Tuesday, May 28 - Day 8
The room with the upgrade was great, but the breakfast was very much average - served in a dull, dark room with flickering lights. OK, I am a bit spoilt, but somehow I expected a more creative meal in this county of great culinaric.
On my third visit to Tbilisi (the first one having been 8 years ago, the second three days ago), we rode to the center and met Katarzyna at the Freedom Square and walked the initially very empty old town. We first sat down at a café right in the center, which started slowly filling up with tourists in bright clothes and Orthodox priests clad in black.
We swapped travel stories, all three of us have had enough to talk about.
Incredible, but true, I had missed one or two pretty obvious touristic highlights on my first two visits. So somehow I never made it to the leaning clock tower, which was built in 2010 by the owner of a puppet theater housed inside this construction. There is a tiny time-piece built into the wall. Quite funky, the whole thing.
The three of us made a plan, that we would find a ride that afternoon to Kazbegi, more recently referred to as Stepantsminda, up in the mountains, at the northern tip of the country, near the Russian border and do some hiking there. We contacted Vic again, as he knew where all the marshutkas leave from. Katarzyna still had some sight-seeing in town, so it was just with Florian that I rode metro to the bus station - this was the one where I had arrived to in Tbilisi on the way from Kutaisi, with the busy market next to it..
We found the minibuses, the next marshutka would have been leaving in about thee quarter of an hour - and then you get bombarded with taxi drivers offering to take you instead (similar to the ride to Singnaghi). There was a guy who had a very high offer, after some haggling, we agreed on the third, if I recall correctly, it was €15 per person, instead of €5 or so by the minibus - but then you are not riding cramped and can stop wherever you like.
Connecting Tbilisi with Kazbegi (and further into Russia) is the so-called Georgian Military Road, crossing the Caucasus. This is an ancient route used by invaders and traders throughout the ages. I had ridden on this road in 2016, starting in Tbilisi, Kazbegi having been my final destination - quite a grueling ascent, the highest point at 2,379 meters., It is funny how the brain works - I remembered some sections very clearly, as if I has been been just a couple of weeks previously that I been there, some others were completely wiped out. One difference was striking - this time, traffic was very heavy, there were a lot more lorries and trucks than in 2016. I did see one more biker this time and I was not sure if I envied him (being an avid biker, I did end up being envious).
Our driver had the aspiration of a F1 driver, Florian had gotten quite pale. Even the best drivers are helpless when someone else is dumb - and when overtaking a truck in a very clear maneuver, him signaling and even honking a bit, a car in front us decided to start passing as well, in the same moment where we were passing it. We were millimeters from crashing - luckily, our driver managed to avoid the accident by slamming on the brakes. He swore loudly for minutes and even had to stop to get a grip on himself.
There were many pretty sights that I recalled - like the Zhinvali Reservoir (a large lake) and the medieval fortress of Ananuri - but as both of us had been there earlier, we did not stop. High up in the mountains, we rode by Gudauri, a ski resort. On my ride up from Tbilisi eight years prior to this, I had wild-camped near this town and think to have remembered the spot (back them it was dark by the time I had made it there). Here a weird story happened - in the switchbacks of the skiing town, our driver opened his seatbelt - apparently, it disturbed him while doing the sharp curves. A couple of turns later, on the other side of the road, a police patrol car was watching the traffic, having a good view from above. When we reached the cop, all he did was to wink at the driver, signaling him to stop, which he did immediately. The cop turned back stopped behind us, some discussion began and haggling began - but finally they let him (u.e. us) go with just a warning to the driver. It was his lucky day, it seems (not only as he was driving Florian and me 😉).
We did stop at the Georgian-Russian Friendship Monument, a rather ugly building from 1983, to take some pictures of the amazing views.
We reached the Jvari Pass, from there it was just rolling downhill. Our driver honked and waved at some other cars - as he said, it was his friends and relatives, he knew the area well, and also was quite familiar with the town of Kazbegi. We reached the town; in the car, we both made reservations, Florian was on the east part of town, me on the west, my room being on the way up the hill to the famous Gergeti Trinity Church. The driver knew the exact way up the narrow streets to my accommodation and even hugged my host, they were "cousins, if I recall. Apparently., we paid for his ride to visit relatives.
Even though I was a bit further from Florian than I thought (well, the ascent to my place was quite steep), I was really happy with the choice of my place with vwonderful views and amidst the stone houses - it felt like being in some remote Himalayan village. My room was simple, but newly done, with lots of bright wood, a bit like a place in Austria. I think it cost just €17 per night, quite a good deal, with a large common kitchen, but I had the entire unit to myself.
After unpacking, I walked to the "downtown" (well,, the population is about 1,500 people) to meet Florian. On the way down fron the hill, I spotted a restaurant, called Panorama, with, who would believe, great panorama of the surroundings. I entered and a rather unfriendly waiter "greeted" me in an otherwise empty place. Judging from the menu, the place was good and despite the grumpy waiter, I convinced Florian for us to return.
Well, the food turned out to be excellent, we had the eggplant rolls with walnuts (what else, etc)., Florian had the vegetarian option, I picked something really unique and delicious, called Shkmeruli, as this article says, a "Georgian garlic bomb". It was chicken in a thick sauce, with lots of garlic - I really liked it. Too bad for Florian that he is a vegetarian; though he enjoyed his food as well. Our waiter turned out to be very friendly and apologized for having been grumpy. If you recall, there were some protests in the country before me arriving, this was due to a new law aimed at restricting freedom of speech. Alas, it passed the vote in the parlament in Tbilisi just minutes before I had entered the restaurant, to the dismay of the waiter.
After dinner, I accompanied Florian to the bottom of the hill, then turned around and hiked up the steep ascent, with a full belly. I met some local young girls on their bikes. I was impressed how fast they rode uphill, I guess they were accustomed to it. The views of the surroundings was really beautiful. It had been cloudy when we arrived, these clouds vanished (into thin air, where else?) and next to the wonderfully lit Gergeti church, next to it the peak of Mount Kazbegi at 5,054 meters, showed up, quite impressive.
It had been a great day and was looking at an even nicer one the following day.