Halfway There: An Excursion to David Gareja

გამარჯობა! როგორ ხარ?

Hope you remembered some Georgian from my last post!  If you didn’t, I’m saying “Hello, How are you?”  So I went on a cool excursion this weekend that I obviously want to tell you all about.  There’s a Facebook group basically dedicated to English speakers in Georgia and some woman posted about an excursion to David Gareja and about 20 fellow TLG English teachers signed up including myself and several people from my orientation group.  We met up on Friday in Tbilisi and basically just hung out eating some really good cheese pizza and enjoying M&M McFlurry’s from McDonalds (Georgia has 3 McDonalds and I've successfully been to all of them now).

We got up bright and early on Saturday and headed out to meet everyone for the journey which was supposed to set out at 7:30am but since this is Georgia we finally left around the Georgia Maybe Time (GMT) of 8:45am.  The actual David Gareja complex of monasteries isn't that far from Tbilisi (maybe about an hour at most since the roads are really bad). 

Our first stop was the Ioane Natlismtsemeli Monastery which was about four kilometers (about 2.5 miles) from the main David Gareja caves.  The monk who was our guide provided some information (in Georgian) and the girl who organized the trip attempted to translate most of what he was saying; some of the information was lost in translation a little, but I’ll attempt to remember what stood out the most.  It’s a smallish monastery in the side of a mountain dating back to the 6^th century.  We went inside the church which was comprised of three main rooms and was definitely old; most of the relics and frescoes on the walls were all originals.  Even though the place is literally hundreds of years old and the original paint is still remaining we were allowed to take pictures:

Ioane Natlismtsemeli Monastery which was built into the side of this mountain/hill.

6th century church area

The blue paint is the original coloring.  The way to make the paint apparently just "came" to the monks in a message from God and it was the first time in which this color was ever used in a Georgian church.  You can apparently still buy some of this paint but it costs like $15,000 and you have to wait many years to get it.  Or something like that.

A bigger look at the blue frescoes 

There was graffiti all over the place that was carved by those who don't believe in the Georgian Orthodox church.

Bigger view of the church area.

Some of the little caves at the first monastery.

A view from the ground.

This first stop on the excursion was pretty cool but I think all of us were more eager to get to the actual David Gareja monastery.  It was built starting in the 6th century by St. David Garejeli who was a monk that had just arrived in Georgia.  Since that time, and particularly in the 11-13th centuries, the monastery grew in prosperity yet was subject to the many different takeovers the country of Georgia has experienced at the hands of foreigners in its history.  When Russia took over Georgia in 1921 the monastery was closed.  In the 1980s the Soviet Union used the area to train soldiers for their war in Afghanistan and obviously Georgians protested and eventually military exercises in the area stopped.  After the Soviet Union collapsed in the 1990s, the area was eventually reopened and is now a religious tourist site.

There was an actual part that is still a functioning monastery with a few rooms/caves that are a little more modernized (we saw a solar panel on top of one of the buildings).  We basically just toured the main area that contained a courtyard and the church of the monastery.  As is typical in Orthodox churches, the women of the group had to cover their heads and wear scarfs wrapped around our waists if we weren't already wearing skirts.  After spending a short time here, we all went out of the monastery area to begin the climb up this huge hill (more like a small mountain actually) that would lead us to the famous 6^th century caves of David Gareja.  Here are some pictures of the monastery compound:

Towers at the David Gareja monastery.

The monastery part of David Gareja that is still functioning as a place for Orthodox monks.  This part is also built into the side of the mountain.

The climb up the mountain was a perfect example of differences between visiting national monuments in the United States and visiting national monuments in Georgia.  Back home the walk to the caves would've been a full set of stairs or a paved path right up to the caves (and maybe an elevator or something to accommodate physically impaired guests).  However, in Georgia, young and old alike scale the dirt path leading up the mountain that has been outlined by countless visitors before us (I did indeed see several old women attempting to successfully come down from the mountain, I’m not sure how far they went up, but I was scared they were going to break a hip the entire time).  There are no guard rails or guides along the way to keep everything in order or to assist in case one should become injured.  It’s just another part of Georgia that makes it unique and makes the experience of climbing a mountain to find some ancient caves all the more exhilarating.

It actually wasn't that bad of a climb overall, and I think I’ve actually come to really enjoy these hiking adventures I’ve done in Georgia, it’s certainly helping to make up for the lack of exercise I’m getting in the village on a daily basis.  If nothing else, it was worth it to make it to the top since when we got reached the summit we found ourselves facing Azerbaijan.  Yeah, it was that close and obviously super cool.  David Gareja is basically on the border of Georgia and Azerbaijan and has been a source of dispute between the two countries since the early nineties.  The sky above us was a picturesque blue and the weather was perfect as we spent a good twenty minutes or more enjoying the view and taking pictures.

This is me at the top of the hill/small mountain (one of the only ways to reach the David Gareja caves).  Behind me is Azerbaijan, or what I imagine Mars or some planet in outer space looks like.

The caves that would mark our final destination of the day were to the left of this view, so we continued along the journey which again proved to be a little frightening since the "path" was merely a foot-wide patch of dirt that had been cleared for foot travel; there were stakes where guard rails of some kind could be erected but, once again I've found myself literally on the side of a mountain exploring.  The caves really varied in size and I'm not quite sure if some of them had a special purpose or not.  Judging by the remaining frescoes and sizes of some rooms, several had to have been meeting places or bigger religious ceremony rooms used by the monks that have previously inhabited this place centuries ago.  Here are some pictures of the hike:

The caves lined this wall of the mountain.  This obviously wasn't the safest hike I've ever done but the view was amazing.  Some of the caves were numbered 51, 52, 53 so I believe there are other parts which contain caves somewhere else that are still be uncovered and explored (there are supposedly hundreds of caves!).

In some of the caves some of the original frescoes remain.  Some people have placed money and religious icon pictures here.

An example of some of the caves

This area had really big frescoes that were still pretty much intact

A view of the caves from the other side

When we got to the other side, we found ourselves at the top of the mountain again in a place where Georgian and Azerbaijani guards patrol (read: stand around) together.  I'm not quite sure of their purpose being isolated up there, but the Azerbaijani guards were definitely more friendly even though they knew little English other than "Hello," "California?" and "Michael Jordan."  We didn't spend much time up here before heading back down the mountain to end our day-long exploration.

So, I’ve had another adventure to add to the Georgia life chapter!  I’m officially half-way done with my experience here and there are still times that catch me off guard here in Georgia that make me pause for a second and just think to myself, “I live in Georgia right now.”  How surreal is that?  And it happened again this weekend as I found myself on top of a mountain looking at Azerbaijan, a country I never thought I would ever be this close too, and I was about to climb all up in some 6^th century caves which people typically only read about in history books.  This whole experience has been such a roller coaster where some days I feel like crying and then there are others in which I’m saddened by the fact that I’ll be leaving this crazy place.  But I honestly can say I’m in love with my life right now, both here in Georgia and with everyone/everything I have to look forward to back in the States come December.  Here’s to the second half of the journey!

გაუმარჯოს! (cheers!)

Kelsey.