Kutaisi and Cathedrals

Last weekend I went to Kutaisi for the umpteenth time...actually, it was just my third, but the first with the intentions of seeing the local cultural sites.

Friday morning, after my first class, I departed Keda. On travel days, I have to give myself a lot of room because getting out of Keda is a bit of a hassle. As I expected, I arrived in Batumi and sat waiting in the Kutaisi/Tbilisi marshrutka for well over an hour while the driver and his friends tried hawking more passengers.  No dice, for them, and we left (after much urging from Georgian women) less than half full. This driver went particularly fast, but that is not terribly unusual...I just clutched the seat in front of me several times to keep from flying into the aisle.

I made it to Kutaisi in time for the Friday night expat "Happy Hour" where all four of us ETAs, Chase, and several other Americans and Georgians splurged on an excellent meal at Zedazeni Restaurant. After that, we all went to a club where a Georgian musician was making a music video and wanted us all to be in it dancing. The ETAs were not terribly impressed and we moved to a billiards establishment. I did not partake since, like with most sports involving the use of a ball, I am terrible, but I observed and had a nice conversation with a young Georgian woman.

Saturday morning, after sleeping in, the four of us ETA's met up with TLGer (Teach and Learn with Georgia) Melissia, and headed to Bagrati Cathedral. Shawn told us that Bagrati had been on the UNESCO World Heritage Site list but was recently downgraded after being renovated to its previous splendor. They used stones from the ancient structure, new stones made from the same material, and steel to represent the threats the Georgian Orthodox Church has faced over the centuries and how it has endured them. It was first built in the 11th Century and was devastated by an explosion from Ottoman Troops in the 17th Century. The renovation was completed in 2012.

Bagrati Cathedral (it is officially known as Cathedral of the Dormition)

The five us explored some of the ancient walls/fortress that surrounded the cathedral. We had beautiful views of Kutaisi and the surrounding mountains.  The trademark slogan of this came from Shawn proclaiming something along the lines of: "I have cathedral/castle dust in my beard."

View of Kutaisi and the surrounding mountains.

Shawn and Kenny exploring the ancient ruins. This particular section was a bit of a climb.

Afterwards, we bought shwarma. Shwarma is an Arabic meat wrap of sorts that uses a variety of different meats (just not pork) and roasts them on a rotating spit. Once in the wrap, vegetables are included. I was not particularly impressed, but I was told by the other ETA's and the TLGer that they all had had better. Maybe I will try it again sometime.

We then caught a marshrutka up to Gelati Monastery which is about 10 kilometers (6 miles) outside Kutaisi. It contains three churches, one from the 12th Century called Church of the Virgin founded by King David the Builder and the second and third, the churches of Saint Georgie and Saint Nicholas from the 13th Century. At one time Gelati was considered one of the primary cultural and intellectual centers of Georgia celebrating world renowned scientists, theologians, and philosophers. It is one of the few churches in Georgia to retain original frescoes and buried there is one of Georgia's greatest kings, David the Builder.  It is a UNESCO World Heritage site.  The five of us did not spend much time there, though, only about half an hour.

Gelati Monastery

Gelati Monastery

The frescoes inside one of the churches.

Kenny was determined to walk back to Kutaisi and none of us objected. However, he did not want to get back to Kutaisi on the main road and instead wanted to follow an obscure sign that would lead to a "monument to architecture." A Georgian woman begging for money by the monastery gates told us pretty resoundingly that there was nothing that way, but Kenny was sure and it was Kenny that we followed. We started off on a "road" but this "road" was so badly pockmarked and rocky that Melissa and I both assessed that it had been quite a while since anyone had driven on this road. The "road" totally disintegrated and pretty soon we were just hiking through the forest, fending off bare branches and thorny bushes at almost every turn! The only sign of civilization came from the sound of chainsaws, to which Destinee remarked: "This is how a horror film begins..." After finding what must have been a muddy cow path, we followed that for a short distance before we hit a fork in the road. The best way, Kenny and Shawn decided, was to head to the top of a mountain/hill where there was a road that looked like it had been used recently. Somewhere along the line, that road also disintegrated and we came into rolling open meadows that overlooked patchy villages. In the distance, there was an actual road that looked like it would lead to Kutaisi. We followed this road for quite awhile, singing Christmas carols and making up our own Georgian rendition of "12 Days of Christmas". It was quite fun and amusing...and drew quite a bit of stares from Georgian villagers. I would stare too if I saw some random foreigners emerge from a forest in rural America singing songs.  Eventually, while slogging up a hill, two older Georgian men were kind enough to give Destinee, Melissa, and I a lift (Shawn and Kenny refused) and dropped us off at the edge of Kutaisi. During the short ride, the drivers offered their sons to us for marriage.  All in all, it was about a six or seven mile hike! We never did find that monument to architecture...

Hiking through the meadows.

For the entire journey from Gelati Monastery to Kutaisi, we had a dog follow us. He looked like a brown labrador mix and had a docked tail. He hiked with us for the entire journey, following the boys into the city and then proceeding to wait for us outside the Mirzani Restaurant for about forty-five minutes before finally disappearing. He was given three hotdogs and Khinkali nubs for his efforts.

Kenny dubbed him "William J. Dog" after William J. Fulbright,
the US Senator who founded the Fulbright Program.

After a conveniently beautiful day Saturday, the weather turned on Sunday and that will bring me to my next adventure...