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Published: July 28th 2014
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Abastumani, Georgia
July 9
th 2014
“
If your life isn't holy, your loneliness says that you've sinned” Leonard Cohen, Sisters of Mercy I just love being in the mountains. Albeit these mountains are not
my special mountains (the Himalayas) and so not surrounded by distant high snow caps, the unmistakeably fresh air and sound of a gushing river and the magic of the forested hillside make me feel like I am 'home'. (Of course there are probably two reasons for all this: One is that I grew up in the Blue Mountains in NSW, Australia; and the second is that in Australia there really are, technically speaking, no
real mountains at all and so I am somehow fascinated and drawn to real mountains).
Where better to be if one is trying to deny the reality of a particularly unpleasant set of circumstances, namely this Georgian saga or should I say farce, that I find myself embroiled in. And so, dear reader, there will be no further mention of that incident and those circumstances in the rest of
this blog.
Today was a good day. Relaxed and
full of fulfilled expectation about being in a mountain village. Just across the road from my hotel a small growers' market (and I mean small, about 6 stalls) was on... it happens three times a week. I bought the best tasting home-made yoghurt thus far in Turkey or Georgia. The processed stuff from the supermarkets in both countries is not great and one is suspicious about their content (I can't read the labels so I don't know). I also picked up some raspberries and local cheese.
Then I stopped in at the local baker' 'shed'.... and bought a d
edaspuri from Tamuma (the baker), made in a
tandoori type oven. I was set for breakfast.
Frieden is the operator of the ancient cable car that goes to the top of the mountain where the 'Georgian National Astrophysical Observatory' is. I sat with him in his little cabin perched precariously next to where the car picks up. Of course, he smelled of alcohol, it being 10 am after all. Not vodka he assured me... some other local brew. A woman from Tbilisi who happened to be on my bus yesterday turned up and paid for my ticket. The car itself
was a test of faith to behold but got us to the top. The 'conductor' obligingly opened the doors wide half way up, for us to take unobscured snaps of Abastumani below (the plastic windows being cracked and smudged), something I don't quite think the regulations would allow in many countries, not even India.
The 'Observatory' is more what I would call an 'Observatory Museum'. I counted at least 6 separate observatories in various states of disrepair and age and rust. One perhaps was still functional. I guess the oldest goes back to early Soviet times. Not much to see up there and with the cable car not returning for 3 hours, I decided to walk down the 5 km road. Taking short cuts through the gorgeous forest, I probably only walked 3 km tops. Took me about 40 minutes.
Back to my room, some chai, and a nap. Perfect.
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