Picturesque Kazbegi

gamarjoba!

Hey everyone!  The official Georgian school year kicks off tomorrow so I spent the weekend taking one last trip before things start picking up around here.  On Friday I took a marshutka to Tbilisi to meet up with two other English teachers from my orientation.  We ended up spending some time at an English language book shop for a while and one of my secret personal goals was finally accomplished: meeting some University of Michigan alumni while in Georgia!!  I was just sitting there in the coffee shop wearing my alumni shirt and two guys buying coffee asked me if I actually went there and said that they were U of M alumni as well!  They happened to be vacationing in Georgia at the time and it was sweet to know that some fellow Wolverines have been able to experience this country as well!  Needless to say, our brief encounter (I don’t even know what their names are) was awesome and made me proud to be a Wolverine halfway around the world, GO BLUE!

Anyways, on Saturday my friend Shelley and I woke up early to catch the first marshrutka out of Tbilisi because we wanted to visit the northern town of Kazbegi for the day and do some hiking up to this church on top of a small mountain in the nearby village of Gergeti.  The ride was about three hours long and really beautiful (The town is pretty close to the Russian border if you want a distance comparison).  We were surrounded by the Caucasus Mountains the entire time which are spectacular.  Nothing like towering mountains around you to make you feel insignificant and tiny!  We finally made it to the town of Kazbegi (Stepantsminda is the actual name) and started the trek up to the Gergeti Trinity Church.  It took us over an hour, but we cut up the mountain on little short-cut trails we found which made it steeper, but ultimately faster. 

This church is 2170 meters above sea level (about 7120 feet I believe) and is located by the third highest point in the Caucasus Mountains, Mount Kazbek.  The church itself was built in the 14^th century!  How cool is that?!  I literally walked around a 700 year old church like it was nothin’!  Inside the church they had a few altars and lots of religious relics and pictures.  A lot of people were praying and lighting candles and taking in the surroundings of the old church.  The scenery around us was all mountains which should have more snow on them in the coming weeks.  Only Mount Kazbek (which was mainly covered by clouds that day) had snow on the top.  I think I’ll just let these pictures speak for themselves and the beauty I was able to take in for the day: 

This is the town of Kazbegi from our hike up.

I just climbed a mountain!  Gergeti Trinity Church is in the background.  

SO. BEAUTIFUL.

In Georgia, women are typically required to enter churches in skirts/more traditional dress, so they had extra skirts available to wear.  It's also common to cover your head while visiting as well.

Entrance to the church

Mount Kazbek was covered by clouds Saturday but it already had snow on it.

Hiking back down!

We were able to catch one of the last marshrutkas back to Tbilisi and it was a nice day trip even though we were pretty exhausted when it was all said and done (I mean, we did climb a mountain!).  It was great to be able to see one of the more famous Georgian landmarks before I start school; this country is beautiful and I want to be sure that I can see as much as possible in my brief time here!

Officially a teacher starting tomorrow! ahhh!

Lots of Georgian love,

Kelsey