Signagi & David Jareji & Martofel

So we decided after our failure to accent the Kazbeg to drown our feelings in lots of wine, and god knows that we heard that Kaheti has the best wine in Georgia. So we took a marshrutka from Samgori station in Tbilisi to Signagi (6 Lari – 1:30).  We found out that they are leaving only every 2 hours and we just missed one – so we had 2 hours to kill and we were hungry.

We went to the market to grab some food and saw local guys eating some food out from boxes that you usually buy, so we approached and asked where can we buy some food. One of guys,  Gosha, offered to show us where he bought the food, but only after we joined them for few glasses of home wine.  Gosha took us to buy the food, ordered us a drink and then when he figured out that we would like to eat it on the spot he bought another bottle of wine and the tastiest melon that we had for ages. We ate with him and had a great conversation. As always it was hard to say goodbye.

having wine in the market

a great 2 hours

We took the marshrutka and on the way we met Vano who is the senior chess champion in Georgia and also rents rooms in his house. He offered us a room for 15 Lari for night. We wanted to stay with Nir and Eyal at Nona’s guest house but it was full and we decided to stay with Vano. We met a nice lady from Ukraine, Luba, with whom we had a nice day in SIghnagi , went for the local winery had a great lunch and an interesting conversation .

light in the fog

A lady in the gate

a beautiful street

A free ride

in the Winery - Ira and Luba

a beautiful girl , the one on the right

We took the wine tour from Lado and Dato  for 60 Lari ( a private tour for the two of us) , 3 different wineries 2 big and one small. One of the big was Kinzmarauli, the second was  a wine cellars build by the soviet uninon at the 70’s, and the small winery was the best out from the 3 and had a museum and unlimited tasting. All in all we found out that we had the worst wine in Georgia in Sighnagi. 

the soviet wine cellar

my precious :)

Jinni in a big bottle ?

in the museum 

this is the right way to live

We came back to Nana and set with her discussed life and helped her a bit with writing an email to her US friend.

The weather was bad so we decided to leave Sighnagi and return to Tbilisi. Nana offered us her father as a private driver to David Gareja for 100Lari - a high price. In our B&B stayed another couple of Israelis, Guy and Shira, with whom we decided to share a ride and we should have continued from there to Tbilisi.

We took the ride in the morning and it was a beautiful weather combined with a beautiful road, we reached David Gareja and started our way to the caves. On the top we found two Azeri soldiers turning around all the tourists under the excuse for some army drill and claiming that this is an Azerbajan territories. I spoke to them and explained them that we can’t go down the same way because it’s slippery and we had Shira who was pregnant. It’s dangerous for her , so maybe they could let us go the path any way – because there was no drill – just regular power struggles between two countries for land and the tourists suffer …

Us :)

The monastry

Eventually the officer agreed to escort us to the other side on the ridge without us actually getting to the beautiful caves but we saw most of the scenery. On the other side we met a group of locals from Tbilisi who traveled in an organize group by two amazing teachers Manana and Avto who take their neighbors, friends and students for trips around Georgia.

We started talking to them and they started giving us wine and chacha …

Ira could not refuse

Nukri and me

rapidly the conversation became fun and we found ourselves catching a ride with them to Tbilisi. In the beginning we went to St. Martofel Monastery and on the way we had a great conversation with all the people.

Martofel

with Anuki and Lia

Those guys explained us that Georgian never end a trip without making a BBQ in the end. So we got to a great Georgian BBQ on a fire ( they make their Shishlik on fire not coil ). We had the Tamada, drinking for the regular toasts but adding to all of those Israel and us , once more this amazing country hugged us.

the Table :) a bit cold but really warm in the hart

Shef Nukri

warming up :)

We got to Irina Late at night happy and amazed by those amazing people once more …