Returning to Georgia in time for the Kakheti Harvest

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Returning to Georgia after four months of being here, there and everywhere was like returning home. The airport was crazy when we arrived at 3:20 am as this is the busiest time for flights in and out of Tbilisi (I guess it is a lovely hour to be flying). We were exhausted after a big final day at Octoberfest, a four am wake up call, flight to Barcelona then to Turkey and finally Georgia. Driving through the city at night put a smile on both our faces, Tbilsi is quite a beautiful city at night with its looming fortresses lit up.

After making our way up the street which was a mission with the road works and nearly falling into the ditch left from repairs to the piping system we were definitely ready for bed. After knocking on the hostel door a number of times it was clear we needed to break in, lucky we go to the hostel all the time, so we let ourselves in through the window, got some sheets and hit the sack. After a sleep in we awoke the next morning and realised that the hostel had changed owners and we have to explain how we got in. After a shower we decided to get some lunch, we made our way to the main road only to realise it was all closed off due to protests for the upcoming elections. The streets were packed with Ivanashili protesters who were handing out free t-shirts and flags. We braved the streets for a while before returning to do our laundry in the hostel ready for our return to the village.

After another sleep and some brunch we took a taxi to the Marshutka station where we were warmly greeted by people from our village who were also catching the marshutka back to Shilda. After a three hour journey we arrived at our families house where we had a welcome home supra. After we jumped in the car and drove around to see our teachers and cousins before picking up Nodarie from the sheep. Here we sat around and drank beer and ate biscuits. The following day was election day in Georgia, we reluctantly wore our pro Misha shirts that our family gave us and our family went off to vote. Afterwards we headed to the vineyard where we picked grapes well into the afternoon.

After we had filled a trailer the grapes were transported back to the house by our host brothers horse. We then crushed the grapes into the qvevri where they will sit for 3 days to make Marcharee, a grape juice and then for longer to make wine. Our house is full of lots of fresh food at the moment all grown by our family. Apples, eggplant, walnuts, macadamia nuts, sheep cheese, milk, corn, tomatoes, black and green grapes and a lot of other fruit I have never seen before. The tomatoes are my favourite, they are super juicy, yesterday I ate five sprinkled with sheeps cheese. Tomorrow we are off to katchaleti to take Levani for his first day of college and then off to school the following day.

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