My 2023 Summer Tripping in Georgia

Kristi Rohtsalu
MY 2023 SUMMER TRIPPING IN
GEORGIA

1
This travel journal is about my adventures in Georgia, the country at the intersection of Europe and Asia.
(The country Georgia is not to be messed up with Georgia, a state in the United States!)

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Table of Contents
1 Introduction ..........................................................................................................................................4
2 From Estonia to Georgia........................................................................................................................5
3 Based in Tbilisi.......................................................................................................................................8
3.1 Starting out in the secret birth place of wine ...............................................................................8
3.2 A day in and above Tbilisi............................................................................................................16
4 Mtskheta, ancient capital of Georgia, and side trip from there .........................................................20
4.1 Through Tbilisi to Mtskheta ........................................................................................................21
4.2 Mtskheta and Armazi Citadel......................................................................................................26
4.3 Via Bebristsikhe Fortress and Gorovani village to Panorama Skhaltba.......................................30
4.4 Back to Mtskheta: Monastery Road and water outage ..............................................................34
5 Destination Gori..................................................................................................................................39
5.1 Georgian Railway experience and walk to Mzia's Garden ..........................................................39
5.2 Uplistsikhe City Caves..................................................................................................................42
5.3 Georgian breakfast at Mzia and first impressions of Gori...........................................................47
5.4 Stalin Museum and Gori Panorama ............................................................................................51
6 On the way. Katskhi Column and Chiatura..........................................................................................57
6.1 Gori - Kareli - Bokneti Guest House...........................................................................................58
6.2 Breakfast in Bokneti Guest House, followed by walk to Khashuri ..............................................62
6.3 Morning walk to Surami Fortress and back; train trip to Zestaponi ...........................................66
6.4 From Zestaponi to Katskhi Column AKA Katskhi Pillar................................................................70
6.5 More of Katskhi & going to Chiatura...........................................................................................74
6.6 Chiatura.......................................................................................................................................78
7 Kutaisi, Tskaltubo and natural monuments.........................................................................................85
7.1 Marshrutka from Chiatura to Kutaisi and first intro to Kutaisi....................................................86
7.2 Kutaisi – Sataplia – Tskaltubo......................................................................................................90
7.3 Prometheus Cave and a peek at former Tskaltubo sanatoriums ................................................94
7.4 Back to Kutaisi.............................................................................................................................96
8 Georgia’s Switzerland..........................................................................................................................98
8.1 With Budget Georgia from Kutaisi to Mestia..............................................................................99
8.2 Cross above Mestia...................................................................................................................103
8.3 Mestia-Ushguli trek, Day 1: Mestia – Chvabiani .......................................................................109

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8.4 Mestia-Ushguli trek, Day 2: Chvabiani – Adishi.........................................................................114
8.5 Mestia-Ushguli trek, Day 3: Adishi – Lalkhori ...........................................................................120
8.6 Mestia-Ushguli trek, Day 4: Lalkhori – Ushguli, Ushguli and then back to Mestia ...................125
8.7 Back in Mestia...........................................................................................................................130
9 On the Black Sea coast......................................................................................................................134
9.1 With ‘party bus’ from Mestia to Zugdidi; Zugdidi Botanical Garden & Boulevard....................135
9.2 Stop-over day in Zugdidi ...........................................................................................................138
9.3 Arriving to the Black Sea Coast in Poti ......................................................................................142
9.4 From Poti to Ureki.....................................................................................................................145
9.5 Beach holiday in Ureki...............................................................................................................148
9.6 From Ureki to Kobuleti..............................................................................................................152
9.7 From Kobuleti to Makhinjauri...................................................................................................155
9.8 Batumi, Georgia’s Black Sea capital ..........................................................................................157
10 Borjomi, Pearl of Caucasus............................................................................................................161
10.1 Getting from Batumi to Borjomi ...............................................................................................162
10.2 Borjomi-Kharagauli National Park, Likani Gorge Trail (Trail #12) ..............................................165
10.3 Borjomi Central Park and Tsar’s Sulfur Baths aka Sulfur Pools .................................................167
10.4 Borjomi-Kharagauli National Park, Footprints Trail (Trail #6)....................................................171
11 Stepantsminda/Kazbegi ................................................................................................................176
11.1 From Borjomi to Tbilisi; visiting Holy Trinity Cathedral of Tbilisi ..............................................177
11.2 With Budget Georgia on Georgian Military Highway, Georgia’s most spectacular road ..........180
11.3 Hike to Gergeti Trinity Church and Gergeti Glacier...................................................................188
11.4 Stone heads and waterfalls.......................................................................................................195
11.5 Just wandering around Stepantsminda townlet.......................................................................199
12 Last stop-over in Tbilisi – and back home.....................................................................................204
13 Summary.......................................................................................................................................211
13.1 Some facts and estimates .........................................................................................................211
13.2 My TOP 5 in Georgia .................................................................................................................212
13.3 Concluding on my concerns about Georgia ..............................................................................213

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1 Introduction
For my summer trip in 2023, I chose Georgia. Why Georgia? That was a no-brainer for me: I did not have
much time for travel planning this spring, but I had done quite a bit of research about Georgia in the
Corona Summer 2020 already. At that time, COVID restrictions had canceled my plans; now, it was the
time to make them come true.
Based on what I had read and heard about Georgia, I hoped to see and do quite a bit. I wanted to hike in
the Caucasus Mountains, swim in the Black Sea, eat Georgian khachapuris, taste the world-famous drinks
(the Georgian wine and the Borjomi water from the source), go to the caves and city caves, see the almost
unreal Katskhi Column, learn some more about our common Soviet-era history. In other words, I wanted
to ‘pull the cable off the wall’ and have a long, eye-opening holiday.
While excited, I felt quite a bit of uncertainty, too.
The first source of my discomfort was that I could not plan how to get from point A to point B. That it will
not be possible to walk everywhere was quite clear from the maps. Often, the only mapped road or path
was the highway or the main road. Marshrutkas, the most common means of local transportation, were
said to have no fixed schedules. Train tickets were not yet available for online purchases. I did find no
reasonable options to reserve seats beforehand via the internet.
Another uncomfortable factor for me was that most accommodations only accepted cash payments. The
idea of carrying significant amounts of cash with me was not appealing.
The third thing, the one I was most scared of, was the dogs. I had heard that the dogs in Georgia were
often hungry and angry. There were stories of Caucasian Shepherd Dogs killing people they deemed
threatening their sheep.
There were further causes of concern, based on what I had read and heard about Georgia again: language
challenges (they do not speak English!), poor traffic culture, electricity and water outages, and political
unrest here and there.
Coping with these uncertainties and concerns was a proper challenge for me. I did expect my summer trip
to be quite an adventure – and I wasn’t wrong. This writing is my travel journal, my day-to-day recordings
of experiencing Georgia. Broadly, I planned my route. The details were often revealed on the spot. My
approach was this: where I can reasonably walk, there I walk – and where I cannot, I use budget-friendly
transportation.
Kristi Rohtsalu
Back home by the end of the summer

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2 From Estonia to Georgia
My summer 2023 adventure started on the morning of 3 July from the Baltic Station (Balti jaam) in Tallinn,
Estonia. I wandered through the Old Town – for some reason, I always get a little lost on those streets –
and the new city center, past the bus station and to the Tallinn Airport. In the background of threatening
skies, the Old Town looked truly picturesque from the Patkuli viewing platform, and I took the picture
below.
“Just to show it to the people that happen to ask me about my home country on the way,” I thought
prudently.
Rushing ahead of myself, people indeed asked. But there I was, under the threatening skies. Before getting
anywhere, heavy rain just hit me. I took it as kind of first test: am I ready for the adventure? I was, I went
on and happily reached the airport, even if wet.
Tallinn Old Town from the Patkuli viewing platform
In the Tallinn Airport security control, I experienced my first and only actual loss on this trip. It was my
mistake. Namely, I had somehow forgotten my blue bus knife into travel backpack! Of course, they took it
away.

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The airBaltic flight from Tallinn to Tbilisi was via Riga Airport where I waited for many-many hours. The
plane to Tbilisi departed only at around 23:30. Effectively, this meant a sleepless night. At around 4:40
local time when we landed in Tbilisi, I felt pretty tired. The starting new day and almost tropical air had a
refreshing effect, though; this was the boost I needed for getting going.
At first, arrivals were directed to the long line of passport control. It was not just airBaltic that landed; at
around the same time there were other flights arriving too. Fortunately, the line moved fast and the
woman in the checkpoint did not ask many questions.
“Taxi-taxi!” a herd of taxi drivers greeted the arrivals right after the baggage reclaim with shouts both in
English and in Russian.
Many drivers had their nameplates, yet the others were still looking for the clients.
Somehow, I managed to get past these eager drivers and find a cash machine / ATM right there in the
arrival hall. The biggest amount that was allowed to be withdrawn in one go, was 400 Georgian laris. 400
GEL… Just about 140 EUR was deducted from my bank account in result of this transaction.
I had thought about having my morning coffee and breakfast in the airport, but there were not many
choices, really. I noticed just one crowded Costa Coffee with no breakfast options that I actually liked. So,
I just bought a bottle of water (no cheaper than in Tallinn Airport!) and got going, hoping to grab something
on the way. Yes, I decided to walk these 15 kilometers from the airport to the hotel for there was plenty
of time till the hotel check-in.
The good news was that there was a pretty decent sidewalk right next to the highway. My first impression
of Georgia was kind of sad, tough: decaying Soviet era apartment buildings of the district right next to the
airport, waste here and there, brownish tones for there apparently had not been any rain for a while.
For the breakfast, I stopped in a gas station that was bigger and nicer than the others. Yeah. There were
plenty of gas station on the way. Prices looked good. For example, for a standard waffle ice cream, I only
paid 0.36 EUR (1 GEL).
“In Estonia, I would have paid three times that,” I thought.
Closer to the city center, surroundings became cleaner and nicer. Downtown Tbilisi looked pretty appealing
to walk around. Below is my first picture of it. The only thing was, that at this particular moment I was too
tired and dreamed of a bed instead.

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My first look to the Tbilisi downtown
It was still just 10 o’clock in the morning. I walked past my downtown hotel named Hotel Lions. Not daring
to appear this early, I would just find a nice coffee place and sit there for a couple of hours. First, of course,
I had to get past quite a few active tour sellers right there on the street.
Soon, I ‘landed’ in a Dunkin' Donuts shop – not the best choice, just the first one on my way. Well… Iced
coffee that I ordered – Iced Americano – was nothing I had imagined, and it cost about the same as
anywhere in Europe. At least, differently from the busy streets, it was rather quite there and WiFi was free.
Hotel Lions turned out to be… Let’s say, more modest than I had expected based on the glamorous
description in booking.com. ‘Kitchen’ consisted of a fridge, and a kettle and couple of tea cups in the corner
of a small room called appartement. To be fair: value for the money was still reasonably good in the area;
it was just that more was promised.
“On this trip, I will have a good chance to practice my Russian,” I concluded after check-in.
My hostess, a helpful middle-aged or somewhat older local lady, really did not speak English. Some basic
Russian came handy here.

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3 Based in Tbilisi
I stayed in the Hotel Lions in Tbilisi downtown for three nights. This chapter is about my days during that
period – and not so much about Tbilisi. Instead of exploring the city, as an introduction to Georgia, I went
to the full day Kakheti tour right on the next morning.
3.1 Starting out in the secret birth place of wine1
It was almost too early when my alarm rang on the next morning, 5th
of July.
“6:10, that means 7:10,” I realized when looking at the clock.
For some reason, both my Suunto watch and the clock on my phone did not allow setting any other time
than the Estonian one in this hotel… And Georgia was one hour ahead.
Anyway, it was still early. Early and raining, as I realized when going outside right after my morning
routines. Raining or not, now I had to hurry to the meeting point indicated in my reservation of the Kakheti
& Sighnaghi Guided Day Trip & Wine tour.
Precisely at 8:40 I was in front of the Sakartvelo Tours office in 44 Shota Rustaveli Ave. There was nobody
but a Georgian-looking man smoking nearby. The man, seeing me stopping and looking around (where is
everyone?), approached me.
“Are you for the tour?” he asked, taking out his phone.
Understanding that he was from the tours company, I nodded. He scanned my ticket.
With some delay, a Russian-speaking woman and a young German couple joined us. We were instructed
to sit into a small black car. The man that had scanned our tickets, said that he will transport us to the pick-
up point.
Long story short, before me and the German couple finally could join a larger group in the right tour bus,
there was quite a bit of chaos, locals running around and making calls. We had just to wait there and watch
all that circus. The other woman who had booked another tour, was first directed to a car, then to a bus,
then to yet another bus…
The tour guide in our bus – Ruslana – was apparently pretty nervous because of the delay.
“Faster, faster, we cannot stand here,” she hurried the last two tourists up when they made their way to
the bus.
Those guys seemed to join us from a random place. We probably should not have been parking there.
“You are half an hour late – you can well wait couple of more minutes,” one of them responded rather
angrily.
I think, this is how the system kind of worked: tourists reserved their spots to the tours via different tour
companies and vendors; on the day of departure, all of them were ‘distributed’ between the tour buses,
depending on their reservations. This morning, something went wrong and the distribution part just did
not go as smoothly as it was supposed to.
1
More on Georgia as the secret birth place of wine: https://www.nationalgeographic.com/travel/article/sponsor-
content-secret-birthplace-of-wine (Last accessed on 7 September 2023.)

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Even if with a significant delay, we got moving towards Kakheti.
After introducing herself and the driver Giorgi, Ruslana, now calmed down, asked each of us about our
home country. Besides me from Estonia and the German couple I mentioned before, there were two young
girls from Kazakhstan, a middle-aged couple from Geneva in Switzerland, another middle-aged man from
Stuttgart in Germany, a young couple from Sankt Peterburg in Russia, a dad and her grow-up daughter
from the UK, and two girls from Belarus. In other words, the group was quite diverse and we literally did
not find a common language; our guide had to explain everything in two languages, first in English and
then in Russian. She was fluent in both.
Until the bus drove towards our first designated stop, Ruslana told us quite a bit about Georgia, its history
and religion, about Georgian language and alphabet. I will not repeat this information here – it would get
way too long. For those interested, I’d suggest considering joining the tour themselves
Our first stop was on the way to Sighnaghi, in a churchkhela-place. I did not look at the place’s name, but
made the photo below. On it, you can see the churchkhelas on the wall and on the window. Basically,
churchkhela is a traditional Georgian candle-shaped candy from grapes, nuts, flour…
“They sell it in Tbilisi, but it’s not the right one,” Ruslana said and explained what was wrong with
churchkhelas in Tbilisi.
I did not quite follow the explanation; it had something to do with the added sugar. A la: there is no added
sugar in the original churchkhela, yet those sold in Tbilisi tourist shops do contain this ‘white death’. Well,
the churchkhelas that I got to taste, were tasty indeed – and almost too sweet even without added sugars.

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A pic from the churchkhela-place and its hostess
At first, the people in our group were a little shy when it came to tastings. This shyness was ‘cured’ with
quite a bit of home-made alcohol in the other corner of the room. We got to taste that one as well.
“Come on, you are in Georgia!” Ruslana encouraged us.
She explained that almost every family in Kakheti had a little winery of their own. Besides wine, there were
stronger alcohols – brandy and vodka-like drinks – as well. I was surprised that all of those alcohols, even
the very strong ones (think of 60% vol in home-made Chacha, the Georgia’s pomace brandy!), were in
lemonade-bottle like plastic bottles!
Our next stop was a traditional bread-and-cheese place just in a few minutes’ drive. Again, I forgot to look
at the name of the place, but… Wow!
I first even did not realize that those were the breads on the wall of an oven – see the pic below. I thought
that what I saw, was a stone pattern like a little bit broken version of bricks and mortar. Then the hostess
of the place showed us how she put a new piece of pastry to the wall.
“That’s how the Georgian bread can be this crispy even without added fats,” I made a new discovery for
myself.

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Traditional way of making bread in Georgia: the oven and the breads on the wall
Followed the tastings of different home-made cheeses: from cow’s milk, from sheep’s milk, from goat’s
milk… By the time, I was this absorbed in the conversation with a fellow tourist that I even did not notice:
was there also a cheese from the dog’s milk, given all the dogs in Georgia?! Probably not.
About the tastes… The bits for tastings were really small so that it was difficult to draw any meaningful
conclusions. That’s what I thought when trying:
“The whitest on is somehow lame, tasteless. The middle one on the color scale is the best: modestly salty
and with no aftertaste of an old cheese.”
“Do you know how the holes happen in cheese?” I asked from my conversation partner, pointing to the
many holes in a bigger uncut piece of cheese.
He, an IT person as he had introduced himself, had no clue.
“Well, that’s the result of cheese bacteria farting,” I cheerfully repeated the explanation given by my
younger brother years ago when he used to work in a cheese factory in Estonia.
If this was true about that one cheese or not, I did not know; it was just a fun fact about the holes in cheese
in general.
Soon, we were back in the bus and going once again. The next stop was holy Bodbe Monastery of St. Nino.
On the way, Ruslana told us the story of a girl called Nino who once brought Christianity to Georgia.

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Outside the church’s territory, there was a toilet stop.
“Last one before we get to the restaurant in four hours,” our guide said.
So, almost everyone used the opportunity. I had a little problem here: the visit cost 0.2 GEL (about 0.07
EUR), yet as I had arrived to Georgia only very recently, I did not have any local coins. The woman ‘guarding’
the door gladly accepted my 1 EUR coin, though.
Actually, there were two churches in the place, an old one and a new one from year 2019. Below is the pic
from the new church as it just looked better from outside.
The new church in holy Bodbe Monastery of St. Nino
Together, we stepped into the old church. Among others, Ruslana showed us a big painting with Virgin
Maria, the little Jesus on her lap. She drew our attention to the face of Maria. In the time of war, somebody
had scratched the picture from there. The story was that blood had come out from the painted Maria’s
face – and indeed, red was clearly visible. Whether it was a real blood or simply a red color added later on
for the story, one couldn’t tell.
Soon, we were already in the photographing spot above Sighnaghi. If one wanted his or her picture inside
the hearth shaped frame (see below), the idyllic town in the background, one had to pay 5 GEL (1.75 EUR).
Everyone wanted a picture of the town, but preferred the free version, i.e.: without the frame.

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Sighnaghi
We were presented with an opportunity to ‘fly’ down to the town, that is take a zipline ride right next from
the photographing point. This short ride wasn’t cheap by any means; it cost about 60 GEL, which is more
than 20 EUR. Two girls from our group still did it. The others were transported to Sighnaghi with the bus.
While strolling through the narrow streets of Sighnaghi, Ruslana drew our attention to the pictures
everywhere on scarfs and souvenir bags and so one. Later she told us the legend of Kakheti painter Niko
Pirosmani whose paintings now were worth millions. It was a love story, a sad one, that became well
known in the song ‘Million red roses’2
. Thanks to this song and Alla Pugacheva singing it famous, the guy
became well known all over the world – yet only after his death in material poverty.
The biggest Sighnaghi attraction for us was of course walking on the city wall. (See the following picture.)
We would climb a watchtower too.
“Well… A little broke and not the cleanest place,” I found out about the later.
2
“Миллион Алых Роз”. Listen to the song for example here in YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qm1UsqW6Bx8 (Accessed on 20 August 2023.)

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Walking on Sighnaghi’s city wall
Followed a rather long drive to the true soviet town Telavi, actually a little past it to the Sekhnika Winery.
There was the restaurant – finally! It was already half past three in the afternoon, and we had not had any
lunch till now. We were instructed to take our seats and order the meals.
Instead of just letting us sit and wait for our meals being prepared, we were guided to the winery for a
tour and wine tastings. Russian speakers now had an advantage, as the owner of the place, a man whose
last name actually was Sekhnika and who was the fifth generation of this wine-producing family, did not
speak English. Briefly, Ruslana explained wine making in Georgian way to the English speakers as well.
I had wondered about the different colors of wine in Georgia: there were not just red and white and rose
wines, but also black and orange ones, for example. It turned out, though, that for some reason, Georgians
simply call the red wine to black wine. Yet orange wine I indeed saw and tasted (see the pic below). After
tastings, we were of course offered to buy some original bottles too. They weren’t cheap: a bottle right
there in the winery cost 60 GEL, i.e.: more than 20 EUR.

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Tasting orange wine in Sekhnika Winery
Then our late lunch or early dinner was ready. Wow, the local Kakheti food looked great, especially when
combined with excellent views to the Caucasus mountains!
I was sharing the table with the man from Stuttgart and the two girls from Kazakhstan. We spoke about
travelling and work and life and our home countries and then again about travelling. It turned out that one
of the two girls worked as stewardess in Kazakhstan Airlines. So, I used the opportunity to ask what she
does with difficult passengers.
“We give them to the police once we land,” was her short reply.
One and half hour later, we started our way back to Tbilisi. It should have been an hour's drive, but… We
were in Georgia, you know.
“The police have blocked the road!” Ruslana said when we suddenly stopped.
Our driver Giorgi tried to explain to the police that this was a tour bus, going from winery back to Tbilisi,
yet it did not help. We had to turn around and take a round trip.
“Now it will take us two hours,” Ruslana informed people in the bus.
Basically, we had to drive about 50 km back towards Sighnaghi, then turn to the highway and drive 100+
km more.

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Guess what? On the way to Sighnaghi, the bus suddenly stopped yet once again.
“The police have blocked the road here as well!” we realized.
Now we were effectively trapped: both ways to Tbilisi were cut off and, due to the mountain in between,
there were no more reasonable options left.
Giorgi jumped out of the bus and talked long with the police.
“Strange,” Ruslana commented us on what she overheard. “You can drive the road in one direction, but
not the other!”
I don’t know if Giorgi had to bribe the officers or what, yet finally we were let through.
It was already half past eight in the evening when we finally reached Tbilisi.
When we were already in the city, I recognized the streets and looked at the Google Maps. The blue GPS
dot on the map confirmed what I had just realized:
“If I would get out here, I were very close to my hotel.”
When the bus stopped behind the next red traffic light, I asked if it was possible to drop me off.
“Quick,” Ruslana said and opened the door.
With a ‘thanks’, I jumped off the bus. I had not thought, that they would drop me off just right there, in
the middle of the road – yet they did.
With thar, this long and interesting day trip got a sudden end for me
3.2 A day in and above Tbilisi
At around ten o’clock on the morning I was ready to go out. First, I just wanted to walk in the beautiful and
peaceful Rike Park. (See below my photo of the park, taken in previous evening.) Next, I had a mission: get
the local SIM card with unlimited internet from a Magti office. Yes, SIM cards for tourists were sold here
and there, but as I planned to stay in Georgia for several weeks, I needed a better solution.
“And then… Let’s see,” I thought, without having any specific plans.

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Rike Park in Tbilisi on the evening of 5 July 2023
By noon, I had my mission completed. I had got the local SIM card – my phone did not support the eSIM,
so the physical one – and unlimited internet for 30 days for 42 GEL (around 15 EUR). I had also had a nice
break in nearby McDonald’s. Yes, they were al present in Tbilisi: McDonalds, KFC, Subway… Only Starbucks
I did not see.
I walked through an improvised street market where locals were selling every sort of stuff, then headed
towards Vake. It simply was comfortably on my way. Ok, I had also been reading the book “Minu Gruusia”3
by Dagmar Raudam where she talked about Vake as her home when in Georgia. Now I was kind of curious
to see what the place looked like. It appeared a rather rich neighborhood of Tbilisi, with the examples of
modern skyscraper architecture present. (See the following pic.) At the same time, residential building
right next to the twin towers looked like from previous era.
“Bad weather lowers,” I read the graffiti on it.
3
“My Georgia”, the book from where I had got several of my preconceptions about Georgia. Yet 13 years had passed
since the publication of the book – so things had changed quite a bit.

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Twin towers in Vake, Tbilisi
Vake ended with the Vake Park. What a beautiful park that was! As a bonus, there was a free and clean
public toilet as well. I strolled through the park, towards the Victory Statute (in the next picture). These
stairs… It looked like once a grandiose and now abandoned monument on the foot of the mountain. There
was grass on the broken stairs… But it wasn’t completely abandoned. I saw people walking and a man
sporting.

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Freedom Monument right next to the Vake Park
I too climbed the stairs and, after passing the monument, continued to climb the mountain. Above my
head was a zipline – arguably the longest in Georgia. From the map in my phone, I saw that there was a
little Turtle Lake up there. Even thinking about it felt refreshing for I got to sweat. The temperature had
reached 30 °C and possibly even higher levels. There was virtually no wind, just the sun.
A lake there was, and the Uptown Café and music and people and the zipline starting point and the trail
signs…
“Mtatsminda Park. Europe Squere,” I read from the signposts.
“One thousand meters,” I heard somebody shouting the length of the Georgian longest zipline.
“Plus two hundred meters,” another voice added.
Sure enough, from all the temptations, I chose the trail. It’s just my kind of activity. Svan Tower, Wooden
Xylophone and most importantly, great views to the city below me, that’s what the trail promised! The
following picture gives an idea of the views.

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Turtle Lake and the city (Tbilisi) below me
By that time, most of my uphill climbing in this day was done. Followed a quiet forest path on the ‘upper
terrace’. In my mind, this was the absolute best way to spend a day in Tbilisi: walking through the nicest
parts of the city – the historic one and the modern one – and then, enjoying the nature and the views just
above the city. Wow.
After a decent walk up there, getting back to the Tbilisi wasn’t exactly as nice, easy and interesting as I had
hoped for. The cycling & walking path from right next to Okrakana till Tbilisi was closed. From where I was,
there was no other option but to follow highway. Fortunately, the tunnel to Tbilisi was short and not
completely dark.
Finally, through the Sololaki neighborhood, I strolled back to the Hotel Lions while dropping into nearby
grocery store on the way.
4 Mtskheta, ancient capital of Georgia, and side trip from there
I call this chapter ‘Mtskheta chapter’ as I spent three out of four following nights in Mtskheta while also
doing a round trip to Skhaltba. The map below gives the idea of where I exactly was. Truth be told, I initially
went to Skhaltba because I had planned continuing from there to Kaspi; the problem was that the

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accommodation I had booked in Kaspi – the only one in the area I could find from the internet – ended up
looking fake. (Think of private host that does not respond to questions about check-in – does not respond
at all.) I changed my plans, returned to Mtskheta and continued from there with Georgian Railway rather
than hiking.
My walks in this Mtskheta chapter
4.1 Through Tbilisi to Mtskheta
It was about half past eight in the morning when I stepped into the reception area of Hotel Lions to check
out. Not surprisingly, there was nobody there; from my reservation confirmation I knew that somebody
would appear only at around 9 o’clock. I did not want to wait, so I simply left the key to the desk and let
my hostess know via booking.com messages that I had left. She asked how I had liked my room. I replied
that I had had everything I needed and promised to write a review later in the evening (which I did, giving
a rating 8 out of 10).

22
Now I had a long and hot hiking day ahead of me. Namely, I planned to go from downtown Tbilisi to
Mtskheta on foot. At first, when I had tried to find a walking path, Google suggested me a terrible circle of
nearly 70 kilometers! With a car, the distance would have been just about 25 kilometers. The thing is that
one cannot walk on the highway. Thankfully, with the help of my Suunto app I found a path to follow: first
through Tbilisi in parallel with the Mtkvari (Kura) River, then turning up to the mountains just before Zahesi
and following roads there almost till the Jvari Monastery, and finally, climbing down to Mtskheta while
doing a circle to get over the highway and the Aragvi river. My way is shown on the map below.
My walk from Hotel Lions in Tbilisi to Hotel Bagineti in Mtskheta
The first 18 kilometers on the Guramishvili Ave through Tbilisi was actually pretty boring. This was a street
where there was not much to see: again, a couple of street markets seemingly on random places, houses,
shops, gas stations, people… The long promenade on the David Sarajishvili Street I liked though. It ran
between the two driving directions, and was surrounded by trees and benches.
“Здравствуйте,” a man sitting on a bench called.

23
I was a little confused: was he speaking to me?
“Hello,” the man now repeated in English.
He probably thought that I did not understand his greeting in Russian language.
“Hi,” I replied and went on.
“Kуда ты?” another man on the door of pretty much last house in Tbilisi stopped me with his question.
Where was I going? Had I told him my true destination, he would probably have offered me taxi or
something. So, I just pointed towards the mountain range that I had to cross; it was just ahead of us.
“Aa,” them man nodded kind of understandingly.
A taxi service would not have been of use here.
With that, I left the city behind and turned to the forested mountain path. Actually, it was not such a high
mountain; I only had about 300 meters to climb. Nor was the forest big. The trees here on the mountains
around Tbilisi were rather stunted. The main challenge was that there was not much of a path to start
with. I wondered when was the last time someone walked there.
Trees ended and for a while, I walked in the grass under the power lines. Walked and sweated. I literally
felt like a melting snowman in spring. Yet once again, it was above 30 °C and very little wind.
“Road,” I then saw a gravel road ahead.
It was nice to be on a normal path yet once again. When I looked back from where I had come… Well,
there was a sign in Georgian language that looked like a warning sign with the three exclamation marks at
the end of the sentence… (See the pic below.) This may explain why the path here and there was almost
non-existent: for some reason, walking there was deemed dangerous. But I don’t know, I cannot read
Georgian. They have their unique alphabet… Actually, they do have three unique alphabets even if only
the newest one is commonly used.

24
I came from there. Is that a warning sign?
Far ahead, I already saw the Jvari Monastery, a major tourist attraction. That’s where I headed next. Before
reaching it, I passed a nice little camping ground which seemed empty at the time being. From that
camping ground to the monastery, I followed the decent asphalt road that ‘normal tourists’ with rented
cars and taxis use. One car stopped and the driver offered me the transportation till the monastery. I
refused; I was this close already – I did not need any transportation.
Definitely, this sixth-century Georgian Orthodox monastery is well placed: on the rocky mountaintop at
the confluence of the Mtkvari and Aragvi rivers, overlooking the ancient capital of Georgia. (See the
pictures below.)
“Great place to look down on the hustle and bustle of people below you,” I thought.

25
Jvari Monastery and the view to Mtskheta from there
To the town below I headed. To get there, I had three obstacles to overcome:
a) getting down from the mountain top,
b) getting over the highway, and
c) getting over the river.
This was quite a round trip, about six kilometers long. Getting down was easy: there was a decent path.
Fortunately, there was also a passage from under the highway, even if muddy. Then I found a pedestrian
bridge over the river when already thinking about swimming… Well, swimming actually wasn’t an option;
I noticed the prohibition sign and warnings of danger.
My first impression when entering Mtskheta was this:
“Wow, that’s almost like somewhere in the French Alps!”
I had the comparison from my summer trip the year before – and I had entered the town from the ‘right’
corner. It was all so clean and new and… Indeed, the houses reminded me the ones I had seen in Les
Contamines-Montjoie or somewhere there. Somehow the mood was like this, see the picture below.

26
My first impression from Mtskheta: “Wow, that’s almost like somewhere in the French Alps!”
My room in the Hotel Bagineti wasn’t quite ready when I arrived at 15:22. Check-in was supposed to start
at 2 PM, but as the young woman welcoming me explained: the guest of the room reserved for me only
checked out a short while ago. So, she needed 30 minutes to do the cleaning.
“Fine for me, I can wait here,” I replied.
I took a seat on the sofa in reception area; after all the walking I had done, sitting felt good.
My room was ready in twenty minutes. It was a big and nice room with proper AC. Booking.com description
also promised a kitchen which turned out to be a shared one. For some reason, when reading the room
description, I had got an impression of a private kitchen, yet shared one was also fine for me.
4.2 Mtskheta and Armazi Citadel
Beginning of my first night in Mtskheta was noisy: a visitor on my floor had a big birthday party. Fortunately,
I soon heard the landlord knocking on the door of the ‘party animals’, wishing ‘happy birthday’ and telling
them to be quieter. Then I could sleep.

27
In the morning, at around 9 o’clock I went out. At this time, Svetitskhoveli Cathedral just 200 meters from
my hotel was opened. From a Wikipedia article4
I knew that Svetitskhoveli Cathedral was the second
largest church building in Georgia and a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
The building was surrounded by a high wall. At the entrance gate, there was a big sign with the dress code
for men and women which I only noticed after coming out of the church already. Whoops, women were
not supposed to enter in shorts! Anyway… Below is a pic of the cathedral, even though the sun was from
the wrong angle. Big cathedral it was indeed. Inside, there were several tombs on the floor.
Svetitskhoveli Cathedral
Despite of the sun clearly visible through a big hole in the clouds (as can be seen from the above photo),
it thundered and flashed on the other side. For a moment, I regretted that I had forgotten to take raincoat
with me. Then I noticed that the heavy thunderclouds were quickly passing by. Until I was hanging around
there on the main historic street right next to the cathedral (see the pic below) the weather improved
considerably. Buses with tourists arrived and the small old town of Mtskheta got crowded rather quickly.
4
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Svetitskhoveli_Cathedral (last accessed on 21 August 2023)

28
Historic street of Mtskheta under heavy thunderclouds
I headed towards Armazi, passing the Mtskheta station. My main destination of the day was Armazi
Citadel. After having walked about four kilometers on the main road that ran parallel with the Mtkvari
(Kura) River, it was time to turn to the forest and start climbing.
On a seemingly random place, a yellow sign post pointed to the Armazi Citadel.
“2 kilometers, 1 hour,” I read and wondered how going just two kilometers can take one hour.
At the end, it indeed took me almost this long. The trail was marked, but most definitely not an easy one.
Now I wondered how such at some places almost invisible path could lead to a major tourist attraction…
Well, at least I thought that the fortress was a major tourist attraction. This idea had come from a website
called Georgian Travel Guide. I had read this:
“Armazi Fortress is one of the most important fortresses, a monument of old Georgian architecture in the
gorge of the river Armaziskhevi, in Mtskheta municipality, 3 km west of Mtskheta. Armazi Fortress dates
back to XIII-XV centuries. It is built on one of the high mountains and was closing the road connecting the
countries with the Caucasus.”5
5
Source: https://georgiantravelguide.com/en/armazi-fortress (Last accessed on 21 August 2023.)

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Following the trail sign from the main road, I first climbed over the two pairs of rails – apparently not a
designated place to cross the railroad. The path then followed Armaziskhevi stream, almost waterless at
the time.
At a seemingly random place right in the middle of nothing, I noticed a fence and a house.
“Who would build a house here?” a question crossed my mind, but I did not let that random thought
distract me from my way.
White signs with big red letters now pointed towards the fortress, and I followed those.
Then the path turned decisively up. Climbing towards the fortress started. This last rise when already
seeing the ruins… Well, that was quite an effort. Finally, there I was: right there, next to the fortress! Just
me and no other human being. The ruins seemed long forgotten (see the pic below) even though I noticed
a not that that old fireplace right there. Still, it felt like being in the mountains in the middle of nothing.
No houses, no roads, no human beings were visible from here.
The ruins of Armazi Citadel
Or… Inside the rocky wall of the neighboring mountain I noticed a cave mouth that may have been the
home of someone human. It just looked too polished to be natural, and there appeared a path leading to
it too. Something there was.

30
I headed back down. Now, I wanted to see what houses there were right in the middle of the forest. Soon
I could read it from the signs: Armazi Church of the Mother of God. I turned to the alternative path leading
to the church (in the picture below).
Armazi Church of the Mother of God
From there on, I could follow the gravel road back to Mtskheta. Yeah. There was a simpler way to get to
the Armazi Citadel than the adventurous one that I had initially chosen.
4.3 Via Bebristsikhe Fortress and Gorovani village to Panorama Skhaltba
Already before eight, I left my nice room in Hotel Bagineti. It’s just that I wanted to get a fair bit of planned
walking done until there was still some morning coolness outside.
Right next to the main town of Mtskheta, there is located the early medieval Bebristsikhe Fortress. I don’t
know why this one was not listed among the Mtskheta’s tourist attractions on the website I had read – it
well could have been.

31
First, I tried climbing up to the fortress from the river side. This wasn’t a good idea. There was a marked
trail on the map of my Suunto app, yet in reality I couldn’t find it. Instead, I found thorny bushes and
scratched myself. At least, from farther away while still on the river side, I got the picture below.
Bebristsikhe Fortress
Then I approached the fortress from the side of main road, this time with success. Although there were
signs indicating risk of landslide, everything felt steady. I climbed up, looked at the views and stepped into
the fortress. Broken it was, but still in considerably better standing as compared to the Armzi Citadel, for
example.
From there on, I followed the main road through the New Mtskheta. Then it was time to turn to a smaller
street which soon was replaced by a gravel road. I thought that following this gravel road, I could nicely
get to the Gorovani village.
Then I saw a house and not-so-welcoming big dogs keeping guard. As the dogs weren’t on leashes, I
thought it could be more beneficial for my health to just turn around and walk back: who knows those
dogs? Then, out of the sight of the dogs, I looked at the map yet once again. What other options did I have
to reach my destination in Skhaltba? Highway running below certainly wasn’t an option…

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It turned out that there was another gravel road, a little higher. In order to get there, I had to do a little
climbing. With my shopping bag… As the map did not show any grocery stores in Gorovani and in Skhaltba,
I was carrying all my day’s food from New Mtskheta. Anyway, up to the other road I got. There was another
house and another dog, fortunately farther away.
Followed a nice quiet walk with views until I was supposed to reach another bigger road which there was.
But… There were some buildings surrounded by a concrete fence, and the road was inside the restricted
area. Ok, I made a circle in the grass. Fortunately, that was a possibility. On the other side, in front of the
gate an empty bus stood. At first, I thought that maybe the place was a winery or something. Then I saw
men in uniforms sitting in the guard booth.
“Probably it’s a military complex,” I concluded.
From then on, it was already an easy way to Gorovani village, comfortably downhill. I had to walk through
the village in order to climb to the Hotel Panorama – Panorama Skhaltba, as it was called.
The streets of the village were… real village streets, basically just gravel roads and dirt roads.
“And this is the road to Hotel Panorama?” I wondered, thinking that I was simply approaching the luxury
hotel from the wrong angle.
“Tурист, не знаешь русский?” an elderly local man stopped me with a question in Russian when I was
already almost through the village.
I nodded and shook my head at the same time: yes, I am a tourist, and no, I am not speaking Russian, at
least not well enough for a long discussion.
„Oтель,“ I pointed towards the buildings of Panorama Skhaltba uphill which I recognized from the Google
photos.
The road up to the hotel was just that: gravel road in rather poor standing. Behind the fence of the hotel
territory, there were cows calmly eating the grass. Inside the fenced territory, I saw a kind-of bond with a
bridge, three little cottages or stationary tents or whatever right naming for such constructions is, an
outdoor kitchen, a few swings… and no human being. (See the picture below.)

33
Hotel Panorama – Panorama Skhaltba
I knew, I was a couple of hours early. So, I simply climbed to the hotel territory – which, in fact, wasn’t
much of a climbing as the fence was there only for the cows – and looked around.
“Some people have been partying hard here last night,” I thought when observing half-finished bottles of
beer and Fanta, some sad tomatoes, unwashed dishes etc. in the outdoor kitchen.
Then I made myself room behind the table and prepared to wait for the check-in time.
About an hour later, I saw a car ‘climbing’ up. The car stopped behind the hotel fence. Three young
Georgian men jumped out of it and came to me, asking something in their language. I did not understand
a word, yet it did not take a genius to get the question: what was I doing there? I tried to explain in English
that I had a reservation in this hotel and wanted to check in. Initially, they looked confused, but then I
showed my booking.com confirmation.
One of the guys happened to know a little English. He asked me how would I pay? Maybe I did not look
like a paying customer to them; as I had read, for Georgians appearances are important – and my
appearance was fairly modest, even dirty and somewhat exhausted.
“Cash,” I replied.
“Show me, how much,” the guy wanted to see the amount from my booking confirmation.

34
144 GEL (slightly over 50 EUR). I handed him the cash. That worked. Soon, I was guided to a nice little air
conditioned ‘greenhouse’ with the views (see below).
“If you need something, just message us,” the guy said.
I nodded.
My ‘tent’ in Panorama Skhaltba
Soon I indeed needed something from them: there was supposed to be running water, but what there
wasn’t was water. The guys fixed that – and also showed me how to turn the boiler on and off.
The rest of my afternoon and evening was simply enjoyable, partly thanks to my Georgian SIM card with
unlimited internet; Panorama Skhaltba did not provide any WiFi. It was the first time for me to stay in this
sort of building with transparent ceiling. Stars I did not see though; later in the afternoon, the clouds
appeared. Lights of the Gorovani village below were still clearly visible.
4.4 Back to Mtskheta: Monastery Road and water outage
Ooh, how well did I sleep in this Panorama Skhaltba ‘tent’, almost eleven hours in a row! I was there just
on my own; there were no other tourists nearby and also the Georgian guys had left at some point.

35
Last night, it had been raining quite heavily and the day started out windy. I wasn’t quite sure how my plan
of returning to Mtskheta over the mountain and via the forest would play out. Furthermore, I even couldn’t
be sure that there actually was a path. According the map in my Suunto app, there was, but in Google
Maps such a path did not exist. Still, I decided to go and see.
At around 8:20, I checked myself out. While closing the door of my room (not an easy task with strong
winds!), I accidentally managed to crush two big snails out there on terrace. Then I headed up, first to the
tiny village of Skhaltba. Below is my last look back to the Hotel Panorama and the panorama itself.
Leaving Panorama Skhaltba behind
The good news was that the forest path turned out being even surprisingly fine. Ok, grass was overgrown
here and there, yet in general, it was an enjoyable walk now mostly downhill.
In an hour or so, I was out of the woods, on the Mthketa-Shiomgvime Monastery Road. This was now
broad pawed way with very few cars on it. Soon the road section with marked attractions started.
First, a large sign pointed towards Saint Demetrious of Thessalonik Monastery. I went to see it. The
monastery, 600 meters from the main road, turned out just a group of rather small houses, surrounded by
a stone wall. Right next to the monastery, there was a nice camping ground. I was already ending my round
trip there when two large dogs noticed my presence. Thus, I left a little faster than I had intended to.

36
Then I stopped to take a look to a Georgian-American monument, surrounded by a fence with closed gate.
After that, I made my way to the nearby Saint George Monastery. I wondered if the cows right there on
the road were ‘holy cows’, i.e.: did they belong to the monastery? Houses behind the closed gate did not
very much remind me a monastery, but ok, from where I was standing, I did not see much, either.
The next religious building nearby was a tiny church, marked on the Google Maps as Virgin Mary
Assumption Fathers Monastery.
“Is this the place where Virign Mary has been seen?” I made my guesstimate about the name.
Virgin Mary Assumption Fathers Monastery
Already almost in Mtskheta, I arrived to the local cemetery. To my surprise, every single grave was
surrounded by a fence. Later I learned that this was typical in the cemeteries of Georgia.
Soon, I was back in the historic part of Mtskheta. Several older men immediately started offering their taxi
services up to the Jvari Monastery. I shook my head: I had already been there. Instead, I paid a visit to yet
another important religious building in Mtskheta, namely the Samtavro Monastery (see the pics below). I
observed that most of the visitors went right to the big church while ignoring completely the little St.

37
Nino's Church in the same garden. Maybe they had not yet heard the story about the girl Nino and how
she had once brought Christianity to Georgia?
Samtavro Monastery and the portrait of St Nino next to the little St. Nino's Church in the monastery’s
garden
Then I still had time till my check in to the hotel named Old Capital which was located right there, next to
the Svetitskhoveli Cathedral. So, I hanged around on the main shopping street of Mtskheta; I just wanted
to buy a bowl of fruits to enjoy while waiting.
At one sales counter, there I met a local guy selling his stuff. Well, I just stopped there because I saw
something that I wanted: fruits.
“Have you seen the movie ‘Tangerines’?” he asked, after having provided me yet another piece of
traditional churchkhela to taste. “It’s the joint film of Estonia and Georgia. Nominated for Oscar.”
I thought a little. The title sounded familiar, yet I could not remember… So, I tentatively replied:
“I may even have seen it...”
I bought my bowl of cherries and walked with it to the nearby benches. What made this guy nice in my
mind, is the very fact that even if he was there to sell, he did not press me into buying anything. And the
movie recommendation was good, too. Now, when I started recalling… He must have meant the movie
‘Mandariinid’6
; I just had not immediately remembered the English title of it.
My room in the Old Capital hotel wasn’t exactly what I had hoped for… Ok, there was nothing wrong with
the hotel itself; it’s just that there was no running water – and the shower was what I was craving for the
most at this given time.
“There currently is no running water in the town. It will come back at 6 PM,” my hostess reassured me. “Is
that OK for you?”
“Ok,” I shrugged.
It wasn’t ok, but if there was no running water in the entire town then what could I do about it? Pray
towards St. Nino, perhaps.
6
Estonian title of the movie discussed.

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What I did instead, was googling. The day before, the Georgian Water and Power had indeed announced
that on 10 July (and 10th
of July it was), there will be planned water interruptions on certain streets of
Mtskheta.7
Knowing that, I just tried to enjoy my state of feeling filthy as much as possible. It wasn’t too
bad, tough. After all, my hostess did equip me with five liters of water to flush the toilet and wash my
hands.
***
By 18:30 in the evening, there was still no water – and my water tank was empty.
“Where can I refill it?” I asked myself.
An answer came to my mind right after I had asked that question. Earlier that day, I had seen a big fountain
with running water nearby, even taken a photo of it. (See the pic below.) At that time, I had no idea that I
might actually need to knee for that water.
Mtskheta Fountain at noon when there still was plenty of water…
7
https://www.gwp.ge/en/dagegmili-mcxeta/5-khval-10-ivliss-jorjian-uoter-end-paueri-mtskhetis-munitsipalitetshi-
mirian-mepis-quchaze-tskhalmomaragebis-qselze-autsilebel-teqnikurs-samushaoebs-chaatareb (Last accessed on
22 August 2023.)

39
Apparently, I wasn’t by far the first one who had come to the idea to take water from the fountain. Now,
when I was back there in the evening, the fountain was ‘dead’ and half-empty already. I still got my water
tank 3/4 filled. Almost triumphantly, I returned to my hotel room.
The water came back at around ten o’clock in the evening. It was all good now: I got my shower before
going to bed.
5 Destination Gori
In the destination Gori, I basically had two aims:
a) visit the Uplistsikhe City Caves, and
b) visit the Stalin Museum.
The two mentioned destinations – Uplistsikhe City Caves and Stalin Museum – had come from a random
‘TOP 10 things to do in Georgia’ list in the internet. I learned that there was more in Gori and nearby than
just those two. This chapter is about me getting to Gori, and what I did and experienced while in the area.
5.1 Georgian Railway experience and walk to Mzia's Garden
At around 9 o’clock in the morning of 11 July, I was there in the Mtskheta railway station. I had already
purchased a ticket to Gori from the Georgian Railway website for 8 GEL (around 2.8 EUR). Now I wondered
which platform was the right one. In the decaying station building (next picture, left photo) I found a room
resembling an office. There was a man sitting inside. Noticing me, he stood up and came outside.
“Gori?” I asked.
He pointed towards the tunnel that led to the platform between the tracks. I understood: the right
platform was there in the middle of the tracks.
On the platform, there was a local woman sitting and apparently waiting for a train too. I supposed that
she was also going to Gori and asked about the train. To my surprise, she could speak English – not that
usual among older Georgians, as I had already learned.
“This train is going to Batumi,” she pointed to the track facing the station building.
“In twenty minutes, there is going to be the Tbilisi train,” she then informed me about the track on the
other side of the platform.
I shrugged:
“Maybe that Batumi train is going to stop in Gori too?”
She did not know, but told me that she herself wanted to go to Borjomi:
“The train to Borjomi was at seven. Now I have to go back to Tbilisi and take another train!”
The Batumi train soon passed without even slowing down in the Mtskheta railway station. What a loud
noise and signal it was, when it drove by at full speed! I literally jumped on my bench.
Then another train approached, almost painfully slowly. I looked at my watch and knew that this was the
one that I had been waiting for. The locomotive of the train was literally a rusty pile of iron that moved.

40
Followed a few freight cars, as rusty as the locomotive. Only then I saw the passenger cars, in somewhat
better standing (next picture, photo on the right).
Mtskheta’s humble railway station (left) and the train that brought me to Gori (right)
The train stopped and from each wagon, a man or woman stepped out.
“Wagon attendant,” I realized.
It wasn’t that you step into whatever passenger car you want and then freely move through the train. I did
not know that – I tried.
Thinking that the stop will be brief and the train will soon move on as in my home country, I tried to get
to the nearest passenger car which happened to be #2.
“You ticket? Your car number?” the attendant of that wagon asked.
“Five,” I replied to the second question, looking at my ticket.
He pointed towards wagon #5 farther away.
I ran, fearing (unfoundedly, as I later learned) that I may be left behind.
There, at the door of car #5, the attendant was already expecting me.
“Kristi?” she asked before I even opened my mouth.
I nodded, somewhat surprised of hearing my name, and climbed up the ladder and into the train.
My allocated seat was right next to an old lady that for some reason reminded me my great-grandmother.
We exchanged a couple of sentences in Russian. No conductor appeared to check neither my ticket nor
document even if both were required to board the train.
Secretly, I hoped to get out one stop before Gori, close to Uplistsikhe. It had not been possible to purchase
such a ticket, but still… That’s where my next accommodation was – and that’s where the famous City
Caves were. Yet the train simply ignored the tiny station and only stopped in Gori. So, just past 10 o’clock
in the morning I found myself in the Gori station. That one now was bigger and a little nicer.
“Taxi to Uplistsikhe City Caves?” an eager taxi driver asked me right in front of the railway station.

41
To Uplistsikhe City Caves I indeed wanted, but not just now. And I had already decided to walk – first to
the Airbnb accommodation called Mzia's Garden.
There was nothing special to highlight from my following about ten kilometers long walk. The Master of
Weather threatened with rain – fortunately, threatened only. Below is a pic from the main street of
Uplistsikhe village, about four kilometers away from the Uplistsikhe City Caves.
Road through Uplistsikhe village
One Russian-speaking man stopped his car and asked if I was going to the Caves. I shook my head and
muttered something in English for explanation, a la I first want to drop my bags in the accommodation and
rest a bit. He did not understand what I was saying.
“Just sit,” he pointed towards the backseat of his car.
I shook my head once again and continued walking. Mzia's Garden was pretty close already.
Just around 1 PM, I reached my destination. The house which indeed had a cozy garden, was located on
an unnamed street of Kvakhvreli; it was easy to find though, as it was clearly marked on Google Maps.
Somewhat cautiously, I entered the garden while having first made sure from the photos at the Airbnb
listing that it indeed was the right place. After me having knocked to the door quite a few times, a gray-
haired friendly-looking woman appeared.

42
“I was sitting in the back room – I wasn’t sure if I heard somebody knocking,” she explained apologetically.
“Usually people call me.”
People call, but not me – I do not like making calls. It wasn’t necessary, either.
After this brief introduction, I was shown my room, a rather big one with one double bed and one bunk
bed. A private bathroom was attached to it. The toilet had a not-so-pleasant tweak: one could not throw
anything into it. Nothing at all. The flow of water was simply too weak to flush down even the toilet paper.
“Is that your first experience with this sort of toilet?” my hostess, who wanted to be called Mzia, asked.
I shook my head. The experience wasn’t completely new to me:
“In desert areas of Peru, you cannot throw paper into the toilet bowl, either.”
“In Peru? You have been in Peru?” she seemed a little surprised that I had been in Peru.
I nodded:
“Yes, in Peru.”
Next, I was shown the kitchen corner. My hostess was more than eager to make me feel welcome.
“Feel free to come here and take some fresh apricot juice from the fridge whenever you want,” she said.
She would have offered me a class right away, but I obviously needed some shower and rest first, and
needed to do some laundry, too.
Thus, I was more than happy to be left on my own. Mzia, apparently, was a social person – even
overwhelmingly social for me.
5.2 Uplistsikhe City Caves
A couple of hours later my laundry was done, and I had eaten and got some rest. I decided that the best
time for me to visit the Uplistsikhe City Caves was now, i.e.: on that very same late afternoon. The weather
had improved considerably and I could explore the caves while leaving my backpack to the
accommodation.
I did not see Mzia anywhere around. So, I sent here a message about me going out, and went. The walk to
the attraction was short, past three or four café-restaurants and the Uplistsikhe canyon.
There were two ticket options: 15 GEL and 20 GEL (5.25 and 7 EUR, respectively). The more expensive one
included wine tastings and museum. As I did not have any particular interest in the museum and in wine
tastings, I chose the cheaper option – as most of the visitors seemed to do.
Right at the entrance, there was a short piece of information about the place:

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About Uplistsikhe: a piece of information near the entrance gate
Right next to the information texts there was a large map:
The map of Uplistsikhe City Caves near the entrance gate
Apparently, I did not pay enough attention to the map for I took the route in wrong way, following a small
group of Germans ahead of me. It did not make much of a difference, though. I simply happened to walk
against the arrows pointing towards exit.
First, I climbed up the rocks – climbed up and enjoyed the wind and the views from there. In fact, it wasn’t
always clear where one was supposed to walk or climb. People were everywhere yet one had to carefully
watch the step.
“Good, that I did not come with a backpack,” I concluded.

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Anyway, in the picture below, at the river bank, you probably notice some stone structures. When zooming
in then these resemble remains of dwellings. I kept wondering if ordinary people of Uplistsikhe actually
lived there below and not in the cave city; the city itself seemed to have consisted of various halls, towers,
wine cellars and other common buildings only.
A view to Mtkvari (Kura) River from the top of Uplistsikhe
It was how it was. That’s what the cave city looked like:

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One of my takes of the Uplistsikhe City Caves
The main street led to the top of the mountain, to the so-called Prince’s Church. This one apparently was
a newer building as compared to the caves. Inside the church, a woman was selling souvenirs and watching
for the church. To my surprise, she instructed me to keep my hat on; I had always thought that one is not
supposed to wear a hat inside the church.

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The Church of Prince
I also found the ‘secret’ tunnel to the Mtkvari (Kura) River. Obviously, nowadays it’s nobody’s secret
anymore; there is a proper iron staircase and lighting. (See the following photo.)

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“Secret” tunnel in the Uplistsikhe City Caves
Pretty much, with that tunnel my roundtrip was over and I headed back to the gates. The short summary
is that the visit to the Uplistsikhe City Caves was well worth it!
Ouch, and after that day I felt really tired indeed! Already at around eight in the evening, I went to bed.
5.3 Georgian breakfast at Mzia and first impressions of Gori
“It’s 8:21,” I realized when looking at my watch in the next morning. “Already?!”
Those had been some of my sweetest dreams… I felt great and well rested. Ready to go yet once again
Mzia had prepared the breakfast for me already by 7 o’clock – at least that’s what she said. She just did
not know what time I would wake up. Furthermore, she told me that she would have gladly invited me to
the dinner & cake in the evening before had I not been sleeping already.
“This is sour milk – like Greek Yoghurt; try it with those jams. Try those three cheeses – that one I did myself.
Bread. That’s the local pizza. There is an egg. Would you like café with milk? Here is black tea,” she now
introduced the breakfast menu to me.

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“Try this as well, certainly,” she next brought out a pot with greenish looking hummus type of thing. “It’s
local, from walnuts. You know, in Georgia we use walnuts a lot.”
“That’s already too much,” I started feeling intimidated by all the food placed in front of me.
“You don’t have to eat it all, you just taste everything,” she guided.
Then Mzia, who had lived and worked in Germany for several years, told the story of her own first meal in
a German family:
“We were five people: the man and the woman, their two children and me. The lady cut the cake exactly
into five pieces and everyone got a piece. I got so scared that I almost could not eat: what if someone else
wants to come? The newcomer would have nothing to eat!”
She explained that this is why they in Georgia always have more food: just for the case if someone else –
a neighbor or a family member – wants to join, too.
“If you always cook more food than you need – isn’t that wasting of food?” I asked.
She shook her head: there was always somebody to share with, including dogs and cats.
I asked about her own family. She said that she herself did not have children, but otherwise, she had a big
family: two brothers and a sister, and many nieces and nephews.
“When they were small, they were here always around,” she pointed to the big house where she was
currently living on her own.
“That’s a big house,” I noted.
“You see: here we do not have houses for one or two persons; we only have family houses,” she explained.
“That’s different: what you consider as family here in Georgia, and what we consider as family…”
They considered all the brothers and sisters and their children as part of the very same family.
When I was already preparing to leave, she wanted a selfie with me:
“For the memory of you having been here.”
“Let’s do it with my camera as well,” I asked for the same picture with my camera as well.
Below it is.

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My hostess Mzia (on the left) and me (on the right with hat and bags)
Then I got going. My route back to Gori was exactly the same as the one I had followed when arriving the
day before, thus nothing noteworthy. Once again, a car stopped, a local guy stuck his head out of the
window and asked if he could give me a ride. He couldn’t; I preferred walking.
While Gori has been mainly known as the birthplace of Jossif Stalin, I decided to start out whit what is not
Jossif Stalin, and headed towards the Gori Fortress.
On the way to the fortress, I popped into a little church named Mary’s Church on the Google Maps. Namely,
there was a worship service going on and I was curious enough to take a quick look. I was surprised how
many people of different ages there were right in the middle of Wednesday! The church was more than
full; not everyone fit in, some stood outside. I still somehow sneaked inside. A friendly looking older man
in white was talking in front of the crowd, and then they were praying and singing – thus nothing very
special.
The fortress, Gori’s most distinguished landmark atop the city’s only hill that dates back to the 7th
century.
Essentially, when I climbed up, it turned out to be a great viewing platform for taking a look to the different
parts of Gori. That was pretty much it, not much more there to see.

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At the foot of the fortress, I found the Memorial of Georgian War Heroes (see below). This remarkable
memorial consisted of eight larger-than-life soldiers, each seated on a stone block. Notably, none of the
heroes was whole; each was intentionally broken in some way, typically missing a hand or both. One figure
was faceless, perhaps a tribute to the unknown soldier.
Memorial of Georgian War Heroes with the Gori Fortress in the background
On the other side of the fortress, I happened to a street market (in the next picture). Yet once again, the
market appeared quite unexpectedly, in a seemingly random place. The most popular spot definitely was
a small ice-cream parlor that sold particularly appetizing waffle cups.

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Market on the Davit Guramishvili Street in Gori
My accommodation in Gori was called Royal House – and royal my room indeed looked, at least in my
opinion. I fully enjoyed my afternoon. With the help of Wikipedia, I also refreshed my memory about
Besarionis dze Jughashvili, AKA Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin – as kind of preparation for the next day.
5.4 Stalin Museum and Gori Panorama
The next day was the day to visit the Gori’s somewhat controversial tourism attraction, the Stalin Museum.
Yeah. Some have named the museum as one of Georgia’s most popular dark tourism destinations.8
I had read from here and there about the earlier experiences of the visitors of Stalin Museum. Their
impression had been that the museum was rather a place of worshipping Stalin than a true museum; they
pointed out that the guides were ‘wearing pink glasses’…
“It must be difficult for older Gori people: in Soviet era, they had a here born here – and now, they have an
evil born here,” I dried to empathize with Gori people.
Nowadays, many Georgians do not see Stalin as Georgian.
8
See, for example: https://wander-lush.org/stalin-museum-gori-georgia/ (Last accessed on 23.08.2023.)

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“We say: Stalin was a communist, not a Georgian,” our Kakheti tour guide Ruslana had told a week ago.
For me, the visit to the museum was disappointing too – but not for the same reason as for the earlier
visitors who had ‘complained’ about worshipping Stalin. In fact, the museum had made efforts to become
more objective by also (at least in some extent) reflecting the ‘bad stuff’. In the process, it had lost its
identity and not yet found a new one; lack of purpose was reflected in the attitudes of museum staff. At
least that’s how I perceived it. But let’s not jump ahead of time.
I was there in the Stalin Park surrounded by Stalin Avenue about ten minutes before 10 AM, i.e.: ten
minutes before the official opening time of the museum. Thus, I started with what I could see out there in
the courtyard: the Stalin monument, the so-called Таинственный квадрат (see the picture below) and
the green bullet-proof train carriage which Stalin had used up until his death (initially, from the outside
only).
Таинственный квадрат, the house where Stalin was born (relocated here from elsewhere in Gori)
Exactly at 10:01, I stepped into the museum building as the first guest of the day.
“The museum opens at 10 o’clock,” a security guard immediately came to say that I am too early.
I wasn’t. I pointed to my watch and then pointed to another clock on the wall.
“Ok,” the security guard replied and directed me to the ticket office.

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Without even asking whether I wanted a 10 GEL ticket (according to the museum’s website, the price
without a tour guide) or a 15 GEL ticket (again, according to the museum’s website, the price with a tour
guide), I was sold the 15 GEL ticket. That was fine, I would have chosen the ticket with a guide anyway.
I was told to wait five minutes. I waited – but no guide appeared. Another museum’s employee simply
instructed me to go upstairs on my own. So, I climbed up the red-carped parade stairs and entered the
first exhibition hall.
The first four halls – or was it five, I did not count – mostly consisted of photocopies of old photographs
and texts, a few original texts (at least, they looked like originals), beautiful paintings of Stalin at his best,
prints of Stalin’s books in different languages… All texts were in Georgian and in Russian, with one-
sentence English explanation added. There was his childhood (very briefly), the story of him growing to
the revolutionary, his writings and speeches, he signing important agreements such as Molotov–
Ribbentrop Pact, he congratulating his followers.
Those all were facts, yet chosen facts. I wished I could understand the re-printed text of the Molotov–
Ribbentrop Pact. What was it exactly?
The next two rooms with tangible things were more interesting. (Obviously, one wasn’t supposed to touch
anything!)
A whole room was dedicated to the Stalin’s death mask (see the pic below). In the other room, there was
a setting of his cabinet as well as a display of his personal belongings and favorites (or rather copies of
those): his wellington boots and uniforms, his favorite mark of cigarettes, various gifts to him etc.

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The death mask of Joseph Stalin in Stalin Museum
Downstairs, there was a room dedicated to Gulag9
and the 2008 Russian invasion to Georgia.
Outside again, I noticed that the green bullet-proof Stalin wagon was open now. Wow, that was the most
curious part of my self-guided tour to the Stalin Museum! I stepped into the wagon and started looking
into the compartments. (See the pics below.)
9
The Gulag was the government agency in charge of the Soviet network of forced labor camps which were set up by
order of Vladimir Lenin, reaching its peak during Joseph Stalin's rule from the 1930s to the early 1950s. The Gulag is
recognized as a major instrument of political repression in the Soviet Union.
Source: Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gulag (Last accessed on 23 August 2023.)

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Stalin’s bullet-proof green wagon
“Wait. Do you have the ticket?” a shout from a middle-aged woman sitting in the end of the wagon stopped
me.
“Yes, I do,” I replied, finding my blue museum ticket from the back pocket and smoothening out the
wrinkles.
Even if with the ticket at hand, I now felt myself unwelcome – almost like a thief – for the woman literally
walked behind me, following each my step and move.
“Filming is not allowed here,” she told me when seeing me taking a photo.
Photos were allowed, still.
For its own time, the wagon looked well equipped, including everything needed for living and working
there for a while. What I did not see, was the golden toilet bowl that I recalled an earlier visitor mentioning
in her writings; it was still a usual toilet bowl, the kind we see in soviet area buildings still today.
Touring the Stalin’s wagon pretty much ended my tour to the Stalin Museum. As far as it comes to the
history, I did not learn much new – maybe because of my way too limited Russian to understand the texts.
In that sense, a guide would have been helpful.
***
I cleared my head with a 4.5 kilometers long walk to the St. George's Church above Gori, see the
destination on the following picture.

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St. George's Church above Gori
The small church up there felt nicely private when I arrived – private and yet not desolated. In the parking
lot below, there was a small improvised souvenir shop. In the church’s small courtyard, a couple of young
German guys were looking around.
Around I looked too; I had come here for the views of Gori panorama, after all. Below it is, with a camera
twist
Gori panorama from the viewpoint of St. George's Church

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After having seen all the views and observed a gecko to practice ‘freeze’ strategy instead of escaping me,
I slowly walked back to Gori. It was an easy way downhill.
Another ‘leg’ of my Georgian adventure started right then, with a message from my next accommodation
provider. More on that in the next Chapter…
Before the next day could arrive, something happened.
Precisely at 22:32 everything suddenly went completely dark in my nice hotel room in Royal House. It went
completely dark in the entire hotel and everywhere around me in the Gori city. I was just preparing getting
into bed, but now I got disturbed. Outside, I heard sirens of a fire engine that stopped just a couple of
houses away. Groups of people with lamps and phone lights appeared on the streets.
“What now? Should I prepare for an evacuation?” I wondered, when hearing and seeing all that through
my room’s window.
Just for the case, I packed my stuff. However, as people on the street seemed calm, I soon went to bed. I
do not know what it was. When I woke up at around 2 AM, the electricity was back and everything was as
if nothing had happened.
6 On the way. Katskhi Column and Chiatura.
After Gori, my next major destination was Katskhi Column, followed by a day in nearby town Chiatura. My
plan was to get to Katskhi slowly while seeing everything in between. Indeed, initially, I had thought about
walking all the way, yet it turned out to be not feasible due to limited accommodation options as well as
lack of walkable roads here and there. Thus, I had to combine foot transportation with other means of
transportation. On the map below, you can see the starting point Gori, end point Chiatura and all my walks
in between, and in Katskhi & Chiatura (green lines). This chapter is about those and my experiences during
the six days covered here.
My stops and hikes on the way from Katskhi and Chiatura, and when there

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6.1 Gori - Kareli - Bokneti Guest House
On the next day, Bokneti - Guest House, Agro Tourism Destination (Bokneti Guest House) was on my map.
In order to walk from Gori to Khashuri, as I had planned, I needed a stop somewhere in Kareli. I could find
only one suitable option from the internet, the Bokneti Guest House. Already a couple of days before
actually going, I had figured that the house, even though in Kareli according to Booking.com, was in reality
located twenty kilometers away in a tiny village.
“Fine for me,” I had thought. “I can take a train to Kareli and walk from there till my accommodation for a
rural experience.”
This was my refined plan on the morning.
Yeah. As already mentioned above, my rural experience in Georgia actually started the day before. It was
a warm welcome message from the Bokneti Guest House:
“Hello, dear Kristi What time do you want to check in?”
“Hi. Around 3 PM, I think,” I replied.
Soon a new message came:
“Good, I have some problem in the bathroom, there are working two groups to solve this problem. I think
everything will be fine for tomorrow evening.”
“I hope so because I come from a walk and definitely need a bathroom,” I replied, thinking if I should cancel
the booking and find another accommodation.
“I do my best, so you will have bathroom ” I was promised.
I did not cancel.
On the next morning, the Georgian Railway train no. 18 took me from Gori to Kareli, a town about twenty
kilometers west of Gori. Experience with the train was pretty much the same as on my first trip. This time
it was a young male wagon attendant who guided me to the right wagon, asking also to see my passport.
Already five minutes before reaching the Kareli station, another wagon attendant, a pot-bellied big man,
came to my seat and let me know: we are arriving to your stop, it’s time for you to start getting out!
There I was, dropped out in Kareli. I quickly found my way through the town and headed towards what I
called ‘the Road of Many Monasteries’. The new and very decent asphalted road went through multiple
small villages: Tatanaantubani, Kekhijvari, Kobesaantubani, Kintsvisi, Zghuderi, Tsitelmta, Ortubani,
Elbakiani.
I was surprised how much traffic there was – traffic and animals like cows and pigs on the street. One of
those pigs in on the left picture below.
In the Zghuderi village there was a bigger building (on the right picture below), from the door of which I
read: “Ministry of Education”.
“Weird location for a ministry building,” I thought.
Later I learned that it was the Village Zghuderi Public School which had just about forty students!

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From the walk through the villages: a pig (left) and the school building in the Zghuderi village (right)
Obviously, there were monasteries on the left and right side of the road, mostly on the left. Some were
higher up in the mountains, the others right there next to the road. One monastery still was being built.
The biggest one that I captured with my camera, was the one called Ortubnis dedata monastery on Google
Maps (on the following photo). Indeed, it looked like nuns were actually living there for I saw ladies in
black working in the garden.
Ortubnis dedata monasteri

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Several cars slowed down and stopped when their drivers saw me walking. One or another local man stuck
his head through the car window and indicated with his hand that I would sit in. Again and again, I shook
my head and stubbornly walked on. Again, I wanted to walk, that was my plan for the day.
Exactly as I had indicated, at 3 PM, I reached the Bokneti Guest House. A young lady called Mia informed
me that my room wasn’t quite ready yet, and kindly asked me to sit and wait for twenty minutes. This was
perfectly fine for me. The patio was actually very cozy, as can be seen from the next picture.
The patio of Bokneti - Guest House, Agro Tourism Destination
25 minutes later I was guided to my room, which too looked nice. The trouble appeared when I asked
about the bathroom. It turned out that the bathroom was completely broke and they possibly could not
fix it any time soon.
“But where I can shower?” I asked demandingly.
It was very obvious that after twenty kilometers of walking on a hot summer day, the shower was not just
my greatest pleasure but a necessity.
“I can drive you to the next village…” Mia kindly offered.
I thought that she meant the next village a couple of kilometers away and said that this would be fine.

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“But where is the toilet?” was my next question.
“Toilet we do have,” Mia replied and guided me to the little garden where there in the corner was a
separate old-fashioned toilet with a hole in the floor. (See the picture below.)
“Okay… Agro Tourism experience,” I had no other choice than accepting the situation.
Old-fashioned toiled in the corner of the garden
Answering Mia’s question, I said that I wanted to get the shower right away. She guided me to her car and
we drove. And we drove and drove and drove… Through the next village, the village after that, all the way
back to Kartli and on… I wondered where she was going to drive me. Finally, 35 minutes later, we stopped
at the gate of Mia’s family home in Agro Village.
On the way, we had plenty of time to talk. She did her best to entertain and please me – and indeed, at
least for me, she was an interesting person to talk to.
It turned out that Mia had been in Estonia, on a business trip. She knew quite a bit about the start-up
community in Estonia, even more than me on these days. When not working in the Bokneti Guest House
on her summer holidays, she was a teacher of entrepreneurship in Kartli; she even showed me the school
where she was teaching. Their family’s connection with Estonia was even stronger: Mia’s brother had cows
from Estonia!

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“Welcome,” Mia guided me to her family home.
There I met an old lady with silver gray hair, sitting in an armchair.
“She is my grandmother,” Mia introduced.
The grandmother said something in Georgian.
“She is saying that you can set here, on the sofa,” Mia translated.
I sat. Mia went to make sure that the bathroom is ready for me.
The grand old lady tried to speak with me in Georgian, but I just did not understand.
“Can you speak Russian?” I asked.
She could! Although my Russian was poor, we did not have to sit in quiet. She asked about my home
country. I noted that the interior of her house looked beautiful; it wasn’t just a compliment – the furnishing
indeed was very stylish, even antique.
Then another young lady appeared. The grandmother told me that she was Mia’s sister. Indeed, these two
looked similar when they hugged.
Now the bathroom was ready for me. Finally, I could take a shower. Oh, that was good even if the water
pressure was a little weak!
On the way back I asked Mia about the surrounding mountains. Specifically, I was interested about the
way to my next destination, Khashuri. Was there a direct path? Because if there weren’t, I could not get
to Khashuri on foot. Mia replied that there was one – at least there used to be one used by locals before
the paved road was built three years ago. It was good enough assurance for me to try.
Back in my room in the guesthouse, I felt tired indeed. I needed my own personal space just to rest, and
do the next day’s planning and stuff. Yeah. It was a little odd to walk past the family members when I
needed to go to the toilet outside, in the farthest corner of the garden. It was as if everyone’s eyes were
on me: does she like us?
At around half past nine in the evening, they asked me to join their snack table. I refused; this was my last
‘trip’ to the toilet before the bed – and the bed was all that I wanted at this moment.
“But thanks for the invite, anyway,” I said.
“What time do you want your breakfast?” Mia then asked.
“I usually wake up rather early… Let’s say: 7:30.”
6.2 Breakfast in Bokneti Guest House, followed by walk to Khashuri
Precisely at 7:30 AM on the new day I was downstairs, ready for the breakfast – and the breakfast was
ready for me.
“Would you like to sit inside or outside?” Mia asked.
“Outside would be great,” I replied.
It was one of those warm yet still cool summer mornings that I enjoy the most, after all.
So, I was served the breakfast outside. Seeing all the food appearing in front of me (in the photo below), I
literally felt like competitive eater facing a food challenge! Well, at least that’s what I thought the
competitive eaters might be feeling at start: hungry, excited and also humiliated by the amount of food in

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front of their noses… Thankfully, by now, I knew that one is not supposed to eat everything – that it is just
the Georgian custom to serve plenty of food. They also seemed to think that with food, they can
compensate for the shortages elsewhere (such as broken bathroom, for example).
Continental breakfast in Georgian style: bountiful plate of home-made cheese and lobiani certainly were
Georgian.
After the breakfast, Mia wanted to show me something. This was their new bathroom being built. Well…
There was nothing but walls and some water pipes. I said that I appreciated Mia’s effort to enable me a
shower the day before. Then I wanted to pay for my stay.
The price that I got from booking.com was 75.93 GEL (about 26 EUR); as they had no exchange for my 50
GEL bills and I did not have enough smaller notes, I ended up paying 65 GEL (about 22.25 EUR).
“I think, it’s enough,” Mia said.
She sounded very apologetic when sending me to the gate.
“And I very much love your country,” she added.
I really started to appreciate and respect her – despite of the circumstances in the accommodation. How
much she was hassling every day! Maybe we will meet some day in Tallinn.

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Then I was on my way yet once again. Last look back (below)… And off I went. Mia had been right: there
indeed was a local road over the mountain and through the forest. Well, it wasn’t a road anymore – it once
had been a dirt road, but apparently not used as such for a good while. Still, the path was visible.
“I have not come through such a mud since my pilgrim walk in Italy in early spring 2018!” I thought at one
place.
Looking back to the valley with Bokneti Guest House
After a few kilometers of the ‘adventurous path’, it was really nice to find myself out of the woods yet once
again. Far ahead, I already saw my destination of the day: the town of Khashuri.

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Out of the woods and destination Khashuri on the horizon
Not that fast, but to Khashuri I arrived. The good news was that I did not have to walk the last bit right on
the highway; there was a sure gravel road right next to the Mtkvari (Kura) River. The bad news was that
this road was primarily used by trucks which meant a lot of dust – like a lot of dust, especially when yet
another truck was passing by.
Dusty as I was by then, I arrived to the outskirts of Khashuri, the ninth-largest settlement in Georgia10
. My
first impression of the town was this: many cars and lots of signaling. The biggest and nicest house at the
central circuit turned out to be the police station. Another building that attracted my attention, was an
apartment building located less than two kilometers away from the central circuit. The photo below speaks
for itself.
10
According to English Wikipedia article: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khashuri (Accessed on 15 July 2023.)

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An appartement building just two kilometers from the central circuit of Khashuri
“A real estate developer who failed to finish the building yet did well in selling the to-be apartments on
paper…. Some people that had already bought the appartements, finished them by themselves. The others
never did – and these are the empty spots…”
That was the first thought that came to my mind. The true story of the building was most probably quite
different; in the Soviet era there simply was no real estate market as we know it today. Whatever the story
was, it was a building that was unfinished, inhabited and desolated all at the same time.
My room in the Iveria Hotel was nice and private. After last night, I truly appreciated proper bathroom. On
the other hand, the room wasn’t cheap in Georgian standards (about 50 EUR per night) – and it was
impractical. For example, there was a fridge the cable of which did not reach any of the sockets.
6.3 Morning walk to Surami Fortress and back; train trip to Zestaponi
I slept well yet briefly woke up during the night and noticed that the electricity was gone. By the next
morning, it was back.

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At around seven o’clock, I was already up and running; I simply did not have any more sleep. As there were
still several hours to the train to Zestaponi left, I decided to take a walk to the nearby Surami village for I
knew from my previous googling that there was a fortress to see.
The road out of Khashuri was yet once again gravel. One local man was there with his cows who at that
moment were busy with exploring a big trash can. Another man was running with his animals, a donkey
and a dog.
Before I even arrived to the Surami Fortress, I ‘stumbled’ upon a church named Surami St. George Temple
(on the left picture below). I stepped in. As a monk – I think he was a monk, given his black long coat – was
praying there, I did not stay for long. On the right picture below is the fortress. Just after I had made this
photo, I looked back. A black beast – a big black dog – silently following me. Just for the case, I circled the
castle a little faster than I had initially intended.
Surami St. George Temple (left) and Surami Fortress (right)
Back in Kashuri, I still had nearly one hour till my train. I thought that Galaction Tabidze Garden might be
a nice park to spend that time. But no, the park was just being rebuilt; everything was turned upside down.
Then I went to see the Tower of Khashuri Town instead (in the next picture).

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Tower of Khashuri Town from the 18th
century
Not exactly impressed by the Georgia’s ninth-largest settlement Khashuri, I headed to the railway station.
This one now was way bigger and nicer as compared to the other stations in Georgia where I had already
been. Clearly, Khashuri is a major transport node.
Train trip from Kashuri to Zestaponi lasted almost two hours. At the end of the trip, the man who informed
me about arrival to Zestaponi, handed me a bottle of water. I wondered why for I was the only passenger
that got this little present. Anyway, it was a welcomed gesture on a hot summer day
The railway station in Zestaponi was a rather big building too – big and relatively empty. The toilet there,
however, did not bear criticism. The ‘cabins’ with holes on the floor did not even have doors, and the
baskets with used toilet papers in front of the cabins were simply disgusting.
Otherwise, my first impression of Zestaponi was much nicer. Right there, opposite to the railway station
building, were a park and a theatre (in the next picture), and a parking lot for marshrutkas.

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Zestaponi: Theater and the square in front of it
Now I had a couple of practical matters to attend: withdraw some cash and do my daily groceries.
Sometime later, I was already approaching the hotel named HOTEL in GEORGIA – my accommodation for
that night. From the outside, the building resembled a typical cheap drive-through hotel. Cheap it indeed
was: I had paid just 51 GEL (less than 18 EUR). Given that, I expected a fairly modest room. To my surprise,
I was given half of an entire little house in the backyard. The appartement included two rather big rooms
plus spacious bathroom, proper AC, fridge, and tea/coffee facilities! Two pics are below. Yeah… The rest of
my afternoon I enjoyed in that hotel

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HOTEL in GEORGIA
6.4 From Zestaponi to Katskhi Column AKA Katskhi Pillar
“Good bye, my little house,” I waved to my last night’s accommodation (below).
Yeah. I had slept exceptionally well there! Now I was ready to go to my next destination Khatskhi, about
27 kilometers from where I stood. In fact, I was this ready that I even did not look for marshrutkas and
simply rejected the offer of a taxi driver who had observed me exiting the hotel. The weather wasn’t too
hot, after all; it had been raining last night and clouds still covered the sun.

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My little house in the backyard of HOTEL in GEORGIA
On the map, road to Katskhi looked like a highway and there were really no alternative options to choose
from. I was a little concerned of that: can I walk there? I could. In reality, it was just a asphalt road and not
a highway. Except two dogs who tried to grab me – playfully rather than angrily – there were no obstacles
or challenges. Roadworks here and there where easy to get through or get around.
I was already more than halfway to Katskhi when a yellow marshrutka stopped and the driver gave me a
hand signal to enter his vehicle. The offer came on the right time: I had done enough walking for the day,
and taking a marshrutka from there on had been on my mind.
“How much does it cost?” I asked fellow passengers in Russian.
The lady on my right showed number four on her fingers. That meant four Georgian lari (1.38 EUR).
“Ok,” I nodded.
The price sounded fair – even cheap. The problem was that I did not have small notes. The smallest one
that I had, was twenty.
A quarter past twelve we were there in Katskhi. The driver stopped right at the smaller road leading to the
Kathski Column. When I asked him about the cost of my trip, he dismissively waved his hand: free for you!
I thanked and, positively surprised, stepped out of the bus.

My 2023 Summer Tripping in Georgia

My 2023 Summer Tripping in Georgia

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