Hussein, his wife and myself decided to visit the David Gareja Monastery complex together. However first came breakfast. So this is the time to mention Georgian breakfasts. Oh, those fantastic breakfasts! What a strong heartbeat I get the moment I see them! My body shivers from excitement, tears appear in my eyes! But it's just breakfast, come on... you might say... Well no, not that simple.
Traditional Georgian bread, cheese, fried eggs, sausage, some tomato-based salad, pancakes with jam and honey, fruits and of course tea or coffee... All this for ten laris (3.40 Euros). All local ingredients.
Where was I? Ah yes, David Gareja. Sorry, my thoughts were hijacked.
David Gareja is located at the Azeri border, actually, a part of it is on the Azerbaijan side of the border. We drove with Hussein's car to Sagarejo, where we took a taxi which took us on a horribly bumpy, mostly unpaved road to the monastery. Good thing we listened to our host's advice because a normal car cannot really drive the road between Sagarejo and David Gareja. The taxi driver agreed to take us there, wait until we're done and drive us back to Sagarejo for fifty laris.
The monastery, located practically in the desert, dates back to the 6th century and is carved in the mountain. This is very practical because at least one or two walls are given and you don't have to build them.
After finished, Hussein and his wife drove to Tbilisi and I took a taxi back to Sighnaghi. This is the time to tell more about taxis. Price must be arranged in advance, there is no taxi-meter in the cars. This time I took a 45-year-old Ziguli with a 90-year old driver, who was waiting for clients. We agreed on the price, 35 laris for the one-hour ride. A seatbelt is a syntactic sugar, AC is non-existing. The cars that idle and aren't filled with gas. When a passenger takes her seat in the taxi, the first thing is to fill gas at a petrol station. The only exception I saw was Tbilisi.
After some time of speaking with the old man, I noticed that he must loosen the handbrake every now and then. He told me then, that the handbrake in these cars after so many years pull themselves sometimes, and he must push it back every 10-15 minutes.
Traditional Georgian bread, cheese, fried eggs, sausage, some tomato-based salad, pancakes with jam and honey, fruits and of course tea or coffee... All this for ten laris (3.40 Euros). All local ingredients.
Where was I? Ah yes, David Gareja. Sorry, my thoughts were hijacked.
David Gareja is located at the Azeri border, actually, a part of it is on the Azerbaijan side of the border. We drove with Hussein's car to Sagarejo, where we took a taxi which took us on a horribly bumpy, mostly unpaved road to the monastery. Good thing we listened to our host's advice because a normal car cannot really drive the road between Sagarejo and David Gareja. The taxi driver agreed to take us there, wait until we're done and drive us back to Sagarejo for fifty laris.
The monastery, located practically in the desert, dates back to the 6th century and is carved in the mountain. This is very practical because at least one or two walls are given and you don't have to build them.
After finished, Hussein and his wife drove to Tbilisi and I took a taxi back to Sighnaghi. This is the time to tell more about taxis. Price must be arranged in advance, there is no taxi-meter in the cars. This time I took a 45-year-old Ziguli with a 90-year old driver, who was waiting for clients. We agreed on the price, 35 laris for the one-hour ride. A seatbelt is a syntactic sugar, AC is non-existing. The cars that idle and aren't filled with gas. When a passenger takes her seat in the taxi, the first thing is to fill gas at a petrol station. The only exception I saw was Tbilisi.
After some time of speaking with the old man, I noticed that he must loosen the handbrake every now and then. He told me then, that the handbrake in these cars after so many years pull themselves sometimes, and he must push it back every 10-15 minutes.
No comments:
Post a Comment