Day I-II. Train to the south

I'm living in Saint Petersburg now and, you know, I couldn't imagine that before! This city always seemed to me too cold, gloomy and rainy. Partly that's true, especially if take into account that it's february :)

So in one day free from shooting, when it's already dark outside at 5pm, I got this idea of creating my own blog. But what to write about? About tavelling, about life, about something what inspires, for sure... 

Day I. Train to the south

Have you ever had the desire to send your tiresome job to hell and just go anywhere? Definitely, you've had. Same for me.

    

This happened almost two years ago, in time when I was still woking in HardRock Cafe (probably waitress job isn't for me). One day I clearly got it and also helped my friend Sasha who's working with me to get it.  

Resignation letters are on table, tips and month salary are in pocket, what's next? Where to go? Firstly, we had idea to make trip through native Belarus, but when you have a bit bigger amount of money (we had about 48 thousands of rubles for two) you can afford a bigger journey. 

"Caucasus? I'm not sure..." - firstly said Sasha with a grain of salt. Honestly, she told me that it's the last place where she'd go, but, good for me, I know how to persuade:)

Bag-station-Vladikavkaz, or in our case: backpack and one-way ticket. 

35 hours on upper bed in couchette car through Voronezh, Chertkovo station with view on Ukraine, Rostov, Armavir, Beslan... and so we're in the capital of Ossetia!


Day II. Climbing

Unfortunatelly, this nice idea to write about my journey didn't came to my mind at the beginning, that's why my first notes are pretty terse...

Vladikavkaz

Vladikavkaz is a city on the south of Russia, the capital of the Republic North Ossetia-Alania, and much more what you can read about on wikipedia.

Primaily for me and Sasha this city became the very first point of our huge journey and some kind of point of no return. The place where you clearly realize everything's for real and there's no way back And who needs? This way back...

High green mountains, seen in the distance, wide streets with low-level brick houses and air... 

    

Air, what's never enough. Clear, fresh, filled with aroma of flowers and herbs, what lies on pitchmans' counter. 

   
        



  

Here you can find really tasty ossetian pies, what we haven't ate, fresh vegies... but to find wi-fi at 8 am... well it was a kind of problem. We'd gone through the whole city before we thought about the railway station, and yeah! There was a wi-fi spot, and that's a bit unexpected for Russia.  

By the way we managed to charge phone and take some food in a little cafe in front of the station. All other places were closed at 9am. One more difference between Vladikavkaz and any big city.

Georgian border

It happened so, that a lot of people from Russia come to Georgia through land border: it's much cheapper, especially now, when low-cost airline Pobeda flies from Moscow to Vladikavkaz.

After landing travelers have few ways to come to Kazbegi (or Tbilisi): 

1. Taxi. Finding driver who brings you to Georgia isn't a problem. Telling truth they will find you, but be ready to pay pretty big amount of money (about 4 thousands). Easy, but expensive for us...
2. Bus and passing car. The cheapest way (about 100 rubles for person). Sadly the bus to Verkhny Lars goes only few times per day. We missed morning bus and absolutely didn't want to wait for evening one. 
3. Taxi and passing car. Finding driver to Verkhny Lars is easier than say:"Verknhy Lars". You only open your mouth. No! Just look at parking place, and right in this second get the thousands offers. (price depends on your bargaining skills).

We reduced price to 1700 rubles, though I think, we could reduce more, but ossetian taxist know how to persuade. Moreover they know how to bypass long queue of cars.

Yeah, it's a great plus. One of the main advantage of going by taxi is what you don't need to wait in the line.

Ossetian driver took us right to the border crossing point and arranged with some family from Rostov to take us in their van (!) It was our very first experience of hitchhiking. Hope it's always gonna be like this.
   

Process of crossing border was pretty easy. Border guards only asked Sasha (with belarusian passport) about aims of her visit to Georgia, but in this case we had answer with "certain" addres of our "friend" from Tbilis (spoiler: we don't have the friends. att all)

Kazbegi

Kazbegi (now it's Stepantsminda) is difinetly the must see place. If you haven't be there, consider, you haven't seen the most amazing part of Georgia.


Tiny town, placed on Georgian Military Road is one of the most beautiful place, what I've ever seen. 
   

There is a church in mountains, rough Terek-river, what was written about by almost every russian poet, extremely tasty georgian cuisine and all of these is among snowy peaks.


Not making a stop in Stepantsminda is kind of crime, quite so we decided with Sasha. All of the affordable accommodation here you can find on the hill, slightly away from the center; so we paid about 50 lari for pretty nice room with view on the side of Kazbeg-mountain.
(In comparison, a room in the center costs about 100-120 lari).

When a place to overnight stay'd been found, soul demanded for bread and circuses new head-spinning impessions. Is there some christian church on the top of a mountain? Five kilometers way to there? That's for us!!!

Taken some snacks before, with burning eyes and charged phones we started our climbing... Who knew that only climbing up'd take more than 2 hours!

Two hours on the way up to the mountain, clinging to pine-trees, exposed roots and stones. Grass stained jeans, dirty paws and soiled sneakers, and we were on the top!

Here at height of 2100 meters air was so fresh and oxygen saturated, that every step up literally made your head spinning. Needed to get used to that.


By the way, if you're not the fan of climbing up by grassy hillside, you can get to the church by car (as option you can ask taxist to take you there for some money).

Yeah, we were lucky with the weather. Huge cloud, what'd covered the church, was giving the place a mystical look.

Besides the temple, there is a spring on the top, where you can take some cool water. In Georgia there are a lot of springs, but in my opinion this is one of the best.

Atop we spent not more than hout, but trust me, that's enough to explore, take photos and fill up with this special kind of energy. Maybe I just rarely had climbed mountains, but this place left an indelible impression. All the way down we went inspired by seen and hungry. Yeah, physical activity and fresh air indeed increase appetite.

Across the river, downhill, right to entrance of Stepantsminda we found great home cafe. Now I can surely tell, that it was one of the best place I've ever been. It looked really simple: plastic garden furniture, menu printed on simple paper sheet, and unbelievably delicious food...

Hot kharcho, authentic chakhokhbili, the most cheesy khachapuri and glass of red wine was the great ending of the great day.

Believe me, Sasha, whose speciality is chef, knows about food, and after our journey she's moreover an expert about khachapuri :)




In the next post I'll tell about Georgian Military Road, legendary Cross pass and sunny Mtskheta.

p.s.: Guys, English isn't my native language so if you notice some evident mistakes, please, write in comments, I'll be happy to get it and fix it. Really!