Hiking in Kazbegi

We got up at a fairly reasonable time for our first full day in Kazbegi and had some delicious breakfast at our guest-house. Nazi's home cooking was awesome! We had really fluffy omelettes and there was lots of bread and cheese available. We also got to try Nazi's famous home-made apple jam which was very tasty. I put sugar on my omelette as I thought it tasted like eggy bread and I always put sugar on that. Everyone thought I was crazy but then what's new? We made some big sandwiches to take hiking with us for lunch and then emerged out into the fresh mountain air. 

It was cloudy but still quite sunny when we left the homestay to climb up the steep slope to the Gergeti Sameba (Trinity) Church. We hoped to also hike along the ridge line to the glacier beyond the church but, inevitably, the weather soon changed for the worse. Our short walk around the village the previous day had shown us how unfit we were (especially at that altitude where the air felt so thin) so we decided to take it easy on ourselves and take the longer but more gradual path up to the church. We walked through some woods past an interesting little cemetery with unusual headstones  that were life sized carved sculptures of the departed's head. By the time we got to the cemetery it had started raining. 

Our intended destination for the day, the Gergeti Sameba church, perched on top of the mountains above Kazbegi.