before today. I knew he wasn’t a good guy and that everyone felt a bit awkward coming here and that there was actually a museum for him. He was born in Gori, hence the relevance.

Our guide was now Olga, an austere, elderly lady with a stick for pointing at things. Her English was great but she was very dour like the museum itself. She regaled us with Stalin’s story and made him sound like quite a nice family guy, only briefly mentioning the gulags. We saw inside his childhood home and walked through his private rail carriage and then Olga almost smiled. But only almost. I’m sure she’s a right laugh with her grandkids and I suppose she has to have that demeanour given Stalin’s somewhat chequered history.

We passed on buying any souvenirs as I’m not sure having a Stalin t-shirt, jigsaw, pen or keyring is very PC…. Apparently Stalin killed more people than either Hitler, Pol Pot or Bozo Johnson so yeah he definitely wasn’t a good guy. We had to Google that though as it was somewhat skimmed over to say the least by Olga.

And so onto Jvari monastery. This was a bit of a distance away and I think most people fell asleep during the journey. The weather was now warm and back to what we have become accustomed to in Georgia.

The monastery was up a hill of course but a not too steep or long a one. I haven’t even doubled by move goal on my watch today so quite a lazy day! We did go inside the monastery but the main attraction up here was the view as it looked across Mtskheta, and included a river and mountains. I kept taking pictures, even though it was pretty much the same shot, as it was so stunning.

After that we ventured down to Mtskheta itself which was the capital of Georgia until the 6th century. Our principal stop was the cathedral where we got to see a wedding ceremony taking place. A bit odd doing it in front of tourists but it was interesting to see. We then had a bit of time to wander including through some souvenir stalls. Claire found some earrings she liked but, at about £60, she didn’t like them THAT much.

We then headed back to Tiblisi and were due in at about 7. The traffic was horrendous though and it was after 7:30 when we got back. We clapped for our driver and thanked our guide and off we went. No asking for tips so no awkwardness. Great.

Our guide had been really good though and answered any questions anyone asked including about politics, food, transport, customs etc etc. We learnt a lot and Claire took notes so, now you have read the better blog you can read hers for some fact-type stuff. We did learn that tensions are running high between Armenia and Azerbijan and between Russians and Georgians here. The latter is not on a country scale but more on a few people scale so nothing for us to worry about. There are a LOT of police around and they always drive with their lights flashing so are even more noticeable. Quite a few are doing a crap job of keeping the traffic flowing but the rest just seem to be hanging around. We’ve seen no signs of trouble and maybe that’s because of the ever-present cops. This is one of the safest countries in the world to visit so we’ll be fine Mum!

We have a few more tours booked with this company so we can compare and contrast guides later….. Tomorrow’s trip is with Viator and starts at 7am…..

I’m still writing this after 10pm…..


Additional photos below
Photos: 11, Displayed: 11


Advertisement



Tot: 0.214s; Tpl: 0.012s; cc: 11; qc: 66; dbt: 0.1403s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1; ; mem: 1.2mb