31st of May, 2022.
When I get up in the morning and go to have a shower, there is no one sleeping in the leaving room, as I supposed. So what did I hear last night?
Because Gaga is still asleep, I also take a nap after showering but in about half an hour I get up again and prepare all my things.
When he gets up, he offer to drive me until a point where I can hitchhike to Mtskheta. Yay! I make some tea for myself and eat some left over pizza he ordered last night. That was what I heard last night! Pizza guy! They delivered the pizza and I heard them talking.
The spot Gaga drops me off is great and soon enough a very charming young man, with long, blond, curly hair, in a beach vibe kind of style, stops for me. There is an elderly man with him too. But unfortunately we don’t talk at all. Perhaps he could not speak English? In five minutes I arrive in the centre of Mtskheta.
It is a bit hard to find a place to drop off The Hulk. The few restaurants around are closed. The shops which are open are so tiny that I can barely get in. After getting a bit angry, I decide to ask in a kind of internet and cable tv company shop. At the beginning the ladies are a bit weird but when they finally understand what I am asking, they become very friendly and tell me they close at 6 p.m.
I first visit Samtravo’s Convent. It is OK. Sometimes it really bothers me this thing that women have to cover their hair and tied up something around their waist, pretending to be an skirt. Sexism! Not cultural, Sexism! So I don’t go inside the St. Nino Chapel
From there I walk to Bebristsikhe Fortress. I will pas by here on my way to a camping place, but if I come all the way now, I can have more freedom to explore around without my backpack. I am shocked by the lack of care and respect to this place. The fortress is completely abandoned! It is such a shame! Going down, to what it seem to have been a park one day, another careless spot. Some old ruins, looking like an old amphitheater, also completely unattended, some old buildings abandoned to rotten. This whole area is surrounded by the Aragvi river, and it could be a massive tourist attraction if they were to create a proper and attractive path alongside the river and take care of the park.
Svetitskhoveli Cathedral it is remarkable, in my opinion, for it is defensive wall, or fortification. It is massive and gorgeous! The building itself it is alright and yeah, inside the cathedral it is also nice but for some reason the churches in Georgia do not impress me much. Perhaps it is their style.
Just behind the cathedral there is a street market going on: wine and wine ice cream, dry food, carpets and clothing, etc. It is kind of cute and small, so because of that it didn’t get on my nerves too much.
I walk a bit more around the area, just checking out the traditional houses.
After eating my dry food (because it is the only thing I have), I go fetch my backpack. Because I still have some time, I decide to ask in this art school if I can plug my computer somewhere in the building so I can write for about one hour. Some very helpful kids help me to find a plug.
After one hour writing texts of my last two days down, I go back to the central park to read for a while.
My last stop will be in a fancy restaurant, checking if I can uses their wi-fi to check my emails.
I normally don’t recommend restaurants, but The Chamber of Wine is an incredible building! The inside is a fantastic place, all decorated in a rustic and very clever way. I don’t know about the food, true, but for sure just the experience of being inside this awesome building it worth a try. Plus the manager and the receptionist are super friendly!
I just want to be sure that my host in Armenia is OK and certain about my date of arrival. And for what he says in the emails I can come. I should know that my sixth sense is (almost) never wrong and that something was quite not right.
I have no food again so I decide to ask for some bread. In a small bakery, I try to explain to a lady my situation, even though she cannot speak English. She and her colleague are super generous and give me a pizza! A pizza! And she even warm up on the microwave! When I sit to eat by a supermarket, where I also find some cardboard to make my sign, a little dog come around and I give him all the salami from my pizza.
Finding a place to camp is not as easy as I though. There are only cliffs by the road where I will hitchhike tomorrow morning. Well, at least where I would be hidden. So I decide to come back a bit and ask in some houses if I can camp in there garden. I am really not happy with that. I have food and water, I just wanted some peace of mind.
It is difficult to have access to the houses around here. There is always a huge garden in front of the houses, so they cannot hear you knocking. Most of them have no ring bell at all and the only one with it, nobody answers.
All of sudden, a group of teenager come out from one of the houses. I quickly ask them if some of them leave in there and explain to them what I am trying to do. They are having History classes with a teacher in here. I get excited! A teacher! That is a good house to spend the night. And she is lovely! We talk for a while but unfortunately she cannot help me because she has a big dog which is not friendly at all.
I walk back a bit more, and when I ask an elderly lady with bright red hair if she can speak English, she takes me to somebody’s else house. “Dodo! Dodo!” – she starts to call. We have to pass by some really annoying strayed dogs but finally Dodo comes out from her house and we get to talk.
She seems like a very calm lady and can speak a bit of English. They don’t have a garden in their house and when I suggested I could put up my tent in their balcony, she says they also have an unfriendly dog.
Dodo kindly suggests I sleep in her living room. Her husband and her live in a big house, two floors, and the rooms are all upstairs; kitchen, bathroom and living room are on the ground floor. There is a lot of stuff around and Dodo apologies for it. They are restoring the house and moving stuff around, that’s why. But I tell her I don’t mind, I just need a spot on the floor to put my yoga mattress. She tells me I should take the couch, so I do it.
Dodo is a German teacher retired. We talk a little bit before going to bed. She asks me if I am hungry but I tell her I have just eaten.
Next morning Dodo prepares a wonderful breakfast for us! Her homemade dumplings with fresh quark are delicious! We talk a bit more and we take a photograph. Her husband left for work already. I think she is happy to have a guest, someone with whom she can talk. It seems that she is a bit sad that I have to leave so early.
Dodo packs a bag of food for me with boiled eggs, bread and her delicious fig jam. She wants me to wait for the fresh bread, which is coming any minute now, but I tell her I will be alright. She shows me a short cut for a hitchhiking place, which is way better than the one I was planing to go yesterday. It is a place where the small buses stop and there is an underground passage to it. Yay!
