The Flyin' Liz Ryen

4 September 2016 Checked in, well fed, crossword puzzle book in hand. Now just 18 hours of flying and I'll arrive in Tbilisi Georgia. Why Georgia? It has old stone watch towers clinging to steep hillsides, it's surrounded by rugged mountains and lakes, it has it's own unique language and alphabet, and I hear the food is amazing, why not? Once again I have brought my bicycle, but while I was checking in I was told that Turkish airlines has been losing a lot of bags lately. Not a very confidence inspiring way to drop off my means of travel. Bike or no bike, my vacation has begun!

6 September  After trying in vain to keep myself asleep until a normal waking hour, I gave up and went out to explore the city. Old town is a snarl of little streets and alley lines with restaurants and shops and in the early morning, inhabited only by cats. Every direction you look there is a church rising out of the hillside. For women wearing less than modest clothing (pants) there are wrap around skirts and head scarves in a basket by the front doors. Most of the churches are not extremely old since poor Tbilisi kept getting sacked every hundred years. However inside all of the churches are beautiful fresco's covering the walls with gilded saints. The archways are decorated with painted flow¿ers and vines and the ceilings midnight blue with golden stars.  Back at my hotel hours later for breakfast at 9, I was treated to slabs of cheesy salty flatbed and coffee so thick I could have  painted with it. I spent the rest of the day assembling my bicyc...

7 September Needing to move around, I decided to go running in the morning. I didn't see anyone else doing it, but I also didn't get any funny looks. I ran through the botanical garden, high up on the southern side of the valley and was thrilled to be able to run through flowers, trees, ponds, bamboo forests, and a kid's playground (with a zip line!) within an hour.  After breakfast I walked up to Tsminda Sameba (Holy Trinity) Cathedral built over ten years and finished in 2004. Despite its massive bulk, it was surprisingly open inside, the ceiling rising to over 270 feet. Despite many new beautiful buildings, much of the city is full of cracked, falling down structures. When sagging balconies are braced with 2x4s it makes you wonder how they don't fall down. Some have entire walls that have crumbled, exposing rooms with wallpaper still showing. The 1990s were really hard for Georgia and although the capitol is booming, there is still a lot of poverty. It...

9 September      Policeman: where are you going?      Me: Mestia!      Policeman: Do you know you are going the wrong way?      Me: uh... And this is how I got picked up by the police. They were so kind and the whole thing turned ridiculous as the police would take me just to the next station and then call ahead to the next station where I would be passed along to a new truck. All in all I traveled about 40 uphill kilometers and laughed with the police the whole way. I did manage to get a mini bus to Zugdigi saving myself the stress of riding out of the city and riding 330km on flat, hot, and very humid terrain. The ride from my hotel to the station was plenty exciting. As in many countries, lanes lines and safe passing zones are superfluous. I had to trust that people would rather preserve their car's paint job than hit a biker. The station was crazy. I never actually saw a bus, just hundreds of mini buses with the ...

10 September Only five miles and 9,000 feet up from town and I find myself blown away by these mountains. This is what made me want to come to Georgia. I left at 7am for a hike and started climbing immediately. Up, up, and up without another person in sight. A third of the way up I passed a steel cross that you can look up and see from town. I watched the fog climb it's way up the sides of the valley and crossed my fingers that it would clear as I got farther up the trail. At Koruldi lakes the fog was still thick so I lay down and fell fast asleep for an hour. When I woke up, the fog had cleared enough to see town way down below. I ended up talking with a man from France at the top where we both decided that it was cold enough to head back town. He works in the health department specifically with blood transfusions and organ transplants. I asked him every question about blood I could think of and learned a ton. By the time we had moved on to vaccinations, antibi...

13 September The road from Mestia to Ushguli was beautifully paved to the top of the pass. From there things got a little more spicy. Slow and steady dodging more cows than cars I made my way the 30miles to Ushguli, the highest permanently inhabited village in Europe at 2100m. The village is nestled in a valley and is famous for the high concentration of medieval towers clustered throughout the village. I wearily pushed my bike through the roads of the village which looked more like hiking trails until I found a guest house. When I asked how much to stay I was told 45 lari ($20)! I said no, no, I would camp in the yard for 5. The woman of the house said 10, I countered back with 7. She agreed and then asked if I would join them for dinner. Turns out I chose the one guest house that is not really a guest house, but is a place where all the locals hang out for dinner. I watched as they carried in the fresh carcass of a pig and after the sun went down I was invited to sit ...

15 September Biking to Kutaisi was mostly downhill at a comfortable to exhilarating pace. In 75 miles I went from staring at glaciers to biking past palm trees. Before I made it to town I had one big hill to climb. A very humid hour into it, the sweat was streaming down my arms and legs. Cars had stopped honking at me as I looked more like the swamp thing than a girl on a bike. Eventually I pulled myself into town and threw myself into the nearest shower I could find, a lovely hostel named "Georgianize Yourself." Dinner and a glass of wine almost had me feeling normal again. To keep my sanity I decided to take the bus, and figured I might as well take it all the way to up Kazbegi, 200 miles away. I was charged double for my bike, but it was worth every lari. I left the bus,walked around the streets of beautiful Kazbegi (aka Stepantsmida) and found a guest house that would take me in.  I walked in the door of Ananu Guesthouse and was invited immediately to sit at the ta...

19 September With a beautiful morning view of Mt Kazbek, I took it as a sign to go deeper into the mountains. I ate a hearty breakfast ( I don't think there is any other kind of meal in Georgia) and biked down to Sno Valley. The ride up the valley was beautiful and for once, mostly flat. At the end is a little village called Juta. I was able to leave my bike at the hotel there and after a Turkish coffee (imagine an espresso with all the grounds still in it) I was ready to go. The trail quickly climbs up past a few guest houses and camping areas and then the valley opens up to a craggy mountain that would make a climber drool. Chaukhi pass climbs to 11,000ft and is steep towards the top. I was feeling pretty impressed with myself until I was passed by an old man leading a horse, fully loaded with food for the cafés, down towards Juta. As I reached the top, fog closed in and the though the trail was easy to follow, I became a little uneasy. After all, I was by myself, it wa...

19 September Down a dusty bumpy road Truso Valley opens up to wide grassy fields with mineral springs that make travertine steps. Tired from hiking and battling a head wind, I was thrilled to park my bike for the night and set up my tent. I had just put the rain fly on when a young boy came walking towards me. "Come!" He said, so I zipped up my tent, snugged my bike down along side it, and followed him across the valley, over a river, and to his family's tent. The family uses this valley to graze their sheep and cows throughout the summer. Their house was a dirt floored tent cozy warm with a fire in the stove. I was invited to sit and then food started appearing in front of me. Bread, butter, cheese, yogurt, tea, vodka, plum preserves. The family sat around the table, just watching and insisting I eat. They kept insisting that it was too cold for my tent and I needed to stay with them. When they found out that I was by myself the boy's uncle kept offering to slee...

20 September At 7:30am, I was the first one up in the hotel. I wandered into the kitchen to find some tea, and the owner of the hotel filled a cup for me, gave me a cookie, and sat me down in front of the television. Throughout the morning he kept bringing me little sweet breads, which graduated to glasses of wine. At 9am, a couple glasses in, I finally sat down to breakfast. When it was time to go, he sent me off with water bottles full to the brim of special mineral water that was so effervescent and sulphurous that every time I took a swig, all i could think about was fizzy farts. My first stop of the day was the fortress at Ananuri, a 13th century castle that seems to have been a never ending battle site. The church inside the walls was built in 1689 and like all Georgian churches seems more like a museum than a place to gather. It used to be covered with frescos, but now just a whitewashed shell. I continued on towards Telavi and was meet with 12 miles of non st...