Moving On
July 2, 2018
We spent a relatively uneventful week walking around in the cool mountains of Kazbegi (officially known as Stepantsminda) and having to deal with the somewhat parochial locals. The only thing of any note in Kazbegi is the Gergeti Trinity Church perched on its lofty hilltop high above the town and right below Mt Kazbek, which has now been photographed an extra twenty four times more than the previous million or so …
We then returned to the heat of Tbilisi for a few days before heading to Kutaisi where we fly out from. Compared to Tbilisi (and it’s only the end of June with August being the hottest month), Kutaisi was positively stifling when we arrived - I’m sure glad we didn’t come later in summer. There was even a small 4.3 earthquake that shook the apartment we were staying in, just to add a little extra spice to our stay. With the weather being so oppressively hot we have been getting up at 4 am and going for long walks at that time rather than later in the day and visiting a few local places which were, of course, not open that early in the day. Not to worry though as, according to the sign, we wouldn’t have been allowed in wearing shorts anyway!
The market in Kutaisi is the biggest and best we’ve seen in Georgia, with a selection of local produce from fruit and vegies to cheese and nuts with the sellers accosting you from every direction. The cherries and apricots are still very good and very cheap, although the apricots aren’t as rich as some of the Armenian ones, but Georgian cheese has totally failed to interest me and although some of the cuisine is quite good, there still hasn’t been much to write home about in that department.
We have now spent the rest of our allotted time in Georgia and although the coolness and mountain views in Kazbegi were pleasant enough, the country has failed to impress me as much as I was hoping or live up to the hype. It’s not that there’s anything bad about the place but there hasn’t been any standout places or experiences that I would recommend to anyone thinking of visiting. The famed Georgian hospitality has also, on the whole, failed to materialise for us with only a few exceptions of real hospitality to note and mostly just niceness motivated by tourist dollars instead. No offence to the Georgians meant though, it’s no different to any other country with tourism as a major income source. So on a more positive note, we’ll at least leave Georgia with memories of delicious fruit, snow-capped mountains and a few tasty eggplant tidbits and be satisfied with that.