Part 2 - Mtskheta, Gori, and Uplistsikhe

 Overcoming!

It seems that we have finally triumphed over whatever microscopic being was making our lives a living hell and with that it meant that we needed to get out of Tbilisi as soon as possible.  It's not that we don't like it in the city, but we felt that we had done such a poor job of exploring so far.  So, we hired a driver for the day to take us on an extremely popular route as an introduction to the country.  

 

Itinerary 

1. Jvari Monastery - where Georgians believe that Saint Nino erected a wooden cross (Georgian word for cross is Jvari) on the site of a Pagan temple.  The cross was able to perform miracles and therefore became a pilgrimage site.  When the small church became inadequate as a pilgrimage site, the current church was built around the original from 590 to 605AD.  Saint Nino is also responsible for converting her husband, the king, to Christianity; her husband is then responsible for making Georgia a Christian nation. 

2. City of Mtskheta - The old Georgian capital and home to the most important religious site in the entire country: the Svetitskhoveli Cathedral.  

3. Svetitskhoveli Cathedral - The most important religious building in Georgia.  Georgian orthodoxy believes that the robe Christ was wearing at his crucifixion is buried in this building.  It is also the burial ground for Georgia's kings.  

4. Samtavro's Convent - The burial place of King Miian III of Iberia; Saint Nino's husband.  The King responsible for bringing Christianity to Georgia. 

5. Shio-Mgvime Monastery - Literally translates to "the cave of Shio" who was a monk that came to the area as a missionary.  It now is a large Monastic complex in the mountains 30km's from Mtskheta. 

6. City of Gori - A smaller city west of Tbilisi, most notably known for its Fortress overlooking the city as well as being the birthplace of Joseph Stalin. 

7. Uplistsikhe - An ancient town cut directly into a slightly sloping/inclining mountain close to Gori.  It is known as one of the oldest urban settlements in all of Georgia; earliest traces of humans dates back to the 2nd millenium BC.  

The deets...

Our driver picked us up early in the morning on what would be a blisteringly hot day...for us.  He assured us that it was not hot at all though, so, obviously we'd be fine.  

While driving up to Jvari, he explained the importance of the site to Georgians and the history around it.  It is set at the top of Jvari mountain and looms over the town of Mtskheta.  

 

The Jvari Monastery - view from the top of Jvari mountain.  

 

Rae beside Jvari monastery, looking down on the city Mtskheta and the confluence of two rivers.  

Of course, we decided to plan this trip for a Sunday which means Sunday services are in effect.  I'm not sure if you're aware, but orthodox services are LONG!  So, even though we got to see the inside and listen to the beautiful singing, we did not get to view as closely as we would have liked.  Oh well, it's very close to Tbilisi so we will be back. 

Off to Mtskheta itself where the same problem would play out...good job Matt and Rae...way to really plan ahead.  

 

Rae on the main square in Mtskheta...notice we're sticking to the shade

 

We arrived in Mtskheta before any major tours arrived, which was great.  The city was just waking up and even the hawkers on the main street were barely open.  It's one thing we've learned about Georgian culture that really resonates with us...they seem to dislike mornings, as everyone seems to be very slow to begin in the day.  Things usually don't get moving until around 9am.

 

As much of the cathedral as I could get in one picture along with the entrance
 

However, where they aren't slow to begin for the day is church services on Sunday.  We arrived at the amazing Svetitskhoveli Cathedral and managed to view inside for a few minutes before a nice priest asked us to step outside until after the service was over.  Oh well, the structure itself is amazing so we walked the fortified walls and sat and had a leisurely cup of coffee before continuing onto the next site.  

Our view of the fortified Cathedral from our cafe.  

Now onto the last religious site in Mtskheta, Samtavro's Convent.  Of course, its still Sunday, so we got to view inside while being a part of the service and listening to the amazing singing, but we didn't get as much time as we would have liked and unfortunately, I didn't take any photos of this place although Rae got some on her camera so you'll have to take my word for it that the site is beautiful.  

 

Shio's cave

 

From here it was a short 30km jaunt to Shio-Mgvime Monastery through the winding mountain roads making me nauseous with the aggressive Georgian driving.  

 

The buildings of the monastery with the main church at the top

 

This monastic complex is right up against a cliff face in the mountains and has a number of buildings. It is one of the lesser visited sites in the area, which is a shame because its location is spectacular and the buildings themselves are beautiful.  I was finally able to take out my drone for the first time of our trip here after struggling to ask one of the monks if it was ok.  Eventually a Georgian, noticing my struggles, interceded and helped translate and I was given the go-ahead after the monks were finished eating. 

The entrance to the complex

As you know though, I struggle with procrastination so I'm sure that you'll get to see the footage from my drone sometime in 2024...

The final approach to the main church building

Onwards

 

With our driver, Otar, at the wheel, we drove back down the mountain and made our way to the city of Gori.  

The city of Gori with the castle overlooking

Although there is nothing specifically wrong with Gori, its not exactly a tourist destination aside from one notable exception.  Gori is the birthplace of Joseph Jughashvili...also known as Joseph Stalin.  The city has created a museum in the center along with a building protecting house where he was born and a massive park.  We had heard very mixed reviews of the museum itself so to save time we decided not to go into the museum and instead just viewed the outer locations. 

View of Stalin museum in the back along with his birth house in the foreground

Stalin's birth house

Stalin's armored train car. 

Stalin Museum

We were famished at this point and decided it was a good place to stop for lunch, it just so happened that every other tour group decided it was a good idea as well and the restaurant that we picked was slammed so our food took forever.  It was incredibly tasty though and gave us a chance to cool down a bit from the heat.  

Uplistsikhe 

 

Like every other location in this language, please don't ask me to pronounce it.  There are a lot of back of the throat type of sounds and I tend to get made fun of when I attempt it so I'll just leave the pronunciation to your imagination.  

Rae at the main entrance to the city.  I would hate to attack that.

Although there are cave cities all over Georgia, this is the oldest and probably the most accessible with its location near Gori. 

View from just inside the main entrance upwards into the city.  The first of the carved houses. 

View out from the main entrance. 

We had done a bit of reading before heading to this location and even then, we still got lost and missed a bunch of the caves.  We spent about 1.5 hours exploring as many nooks and crannies as we could in this massive complex and even though it was super hot, we managed to duck into the caves and relax from time to time.  Also, Uplistsikhe is known for its wind so by the time we were at the top of the city the wind was fierce and doing a pretty good job cooling us down.  

Rae at the midway point up the city looking out to the west. 

One of the main halls.  You can see the support beams placed to protect from further degradation. 

The lower city.  A lot of the city has collapsed with time but you can see how intricate it was.  The church of the Prince was added in Medieval times. 

I'm assuming the remains of the city where the 'poors' lived outside the protection of the main city. 

Inside one of the better preserved rooms.  You can see how intricate it was with carved columns. 

Boulders fallen from the roof and notice the carved 'beams' to give the appearance of lumber.

The main roadway into Uplistsikhe.  

I was a bit surprised with how much was left here to see.  I had assumed from what I'd read that it wouldn't be as interesting as some of the other cave city complexes but I was pleasantly surprised.  I do recommend if you visit that you buy an audio guide, otherwise you're just randomly wandering.  It really helped us to understand it all.  There is also a wine tasting at the end with the payment of your ticket, so you can walk around in the heat and get dehydrated and then start drinking.  That has never caused issues, right? 

We were exhausted at this point and let Otar know that he could take us home.  We used a service called gotrip.ge which is a car hire service and I have to say it was well worth it.  We entered our itinerary, picked our driver/car, and then our driver, Otar picked us up in his car at the desired time we chose, drove us around while explaining the history/importance, waited for us wherever we wanted to stop for pictures and just was generally around to help with whatever we needed.  At the end of the day, he dropped us off at our place and we paid him in cash and went our separate ways.  It is a really great system here in Georgia and we'll definitely use it again.  

Our home for the time being

So, we have some great news as we were able to secure a place to live.  We were extremely worried about this as the situation in Russia is spiraling a bit and Georgia is inundated with Russians trying to escape the situation.  Prices in the rental market are exploding and we were worried that if we didn't find anything quick, we would have to leave the country and go to a back-up location.  With our contract signed, we have a place to live for the next 6 months which gives us a bit of a chance to actually settle in.  Our landlord seems like a good guy and seems excited to have us in his place as he's very interested in why two Canadians just up and moved to Georgia.  When we first saw the apartment we asked questions through a translator and thought it would be like Slovenia where conversation would be difficult with no common language.  After we left the apartment, we happened to run into him in a store next door and it turns out his English is really good so I guess its good we didn't badmouth him or his apartment, haha.  Either way, we're in on October 1st and looking forward to actually being able to fully unpack for the first time in a month.  It also gave us the ability to buy a subway pass for 6 months instead of just reloadable cards and a contract gives us the ability to open up a bank account so big things on our end.  I'll upload pictures of our place after we're in.  Until next time! -