Georgia. David Gareji - Sighnaghi

This is one country we wanted to visit for a long time. All we knew was that Georgia has a rich cultural heritage, beautiful nature, good food and a lot of wine. When we found out that they just recently opened direct flights between Tallinn and Tbilisi we figured it was the time to go.

We looked at the map: the entire country was some 600km long so we figured 6 days would be enough to see it all (which later on proved so wrong!), bought tickets on a whim, merely a couple of days before the flight and started researching where to stay and what to see. First of all, it is not that easy to find info about Georgia online as all requests for "Georgian Tourism board", "weather in Georgia","hotels in Georgia" bring you to the pages related to US State of Georgia. Even the Georgian travel site that was aggressively promoted on Estonian TV and billboards around the country contained no useful info and redirected to tour agencies sites. We contacted one of them and they quoted us the price of 800 euro per person for a 3 days wine tour. Of course, "wine in abundance" was included in the price, but still it seemed unreasonably high.

The search in Russian proved much more useful. First of all, there is no confusion of names with US state: unlike in Western languages the Russian for Georgia is Gruziya (Грузия). Apparently medieval Russian merchants heard this word - gurğ - from their Persian colleagues. And already 14th century travelers mentioned gurzi in their travel notes. From Russian this term entered other Slavic languages, the languages of the countries forming Russian Empire and then Soviet Union (such as Estonian, for example where they call it Gruusia) and even such languages as Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Hebrew and Yiddish.

By the way, Georgians themselves do not use either of these versions for self-designation: they call their country Sakartvelo (საქართველო - I know you cannot read it but it is just so beautiful!) -  the land of Kartvelians.

Linguistic problems aside, while for most Westerners Georgia still remains a sort of terra incognita, Russian (and Russian speaking) people continue to love and visit Georgia despite political games. While in English you are more likely to find official sites of overpriced hotels and tour companies, Russian blogs and travel sites provide more hands-on information from independent travelers, backpackers, hitch-hikers...

But the more sites we browsed the more the name of some Vadim came up: it was a guy who offered rooms for rent in his house in Tbilisi and also conducted guided tours around Georgia in small groups. All the feedback was so overwhelmingly positive - "we would not have seen so much without Vadim!", "the trip would not have been so great without Vadim!" - that we first thought this Vadim was writing all these "testimonies" himself. When it is too good it is also suspicious! Plus Erkki being Estonian with their cult of privacy was repulsed by the idea of sharing living space with a bunch of strangers. So we continued looking. But as the flight approached we did not advance much: the hotel sites contained no prices and no possibility of booking online. Plus, our flight arrived and 4am and we imagined at that hour the airport could be empty with no taxi drivers. Where would we go? How would we find a hotel?

So - not without hesitation - we decided to email this legendary Vadim (if he existed). We received a response within minutes and were guaranteed accommodation (15euro per person per night including breakfast) as well as pick-up from the airport, also included in the price. We decided to go with it at least for the first night and look around on the spot.

And here we are.

Tbilisi airport at 4am happened to be a bustling place: there were many flights departing and landing. Apparently, since Tbilisi is not one of priority destinations they receive flight corridors at the least comfortable time. After we reunited with our suitcase and stepped out into arrival area we saw a dense crowd meeting the flights. How can we recognize this Vadim? The only hope is that he would recognize us as we had sent him our pictures. But since on the picture Erkki was holding a fish and I had feather on the head, we imagined we would spend at least another half hour walking around peeking at other people suspecting every one of them to be Vadim. But before we even finished this thought we were approached by a young man with a code-phrase "Are you Vadim's guests?". Well, young man definitely knew how to recognize people! He introduced himself as Vadim's son Levan and we hurried out of the airport into the thick Southern night. Another young man joined us and we were told to wait for the car on the curbside away from the airport building. Anywhere else in the world this situation would have been spooky if not dangerous: two young men take us away from the main building with witnesses and security cameras, a car with the third accomplice arrives, they take all our belonging and disappear in the dark.

Fear not. Georgia is one of the safest countries we have visited: people stroll along the streets and seat in the cafés together with kids way past midnight, one might see the cars left on the parking lots with windows open and during a short stop even with keys in the ignition. The feeling that there is no need to look across your shoulder and check in which (or whose) neighborhood you accidentally end up is liberating. At first we always made sure to carry our cameras and computers with us at all times, but soon started to feel no worries leaving things in the van during our stops.

But let us not run ahead of our story. Soon we were in Saburtalo - green residential district of Tbilisi with mostly private houses. We were shown to our room and immediately fell asleep. In the morning the house started to wake up: from various outbuildings forming a sort of labyrinth emerged international guests (at that time there was a family from Kazakhstan, young mother from Smolensk in Russia, later a group from Vilnius came). All flocked to an open air terrace where they were treated to warm Georgian flatbread, fresh salad, fruits and sausages or eggs sunny side up. The breakfast finishes with tea or Turkish coffee boiled in cezve and keeps you going till abundant dinner.

There, at the terrace we met the legendary Vadim and his wife Inga. He existed!

One definite advantage of staying at Vadim's is that you are not on your own: whether you need to find a public bus station, currency exchange, the best churchkhela in town (national treat made of walnuts wrapped in dried wine juice) or legend on how Tbilisi was founded, they will patiently explain, draw schemes or equip you with a map for an independent exploration.

Vadim asked about our interests, priorities and expectations. One of the ideas - visiting mountainous region of Svaneti - was proved impossible to accomplish during our short stay: what seemed mere 300km drive was in fact a long trip first overnight by train, then by car, so it was postponed till our next visit to Georgia (we are positive to be back). As to two other places we wanted to visit - wineries of Kakheti region and David Gareji monastery - it was all possible. In fact, Vadim was planning a tour to Kakheti within the next few days. 

As to David Gareji, we were offered to go by taxi with one of the recommended drivers. Inga also suggested to combine it with a visit to Sighnaghi. The price was 150 lari (75 euro). For what happened to be a 13 hours trip, sometimes by very bad roads, we think it is a fair price. 

Some may find it steep and use public transport. This is true: it is possible to get to Sagarejo (see map) by public vans and then negotiate with one of the local taxi drivers to take you to the monastery (we read that some negotiated for 35 lari round trip with a two-hour wait on the place). It is also possible to reach Sighnaghi by public transport. But the timetables of public transport are not posted or if they are, they are in Georgian, plus the driver can easily deviate from the schedule. Standing on the roadside waiting for the van that is not necessarily coming is not something we wanted to do. We paid a bit more, but were picked up and droped off at Vadim's, the driver made photo stops as often as we pleased. Sometimes he would stop to show us how some of the fruits grow, drink fresh water from the springs he knew about or to explain how the watermelons are cultivated.

Nodar giving us agricultural lessons

We turned from the main road in Sagarejo and the road got bad. We did not know that after the last village before the monastery - Udabno (pictured below) - the road will turn from bad into very bad. Apparently this stretch used to be covered with asphalt, but now it was spatter of holes of different size and depth. So do not rely on maps - even Google who knows everything shows this last stretch as asphalt road. The map we had with us was also showing roads that did not correspond to reality. Overall, especially if you are used to Northern style of driving, we do not recommend renting a car in Georgia, unless you have some dzhigit blood running in your veins .

The landscapes however were worth the inconvenience.

As Nodar explained, it was the area of winter pastures: the lambs were staying up in the mountains during the hot summers and returned here for the winter.

Soon the landscape got drier: David Gareji is located in the desert. This small country is so versatile that they have glaciers up in the mountains, subtropical climate by the seaside and even a small desert.

One of the farms where the grass is kept for the winter

The road was mostly empty (even though we met three tourist buses) and our only travel companions were locusts.

Next to the monastery the red desert became even more apparent.

Soon we saw a former monastery watchtower now used by Azerbaijan border control. During the Soviet times when it was all one country the border between Georgian Soviet Republic and Azerbaijan Soviet Republic was drawn on top of the mountain ridge so now some parts of the monastery complex are located in Azerbaijan.There it is called Keşiş Dağ. The borders is still subject to dispute with Georgia willing to trade due to its sacral importance while Azerbaijan refuses to trade the territory because of its strategic location. Hard to tell why this piece of mountainous desert almost unaccessible from Azerbaijan side can be attractive for anyone except monks, but...

10 more minutes of amazing landscapes...

...and we were on the parking lot with a few taxi drivers patiently waiting in the shade while their passengers climb up and down the mountains.
A short decent brings you to the church shop. Behind it a trail starts so remember this spot.

From the plateau next to the church shop one can see monastery vegetable garden. 

The shade behind the church shop is also a good spot to change: the churches and monasteries have a dress code . Women have to have their heads covered and must wear skirt. For those wearing pants literally every temple has a perch with scarves and shawls hanging so even those in pants can wrap themselves. Men cannot wear shorts and cannot have bare feet. So even if you are wearing sandals you must put on socks. For men it is a good idea to have loose sport pants that you can put on top of shorts and then take off easily. Ladies, it is a good idea to bring a shawl. If you did not - every subway (metro) station is a mini-market where you can easily find something (I bought the red dress pictured below and put it on before visiting every church).
I personally have not seen anyone escorted out of churches, barely a despleased grimace on a monk's face. But when getting ready for the trip it is a good idea to consider the beliefs of those you visit and respect them.

Entrance to the monastery, already properly dressed

And here they are: the monks' cells carved in the mountain

The cells have carved niches for every need

As throughout centuries more powerful neighbors tried not only to conquer Georgia but also to eradicate Christianity, almost every monastery is surrounded by walls and has watchtowers.

These walls could not always protect the monks. Persian Shah Abbas whose destructive trace can be seen all over Georgia visited David Gareji and killed around 6,000 monks who lived in the complex.

Nowadays the monastery is not a tourist object, it is still active, the monks live here so it is not possible to visit a large part of the monastery and almost impossible to see the monks.

But we were lucky and caught one on camera.

After having visited the temple we went out and as advised by Vadim took the hiking trail behind the church shop.

The trail leads to the mountain ridge from where you can see Azerbaijan. Up there more chapels can be found as well as caves where monks used to live. In some caves (check out the bigger ones) there are remains of ancient frescoes that created the foundation of Garejian school of fresco painting and later influenced frescoes all over Georgia. They say the views are breathtaking and depending on your fitness level it will take you between 1 and 2 hours.

Unfortunately as we were running out of time (our trip started around noon, then we spent some time exchanging money and buying red dress): the driver explained that if we wanted to see Sighnaghi we had to leave David Gareji at 4pm. So again, that's another thing that we left for the next visit. 

Still we went up the trail till the first viewpoint. even from there you can see the monastery with Garejian desert behind.

Unfortunately we had to return from here but if you are up for the hike do not forget a bottle of water: it is a desert!

Last look at the monastery...

...and we started our drive back to Sagarejo: first by very bad road so the bad one did not seem so bad after all.

Driving back, jumping on the bumps and falling in the holes two thoughts were fighting "M-m-make n-n-n-normal r-r-road" competed with "Would there rather be a huge parking lot with buses driving in and out? vendors selling David Gareji fridge magnets? Entrance fee? Security guard checking the skirt length? Hiking trail closed for safety reasons?". When all these appear in a religious site something very important starts to be missing.  We would rather have it the way it is. This is what we love Georgia for: the things are real here, no Disneyland.
Later on we visited another cave monastery in Vardzia and it also became one of our top 3 things in Georgia, along with Gelati monastery.

Our next stop Sighnaghi however was totally different if not opposite: according to the President's plan it was to become one of Kakheti tourist centers. No wonder most English-speaking tourists praised this city most: clean, colorful, with cute little cafés and galleries. This is what many tourists expect to see when traveling: picture-perfect town.

Make sure you ask your driver to make a photo-stop approaching the city:

City hills offer good vantage points with fortress and fertile Alazani valley in the background.

The fortress starts in the city and runs around quite a large territory. We were trying to find a way up the tower but could not find any entrance: the steps are covered with dense bushes.

The church is seen from many spots.

All the city was renovated at the State expense so those who were lucky to live in the tourist center received an upgraded houses absolutely free. Later on we saw the same in Mtskheta. Telavi and Kvareli in Kakheti region are to follow: construction has already started.

Now Sighnaghi streets look the way a tourist wants to see them

Clean, bright, colorful - new face of Sighnaghi

Some buildings were restored on the brink of being totally rebuilt:

We did not have a guide but believe this must be city hall

But it is possible to find some local color even here:

All the elements of a tourist city are here: fountains, city sculpture...

...local businesses also start to catch up and offer carriage ride:

Overall, we had a dual impression: on one hand we are used to clean and cute tourist cities where everything is organized, vantage points are marked on the map, arrows point where they are supposed to point - no wonder a lot of foreigners like Sighnaghi. On the other hand, the city seems a bit artificial. Maybe it is due to its young age in the new status of "Tourist face of Georgia" and after locals get used to changes the city will seem more lively... Anyway, if we wanted to see a manicured old town we should not have left Tallinn. We travel to see something different and Sighnaghi seems to have little to do with real Georgian life...

Last stop on the way back is Bodbe, located just 2 kilometeres from Sighnaghi female monastery where Saint Nina of Cappadocia is buried. Saint Nina arrived to Georgia in the early 4th century in search of Jesus' tunic. It was known that one of the guards - a Georgian Jew took it with him. Nina did not find the tunic, it surfaced itself later (we will talk about it with regards to our trip to Svetitskhoveli temple in Mtskheta), but she converted Georgian king Miriam into Christianity. Thus Georgia became one of the first countries in the world where Christianity was State religion (it happened not later than 337).

By the time we arrived the monastery gate was closed but as we walked around we noticed that the service gate was open and followed the lady in black whipping up monastery cows to enter its territory.

The new church is being built and stone carvers were already working on the decor.

Make sure to visit the Holy spring.

In the very back of the monastery, on the hillside were monastery vegetable gardens with a young nun sitting on the balcony. Hard to think of a more serene picture.

When we came back our driver Nodar was talking to a group of men. We had seen them before: they were walking next to the monastery walls with huge plastic canisters full of something. We made a joke that local men were stocking up on their nightly supply of beer. But Nodar told us they were the team of stone carvers who travel around Georgia making stone ornaments for new temples - he knew them because before they had worked in Tbilisi. And in the canisters there was holy water from the springs. We felt embarrassed. Clearly, you cannot apply your usual standards while in Georgia.

On the way back we asked Nodar to stop at a roadside café for dinner and some local wine. Here happened our first encounter with local cuisine. But more about Georgian feasts - later.

We returned to Vadim's long after midnight with a 10 liter canister of home-made white Kakhetian wine we had bought on the roadside. And even though the next day promised to be  full of adventures - Djvari, Mtskheta, Shio-Mgvime, Ananuri, Zhinvali lake - we stayed on the terrace with other guests, Levan was reciting poetry, we were talking about our countries - Russia, Kazakhstan, Estonia, Belarus, Georgia - drinking wine in the thick Southern night.
Sharing living space with other was not that scary after all. In fact, our nightly gathering on the terrace with other guests from different countries turned into something we enjoyed a lot. Discussing daily adventures with people from different backgrounds gave us a new perspective and made look at what we saw from different, often unexpected angles.