Sara – Page 26 – Nearly Neutral Travel

Our exclusive guide for how NOT to see the Debed Canyon by public transport 😉

They said it couldn’t be done. They were wrong – it just shouldn’t be done!

Of course, we’re talking about visiting the Debed Canyon (along with the UNESCO World Heritage Sanahin and Haghpat monasteries) in a day by public transport. With the barest idea of transportation timetables, we set off optimistically from the bus station in the industrial city of Vanadzor immediately after breakfast.

We had an early set back when we failed to negotiate breakfast in our guesthouse any earlier than 9am (I’m not sure what the lady said in Armenian, but I think it roughly translated to, “Impossible! There’s no way I’m getting up any earlier”), but we still managed to make the 10am bus by the skin on our teeth. Slightly embarrassingly, we displaced two people from their seats in the full marshrutka – we think this is because we were travelling further, but who really knows. We haven’t quite got to grips with the etiquette but no one seemed to mind or want to take us up on our offers of seats, so we sat down and enjoyed our front-row view of the extensively cracked windscreen.

We arrived in Alaverdi after a spectacular drive through the Debed Canyon and briefly explored the town on foot. Our later antics proved this rather unnecessary as we got to know Alaverdi intimately. The town is the site of a disused copper factory and sadly defunct cable car (used to transport workers to the factory), which combined with the rugged landscape, gave it a bit of a wild west feel.

We stopped at Sanahin Old Bridge, built in medieval times. It was apparently used by vehicles until the 1980s, but I have no idea how, since it was seriously steep! Legend says that when a real man crosses the bridge, the stone lions that guard it will come to life. Since they were so weathered that they didn’t even look like lions any more, it’s understandable that they didn’t notice Oli crossing the bridge.

When we returned to the town centre, we spotted a marshrutka headed for Haghpat Monastery and smugly jumped on board. Surely this was our most difficult transport connection of the day nailed, since it would take us to the further of the two monasteries, in a village up a mountain around 10 km away.

We spent about an hour exploring the monastery complex and admiring the views. Given that this is one of Armenia’s better known attractions, it felt like a real treat to explore it with so few other people around.

We didn’t have a lot of information to go on, but these holes in the floor look very much like they were there to house karas (for wine making)

When we emerged, we found that we’d just missed the 1pm marshrukta back to Alerverdi, and had an hour to kill until the next one. We picked up some fresh bread for lunch and fed it straight to the local dogs because they asked so very politely.

We re-explored the monastery, finding a refectory hidden away that we were sure wasn’t there before, and also explored more of the village including a cemetery with a spectacular view across the valley.

Eventually, we caught the marshrukta back to Alerverdi, feeling pretty happy about our progress so far. At this point, things started to unravel. After a long wait (and with the help of several other people at the bus stop), we got on a marshrutka that took us to Sanahin, which was crucially in an entirely different direction to Sanahin Monastery. At the end of the line, we owned up to our mistake to our marshrutka driver, and Oli had a conversation with him consisting entirely of them both holding up three fingers at each other multiple times and doing lots of nodding. We weren’t at all sure whether we were catching the number 3 or whether something was happening at 3.30, but it was clear that the driver had a plan for us. We re-boarded the same marshrutka and began the journey back to Alaverdi (for the third time).

By this point, we’d had our fill of touring Alaverdi and were ready to hop off and find a marshrutka back to Vanadzor (since we’d read they stopped fairly early in the day). Unfortunately, explaining this to our very helpful marshrutka driver was well beyond what Oli could communicate in hand gestures and the driver was determined to keep us on board, so we shut up and followed his instructions! We completed another pass through Alaverdi and back out the other side, before he put us in the care of another passenger who was also changing bus, and she shepherded us on board in case we tried to do another runner.

It turned out that bus number 3 was an ancient yellow bus – surely one of the oldest vehicles I’ve ever travelled on. Departing bang on 3.30, it chugged its way back through Alaverdi (our fourth visit) and then wheezed up the steep hill to Sarahart, where the monastry was located. I’ve never heard a vehicle struggle quite so much on a hill, but we made it at length. It was at least a refreshing change from some of the wild rides we’ve had on other vehicles!

By this point, it was pretty late in the day to be finding public transportation back to Vanadzor, so we set ourselves the target of catching the next bus back to Alaverdi to give ourselves the best chance. We all but ran the kilometre uphill to the monastery, and as we arrived Oli announced that we had seven minutes to explore. Seven minutes?! It was a massive place! We panted from room to room and building to building. It was much bigger and more impressive than Haghpat Monastery, but unfortunately my main thought was how little time we had and how much I needed a wee!

On the way back to the bus, Oli managed to run ahead and got a picture of the MiG aircraft that is kept at the nearby Mikoyan Brothers Museum. It wasn’t quite the relaxed museum visit I’d hoped for, but there was NO TIME! We made it back to the bus in the nick of time, red faced, sweaty and panting loudly, to curious stares from fellow passengers, and bounced back down the hill for our fifth and final visit to Alaverdi.

We eventually found a marshrutka back to Vanadzor (thankfully, they ran much later than we’d read) and laughed the whole way back to Vanadzor about our piss poor planning. If you’re ever thinking of a similar trip, may I suggest spending less than two hours at Haghpat Monastery and more than seven minutes at Sanahin Monastery?!

What we should have done

On a serious note, if you really are planning a similar trip, these would be our main tips:

Consider whether you are really as stubbon as us – a taxi tour can be easily arranged and gives much more flexibility (but crucially is more carbon-intensive!) If you do want to stick to public transport like us, start as early as you can from Vanadzor
Check what time the marshrutkas are running their return trips so that you have some certainty of timing (taxi drivers will consistently tell you there are no more marshrutkas running that day, which is rarely true, but other marshrutka drivers and fellow passengers were very helpful to us). We generally couldn’t get the actual timetables to tally up to what we’d found online, so it is worth asking
Consider walking between the two monasteries – it is apparently a very nice 8.5 km hike and would have saved us a lot of hassle

Revisiting lovely Tbilisi (and Gori for the first time)

Our initial plan had been to pass though Georgia in two or three days on the way to Armenia, but nearly three weeks later, we’re still here! I thought that we’d seen all we wanted to see on our last visit in 2019 (when we spent time in Tbilisi and the wine region, Kakheti) but that was definitely not the case. In fact, we found so many new things that we wanted to do that Tbilisi was the first place on our Georgian itinerary that we revisited. We were very happy to be back.

Because we’d seen many of the main sights previously, this freed us up to do what we like doing best anyway – wandering, admiring the architecture, and eating. Tbilisi has a really distinctive look and it’s a treat just to roam its streets. If, like me, you’re a fan of doors, it’s a great city. I’m aware that if you don’t particularly like doors (or perhaps have never considered your level of liking for them), you’ll probably think that sounds really strange, but I know there are other people like me! We also spent some time hanging out on our pretty (but frankly quite precarious) balcony.

We paid a visit to the Dry Bridge Market, which was absolutely full of treasures. If only we had somewhere to live, I think we would have bought quite a few bits! The thought of carrying additional things in our backpacks is a very good incentive to be disciplined, though.

At some point during our slow meandering around Tbilisi, we realised that we had made a slight miscalculation in that the every-second-day sleeper train to Yerevan (our next connection) did not, in fact, depart on even dates but on odd dates. Whoops! This left us without accommodation but with a bonus day, which we decided to spend in Gori.

Gori is Georgia’s 5th most populous city, but is much better known as Stalin’s birthplace. Although I suspect it was both faster and more convenient to travel there by marshrutka, Oli convinced me that we should take the train, given it was one of the few rail routes in Georgia. This was by far the oldest train we’d travelled on and the process to obtain a ticket was suitably beaurocratic. Once we boarded the train, we became well acquainted with the conductor because every time he saw us (which, over a 90-minute journey, was quite a few times), he enthusiastically shouted, “Gori! Gori!” After an inauspicious start where we Brysoned our way out of Gori railway station through a spooky but fascinating yard of rusting train carriages, we headed to the Stalin Museum.

I think we would have got lots more out of the museum if our Georgian or Russian language skills were up to scratch, but as it was we missed much of the written information. We did enjoy examining the scale model of the secret underground printing press where Communist propaganda were printed, though.

I was also pretty impressed with this portait of Stalin meeting Mao Zedong – it’s embroidery!

Parked (stationed?!) outside the museum was Stalin’s private train carriage and this was really up our street. Unfortunately, there was a tour group there at the same time taking many photos who were slightly irritating. Oli’s pose below is supposedly a cruel imitation of their poses, but actually I think he really was this excited at having so much train-related fun in one day!

Our next stop was lunch, and we followed a recommendation to a very local workers’ cafe in residential backstreet to try the local speciality: cutlet. It might not look like much but it was pretty good! Think Ikea meatballs but with delicious fried crispy edges, smooth mash and a spiced tomato sauce…

In the afternoon, we climbed up to the citadel, which gave us a great view across the city. At the base of the citadel, we stumbled across the Memorial of Georgian War Heroes. This was a circle of eight huge metal sculptures of soldiers, where each one had something missing, such as an arm, a leg or a head – symbolising what is lost in war. It was beautifully done and really moving.

While exploring the old town, we saw our 50th Georgian cat (a milestone!) He declined to pose, but our 51st and 52nd cat were only too happy to work it for the camera.

Back in Tbilisi, the other side effect of our train miscalculation was that we needed to move accommodation. We chose the extremely hipster Fabrika, a hostel housed in an old Soviet sewing factory, complete with co-working facilities, maker’s spaces and a courtyard filled with small food joints.

For our bonus evening, we had drinks at Wine Merchants and a delicious dinner at Asi Khinkali, before joining in the Saturday night melee back at Fabrika. It had a really nice buzz but we might have been the oldest there…

We woke up the next morning to rain and slight hangovers, which meant it was the perfect time to relax in Tbilisi’s famous sulphur baths. We chose a private room at Gulo’s Thermal Spa. Although there are public baths, if you’re not so into public nudity or just fancy some peace and quiet, renting a private room is a good option. On our last visit, we were on less of a budget and our room was positively palatial. This time, we were a little more frugal but still ended up with a four-roomed space that was larger than our London flat! It’s a bit of a rite of passage to have a kisi exfoliating scrub, but given I’d tried this last time and it was one of the least dignified experiences of my life (slithering around on a marble slab while all soaped up and then having a bucket of cold water poured over my head!), I opted out this time. I imagine it would have sorted my hangover out pretty quickly, though!

The rain continued all day but we were determined to enjoy our last few hours in this beautiful city, so we spent the afternoon walking and revisited the Bridge of Peace, one of Tbilisi’s iconic pieces of modern architecture.

That evening, we caught our first proper sleeper train of the trip to Yerevan, Armenia, marking the end of our time in lovely Georgia.

Georgian gorging

As we might have mentioned once or twice, we really enjoyed Turkey, but the one place where it fell slightly short for us was on food. Make no mistake, nearly all the individual meals were delicious, but for us, the variety just wasn’t there – particularly in the east. Most towns had a speciality kebab, but to our untrained palates they were remarkably similar to each other! If anything, this made arriving in Georgia an even bigger treat. The food is just SO good, with a focus on fresh, seasonal and regional fare.

For the last couple of weeks, we’ve been truly feasting on good food and wine, and this post is a bit of an ode to some of our favourites. I’m not usually much of a food photographer (I’m much, much more interested in the eating), so I was cringing taking all of the photos that follow! Hopefully they capture some of the deliciousness, though.

Khachapuri

Boat-shaped Adjaruli khachapuri is probably what most people imagine when they think of Georgian food (if they think of anything at all – I truly believe that Georgia has one of the world’s great unknown cuisines), but there are actually lots of regional varieties of khachapuri. All involve some element of breadiness and plenty of cheese, and some add further cheese, butter or eggs. Having khachapuri’d a little too hard last time we were in Georgia, we were a bit more measured this time, but we still ate a horrifying amount of cheese and regretted none of it!

My favourite version is Imeruli khachapuri (I’m looking very happy holding one in the photo below) – it’s easy to eat on the go because the cheese is stuffed inside the bread, and it doesn’t go quite so big on the cheese as some other versions. By the way – you might be thinking along the lines of pizza, but it doesn’t really taste like that at all. The cheese is much saltier and tangier than mozzarella and you can’t eat nearly as much in one go (trust me, I’ve tried).

Khinkali

We’ve already raved about khinkali, but these filled dumplings are probably our favourite Georgian food – although it’s a very close contest. When we arrived in Tbilisi and realised that our days in Georgia were numbered, we ordered some as part of nearly every meal! We tried some different varieties, including ‘branded’ khinkali (below left – a speciality of Zodiaqo) and mushroom khinkali, which came with a butter sauce (below right), but kalakuri remain our top pick. We met an Armenian-Russian couple on the Tbilisi – Yerevan sleeper train who are convinced that khinkali taste even better in Yerevan (although they admitted they hadn’t tried our faves from Khinkali Ludi in Batumi), so we’re very excited to follow their restaurant recommendation when we get there next week!

Ojakhuri

The name translates to ‘family meal’, and it’s a simple dish that’s definitely more than the sum of its parts. I think it can be made with other meats, but we had the pork version a few times, oven baked with potatoes, onion, garlic, white wine and topped with pomegranite seeds. Oli already wrote a love letter to the version we had at Cafe Laila in Mestia (left pic), and I think this wins the award for us – they were all good, though. My mouth is watering just thinking about it!

Ostri

Ostri is a thick, rich and fragrant beef stew that tastes SO much better than it looks. We ate this a couple of times when the weather felt particularly autumnal (i.e. chilly) and it was a total delight. Our winner (below left) was from the tiny (and oddly-named) Cafe Tourist in Borjomi, which was super herby and had a surprise addition of sour cream that was so delicious in combination with the rich flavours of the stew.

Chicken with tkemali sauce

I think this takes the award for the most beautiful meal we ate in Georgia.

We met an American chap called Ted on a marshrutka who told us about a sensational meal he’d had at Asi Khinkali in Tbilisi. I was dying to try fried chicken with tkemali, a sour plum sauce, but his description convinced me to wait until we reached Tbilisi and could eat the same version. We made it there on our final evening and it was worth the wait. The chicken was succulent with a salty, crispy skin, and the sauce was the perfect contrast – cold (which surprised us!) very sour and almost citrussy.

Walnut everything

Georgian cuisine goes big on walnuts. One of our favourite ways to eat them is in nigvziani badrijani (aubergine rolls filled and topped with walnut paste). These are light, garlicky and really delicious as a starter, and we ordered them almost everywhere. They were consistently good – we couldn’t pick a favourite.

A variation on this is pkhali (top right pic), which adds vegetables such as spinach, beetroot or cabbage to the walnut paste mix. The best pkhali we had were at Heart of Batumi, but we hadn’t decided to write this post at that point so there’s no photo of these!

Also, they’re not walnut, but an honourable mention for the pickled bladdernut buds (top of the main photo below), which we only ordered because they sounded like something from Harry Potter. They tasted a bit like it, too.

Pine cone honey

This is a speciality of Borjomi that I just had to try. It’s also known as pine cone jam, which better captures how it is prepared (boiling green pine cones in sugar syrup). Despite the name(s), it was nothing like any honey or jam I’ve ever tasted – it was the colour of blood oranges with a sweet, tangy, fruity taste and then a fresh, resinous aftertaste. I could only really compare it to how I would imagine eating a Christmas tree might taste! We ate it on bread so fresh that it was still warm, sold to Oli directly from the bakery by a lady with floury hands.

On that note, it’s probably worth mentioning the phenomenal bread in Georgia. Baked fresh in flat loaves throughout the day, it’s somehow soft, chewy and stretchy all at the same time.

Peeking into a bakery in Tbilisi. The dome on the floor is the oven and the bread was being baked to order. Check out that huge mound of dough on the counter!

Borano

Finally, I had to mention Borano for being the most aggressively unhealthy dish we ate in our 19 days in Georgia. Made of melted sulguni cheese, it was like fondue but without the dipping (unless we were doing something very wrong!) The guide that we’d read suggested that there was a version that included potato, if you fancied something lighter. Any dish that is made lighter by the addition of potato is sure to be quite something! And yes, that is butter on top. Don’t worry, we didn’t finish this. Our arteries wouldn’t let us.

I’m sorry if this post made you hungry – my stomach is now rumbling after proof reading the above! Georgia is a delicious country 😋🇬🇪