Kazbegi

Kazbegi is located in northeast Georgia, only about 9 miles south of the Russian border. It is a small mountain village in the Caucusus Mountains and is home to under 3,000 people. The mountains and hiking were supposed to be amazing so that is why we decided to venture up here.

I met up with five other friends on Friday after school at the bus station in Tbilisi where we would take a marshrutka for three hours up to Kazbegi. This drive was beyond beautiful. After being in LA for three of my last four falls and Sevilla for the other, I feel like I haven’t really experienced the season in four years. Living in my village has really felt like fall but this drive was even better. Since it was the end of October, all of the leaves had changed color and we were riding through a beautiful mountain region and even passed an incredible lake/reservoir on the way. The drive for some of the passengers was incredibly scary. I’ve been on so many marshrutka rides by now that I’m used to it and nothing can scare me anymore. That, and there’s no point in worrying because you’re stuck in the bus there’s nothing you can do about it. For the last hour of the drive or so our large van drove up the mountains on unpaved, rocky roads often about ten feet from the edges of massive cliffs.

When we arrived in Kazbegi we were immediately hassled by guesthouse owners. There are only a couple of hotels in the village so these guesthouses are the most common lodging option. We all got settled in and went to a restaurant, where I ordered some xachapuri (the meat dumplings) and had some wine. Like every time we go anywhere at night, we received great Georgian hospitality. A group of guys were all drinking (the usual, rarely any women are ever out together) and they bought us a massive jug of wine and made us take a shot of chacha (the Georgian moonshine) with them. One of the guys even spoke Spanish because he lived in Valencia for a few years so it was cool to be able to talk to him and assure myself that I still remember everything. This was followed by a funny night in which the highlight was our tiny Vietnamese friend Phuong (If I had to guess, about 5 feet, 100 lbs) putting a chokehold on James (about 6-3, 200 lbs) and causing him to lose consciousness for a second.

The next morning we woke up and took a while to get moving because everything takes forever with a big group. We headed up to the Gergeti cathedral that sits perched very high in the mountains above Kazbegi with the Gergeti glacier as its backdrop. This is the possibly the most iconic photo in all of Georgia when the weather is clear and is sure to pop up on any Google image search of Georgia. (Sidenote: It probably actually won’t because searching for anything Georgia online is incredibly annoying due to the coincidence that we have a state with the same name) Anyways, Saturday morning and all of Sunday we were able to see this breathtaking view. The only time the clouds were out was when we were hiking for most of the day on Saturday. Even though we couldn’t see the glacier in the background, however, it was one of the most beautiful places I’ve ever been. I felt like I was in a baby Alps that hadn’t been discovered yet.

We gathered picnic supplies and a couple beers and took a 4-wheel drive cab up to the cathedral instead of walking because we figured it would give us more time to explore the mountainous area and possibly see the glacier better.  There is something really cool about visiting small churches that are in remote mountain areas, are only lit with candles, and have monks practicing as you walk around. We have been to a few during our time in Georgia and it really makes you feel like you’ve traveled back in time. After checking out the church, we hiked as high as we could towards the glacier as time would permit. This was one of the most peaceful days of my life and we all were just so incredibly happy all day. I can’t really describe how much I loved this place so I’ll just stop, but nighttime was really fun again as it was our first trip with this good group that we’ve kind of formed.

The next day we rode home had a funny drive as we were dying listening to James have the most uncomfortable conversation ever with this South African girl who didn’t want to talk to him at all. When we got to Tbilisi, we all went to this awesome American pizza place called Ronny’s. It’s definitely better than any pizza I’ve had in the Alamo area and a great change from this Georgian food that I still don’t really like that much.