Mestia's ethnography museum had WiFi and internet! Neal's phone has accessed the internet without WiFi, with the sim card we bought at the Tbilisi airport. But not mine, with NetCom. It was great to get my mail and catch up on FaceBook. Okay, maybe that shouldn't have been the opening sentence of the post, but it was really exciting at the time!
The museum repeated the story of the Golden Fleece. They used to line strainers with sheep fleece and filter the stream water through it. The gold dust and flakes would be caught in the fleece. This may have been a seed for the myth of
Jason and the Golden Fleece.
Next, we got a taxi to Hastvali ski lift. We negotiated the price of a ride down from 50 GEL to 30, round trip. Nice! He told us about the area, and even joined us on the lift. Awesome view from the top: north to the Caucasus, south to what he called the Laila mountains. I may be spelling it wrong, because Google isn't finding that. The driver told us that September - October is most beautiful, with snow-covered peaks and colorful trees.
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| Our driver, with the Laila (?) mountains |
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| Yes, you can ride the ski lift even with no snow! |
Our driver crossed himself 3 times when we got down to the big church. Georgia is 98% Orthodox Christian, and they cross themselves when they walk by churches. There are churches on every second block, and they are not small.
The 26th, we had train tickets leaving Zugdidi at 9:10 am, so we had to leave by 6 to 6:30. Everyone said that we could get a marshrutka if we got to the center by 5:30. Well, there were way more marshrutkas than tourists, and no one was leaving until their van was full. There was nearly a fist-fight between drivers, even. We tried everything, but even calling Roza and having her talk to the driver didn't get us out of town before 7:30. Our driver lied and lied about when he was leaving, and he would not answer questions about fares. He took a woman who wanted to go to Kutaisi even though he wasn't going there. He disobeyed every Schlumberger driving rule, squealing tires around bends in the road, and stopping to pick up more people on the side of the road. We missed the train, and I was starving since we had not had breakfast, so I exploded! I told him exactly what I thought of him, and refused to pay the full fare. I think he learned some English swear words. That was the only bad marshrutka experience.
We stayed in Zugdidi till the 5:20 pm train. We visited both "things to see". The Dadiani Palace museum has one of Napoleon Bonaparte's bronze death masks. The Host Restaurant is a definite winner. Then we strolled through the market and Neal bought some knock-off stuff. The sunglasses are "RayBoon".
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| Trying to find the Dadiani Palace, but this is not the gate |
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| Found it! |
Gori: the host family at Guesthouse Luka was very welcoming. Neal and I were in the daughters' bedroom, I'm afraid. They served us home-made wine. Their toilet is the "hole-in-the-ground" kind, and the shower required 2 switches and a knob to get hot water. Travel adventure! My impression of Gori is grape arbors in every yard. Neal visited the Stalin Museum, since Gori was Stalin's birthplace. His little house is in the yard of the museum, protected by a roof. Neal said they never mentioned his atrocities, just made a point about his agricultural improvements.
After noon, we got a taxi to take us out to the cave village,
Uplistsiche, that was started in the 10th century BC. It had 20,000 people at its peak. And I figure they must have had some mountain goat genes!
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| They had carved the roofs to look like wooden beams |
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| Neal at the Wine Cellar |
Our taxi driver offered to drive us to Tbilisi afterward. We had intended to take the train, but what the heck, it was the last night, and it was only 50 GEL to get dropped off right at the
Hotel City. Note that word - hotel. The last night we splurged and had a fancy meal in
PurPur, as well as staying in an actual hotel. With air conditioning. And a shower with a door!
The 27th of June was a big day in Georgia. They signed an Association Agreement to work toward joining the EU. They had opera singing on one of the bridges which we could hear from the roof terrace, and a big fireworks display after dark.
At 2:45 am, I was in the taxi to the brand new shiny airport. Even at 3 am, it was packed, but the trip home went without a hitch. Neal had another day in Tbilisi before his flight left. Neal and his luggage all got home okay, as well. Definitely a successful vacation!
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