Rainy day in Georgia

Hello from Stepantsminda, Republic of Georgia.

For those who are not quite sure where Georgia is located, it is in Southwest Asia, bordering Russia, Asian Türkiye, Azerbaijan, and Armenia, and the not-so-recognized wanna-be autonomous republics of Chechnya, Abkhazia and South Ossetia. Stepantsminda is only 5 minutes from the Russian border.

This Soviet-era wall monument stood out outside Tbilisi's airport

Sleeping last night was extremely difficult, despite having gone interminable hours without any shuteye. We managed to get perhaps 4 hours in. We are walking zombies, but not so much to keep us from enjoying our time here.

Unfortunately, the entire day was marred by sporadic but constant heavy rains . The very scenic drive from Tbilisi was therefore considerably obfuscated. But weather is unpredictable, and we just have to deal with it.

Didn't expect Dunkin' to be a thing here. I remember the days when you'd only find it in Massachusetts and Rhode Island.

We spent no time in Tbilisi, although we drove through town, where we saw a considerable number of old Soviet buildings among sprawling modern construction.

Our first stop was the lovely small town of Mtshketa, where we stopped at the amazing Svetitskhovely Cathedral.

Although the church proper dates from the 11^th century, parts were actually built in the year 500, and they are still standing. Georgia, which was then part of Armenia, was the first country to recognize Christianity, so many very old churches exist here and are part of the beauty of this land.

Street view in Mtshketa

Inside the cathedral's ancient grounds

Georgia exports many delicious types of fruit

Along the way, we drove parallel to the Mtkvari River, with its numerous white-water-rafting enterprises. We saw numerous trucks parked on the side of the road hailing from many of the surrounding countries; soon we realized that they were not just many, but there were actually thousands! A quick search on ChatGPT revealed that these are all trucks waiting to enter the Russian Federation, but since many of the border crossings are closed due to civil unrest in the areas above-mentioned, only the crossing going through Stepantsminda is open, and only so many trucks are let through each day. The trucks therefore  will have to wait days before being able to continue their journey.

We'll stop at this fortress again. The rain just did not let us enjoy it

We also visited the Georgia-Russia friendship monument, located near a ski-resort in the Caucasus

Mountains called Gudauri. The views were incredible, in spite of the weather.

Hookah with a view

He's preparing my Turkish coffee in the hot sand

Mineral-rich water flowing down this hill caused this formation

At last, we reached Stepantsminda, and we are really pooped. We’ll save sightseeing until tomorrow. At the moment we are chilling with two cats in our hotel room, who jumped onto our

balcony and made themselves at home. And now we'll call it a day, hoping to catch up on precious sleep. Until tomorrow, my friends!