Yesterday we decided to spend the day away from the city -Tbilisi can be overwhelming with its thousands of pissed taxi drivers honking at all times-, so we went for a day trip to David Gareja monastery complex.
Just 70km separates us from the place, truth is the marshrutka (local minibuses) took more than 3h to take us there: traffic jams, gravel paths and road-crossing cows; you name it.
The place is, nonetheless, worth visiting: the main monastery is in the middle of the Georgian badlands and composed by a series of caves carved in the rock and little chappels.
A 20min hike takes you to a church on the top of the hill. There, six soldiers from Georgia and Azerbaijan, take a quite uninterested look at you and, in the best case, they'll say a friendly-neutral 'hi' while making sure you saw their Kalashnikovs.
The complex is shared by both Georgia and Azerbaijan, the border is right in the middle. Even being technically in Azerbaijani land soldiers didn't let us go further (to a hike to some caves), it depends on how relations between the two countries are in that moment: welcome to the Caucasus.
The best are the views: on one side of the mountain range, the pale Georgian hills; on the other side, the dark Azeri desert, as impressive and wild as a desert can be.
The humble church in the middle, watching it all.
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Living In Georgia, a diary
Short StoryOne-minute stories and thoughts on my life living in Georgia (the country). Join my reflexions, adventures, fears and troubles of living in a crazy country like this.
