Days 5-8

Paul here again -- We're back in Tblisi for a layover before we head out to the western part of Georgia --the wine region near the Azeri border.  I'm not stretching the truth when I say that the last 3 days in Kazbegi were among the best days I've ever had traveling internationally.  We stayed with a family in town -- Leo and Loli and their daughter whose name I could never quite make out -- in their home on the ouskirts of town.  Loli cooked us Georgian delights --staggering amounts of food-- every morning and every evening.  She sat on the couch next to the kitchen table and watched us eat, and she wore hearty smile on her face when we told her how good the food was. She spoke no english but our gestures and grunts and other animal noises made it quite plain to her that we liked what we were eating.  She,like her husband and every other Georgian we've tried to communicate with, have gone to ridiculous lengths to help us out.  A good example was the other day Erin and I came back from a hike and the front door to the house was locked.  We heard a yell coming down the mountainside which sloped from their backyard up toward a really old church perched high on the plateau above. Leo was cutting grass with a sycthe about two hundred feet up the slope.  When he saw us he came running down the mountain, sycthe swinging overhead.  Leo was about 65 or 70 but he bounded like a mountain goat.  He got to the bottom, plucked four apples from one of his apple trees in the backyard orchard, gave us a hearty hello, opened the door, proclaimed the day to be beautiful (I think) and then bounded back up the mountain.  Can't say enough about those folks -- and every other Georgian we've met.  Hospitable almost to a fault.

The mountains of Kazbegi are spectacular.  We did a hike to the foot of Mt. Kazbek which is around 5,100 meters -- equivalent to a little over 16,000 feet I think.  By world standards it ain't that tall but when you're standing in town looking up at the mountain it looks like a peak in the Andes. The village is only about 5,500 feet or so. The peak, as the bird flies, is only about 5 miles from town.  I figure the vertical has to be around 10,000.  You don't see that very often.  Sadly the glacier we hiked to appears to have shrunken considerably but it still had a lot of girth.

We did another hike yesterday starting at a small town called Juta near the Russian (Chechynian) border and ending at a towering cirque of jagged peaks.  A beautiful day.

I still haven't quite figured out Tblisi.  Definitely stands at the crossroads of European and Asian cultures and it certainly has that feel.  I still think that if I found the right brick and pushed it ever so slightly the entire city would come toppling down.  Here, as in Kazbegi and the other towns we've passed, are vestiges and skeletons and ghosts of the Soviet Era.  In Kazbegi the Russions built a large hotel to spend their holidays and built a tram-like thing to the church.  After the collapse the people of the village immediately tore down the tram and the hotel stands abandoned, windows blown out, creepy looking -- much like alot of the bombed-out looking soviet era buildings in Tblisi.

We haven't run into the street kids today but several days ago, before we left for Kazbegi, I was the victim of one.  Their begging tactics are much more aggressive than their brethren in other countries I've been too.  Here they wrap themselves around your leg and don't let go.  I pleaded with a cop standing nearby, who was watching with amusement, to help me out and he indicated with his hands to push her away.  I eventually pried her loose but that upset her so she slugged me in the thigh.  The kids seem indiscriminate in choosing their victims.

Hope all is well back home.