Vazisubani

Vazisubani

Kety Rostiashvili hosted us for a visit to her place in Vazisubani, high on a sloping shoulder of the Gorjomi Mountains, a sort of Soviet era mansion. Here are the directions to her place in the Georgian countryside:

Directions for Vazisubani, Gurjaani district.

You have to get to Metro station "Isani" You can get there by Metro taking it on Rustaveli station, which is the nearest from your place, or you can take Metro on "Tavisuplebis Moedani (Liberty Circle)" if you are in the National Art Museum. This is one line which goes directly to Metro "Isani". So, the names of stations to get to Metro "Isani" are: 1."Rustaveli", 2. "Tavisuplebis Moedani (Liberty Circle)", 3. "Avlabari", 4. "Samasi Aragveli (300 Aragveli)", 5. "Isani".
When you are in the station "Isani" there is only one way to come out from the Metro. When you are in the street and the Metro station door is behind you, you have to go left and turn to the nearest street which conjuncts with the main highway, which will be in front of you, whey you come out from the subway. Just there are in this "left street" are standing many taxis, which goes to Telavi. Cost of one passenger is 10 laries, but as you are coming to Vazisubani, which is 35 km. before Telavi you might be charged 7 laries, but it depends. Maximum is 10 laries.
If you keep going to this "left street» and turn the first left again, you will find on your left side minibuses. Just first buses on this left side are going to Vazisubani. You have to just ask them Vazisubani. As soon as the driver confirms this name phone to me to my cell phone (8-99) 901-334 and I will speak with the a driver and explain where in Vazisubani you have to leave the bus. You have to pay 5 laries per person. Each 20 minutes buses are leaving for our village. It will take actually about 1, 5 hours to get to our village, but I will be in touch with you each 20-30 minutes to be sure that you are doing well.
In Vazisubani I will wait for you near our stadium and pick you up there. Hope you will easily found all our main points and easily get to our village.
We have in Vazisubani telephone by which we can speak free of charge with Tbilisi Vake district. Its number is (8-253)25-777. But for constant contact is better to use my cell phone. Just in case, I am giving this other phone number.
Take some worm close with you as in the evening it is colder than during the day time.
I hope you will really enjoying travel and staying in our wonderful Kakheti, Eastern part of Georgia.

Bird songs, small vineyards everywhere, quiet, the pure white peaks of the Caucus Mountains lined up across the eastern horizon, flowers, green, horse and mule drawn wagons, a slow pace of life. How can you go fast if you are sitting on a two wheel cart loaded with fence post wood plodding along behind a mule. Much time to sit and look and think.

Kety is a professor of American Studies at Tbilisi State University. She speaks English well and I helped her with the draft of a paper that she wrote on corruption in higher education in Georgia. She is a fascinating person who leads the dual life as a farm girl in Kakheti and as a university sophisticate in Tbilisi. Her fiancé, Misha, is a native of Vazisubani and is one of those rural engineers who fixes everything, grows the best grapes, makes the best wine, cultivates and preserves the best peaches, buys land whenever he can, has many parts cars for use with his various Lado type Russian vehicles. We can vouch for the wine and the peaches as they gave us an abundance of both which we are now working our way through back in Tbilisi. His Saparavi wine has no hint of tanic acid, pure grape, dark, and I think does not last long once it is open to the air. Thus, one opens a plastic bottle in which it is stored and drinks it. It turns a bit sour quite quickly. The point is that this is the Georgian wine about which we had heard, the homemade wine that is so delicious. I think it is one of those things that has to be enjoyed in the moment and thus defies America’s belief that everything good in life must always have an indeterminate shelf life so it can be enjoyed whenever and where ever one wishes. There is a lot of living in the moment in Vasisubani.

In fact, this is perhaps true of Vazisubani and Kakhete. It is a place in the world to be savored for its beauty. I show some pictures but think none can do justice to the magic of this region.

It was back to Georgian reality when we returned. According to the landlord, workers had cut the cable that brought internet service to our building. Hard to believe. But, we have not had internet for a week now and this means hauling the lap tops to those places around Tbilisi where we can connect. There is a coffee/pastry shop not far where we go. And there is the Betsy’s Hotel where we work out. But, it is far from convenient. So, our managing this blog has suffered. And, my daily need for a news fix has suffered.

And now we are worried about the volcano in Iceland that has brought air travel in Europe to a standstill. It is dawning on us that our flight home though Munich might be a real problem as it is about a week and a half away. I hear that Europeans are hollering across the North Sea that they said to Iceland, “Cash, cash, it was cash we wanted, not ash!”

The peace and serenity of Kakheti diminishes.