Sighnaghi and the Ninotsminda monastery

I have been absent from this blog for a while. Mostly because I have been busy doing absolutely nothing, relaxing and drinking wonderful Georgian wine. Anyway, in the previous episode, we were approaching Sighnaghi, a nice mountain town in Kakheti.

Sighnaghi, in the last three years, has been at the center of a big reconstruction project and at times it doesn't even look Georgian. Or better, it looks as Georgia must have been like during its moments of splendour. Houses are brand new, most cars aren't of the Soviet type and there is a general aura of well-being. Everything but the weather is nice. Yeah, the weather.

To be honest, houses aside, it doesn't look that different from any of our borgo. Cobblestone streets, narrow alleys, churches and belfries. It it wasn't for the distinct Georgian architecture style and the mkhedruli signs, we could be on some Appennini or Alps village.

After setting down at the nice and clean guesthouse my taxi driver contacted, I went to have dinner at a local restaurant. Excellent chakapouli, finally with tkemali, and mtsvadi. After that I went back to the guesthouse and prepared to sleep, since the morning after I had plans to visit the Monastery of Saint Nino at Bogde (ბოდბის წმინდა ნინოს მონასტერი), some 2km up Sighnaghi, where lies the woman that converted Georgian to Christianity.

The morning after started with a HUGE breakfast, then a stroll to the monastery. Again, I was astonished at how green and full of flowers Georgia is.

All of the above were seen during my 30 minutes walk from Sighnaghi to the monastery. Georgia in spring is just a marvel to behold.

Finally, the monastery came into sight.

The monastery, which lies in a small cypress grove, overlooking the Alazani valley, shares the same destiny of basically everything in Georgia, having been pillaged, reconstructed, changed, renovated, closed and reopened, during Persian, Russian and Soviet rule. As with the Alaverdi monastery, no pictures were allowed inside, where the remains of Saint Nino are enshrined.

After the church I walked down a long path through corridors and a forest, to the Holy Spring, with water of supposed miracolous nature. There was nothing worth taking photos of, down there, but on the way back I was relieved by the presence of stone elementals watching my steps. Almost literally.

Going back to Sighnaghi, clouds where rising from the valley, resembling mist. The weather was being inclement again.

I went to have a quick lunch, then back to the guesthouse to pick my stuff and wait for my taxi. The landlord asked me if I could take some pics of the room and sent them to his email address, to update the booking.com website. I did, and his wife gave me a large churchkhela. Everybody won in the trade.

Back in Tbilisi, it seemed like that my host's problems weren't over. So I decided to move to GT Hostel again, like last year. Gaga welcomed me ad Zozo, the Japanese guy, was still there. It welt like coming back home, as they offered me house-made wine. The plan, for the morning after, was theoretically to go to Svaneti, but my spider sense was tingling... My and Lekha were supposed to travel together, but she disappeared, so I just decided to skip Svaneti (too far, almost one day would be lost in travel) and relax in Tbilisi for a day. Maybe I could go to see Vardzia, the cave city, instead...