It’s been a good while since I wrote anything to post. I wish I could say this is because I’ve been tremendously busy, but really it’s mainly due to lethargy and a lack of inspiration. To break the funk I was feeling, I decided to make an adventure out of this past weekend, and I headed out to see the Sapara monastery and Vardzia, the ancient cave city out in the Samtskhe-Javakheti region again. But before I recount that little weekend adventure there’s some catching up to do.
A while back, TLGers this side of the country were invited to the opening of a ‘Teacher’s House’ in Tbilisi. With nothing better to do on a Thursday evening I decided to go. After sitting outside in the chilly air for a spell, it appeared the president was running late. Wine was served and about two hours later Misha (as p
President Saakashvili is often referred to here) finally arrived. He gave a speech about education in Georgian that I was not really able to follow. It was a nice excuse to get out and socialize on a weekday and an opportunity to shake the hand of this country’s president!
As October progressed it was soon time to pick grapes. I was invited by my old host family to come with them to their vineyard and help with the vintage, or rtveli as it’s called here. They were planning to go out on a Friday and I was given the day off school no problem. Once the police truck and a little Lada were filled up with buckets, boxes, knives and people, we rumbled down to the vines. That day we picked seven rows. Old ladies, all over sixty (hired at 15 GEL for a days work), would work in pairs, two buckets a piece beside them on the ground. Once both women had filled their first bucket, a young man would carry the two full buckets back to the bags or the crates, while the babushkas continued with their second bucket. We would come back to swap them out and so it continued.
It felt good to be outside in the sunshine, with good work to keep the hands busy and autumn in the air. We worked from about 11am till 6pm with a short hour or so for lunch somewhere in between. I was mainly a bucket courier, but in between runs I also cut the grapes from the vine. It didn’t take long before my hands and knife were sticky with the sweet residue of the green-gold Katsitelli grapes. I worked at a good pace for most of the day, but I definitely slowed towards the end. All in all we picked somewhere in the neighborhood of 2.6 metric tons that day! Such hard work must of course be followed by a supra. The food tasted all the better after a day in the sun. I went through the same routine again with my current host family just last week. With them I saw the grapes pressed (or rather ground) into the large barrels for wine.
The weekend before I picked grapes with my current host family, Tim and I had headed out to the Lagodekhi Nature Reserve across the Valley. Tim is an American teaching in the town Sighnaghi itself, and we had also worked together at the summer school in Tskneti. Tim has been here since January I believe, and has gotten a very good handle on the language in that time. The two of us made it across by Marshutka in about an hour and set out on a hike through forest to a waterfall. The park is gorgeous. Entering one is greeted by large, spready, silver-barked trees. There is very little undergrowth, and as we sat down to have a little food before our hike it felt like we were sitting in the setting for a fairy tale from some distant time.
There was once a good trail up to the waterfall, but some recent flooding destroyed a large portion of it, so we often found ourselves scrambling over large piles of fallen trees and negotiating other unexpected obstacles left by the flood waters. It wasn’t a particularly steep hike most of the way, and at 5km, not particularly long either, but given the technicality of the trail it proved a good little challenge for us. When we finally reached the small falls after what seemed like much longer than 2 hours or so that it took, I decided I needed to go in! It was frigid. The falling water was powerful. It was exhilarating!
We made it back much quicker, but found that we were not quick enough to catch a marshutka back across to Sighnaghi, because the last one had decided not to go! We started out thumbing it, but eventually settled for a cab. We walked the last section up the hill to town singing songs in the dark. A great day.
The harvest season brings many festivals to Georgia. It seems every village makes it a point to celebrate this time with food, wine, crafts, wrestling and dancing. Nukriani held a festival last recently. It was fun to see young boys tussle in the traditional way and incredible to see the dance ensembles perform in costume.
As mentioned above, despite these happenings I had slipped into a little bit of a funk, feeling tired and generally uninspired. I thought a bit of an excursion would help to break it up so when my friend Megan floated the idea of heading out to visit Vardzia, even though I had already seen it I decided to join her. I was looking forward to the opportunity to visit the Sapara Monastery again, perhaps my favorite place I have been to so far in this country.
We took the marshutka out to Akhaltsikhe on Friday evening and found a cheap guesthouse to stay with the aid of a helpful cab driver. He recommended another man who took us around on Saturday. We started with the scenic drive on rough dirt roads through the fields and up the steep hillside to the Sapara Monastery. It had a very different character at this time of year compared to my visit there in June, but it was equally special and the snowcapped mountains in the distance made for an exceptionally beautiful view from this peaceful place. Walking around the grounds, and stepping into the church as the morning sun rays came down through the window, were reasons enough to make the trip worth it.
We continued on to the cave city of Vardzia. It’s a beautiful drive through rocky, arid valley alongside the rushing green of the Mtkvari River. Settlement there dates to the 12th Century and at its height it’s told to have been a holy city housing perhaps 2,000 monks in the carved rock dwellings ranging over 13 floors. In 1283, there was large earthquake that destroyed a good portion of the caves and with the successive invaders the monastery fell into decline and was looted by the Persians. But it is currently a working monastery again, housing a number of monks.
After we made our way through the complex, we stopped at a nearby cave complex that predates Vardzia, the fortress ruins at Khertvisi and a village festival on our way back to Akhaltsikhe. And while it had already been a full day, we decided to take the marshutka back to Tbilisi (where we could stay with friends for free). We were back in the capital by 9pm. I was able to stay with a number of teachers who are renting an apartment rather in Tbilisi rather than staying with host families. We went out for khinkali and somehow didn’t get back to their place until 3:30 in the morning. A long day.
Sunday allowed for some relaxation. I got a good coffee and some food. Five of us decided to see the Swan Lake matinée as tickets for the ballet were as cheap as 5 Lari! After the show I rushed back to catch the last marshutka back towards Sighnighi. I found that Tim was taking it as well so I had company for the short two hours back to the village. It was a full weekend that did wonders for snapping me back into positivity!
