Georgia trip report. Report on a trip to Georgia (1). Sightseeing on the Georgian Military Road

The idea of ​​a trip to Georgia was born in our company for an essentially simple reason: one of us is an ethnic Georgian with a bunch of relatives living in Tbilisi and the surrounding area. When a person who was born and raised in Moscow and does not even remotely resemble a stereotypical Caucasian advertises this direction so passionately, it is simply impossible to refuse.

Georgia. Alazani Valley

Another question is what can motivate the average Russian tourist for such a trip? In my opinion, there are only some echoes of Soviet stories about hospitality and the all-Union health resort. Weak arguments, right? After visiting Georgia, I am ready to reinforce them with dry facts: this is the calmest and most Europeanized country in the Caucasus and Transcaucasia. The most civilized, if you like.

The food here is very tasty. And it's very, very inexpensive here. Did I forget something? Oh yes, there is plenty of beauty and exoticism in Georgia! By the way, watching Mimino’s film before making a decision is highly recommended.

I am writing a separate paragraph for attentive viewers of federal television channels. Russians are received here not with the same cordiality as Finns or Germans, but with much more! If anything, did I warn you?

Attractive places and routes

What to see in Georgia? Our intuitive attitude was this: Tbilisi, mountain monasteries and the sea. If we formulate this more scientifically, then nature and culture are equally interesting there. This is the birthplace of winemaking, one of the oldest alphabets, one of the cradles of Christianity (the first churches here date back to the fourth century!), located on an incredible beautiful lands, where almost all attractive landforms and natural areas. And an important detail - the country is very small, there is no problem seeing it in a relatively short time.

I would name the main points of attraction:

  • Tbilisi, the capital and most colorful city Georgia;
  • Kutaisi with its mountain views and legendary history;
  • Batumi with a cool sea and the achievements of modern civilization;
  • Alazani Valley with its views and tastings ;
  • Mtskheti - ancient capital country, recently completely restored ;
  • Mountains with interesting surroundings and the house of Comrade Stalin...well, and everything in between these wonderful places.



You will find as many monasteries, fortresses, churches, caves, all sorts of old stories and legends in Georgia as you have the strength to look for.
Available in the country and ski resorts, for example, Gudauri. Here I will not dwell on them in detail; this is a separate topic, requiring, in my opinion, only the most superficial mention in the overall story.

Second point for sophisticated tourists - high mountain Georgia, Svaneti. Consider this a separate journey that requires capital investment in time and money. Of course, these investments will pay off handsomely, but I would be careful not to include a visit to the land of the Svans in a sightseeing trip around Georgia if you plan to spend less than three weeks on it in total.

And third. Ecotourism. Well, that is, what in the USSR was simply called tourism. Backpacks, tents, cauldron, stew. In Georgia, this phenomenon is now on the rise, and, as a rule, foreigners come here as wild people. The landing sites and the routes themselves are simply darkness. Small local travel companies often involved in helping ecotourists.


A separate article is “wine routes”. In Kakheti (especially around the Alazani Valley) you can see signs like “Wine route?” with enviable regularity, transparently hinting at the tasting room of a private winery or wine library. Any travel company in Tbilisi will offer you a lot of options for wine tours.

A common practice among tourists who have managed to organize a long (over 3 weeks) trip to Transcaucasia is to include Armenia and/or Azerbaijan in their route.

How to get there?

In this matter, I recommend not to split hairs, but to use air transport, the only adequate way to get to Georgia today. In the country, in addition to Tbilisi, there are two international airport, in Kutaisi and Batumi. Back in 2013, the number of direct flights from Moscow was vanishingly small. Most flights were carried out with a transfer in Kyiv or Minsk. Now the situation has become significantly better, so if you take care of buying tickets in advance, you can count on a compact three-hour flight for a price of no more than twenty thousand rubles in both directions.

Of course, there are enthusiasts who get here in their cars along the only operating highway (the Georgian Military Road) through North and South Ossetia, but it’s hard to recommend this option to the average traveler.

Direct train connection with Russian Federation on this moment is absent, there is a theoretical possibility of traveling by train through Azerbaijan. I doubt, however, that it will interest you.

There is a romantic option for sea communication - a high-speed boat of the "Comet" type, plying the Sochi-Batumi route.
An extremely important point! If you have been to the territory of Abkhazia or South Ossetia and have a note about this in your passport, but did not enter these lands through Georgia, you may have serious problems with the local border service (and with the law in general). Be careful.


Transport within the country

When planning a trip to Georgia, we were aware that we were a medium-sized company consisting of rather lazy, but quite curious city residents, most of whom had a driver's license. Yes, and we wanted the trip not to be too expensive.

So, such conditions of the problem, as it seemed to us, lead to two main solutions. Rent a car or order a minibus with a driver. We chose the second and did not regret it for a second. I'll try to explain. Firstly, it turned out to be more than affordable (in fact, car rental here is also inexpensive, but the price gap with a car with a guide is simply negligible). Secondly, in Georgia there is a very specific and sometimes dangerous traffic. On a mountain serpentine, people happily overtake before a closed turn, driving in the oncoming lane, as they say, “should and shouldn’t.” Even an experienced driver, accustomed to Russian road realities, will not adapt immediately and will be quite tense at first. There are few accidents on the roads in Georgia, but they are usually quite serious. Thirdly, you or your company will be able to drink in peace.

And most importantly, your driver will most likely be not only the driver himself, but also a guide, great those who know the country and sensitive to the wishes of the client. In our case, he took upon himself the booking of apartments and hostels, and also brought us to his father’s house in the Kakheti village, where he demonstrated that there is a real Georgian feast.

Briefly speaking, individual tourism - optimal choice for a trip to Georgia. Driver guides can help in developing a route, not only within the country, but also with stops in Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Turkey. Nowadays, private travel companies and individual entrepreneurs engaged in such activities are very common in Georgia. And everything is very civilized, there is no “scam” in this area.

The roads of all directions that had to be mastered are full of hitchhikers, both domestic and foreign. Apparently, this method of travel in Georgia is quite safe. For comparison, I have not seen a single stopper in the Russian North Caucasus.
It is unlikely that you will be able to fully travel here by public transport. Railways rather poorly developed, and Shuttle Buses unless they deliver from Tbilisi to Kutaisi and Batumi.


Comfort and price issue

Georgia - inexpensive country with a booming tourism industry. It’s nice that this industry is growing here from below, i.e. from the level of small entrepreneurs, who often invent an original set of services and do not disdain dumping in the best sense of the word. Moreover, today it is unprofitable to deceive your clients. Business is conducted in a transparent European manner, and the attitude towards guests is welcoming in a Caucasian way.

The trip will be quite inexpensive, considering that a hearty dinner with drinks in a decent establishment is unlikely to cost more than 10 euros, and a night in a conveniently located modern guesthouse (with single or double occupancy) will lighten your wallet by about 20-30 euros per day. By the way, most guest houses serve a very hearty breakfast. The services of a Mercedes-Benz Sprinter minivan with an incredible guide-driver cost us 150 euros per day. Draw your own conclusions, gentlemen travelers.

useful links

View hotels in different regions of Georgia

Choosing a hotel in Tbilisi

Choosing a hotel in Batum

Choosing a hotel in Gudauri

Choosing a hotel in Kazbegi

Choosing a hotel in Kutaisi

This part of the report was written online, so there are a lot of fresh emotions here. For example, about how we watched a bull duel, about how Kesha was bitten by dogs, about our impressions of Vladikavkaz, the border of Ossetia and Georgia and the Georgian Military Road. And also about how in local guest houses it is customary to lock rooms. Actually, about how our trip around Georgia by car began.

Continuation of day 6, July 23

Having left Vladikavkaz, we drove 30 kilometers in an hour - that’s exactly how much from my aunt’s house to the border of Russia and Georgia (the Upper Lars road crossing known to many). At the border we saw a tail of cars a kilometer long. We found out that: “It won’t take long, we’ll walk in about two hours.” People are allowed to cross the Russian-Georgian border without queuing, who has either a child under one year old in the car (age is determined visually by a strict Ossetian policeman) or a disabled person. The child, disabled person and car number are photographed and allowed through to the customs terminal. You will still have to stand in line at the terminal - there are no benefits here, they only apply to the “tail” at the entrance.

The border has opening hours - from 5 am to 20 pm Moscow time. On the Ossetian side, the crossing is closed at 19:00, but on the Georgian side, the border is open around the clock for entry into Russia.

We joined the queue of those wishing to enter Georgia at 14:00, and passed control at 16:25. By local standards it went quickly; usually the stay here lasts about 4-5 hours.

Between the Ossetian and Georgian checkpoints there is complete chaos - a narrow road along which everyone travels, no matter what. Traffic jams form, making you angry to the point of nervousness.

But we get stamps from Georgian customs instantly, faster than the Finns. But here, unlike the Finnish border, the driver and passengers go through control separately, in different booths.

And finally we are in Georgia by car. Gamarjoba! We drive along the Georgian Military Road and go to the first attraction - the Gergeti Sameba Church.

You can drive to the Gergeti Sameba through the village of Stepantsminda, known as Kazbegi. Most tourists climb to the church on foot (5 km). Locals they offer to take you to the top (altitude 2,200 km) in SUVs, but we got there relatively calmly in a Duster. There are tents near the church, cows are grazing, and you can already feel the local flavor very strongly, although there are not so many Georgians here. The faces of tourists smile internationally with European smiles. The only pity is that clouds are running across the sky, and Kazbek is completely hidden by them.

We set up camp right here - it’s already 19:00 and it will soon get dark. We have dinner, go to bed early and sleep under the howling wind. I must say that there are a lot of “tent campers” here. Someone starts or ends their trip to Georgia by car in this very place, someone is going to rise to the sky...

Two young, mature bulls come to visit the camp, right before our lights out, and arrange something like a duel. We are watching.

Day 7, July 24

In the morning the sky is completely clear, and Kesha, leaving me to type these lines, skips off to the nearest hill. He has an itch in all places, and he cannot do without climbing, even the most primitive ones. When we come down, we’ll have breakfast and move on. We canceled yesterday’s plans to get to Tbilisi on the day of crossing the border - we really didn’t want to rush. We will drive as we go, because we don’t have any reservations, just as we don’t have a clear route.

Kesha returns at 8:00, all envious of those who are going to Kazbek. He climbed a 2500-foot hill and really didn’t want to come down. He told me that he greeted a certain group of tourists in Russian. They didn't answer him. I said hello in English. I heard “Hello” in response. I. when I walked three meters away from them, I heard purely Khokhlyatsky talk. Who doesn't love whom?.. Let's leave this sad topic and go cook breakfast. If there is Wi-Fi today, these lines will be published.

Continuation of day 7

We are driving along the Georgian Military Road. You can stop here anywhere, because there are a lot of villages around the mountain, along the road, so colorful that it takes your breath away. The promised “periodic road repairs” in reality turn out to be simply removed asphalt, which is quite scary to drive on. Although everyone is coming - both jeeps and pussies. They drive, diligently driving around herds of cows, rotten from the heat, and small herds of horses. These animals do not react at all to cars, screams, or high-pitched “beeps.”

We make a lot of stops - at churches, monasteries, and into villages.

At one of these attractions, at the Arch of Friendship, Kesha is attacked by feral dogs and bitten. The shirt was completely torn and the butt was bitten. It’s somehow not very pleasant to start a trip with such incidents.

You can learn more about the sights of the Georgian Military Road here:

Unlike dogs, the local population is very friendly. Everyone immediately switches to Russian, explains, shows, and just doesn’t get into the car with us.

We arrange lunch away from the highway on the shore of the Zhinvali reservoir opposite the Annauri fortress. AND! If the roads and villages in Georgia surprise with their cleanliness, here there is such dirt that the hair stands on end not only on the head, but also on all other parts of the body. Away from the roads, in organized parking lots, and near “cultural” attractions, there is a LOT of garbage. It’s a shame and sad - after all, all the nations passing by had their hands on these Kazbeks from scattered bottles and packages.

We drive into Mtskheta, check into the first guest house we come across and go for a walk around the city. When asked to give the key to the room, the hostess takes a chair, puts it against the door, and shockingly assures:

- No problems! Nooo!!!

All restaurants in Mtskheta are closed - strange. But we buy Borjomi for 1.20 lari. And the wine was bought in advance for 9 lari. At these prices, by the end of the trip we will be drunk and mineralized up to our ears.

We're having dinner on the balcony in guest house– melon, wine and mineral water. And we are surprised by the darkness. Kesha goes down to her owners:

- Why is there no light?

- Listen, my dear, the whole city is without light!

But by night they provide light, and it becomes possible to connect to Wi-Fi. We don’t yet have a local SIM card or a paper card of Georgia - there’s simply nowhere to buy them. Let's see what happens in Tbilisi. In the meantime... The seventh day of the journey is over. What will be tomorrow? Traveling around Georgia by car has just begun...

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The whole report on the days and the route of the trip in Georgia and Armenia

Day three. While we were going on excursions, a friend of mine from social networks sent an SMS that he had found a suitable apartment for us in Batumi and would meet us in the morning in Makhinjauri (a suburb of Batumi - the final stop of the train). Three-room apartment in the water park area in a new building with a very good renovation on the 13th floor, 10 minutes to the sea, with all amenities. Cost $90.

View from the balcony of our apartment.

True, the elevator did not work and was never repaired. But since we decided to thoroughly try Georgian cuisine, we counted this as a plus.

Beach holiday

First of all we went to the sea. Beach in Batumi.

The pebbles are very large and, given the waves, we crawled out with bruises on our knees. But the sea is warm.

We wandered around the city a little in search of Beeline SIM cards (we needed two more to communicate with each other), but we never found them.

We went to the sea again. We rested a bit, walked along the embankment and went to the Adjarian House restaurant. The restaurant is located on Lake Ardagan, there are many positive reviews about it on the Internet, our taxi driver also recommended it. The order was made through a waiter-translator. We ordered a lot, but we didn’t finish it all. Paid ~55$. The firs crawled out from behind the table.

Adjarian khachapuri (the most delicious of all khachapuri).

Fried trout.

Ojakhuri is a national Georgian dish consisting of fried meat and potatoes.

On the same small artificial lake Ardagan near the embankment, there are singing fountains.

After a hearty dinner, we returned home by taxi for $2.5.

Batumi sightseeing

This fourth day was devoted to the study of Batumi. We took a city bus to cable car(you buy a bus ticket from the driver, it costs around one lari, and you compost it in a composter). We finally managed to buy SIM cards in the seaport area. There are many exchange offices, shops, minibus stops, and a Goodwill supermarket.

Batumi cable car.

Observation deck at the top.

Having gone downstairs, we walked along the streets of the old city to see the main attractions of Batumi. Here the map of Batumi I printed out at home was very useful to me, where I marked all the objects that interested me.

The famous Piazza.

Unique astronomical clock on the old bank of Batumi.

Sculpture of Medea with the Golden Fleece on Er (Argonauts) Square.

In the same area there is the Khareba wine house (K. Gamsakhurdia/Melashvili, 28/30), where we stocked up on wine.

Tower of the Georgian alphabet 130 meters high in the "Park of Miracles".

Free Chacha Fountain or Chacha Tower 25 meters high.

View of sea ​​port from the Ferris wheel.

Moving sculpture of Ali and Nino's love.

Embankment.

There is a bicycle path along the entire embankment; you can rent bicycles. We took this one:

And they were stopped by a policeman for riding in the wrong bike lane.

There are many free exercise equipment located on the embankment. In general, Georgians are sporty people. In the morning, many people run, ride bicycles, and exercise on exercise machines. There are many football fields everywhere, where children play football at any time of the day and in any weather.

We took a rented train to the colonnades. There is a children's playground and another singing fountain. Since it was not yet dark and the fountain was not working, we decided to eat and return to the fountain.

We went to the Laguna cafe (Gorgiladze St., 18), where, according to many, they make the most delicious khachapuri. We ordered one large and one small. The big one was simply huge, we took it with us and ate it for another two days.

This is what a big khachapuri looks like.

And this is a small khachapur.

On the way home we played chess.

We looked at the singing fountain.

We found the streets being cleaned with some kind of huge vacuum cleaner.

We met a patrolling policeman in a golf cart.

Shopping to Turkey from Georgia

Knowing that visas were cancelled, we couldn’t help but go to Turkey for shopping. Day five. We took a city bus to the cable car, exchanged laris for liras and began to look for a minibus to Sarpi. Minibuses to the border stop just up the street (Tbilisi Square), the fare costs $0.5. After crossing the border, take a minibus to Kemalpasha and get off when the driver shouts “Istanbul Bazaar”, the fare costs a little less than a dollar, the ride takes 7-10 minutes.

On the left side is the Istanbul Bazaar shopping center, which contains almost all the good and famous Turkish brands at reasonable prices. IN mall There are snack bars, fast food and a children's playground. Up the street is located market town, where there are many shops with cheap clothes and other small items. There is no need to exchange lari for lira; lari are accepted everywhere. We only needed the liras to eat at the shopping center.

After loading up and crossing the border back, we decided to swim in Sarpi, where, according to reports, there should have been the cleanest sea. We went down to the sea. I have never seen so much garbage in the sea anywhere. We decided to take a taxi and get to Kvariati (cost $5.5). It's a little better, but still terrible. Probably it was just such a day and we were unlucky. We somehow swam and returned by taxi to Batumi ($5.5).

Photo by Kvariati.

In the evening, our familiar taxi driver came to pick us up and took us to Kobuleti. Here the first surprise awaited us.

Paid elevator (we are on the 9th floor). You throw a coin and he goes, and sometimes you throw a coin and he doesn't go. Like this. We mostly walked, which is good for us with so much food.

The second surprise was in the form of an uncleaned apartment, which became especially obvious in the morning.

Reviews from tourists about holidays in Georgia and reports on traveling by car around the country, useful tips, which will prepare you for traveling around Georgia, reviews about which are best read in advance. Many people are gradually getting rid of the habit of going on vacation with tour operators and starting to do it on their own. But then a lot of questions immediately arise, because previously you only had to pack your suitcase and board the plane, but now you have to plan your vacation in Georgia absolutely independently. Reviews of tourists who have already visited this magical land, significantly help in this difficult matter. While reading their advice, do not be lazy to take notes, write down the addresses and contacts of hospitable hosts who are mentioned with warmth, mark the main attractions so that you can definitely see them with your own eyes. Those who prefer mobility and like to turn the steering wheel for a long time are advised to carefully study the reports on their trip to Georgia by car. Reviews from car travelers who have previously traveled to seaside resorts (Batumi, Ureki, Kvariati, Gonio) abound, important nuances interesting facts and practical advice. It is better to take this matter seriously and devote enough time to preparing the car for the trip and traveling around Georgia. One report will clearly not be enough; as you learn something new, you will want to visit more and more places. Unfortunately, this is not always possible to do for various reasons, for example, due to low cross-country ability of the car or too short vacation , so you should plan your route taking into account existing opportunities and desires. So that your holiday is successful and independent trip

to Georgia by car - read reviews from tourists, make notes for the trip and enjoy your stay in this hospitable and welcoming country of sun, mountains, wine and sea!

The idea of ​​going to Georgia came to me with my girlfriend Nadezhda about a year ago. A break in the entire Russian Internet revealed that there was almost no information on the country; It was difficult to find a report on the trip of two girls from Chelyabinsk. At first they did not want to resort to the services of travel agencies, because they did not want to be driven into the rigid framework of the program. After surfing the web, we roughly decided on the route and the places we would like to visit. There remained one very serious issue that worried almost all of our family and friends - safety. The problem is that our valiant means mass media They are making this country into some kind of monster, where it is life-threatening to go. But the people living in Georgia, with whom I communicated via ICQ, as well as the posts I found on LiveJournal with travel reports, dispelled all doubts. The next day after I received my international passport, the Moscow-Tbilisi tickets were already in my hands.
Since there was no time at all to book hotels before the trip, we decided to go through an agency. A tour was created especially for us. In Tbilisi we were met by 2 guides - Zura and Zura, who during the trip turned from guides into friends.

At the Tbilisi airport at customs, we simultaneously approach the customs officers sitting next to us with another Russian. "Hello!" says the fellow traveler. "Hello!" - the customs officer answers menacingly. I tell my customs officer: “Gamarjobat!” Both, with an undisguised smile, answer almost in unison, “Gamarjobat!” So I realized that there is nothing terrible in Georgia.

TBILISI
I’ll start with Tbilisi, and then gradually I’ll post stories about other cities

Tbilisi greeted us with the stuffiness of the night; it immediately became clear that the city was located far to the south. Small (compared to Moscow), where the bustling and noisy Rustaveli Avenue borders on very quiet and absolutely non-metropolitan narrow streets, the city immediately shows that it has a mood. It seems to me that all of Tbilisi lies in these streets. This is such a “non-capital” capital. But I’ll start the story with the “official” places, which, unlike most cities, are not only beautiful, but also interesting.

In the very center of Tbilisi stands the huge Sameba (Trinity) Cathedral. Construction has just been completed, although from the outside it does not look like new. Interesting feature– under the cathedral underground there is a small copy of the hall located on the first floor.

The same view from the mountain.

In general, the city began with baths built on hot sulfur springs; “Tbili” means “warm” in Georgian. This is the very center of the city.

Metekhi is one of the most beautiful churches Tbilisi.

Kura River

Old city. It is very interesting to wander through the old narrow streets of Tbilisi, along the ups and downs.

Almost the entire center is built up with two or three-story houses like this.

Balcony in a hotel. In fact, this is not a hotel, but a “guest house”. It was made from a large apartment 10 years ago. The owner of Tsesana lives here and receives visiting guests. There are a lot of houses with such balconies in Tbilisi.

Grapes grow everywhere in Georgia. You can often see such a picture.

Tbilisi at night. When I unsheathed the tripod and began to set up the camera, a policeman came up to me and said that I couldn’t take photographs now. The thing was that Saakashvili arrived at the bathhouses, which were located under the mountain from where I wanted to take pictures, and there were snipers sitting on the mountain opposite. That is, you can take photographs, but the police cannot guarantee the consequences. Come, he says, in an hour.

In the city center there is a street called Chardin, with a large number of cafes and restaurants. Looks very European.

If you are used to comfortable rest in Europe, Turkey, Greece, Egypt and others popular resorts, accustomed to hotels with an “all included” system, and generally well organized tourist routes, you have nothing to do in Georgia. First of all, you just need to want to get to this country and accept it for what it really is. If you look for any disadvantages (more precisely, notice some inconveniences), then it is better to immediately abandon the trip. Georgia is interesting primarily for lovers of antiquity, but at the same time you need to want to get to know and communicate with the people living here, they really are very wonderful. Here, for example, is an incident that occurred in the city of Gori.
In the evening we went to a restaurant with friends, drank homemade wine, ate, and talked about life. About 15 minutes before leaving, a man passed by our table, heard Russian speech and asked me: “Zyoma, where are you from?” “From Moscow,” I answered. “Moscow is the capital,” he said and left. I didn’t pay any attention to him, and what’s more, I forgot about it a minute later. And a minute later he returned with two jugs of homemade wine and did not let us go until these jugs were empty. Roma turned out to be a musician who had played in our restaurant half an hour earlier. There were long stories about how he lived in Russia for 15 years, how he loves Russians and how it’s a pity that we are “not friends” now. Roma had a heavy metal band that even performed at the famous Moscow international festival Mira in 1989 on the same stage with Scorpions, Bon Jovi, Cinderella, Motley Crew, Gorky Park. What kind of people you will meet!
In general, everyone was constantly interested in where we came from, asking about life in Moscow. What I really liked was that during our two weeks in the country, NOBODY NEVER said anything bad about the Russians, about Russia. All the people treat us very well, and everyone is very sorry that no one comes to them. And all the talk boils down to the fact that politicians are to blame for everything, and the people only suffer from this; and during the feasts, several toasts are always made for the friendship between Georgians and Russians.
By the way, about toast. It is known that Georgians are very fond of long feasts with big amount wine, toast and so on (toastmaster, after all, is a Georgian word). Every time people gather around the table, they always drink to their friends, parents, and remember the dead. A distinctive feature of the people is the veneration of simple values ​​and truisms. Georgians do everything from the bottom of their hearts and “to the end”: they are friends, they love, they fight. To be honest, their truthfulness is very captivating.
Since we're talking about toast, we can't help but mention Georgian cuisine. This is something fabulous!
Shashlik, khinkali, khachapuri, lobio, satsivi, tkemali - all the names are familiar to us from childhood, only in Russia they don’t really know how to cook these dishes (except maybe shashlik, but shish kebab is such a thing that you have to make yourself!). A lot of pepper, various herbs, sauces and seasonings. Eternal holiday! There are many restaurants and cafes everywhere, and in most of them you can eat very inexpensively (according to Moscow standards). Each restaurant bakes its own pita bread, often served so hot that you can't even pick it up with your hands. The most favorite dish among Georgians is khinkali, they can only eat it! Another thing we can’t help but mention is lemonade. Taste from childhood. I haven't drunk lemonade like this for fifteen years, if not more. Tarragon, duchess, drinks with lemon, tangerine flavors and so on - apparently they are still made from natural ingredients, so the taste remains excellent.
An interesting feature is that you can bring your own wine to almost any cafe, because in Georgia almost no one drinks wine from bottles, everyone drinks only homemade wine. And the best homemade wine, of course, is your own. The cult of this drink can be felt everywhere - no matter where we go, there are huge jugs everywhere.
The uncle of one of our friends, his name is Sandro, is the owner of a small winery in Kakheti - the area where most grapes are grown. The plant is located a few kilometers from the famous village of Tsinandali. He gave us a tour, told us about how grapes are grown in Georgia, about the technology of wine production in home and industrial conditions, and how Georgian varieties differ from each other. Unfortunately, the ban on the import of Georgian wines to Russia dealt a very serious blow to the industry. Sandro, for example, exported up to 70 (seventy!) percent of his products to Russia. Now his warehouses are filled with products returned from our country, and he is urgently looking for access to new markets. At the same time, he is not offended by the Russians. After a tour of the factory, Sandro gave us a wine tasting. It was very interesting to first try Kindzmarauli from a bottle, and then compare it with the young, still unfermented one from the tank.

Imagine how much wine there is!

Alaverdi. The cathedral was built in honor of Prince Alaverdi in the 11th century. By the way, the tradition of saying “alaverdi” before a toast appeared in honor of this prince. If in Georgia this word is said to someone during a toast, that person will be obliged to make a toast in return.

Ikalto Academy. Shota Rustaveli studied here.

Our friends Zura and Zura.

UPLISTSIKHE
Uplistsikhe, a cave city, near the city of Gori (Stalin’s birthplace). It arose (just think about it!) in the 16th – 15th centuries BC. It is very interesting to climb all the caves and ledges here.

Path in Uplistsikhe

It is very common to see churches standing on mountain tops. Jvari.

View of the city of Mtskheta from Jvari. The confluence of the famous Kura and Aragvi rivers.

In general, Georgian architecture is characterized by a certain asceticism, modesty and severity. All the old buildings have a very positive energy. The age of some churches is very impressive; this one, for example, was built in the 5th-7th centuries.

BORJOMI
Georgians have a favorite place for summer holiday- Borjomi. On the slopes of the Borjomi valley there is a forest of larch trees, which, coupled with the cleanest mountain air and, of course, mineral springs makes a holiday here very beneficial for your health. But there is absolutely nothing to do, unless the photographs turn out good. By the way, Borjomi mineral water is sold everywhere, the labels are all in Russian and Georgian, that is, they were printed with the expectation of sales not only in Georgia, but also in Russia.

VARDZIA
The Uplistsikhe complex (see above) amazed us, but what we saw in Vardzia is almost beyond description. The cave city was created in the 12th – 13th centuries during the reign of Queen Tamara. Over 600 residential, religious and utility premises were carved into sheer cliff at 9 floors. Of the places I have ever visited, this complex made one of the strongest impressions on me.
Vardzia is located near the border with Turkey and Armenia; it takes about five hours to get to the complex from Borjomi along a dirt road, but it’s really worth it! On the road to Vardzia you pass many small remote villages, where life goes on the same way as many, many years ago, no one speaks Russian. In the valleys, shepherds graze cows, and sometimes you can see teams drawn by donkeys; it feels like you are on another planet.

On the way to Vardzia

Vardzia itself, view from the valley

"Elite apartment." Imagine, this “room” is carved out of the rock!


The church carved into the rock looks very beautiful and unusual.

If you are not careful, it is not difficult to break your head in Vardzia. In general, sometimes it amazed me that in tourist places In Georgia everything is very poorly organized. But on the other hand, there are very few people and no one bothers you to enjoy the beauty. All the monuments appear before you “as is”; there is no impression that everything is being done for tourists. It's all very real, and it's really captivating.
If you don’t watch TV or news, if the lack of service doesn’t bother you, and you want to see something unusual, then you’re in a straight line to Georgia. This is truly a wonderful, kind country that is worth visiting. She definitely won’t leave you indifferent; the impressions will last for a long time. We went, and now we will remember and tell all our friends about the trip for a very long time.

 

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