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Travel Stories >> Georgia >> Sightseeing

SIGHTSEEING! OR, JET LAG? WE DON'T NEED NO STINKING REST!

So after a day of walking into people’s homes (to whom we can neither say hello nor thank you)… you might think we were going to hang around the hotel getting acclimated, but you are mistaken.

The magnificent Tamuna (the SAVE project office queen) has agreed to have lunch with us – perhaps taking us to a local restaurant where we can find authentic Georgian food (I have been reading about the great food – usually at 3:30 in the morning when I stop kidding myself that I will ever sleep normally again).

She and Sergo decided to really take us out. Sergo is the third of the project drivers, a former karate champ who stands about 4’11” and weighs in at, I estimate, 85 – maybe 90 pounds, and whose English is marvelous, AND who, when he eloped with his wife, took her off to Paris (she speaks French) for a long weekend, just a few hours after the elicit ceremony (the parents hadn’t agreed to the match). And who is as funny, sweet, competent, kind, and eager to help as all of the project staff I have met so far. So off we go, but we are not eating yet, oh no. It is a gorgeous warm, sunny Sunday and they are taking us outside of the city for some really honest to goodness tourism.

I should add here that while in the lobby on the Marriott we ‘pick up’ Matt Weber (one of the SAVE project member, young, funny, just off two years in Azerbaijan, his first long term international project) who wants to be dropped off to buy some sneakers. One thing leads to another, the road to the shopping place is closed, and Matt, being good-natured, allows himself to be roped into our outing and meal.

Off we go, leaving the city of Tbilisi, heading sort of northwest to the city of Mtskheta (yeah, say that one three times fast. Better yet, close your eyes and pretend you have a speech impediment and are saying ‘it’s ketchup’ really fast). We pass by Mtskheta (we will be returning) and on a little further to a winding road up a mountainside. The roads, by the way, outside of Tbilisi are not terrible. They are potholed (although nothing remotely close to as bad as many of the secondary roads in the city) but immanently drivable. There are kiosks/stands along the highway where people are selling motor oil (of questionable quality) and honey, a logical combination, sure. Sergo exclaims, “you must be careful because they put the good honey on top over the bad honey on the bottom!” I feel duly warned. As we get closer to greater populations there are also stands where people are selling ice cream, and some with produce. It would appear that tomatoes, green beans, little green sweet plums, onions, sour cherries, wild strawberries, and heads of wilted lettuce are currently in season.

So we creep up the hairpinned road to a church. Not just any church, but one that sits at the very top of a crag overlooking the convergence of the Aragvi River and the Mtkvari River (which flows into Tbilisi downstream). And not just any church but the church that is reputed to have been built on the site where the saint who founded Christianity, St. Nino (a woman!), had a huge cross built for everyone to see throughout the valley in Ad 330 (or thereabouts). There are a number of legends surrounding St. Nino of Cappadocia, the most well known credits her with the unusual shape of the Georgian cross, a symbol whose horizontal cross pieces droop a little – due, it is said, to the fact that St. Nino made the cross out of grape vines (which are not particularly straight) tied together with her own hair (that is, hair that was not still attached to her head, I assume).

In any case, a number of centuries and re-builds later this phenomenal structure (the current one dates to about the sixth century) sits on one of the most beautiful pieces of the mountains high above the river valley. It is both a gorgeous place, in addition to being a very important holy place for the Georgians, and while we are there a number of wedding processions file in and out of the central nave. A number of the brides were in black or purple and I asked Tamuna whether it was not necessarily traditional to wear white on one’s wedding day. No, she answered, not necessarily – and remember, you readers at home, the Georgians’ favorite color is black.

We all wander around, leaning over the outer walls looking down the crag to the rivers way below. Even though it is June and quite warm, the stiff breeze up here at the top of the Georgian world is blowing well. We reconnoiter around the back side of the structure where there is a wishing tree. The idea is to make a wish and tie a small ribbon on the tree somewhere, and once the ribbon is free, your wish will come true. The trick is that the more knots you use, that’s how many times greater the chance you have to get your wish (because of course, the more knots you tie, the lesser the chance that the ribbon will fly away and your wish will be granted! Those Georgian superstition development specialists are no dummies!)

So we have seen Jvari. We have officially done some tourism in Georgia. And we pack into Sergo’s HOT BMW (no Freon = no air conditioner… and so it goes) and off down the mountain to Mtskheta (remember ‘it’s ketchup” three times FAST). Mtskheta is one of the oldest and most important cities to the Georgians. The country’s first real capital (after a long strife-filled tribal period), it was the home of King Mirian and Queen Nana (hence the scores of Georgian women today named Nana!) – the first rulers to embrace Christianity. Even though the capital was moved to Tbilisi in the AD 600s, Mtskheta remained the center of the Georgian Church.

[to be finished soon ]

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