As I write this, my smile is so big. What a day this was! First posted
here on August 14, 2011.
Gori: Supra in a Fiat
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| Gorijvari, outside Gori, in Caucasus Georgia. August 2011. |
I've had some great days in Georgia, but this may have been one of the best.
I joined TLGer Sandy in "her" town of Gori, which, I may as well get out
of the way now ... is the birthplace of Stalin. Yeah, that Stalin.
Two of Sandy's police students, Mariami and Sofi, had invited her to go with them up to
Gorijvari today, which is a church atop a mountain in Gori. They welcomed me along.
To get to Gori, I took a marshurtka from Rustavi to
Didube
Station in Tbilisi, then a taxi to Gori. The marshurtka between Rustavi
and Tbilisi costs 1.30 lari, which is less than a dollar USD. The taxi
from Tbilisi to Gori costs five lari, which is about 3 dollars USD. The
thing with the taxi is that you don't leave til the taxi is full. In the
case of "my" taxi, this meant waiting for four passengers. This was
accomplished in about half an hour.
Gori is a little less than an hour from Tbilisi.
Upon my arrival in Gori, Sandy gave me a short walking tour of the town
center, then we sat on a really pleasant, shady bench in front of the
university and passed the time chatting about our experiences in Georgia
thus far while waiting for Mariami and Sofi to pick us up.
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| Main square in Gori |
While we talked, I looked up and damned if I didn't see my teaching
assistant for my English classes in Rustavi, Gio! Gori is his hometown,
and he was walking down the sidewalk with his mother.
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| Gori city hall in main square |
We did introductions, talked for awhile, and Gio and his mom moved on.
Eventually, Mariami and Sofi, Sandy's police students, arrived in a tiny
Fiat. Cute little thing - looked terribly small from the outside, but
was surprisingly roomy inside. We headed off for Gorijvari with the
plan to drive up part way, then walk the rest of the hill. Mountain.
Lucky us, we parked the car, began walking up the steep mountain, when a
man and his daughter, happened by in a 4x4, and offered us a ride.
Hell, yes.
The road was seriously rutted. Truly, I'm surprised we made it at all.
But we did, and wow, the view of Gori from this mountaintop church was
fantastic. What a change from Rustavi! Two rivers converged below us.
Green forests. Rolling hills. Mountains in the distance.
The current church itself is relatively new. It is a replacement (and
not the first) of the original old one. The current iteration replaces
that destroyed during a earthquake in 1920.
Mariami told us that if you walk around the church three times, your
wish will come true. She and Sofi proceeded to do just that, pausing to
kiss the church at each of its facets.
It began to rain a bit as we left the church to walk downhill. The rain
did not deter us from the next stage of our adventure, which was to have
a picnic.
In the little Fiat, Sofi drove us through a postcard-beautiful town
called Ateni - rich because of its good wine. Garden vineyards
everywhere. There were even pergolas over the road heavy with grape
vines and grapes. The metal gates and wood fences to the family
compounds were all spring green. A winding blacktop road led us between
the mountains.
It had begun to rain in earnest, but nevertheless, we pulled into a
picnic spot by the River Tana. Mariami jumped out of the Fiat, and
pulled dish after dish from the Fiat's trunk, along with the small china
plates Georgians use for eating, plus utensils. Sofi sliced farm-fresh
white cheese and Mariami, now back inside the Fiat, made a tomato and
cucumber salad in the front seat. Sofi laid a flat "loaf" of Georgian
bread on the Fiat's dash. Mariami produced several one-liter Fanta and
Coke bottles filled with local red wine. She said several times, "Now,
let's begin!" Since we'd already begun eating the fabulous dishes she'd
made - pastry filled with boiled potatoes, beet salad, a decadent and
salty griled onion dish, a warm carrot salad, a bean dish - she meant,
"let's get started with the drinking of wine!"
Mariami poured wine for all of us (though not poor Sofi, our designated
driver), made a toast, and said, "Complete!" as in "Drink the whole
thing!" She repeated this again. And again.
By the second cup, Sandy and I, both infrequent drinkers, were already
giggling at stupid things (such as how our English skills have plummeted
since living in Georgia, as our English has picked up a Georgian
accent, and we have regressed to caveman English such as "we go now.").
But presently, even Mariami was laughing tipsily. Poor Sofi, the
designated driver, stolidly stuck with mineral water.
By the time we finished this fantastic supra, the rain had stopped. We
got out of the car, and Sofi sliced watermelon by the river.
We finished our feast and then went to the "Mother's Church" in Ateni.
Unlike Gorijvari, which had been rebuilt in the last century, the
Mother's Church is very old (though I don't know age).
My hostess, Nino, feeling anxious for my whereabouts (Georgians are very
solicitous hosts), called me while we were at the church. For
efficiency, I handed the phone to Mariami, who assured her I was well.
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| Mariami reassures my hostess |
We wended our way back through the picturesque Ateni
(damned if I neglected to push the 'on' button for the otherwise
terrific video I took of the trip through), listening to dance rap and
waving to passersby.
Mariami and Sofi gave Sandy and me wine, dropped me off at a taxi to Tbilisi, and then took Sandy home.
A great day.
