Georgia won't let me go.
I started early for a taxi trip to nearby monasteries, castles and the cave city of Vardzia with Ivan. After 30+ years of travelling to 160+ countries he is quite experienced in negotiating in unknown languages. We had the names of the places we wanted to see written down in Georgian script and soon found a taxi driver who would drive us there for a reasonable price.
It was foggy when we started but soon the sun came out. And a thought started to develop in my mind: The road looked like a very nice road for cycling... Along a wild river in a beautiful gorge, very good road, not much traffic, nowhere too steep. But it was the way to Armenia. However Armenia also has a border with Iran. Mmmmhhh, but if I would take this way I would miss Turkish Kurdistan. I decided to postpone the decision until the evening.
The first stop was Khertvisi castle.
We had the castle for ourselves (not counting some goats) and I was surprised to find a nearby sign showing cycle paths ! In the end these turned out to be the normal roads, but it is still great that cyclists were thought of.
We continued to the cave city of Vardzia. I was wrong yesterday: it is not an underground city but a city of caves dug into a cliff. After just coming from cappadocia and seeing places like Petra (Jordan) and Lalibela (Ethiopia) some years ago it did not look overly impressive to me on first sight but it turned out to be a nice place which was fun to explore. In the splendidly painted main church a baptism was prepared but we felt a bit like intruders and did not stay for the ceremony. An italian women, also a seasoned traveller crossed our path and we offered her a lift to a nearby nunnery. The taxi stopped at a gate and we saw two nuns working guarded by a huge white dog. They waved us in and the dog turned out to be a very bad watchdog - just happily befriending every stranger. A short walk up the hill the main nunnery appeared and we were shown the way to the church. I was amazed to rediscover some symbolism I know from Ethiopian churches: 3 windows depicting the crucifixion of Jesus and the guy to his right going up to heaven while the guy to his right went down to hell for eternal suffering. Inside the church featured some magnificant frescoes. However I was more impressed by the nuns - in the rare case of seeing a nun in Germany she is always very old. Here the nuns were mostly young and some really beautyful. I know that their dress is supposed to make them unattractive but it did not work in my case - real beauty is in the movement of the body, in a look, in a smile and this cannot be hidden (ok, a burka might work for some of this, but that's nothing I would recommend).
On the way back we visited another small cave dwelling before we took the bumpy dirt road up to a monastery hidden in the woods. When we arrived a bunch of novices were playing volleyball. After coming from Turkey it is nice to see such old christian places being alive. The monastery was a very peaceful place, especially in the late afternoon when we arrived. Once again it offered a beautifully painted church but the most beautiful aspect was the location high in the mountains, in the woods, offering great views into the valleys and snowtopped mountains far away.
When we got back to Akhalcikhe I checked the way through Armenia in the Internet and found out that it is very well possible. Mmmmh, how to decide ? There is only one way: Toss a coin. I still had a Turkish 1 lira coin left, so: "1" for Armenia, Ataturk for Turkey. And the winner was: "1" !!!
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