We had a nice sleep in and got up around 10-11am. Thinking we should try to see some of the countryside outside of Tbilisi, Verena and I thought we'd go on a little adventure using typical means of public transport. This therefore involved riding the Tbilisi subway to a certain train station, then from there, getting on a Marshrutka - like a miniature private bus, that can cram up to 15-20 people in it.
The subway was an interesting ride. First of all we rode the fastest escalator I've ever seen, and you needed to have your wits about you to even get on the thing. Then this escalator ride took about 2 minutes to get underground. Deep underground. The subway system is left over from the soviet era, and despite being very loud in the train, seemed to be quite fast and efficient. Riding a subway when you can't understand the signs (all written in the Georgian language - which has its very own script) can be a bit daunting, but luckily the ticket lady told us 4 stops to the destination so that we could just count (it was in the end 5 stops but there are always ways to ask - one word, hand gesture "conversations"...)
Strange... a german car. Lots of them are imported. This one says "We do it. Competent services from one hand". And who said Germans don't have a sick sense of humour??
We got to our destination train station and then, not exactly easily, found where we were trying to get in order to get a Marshrutka to a town called Mtksheta. First of all, when asking locals how to get there, they were very nice in trying to explain, but once we said we couldn't speak any Georgian, one guy just waved us to follow him, and he took us right to the departure point of our Marshrutka.
Everything seemed straightforward at that point. We crammed ourselves into this over-sized van, retrofitted with many seats; 2 seaters on one side, 1 seaters on the other side, a narrow aisle in the middle, and a bar along the ceiling to hold onto if you are in the "standing room only" section. If you love personal space you might start to panic, but luckily, and thankfully, that is not one of my "ticks", nor is it one of Verena's.
As usual, the most straightforward things is not straightforward when the only thing you can say is "I don't speak Georgian" and "thank you very much". Although we thought we had told the driver where we wanted to get out, we overshot our destination, hit the end of the line, and had to get into another marshrutka and go back a bit, until we reached our destination, the town of Mtskheta. (no, I didn't leave out a vowel.)
I should probably copy and paste some info about the town from Lonely Planet here. We arrived in town outside a Monastery. About Georgia - my goodness there are churches absolutely everywhere, and Christian Orthodox is the dominant religion. You see people all the time making the sign of the cross. I mean everywhere. Sometimes you don't even see a church around, and they are still making the sign of the cross.
I feel bad saying this, but after seeing the Christian Orthodox church, and how its followers believe, I can only say this - Religion is poison. I'm not talking about God and Love and looking after your fellow human in whatever way equals more than zero, no, I'm talking about the people who live in a form of "humility" that amounts to self-flagellation, and praying to people
that may or may not have existed, and are as holy (read: human) as the next guy, except they have the advantage of being dead long enough that nobody truly knows their story, and are so idolised as different people than they actually were. And I thought Catholics were bad...
That said, there are some impressive old churches in Georgia. I mean, Mtskheta is not a big place, but has a church, a monastery, and just outside the town, another really old church on top of a hill. All which we visited.
After viewing the monastery, or perhaps that was a fort, we decided we wanted to walk up the hill to the church there to catch a view of the valley. Instead of paying the 10€ for a return cab, walking seemed to be more interesting anyhow. And it was.
Georgia has such a beautiful landscape that is unfortunately marred with litter, and run-down structures from their soviet past. Obviously there isn't a lot of money to go around to rebuild what was left after the USSR collapsed, so it just sits there, decaying, eroding, collecting rust.
After an interesting walk through a desolate field, and over a river via a footbridge, we arrived at a highway. Not exactly pedestrian thoroughfare, but also the only way across to our destination. So, we crossed a highway. Imagine something like the 401 on your way to Kingston. Fast traffic, not always full of cars. On the other side, we ran into three young guys waiting for a Marshrutka. I asked one if he spoke English, and he said Russian would be better, but he knew a very little bit. So, I started by pointing to myself, then pointing to the church on the hill, then making the universal shrug for "who knows?". He pointed us to a road that led up into the forest on the hillside, and said it should take us up there. So, we walked across a field, through a herd of cows, and up this road. Man, even in the forests there, there was litter all over the place. I don't think there are proper services at all in Georgia, so I mean, where does the garbage go? Exactly. Wherever you drop it.
It was quite the beautiful view at the top, which of course the pictures will show. Not really wanting to deal with crossing the highway again, we thought we'd try testing the Georgian hospitality, which is held in high regard. We approached a young couple and asked them if they'd mind bringing us back to Mtskheta. Take it as read, that when I say "we asked them if..." there is always a preamble of "Hello, I'm sorry I don't speak Georgian. Do you speak English?" with the reply "a little bit". This nice couple said no problem, and we even said we were on our way back to Tbilisi, and they said they'd just take us back to Tbilisi. So, that was nice, because the Marshrutka experience wasn't all that pleasant. Michael told me he rode in one once for many hours. Brave man - although entirely inexpensive, not enjoyable.
I, being the "Frauenchecker" that I am, found this guy to be a lucky guy as his wife was beautiful. I shouldn't get into my thoughts on Georgians and dating, but let's say it's a very traditional society, where men marry 20 year old virgins, the man has to be the man, the woman an over-demanding high-maintenance pain-in-the-ass, and the kids arrive relatively early. As I came to learn later, this is changing however in Georgian society.
So, they dropped us off at the train station we went to in order to get our Marshrutka out to Mtskheta, and we went and checked out the market there. Interesting little market, full of stands everywhere, covered only by a network of hanging cables, and tarps draped over top. I couldn't exactly fit in the market, as this makeshift ceiling was about 5cm shorter than I am. There was a stand with a guy and his table, stacked with dead, plucked chickens. Refrigeration? Bah, who needs that? I, having recently realized I have a rather strong sense of smell, just vetoed us going in there to check it out further.
We were stopped by this old, alcoholic guy in the market, who could obviously infer that we weren't locals. I was able to understand a bit of Georgian, when he looked at me and said "Democratic system...
After that, we headed back to Ufuk's with relative ease.
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