A FACETIOUS GUIDE

It was once a pile of crumbling ruins on the hill of a sad metropolis. Always grey skies, or raining, or if not that then sunny, hot, and dusty. Then one day someone had a grand vision to rebuild it all and make a wedding house out of it, somewhere nice for the locals of Akhalsitkhe to take fancy pictures and maybe not have their celebration in some hotel that for the rest...

Vardzia is one of the more incredible places in Georgia, and must be on any list of “have-to-see” places. Logically, because of Georgia’s infrastructure, you often have to cut some places short, but definitely have it your list for one-of-the-times-you-visit Georgia. It’s about a four-hour drive from Tbilisi (3 hours, depending on how creative your driver is), but it’s wel...

Prehistoric castles, medieval cave cities and castles, canyons,  and a hot springs. That was our three day quest that we had set, with very limited success. The team was my Latvian friend, his eleven-year-old son, and myself, crammed into the front seats of his utility van. It had been a relatively cool summer, so with the sun shining as we set off from my apartment, it lo...

It is a rare occasion that the visitor flies into the Tbilisi airport at a reasonable hour. Most flights inexplicably come in at around two or three in the morning, and many people have many theories on this odd occurrence and strategy. Most of us just assume it has something to do with when the flights are cheapest leaving Europe, and others believe it’s got to do with so...

Georgia is safe. I’ve got to repeat that time and time again, despite the popular draws the country has into the international media. The citizenry generally struggle to be known for positive things, like cheese boats with eggs, wine, techno clubs, and fashion, but the real draw in our disaster porn-obsessed culture seems to be civil unrest and war with Russia. To be sure,...