Day 2- the day of churches

The morning of one of the most exhausting days of my life started out deliciously.  We had breakfast at the house/hotel that we were staying at.  I had bread with butter and jam and I'm still craving more.

After the lovely breakfast, we met our guide who turned out to also be a fan of Rome and Italy and the Aeneid, so he and I bonded super fast. I never thought I'd find a Latin lover in Georgia of all places.  With him we traveled all over Tbilisi and even went to Mtszheta.  Most of the tour was focused on churches and we saw 8 of them though by the end it began to feel like 28.  My favorite one was the Sameba Cathedral which was breathtaking in its symmetry.  It is the biggest cathedral in Georgia built entirely from the contributions of civilians.

We also explored Tbilisi itself and again I was blow away by its beauty.  It had an interesting mix of old and new.  I would see fantastic cathedrals and monasteries, buildings gleaming with glass and metal, but then I would turn a corner and see decrepit houses falling apart.  We talked to the people that lived there and they told us that the overall quality of life in Georgia is increasing.   And, Georgia does look like a country that has seen hard times, but its so wonderful seeing all the construction and understanding that the hard times for her have passed and that the whole country is working to improve itself.

  

Tbilisi has a surprisingly large amount of stray animals, most of which adorable and all of which are not to be petted.

It also has really random surprising things like the tree of wishes

And a large amount of really joyful statues

Tbilisi is a beautiful city and as exhausted as I am from exploring it all on heels- I'm immensely glad to have seen it.