Wanderlust notes

In Russia we have an image of Georgia as not really safe country, especially for two girls traveling alone. But we were brave and keen not just to go there, but to rent a car and drive around the whole country. We crossed it from East to West and back. We were super lucky to stay in friends' house in Tbilisi, with old carpets on the walls, squeaky sofas, family portraits in dark frames and dozens of books up to the ceiling. We crossed many valleys, climbed up and down the mountains, watching how different the weather and landscape could be just on one and another side of the pass. We tried sparkling water from the fountain going out from the rocks. We reached the sea, left the car and were running happily towards it, resetting our sneakers on the way. We were lying on the stones with our eyes closed listening to the most magic and healing from all sorrows sound of the sea surf. We enjoyed the contrasts - stayed one night in a posh hotel with a sea view, next night in a tiny room at monastery's attic. But how we got there is a longer story.
A friend of mine knows the nuns and asked to give us a shelter for the night. Imagine our surprise when we found not one, but two monasteries on the same hill! We couldn't find our hosts as they hardly spoke Russian to explain the directions. We were tired and irritated, followed by the suspicious gang of teenagers. We climbed higher on the hill in complete darkness with our bags, listening to howling dogs who heard the smell of the strangers. Suddenly out of nowhere an old car appeared and stopped just by us. The situation became even tenser. An old man got out of it, looked at us and said: "Either I have very late guests or you are lost". Then we told him our story as by that time we had understood it wasn't the monastery down the hill or up we needed. So the old man called our nuns and talked in Georgian. Then he said the place we were looking for was a bit too far to go on foot and he could give us a lift. We were standing in silence for a moment remembering our Moms' words we had heard in childhood "NEVER SIT IN A STRANGER'S CAR!' Especially in Georgia. Especially in countryside. Especially at night... But we had no choice and decided to trust that man. 30 min later we were sitting with nuns telling them about our adventures and extremely kind man, who showed us the way to monastery and drove back to our car, destroyed our image of aggressive Caucus men. No more stereotypes, just meeting real people heart by heart.