On my second day in Georgia I went up to the mountains in Kazbegi! Zhaniya and I left the hostel at “7:30am” (well, she said she wanted to leave at 7:30 but at 7:32am I entered her room and she was still sleeping!)

From the hostel we took the metro to Didube station where we got off and of course we got harassed by people trying to get us on a mini van instead of the regular bus to Kazbegi. I’ve been on the road for a while so I kind of know how this works but this is Zhaniya’s first time on her own so we got off and since she speaks Russian she started talking to the guys who claimed that the bus just left and the next one would be later on. I looked at her and I told her that they were lying! I told her that the girl at the hostel told us that the bus left every 30 minutes so we should go and find that one and guess what? Right on the other side of the parking lot was the terminal for the local bus going to Kazbegi.

I usually fall asleep the whole ride but when I opened my eyes a little after we left Tbilisi and noticed the scenery  I just knew I couldn't go back to sleep! The view was incredible! We were driving on a two lane road surrounded by beautiful mountains and water.

At one point one of the tourists asked Zhaniya to ask the driver if he could stop by Ananuri Monastery and he said no, then the tourist explained that they wanted to get off there and spend the night so the driver did stop. While this couple was getting off the whole bus got off and the driver said 2 minutes for pictures, five minutes later he was honking and screaming since the whole bus was gone and only a girl and myself were there. 

From Ananuri the views got even better! The green mountains were so beautiful my eyes could hardly take in all that I was seeing! This was even more beautiful than Montenegro! I just wanted to jump out of the van and breathe in the fresh air and dance in the mountains like Julie Andrews in the sound of music!

After 3 hours we finally arrived in Stepantsminda and walked 10 mins with our new friend, Ingrid from England, to our guesthouse.

Stepantsminda is well known for the trinity church on top of the mountains and as we walked towards our guesthouse we noticed it at the top and behind it a beautiful snow covered hill! So dreamy!

We checked in into the hostel and decided that we would go and hike up to the church that afternoon but wait until the sun was less strong.



 At 3pm with my hiking shoes on we got some courage and decided to tackle the mountain! Thankfully we talked to our guesthouse owner and she showed us a drawn map with the easy way on how to get there… I love the easy way!

Long story short the easy way took us almost two hours but out of those two hours maybe we actually walked 40 minutes. We kept stopping every other step, took pictures, and even laid on the grass and enjoyed the view! 
In my opinion there is no point on hiking if you are not enjoying the scenery, am I right?!… I know I am!

The start of the hike!

On our way we saw so many hardcore hikers with huge backpacks and sticks… I admire them! I am more of the kind of person who enjoys to look at the mountains… from a cozy cabin, drinking tea! haha

We got to the church and there were a lot of people, most of them had gotten up there in a mini van… lazy people! haha




The views were amazing! We spent quite some time up there admiring the beauty of the Georgian country side and then made our way down and back to the hostel.

The next day Zhaniya woke up early and as she was getting ready I saw her and said I would keep on sleeping, then came back and at 9:30am I heard her say “I’m waiting for Andrea to wake up” haha so I opened one eye and said “IIIIII”mmmmmmm aaawake” and started to get ready for the day.

Zhaniya wanted to go to a waterfall but me not so much since by now I am not impressed by them but decided to go with her in order to do something! The walk to the waterfall was about 5-6 km and had to walk it since no busses or trucks. I said to her that we could always hitch hike but she had never done it before. She was brave and said she would stick her finger out and see what happened. Many cars went by and no luck! Until I truck came by and I said “Do you want to go in the truck”, she looked at me and said “No.” Next thing I saw was her climbing inside the truck! It was hilarious!

We got into the truck of a Georgian man who Zhaniya could speak Russian with and after a couple of minutes of talking he realized I could speak spanish and oh surprise! Jorge was fluent in spanish!

From then on the day was full of 3 way conversation between russian, spanish, and english!

The view from Jorge’s truck was simply amazing, being high up really gave us a different perspective… so beautiful! Words can’t describe it!

Our plan was to go Gveleti to the waterfalls but Jorge started talking to Zhaniya and said that he was going to the church and something about his truck and I have no idea what else. We were all confused but little by little we pieced it all together. It turned out that we were only 10km from the Russian border where there was a church and Jorge had to meet his driver in front of the church to exchange the back of their trucks so he could go back to Tbilisi and the other driver back to Russia. We agreed to go with Jorge and arrived at a beautiful church surrounded by the mountains. 

We all got off and walked to the church. As we entered Jorge gave each of us a skirt so we could visit the church and then he proceeded to buy 9 candles, 3 for each of us. He then took us around the altars and showed me how they make the sign of the holy cross (tap the bottom, tap the front, tap right shoulder once, tap left shoulder once, repeat 3 times) and told me to do whatever he did. I did… minus the kissing the altars, that’s just yucky! Like I never kissed the baby Jesus on Christmas eve after it had been passed around and kissed by all of my family and friends… uhhh… too many strangers germs!

Then we went to 3 different spots with candles and lit a candle in each one of them! It felt so nice to be able to be part of such important tradition for the Georgians! God Bless Jorge!

Border with Russia!

We got out of the church and Jorge said that the driver was stuck in a long line at the border and that it might take hours so he could take us on his truck back to Gveleti. Back in the huge truck we went in the narrow and windy streets of Kazbegi where Jorge opened his little fridge and gave us a cold chocolate to share! Then two of his friends started honking and he said that his friends would take us in a car to the falls. He parked the truck and we switched cars. After a 4 minute drive we arrived at the intersection of the falls and got into a very very bumpy street and we picked up two more girls to take them up to the falls. 

The falls were not impressive but the journey there for sure was! 

With Zhaniya and Jorge

We got back in the van, and then back in Jorge’s truck and went back to Stepantsminda for a late lunch. We sat in the outside area of a nice restaurant where the stream of the mountains passed through and enjoyed a meal which Jorge absolutely refused we paid for!

By the time we left it was already 6pm but the day was short of amazing. Leaving the hostel that morning I never knew what was ahead for us, and this little adventure with Jorge was just amazing!