Bags packed and off we go for a fairly long drive today. I had to engineer an emergency pitstop. All the delicious dried fruit must have had an effect! Still I think many others were just as relieved. Four hours on the bus is a long time. Eventually we arrived at the Spa town of Borjomi. A real tourist stop where the waters are supposed to be healing! The story goes that some soldiers came here and drank the water. It cured their malaria so the commander brought the troops here as well as his daughter. When the Romanovs heard about it they built a palace and the town became a centre for spa tourism that lasts till today. There were quite a few quaint Russian empire style buildings.
We all filled our plastic bottles and I have subsequently finished mine without any discernible healing of allergies or arthritis, but maybe you have to take the waters more than once?
We took a little jeep up to the rock in the forest on which Saint Father Seraphin of Sarov is believed to have prayed on his knees for 1000 successive nights and lived on grass and water. He is supposed to have had 20 visions of the Virgin Mary. While I don’t wish to be blasphemous, it occurs to me that eating only grass and water may have induced delirium. However the respect and belief of the people is strong.
We set off for the 8 th Century chapel of St George which was in a picturesque spot overlooking the gorge and surrounded by greenery. On the way we saw three horses freely galloping along the road without halters or anything for catching them. I guess they are going home like cows do! Georgia’s mountainous country lends itself to horse riding for stock work. We saw a person checking his cattle by horseback in Vardzia.
The chapel of St George was a very plain building with rather small doors but inside it was quite beautiful.
On the way down to the bus we came across a group of youngsters celebrating graduation. They were being led by a police car and hooting their horns, waving their signed shirts, yelling and hanging out of the car windows! If we did that back home we would get fined for dangerous driving! Nino said they do this for weddings too. Having the police lead the procession keeps a lid on the hijinks I suppose. We had seen young guys doing donuts in their cars which seemed a bit out of control in the parking lot of the castle at Akhaltsikhe.
Before getting back on the bus we ate at a restaurant in town that was good and the waitress was very efficient and patient with us. We tried the local wine- no sugar, no additives, no water, just grapes, we liked it!
Fully satisfied by our tasty lunches again we hit the road. The food has been good. I have been surprised by the amount of vegetables though it is obvious, cucumbers, tomatoes, capsicums, lettuce and potatoes are the standard fare. Walnuts are used in salad dressing which is delicious and there is always cheese and beetroot. Despite my love of those vegetables I am hankering for a change.
We were all happy to arrive in Kutaisi late afternoon which gave us a time to do some washing and blogging. That evening we wandered off in search of money and dinner. The ATMs here come in a few varieties. Some give out money but others are used for locals to pay bills, transport, fees of all sorts actually. There seemed to be a lot of services you could pay through these machines.
After trying to go to the Palaty restaurant but finding it booked out we wandered around till we found another busy, cool place, Papavero. We wanted to sit outside but the smoking was too much so we went inside. Smoking is huge here and we just aren’t used to smokers anymore. The food was good and we had fun. As we left the restaurant we saw the mother and pups we had seen earlier. One of the little black pups seemed lost and not sure how to get back into its kennel. I picked it up and put it inside. There was still meat from earlier that one of the restaurants had left. I had grabbed a piece of chicken that Trish wasn’t eating and fed the mother. She was so gentle when she took the meat. This is how the street dogs survive. I had seen kennels in a few places and people feed the dogs as a communal responsibility. I have seen some really appealing dogs.
John Jr. decided to check out the nightlife and met a fellow from Mumbai so they palled up for a club crawl. They also met an Aussie and he ended up having a grand time and getting back to the hotel around 5am. A young man needs a bit of letting his hair down! Needless to say he slept most of the following day! Still he was very impressed by the lively night scene and had some interesting conversations about politics with young people.
fleetfootkath 