Mtskheta - Georgia's old capital

On our third full day in Georgia we decided to head out to Mtskheta, one of the oldest cities in the country and the spiritual heart of Georgia with its ancient churches. It's 20km from Tbilisi and just a short bus ride away, perfect for a day trip. We walked to the main train station in Tbilisi called Voksal and bought our tickets for the overnight train to Yerevan in Armenia for the following day. Then we caught the metro to Didube bus station and found the marshrutka to Mtskheta. Marshrutkas are small minibuses that ply the roads of Georgia (and Armenia) linking cities together and driven by guys who get paid by the number of passengers they pick up, which means they usually wait until they fill up which can be inconvenient. They are usually driven very quickly and are very cheap. We paid 1 lari (about 50p or less) to get to Mtskheta and it took about 30 minutes.

Our first stop in Mtskheta was at the Samtavro church just up from the bus stop. This church was built in the 1130's and now forms part of a nunnery. The nunnery was the site of Georgia's first church. Then we walked to the town centre where we visited Svetitskhoveli Cathedral, a compound surrounded by a large crenelated wall.

Smaller older building in the grounds of the Samtavro church.

Georgia crosses have a drooping horizontal bar as apparently one of the first crosses made in Georgia was made from two pieces of vine wood tied together by human hair.

The Samtavro church.

Doors to the church.

Svetitskhoveli Cathedral.

Inside the cathedral.

Icon in the cathedral.

Worshippers around an icon of Jesus on the cross.

Painted fresco in the cathedral.

Candle holder in the cathedral with horses' heads.

A large and faded fresco form the cathedral.

Worshipper kissing a vestibule of so e kind in the cathedral. Kissing bits of churches seems to be very popular in Orthodox churches.

Cathedral and crenelated wall.

After the cathedral, we visited a very helpful tourist information office and got lots of maps and walking directions for how to get to the Jvari Church, a building high up on a hillside overlooking the town. The friendly woman in the tourist info office explained that most people took a taxi up there because there are no signs and "there may be snakes"! We asked her if they were poisonous but she said "as far as we know, they are not venomous". Not that reassuring, especially when you're wearing sandals! We walked through some newer looking housing and past some shops and had to cross a big main highway before we made it to the bottom of the hill upon which perched the Jvari Church.

The Jvari Church on the steep hillside overlooking Mtskheta with a ruined truck in the foreground, a common sight in the Caucasus.

The track up to the church wasn't at all clear so Rowan ended up asking a cow herder for directions. We had to cut across a meadow and then climb a steep path through some woods to get to the church. It was very hot walking up the path and we were a little wary about the risk of snakes but we made it there bite-free. It took maybe 45 minutes to an hour to climb to the church and it was very windy when we made it to the top. As I was standing looking for a good angle to take pictures of the church, a pair of HUGE bear-like dogs came running up to me looking determined. I was wondering what the hell I would do if they attacked me but the largest one just came up and licked my camera lens - it just wanted to be a star!

Rowan asking directions from a cow herder.

The cow herder's cows in front of the Jvari church.

A Georgia style traffic jam. Cows on the road are really common here and they do not move when vehicles approach them.

Jvari Church on the left with the historical town of Mtskheta on the right by the river.

Jvari church.

The smeary picture I took just after the giant dog licked my camera lens.

There were very strict rules at the Jvari church about what men and woman could and could not bring and wear as you can see from this sign.

Jvari church again.

Laughable sign about not littering that we had to photograph as there is rubbish strewn all over the place in Georgia, people here just don't seem to notice it.

On our way back down the hill we saw this wold tortoise plodding along.

We also saw a very sad sight on our way back down from the church. There were two dead puppies lying at the side of the road and one that was still alive but looking in a very sorry state. They were probably abandoned in this isolated spot but someone who couldn't or didn't want to care for them. We weren't sure what to do but Rowan gave the still living puppy some water and we tried to encourage it to walk with us back to the town but it wouldn't leave it's dead siblings behind. We were really at a loss as t what to do and Rowan had picked it up when a nice Georgian guy and his wife came past in a car and stopped o see if we were okay. He was called Loirresaab ("like the Loire Valley in France and the car!") and he took us just a little way down the road where he was busy building an ethnographic restaurant. He gacve us alittle tour of the site and promised to looks after the puppy so it all turned out well in the end.

Rowan giving water to the thirsty little puppy.

We walked back to the town centre and had a dinner of kinkhali and lobiani at a new restaurant just down form the cathedral. Kinkhali are Georgian dumplings made with some kind of meat and lobiani is like thin khachapuri but made with beans instead of cheese.

Lobiani, pancakes filled with beans basically. Pretty tasty but they would be even better if they were stuffed with cheese.

Kinkhali, Georgian meat dumplings with gravy and soft white pastry. Also pretty tasty but messy to eat.

You have to eat kinkhali in a certain way here. The idea is that you should not spill any of the gravy on your plate so you should eat it carefully. Usually the top part is,left as it is not completely cooked and very tough dough. This was Rowan's wonderfully clean plate. Mine was covered in gravy to my shame.

Rowan demonstrating the proper way to eat kinkhali by biting around the top know and taking care not spill any gravy.

We caught the marshrutka back to Tbilisi and shared it with some cheerful Georgian singers, 3 guys and one girl. The guys treated us to an impromptu performer of Georgian polyphonic singing on the journey. We were amazed at how good they were and also how loud they could make their voices! They shared their whiskey in a hip flask with us and at the bus station we exchanged emails addresses and phone numbers with the aim of meeting up again at some point. Before we got on the metro our new Georgian friends made us try the Georgian equivalent of the Russian drink kvass. Kvass is a mildly alcoholic bread based fermented drink. The Georgian version was very sweet and not that nice but still an experience and sold form a barrel by an old woman at the bus station.

Rowan and Lasha, of of the guys from the marshrutka hat sang for us.

Then we headed down to the sulfur baths to soak our tired muscles and paid 30 lari for a private room for an hour. The sulfur baths were interesting but, as the name would suggest, they didn't smell very nice. Tbilisi has many hot springs and in the bath house area of the city the metro station actually smels sulfurous i.e. like rotting eggs. Not nice. So did the sulfur baths. Still, the water was hot and it was a good place soothe away the aches and pains of a long day of sightseeing. We just used the baths and didn't take the massage option although it's traditional to have a massage too. We'd heard that the massage was pretty painful, was done to you naked by an old man and it cost extra so we decided not to bother!

Me trying out our sulfur bath. The water was extremely hot.

The raised platform at the back is where the old man gives you a massage I think but we didn't try it.

We left the sulfur baths feeling clean but sleepy. Actually the water seemed to really dry out your skin rather than softening it which was a shame. I took some pictures of the Narikala Fortress up on the hill all lit up at night under the precise guidance of Georgian guy who knew the best place to get a good shot. Then we hurried home on the metro, seeing another group of young Georgian guys singing traditional songs and playing their instruments in the station. I can't imagine a group of young British guys singing folk songs on the underground - traditional music really does seem to be loved and respected here and very much alive.

Narikala Fortress lit up at night on a steep cliff overlooking Tbilisi.