Italy-Georgia Trip, Day 10

On Monday the 23rd, we headed to Kazbegi.  We left early to get out of the city before traffic picked up.  It was a little crazy trying to follow navigation and get on the right road.  Driving on the "freeway" was pretty scary.  The 2-lane stretches sometimes had trucks parked and lining one entire lane.  The 2-way traffic was expected to share the other lane.  And people there are really aggressive drivers, passing all the time, even on blind turns.  We saw several near head-on collisions.  Cows were also all over the road that we had to dodge.  We saw pigs, dogs, chickens, ducks, goats, and even a camel alongside the road.  I think it was the next day when I had had enough of the drive.  Alex was starting to drive more reckless and I yelled at him a couple of times.  At one point, I told him to let me out if he was going to keep driving like that.  He might have slowed down just a bit, but not much.  I wasn't happy with the driving over there and wouldn't want to drive there again.  

We did make it into the village in Kazbegi, hoping to find someone to drive us to our hike in Juta.  The road is too rough for a rental car (and not permissible to drive there), so we needed a driver.  We saw a travel agency building and headed over.  A guy was standing outside of it, saw us, and asked "Juta?"  We said, "Yes."  He said, "I take you."  He knew very little English, so we had to get a translator to help with the details.  He drove us to Juta, waited for 5-6 hours, and then brought us back when we were done (for about $160 in Georgian dollars).  It worked well, but it was a little strange to get in a car with a stranger, who looked like he could be named "Boris", and trust him to take us where we wanted to go.  It probably wasn't the smartest idea, but that's what these guys do.  They stand around and wait to drive tourists around.  We were only about 5 miles from the Russian border for our hike. I absolutely loved the hike - it was probably my favorite thing of our whole trip.  It was quiet and peaceful, very little people there, pretty mountain scenery, horses, and tons of wildflowers.  

We went to the Gergeti Trinity Church that evening - pretty amazing view as it's perched atop a hill. A local stray dog seemed to be taking in the view as well.  Alex got his Georgia peach for the day and we had a yummy kebab wrap at a small local restaurant.