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Anyeong Steemians!

January last year, me, my husband and 3 friends went to the country of Georgia for a short visit. The experienced we had made us engaged with their culture, respect their religion, love their foods and especially adore their people. And I am glad we are able to get this experienced and share it with you

Only a few Filipinos know the country named Georgia. Georgia is one of the Caucasus countries (Turkey, Armenia, Georgia, Azerbaijan) lying on the border of Europe and Asia hence, it is considered to be part of Asia. People are called Georgians and they are very honest, caring, friendly and safe people to be around. Like, you can walk 24/7 in a dark street but no one will even dare to touch or hurt you. Their money currency is Georgian Lari where 1 Lari = AED 1.42 or approximately 17 Philippine pesos.

Having grown up in a tropical country (Philippines), and residing in the Middle East where the weather temperature is most of the time above 40 degrees Celsius, the dream for experiencing "snow" is kicking us to go to this country. It is not a common destination coming from the Philippines as there were no direct flights and since we held residence visa in The United Arab Emirates, we are exempted from applying for a visa. Luckily, there are cheap flights with some airlines so we booked our ticket at Flydubai airline's website. The lifestyle in this country is very cheap and we booked 2 rooms in a 3- star hotel from www.booking.com for 3 nights for just AED 250 (PhP3,000) per room. My friend Robby who had done the trip before us recommended his Georgian tour guide. It was quite expensive but since we are 5, we divided USD580 (already for 3 days tour). You can choose to go on group tours which are much cheaper but the comfort in exploring the country privately is relaxing.

The day has come and we're hitting the Winter Wonder Land! We reached the airport at dawn and our tour guide picked us up. The moment we went outside the airport, our body stiffened due to the uncommon coldness that is getting inside our bones but we were happy! For the first time in our lives, we experienced this extreme cold feeling at -2 degrees Celsius! Our tour guide dropped us at our hotel by 3 am and told us to take a rest because we will start the tour at 9 am. Here, I will be showing you the places we went during our 3 days tour.

DAY 1: JINVALI WATER RESERVOIR - ANANURI FORTRESS - GUDAURI SKI RESORT

FIRST STOP

Duration : An hour travel from Tbilisi the Capital City of Georgia

SECOND STOP

Duration : Less than 15 minutes drive from Jinvali Water Dam

This fortress is a castle land in the center a cathedral was built. We went inside the cathedral and since I wanted to respect the people and the church I did not take pictures and just did my observation. By the way, Christian Orthodox is the main religion of the country and this was the first we entered this kind of cathedral. Amongst all Christian churches, their cathedrals do not have any chairs and people visiting and praying never runs out. As in, you will never enter a cathedral without seeing believers. Some of it also has graves of high-rank priests and country leaders inside. Quite scary but the Georgians are very respectful, religious and their love for their country is immense.

THIRD STOP - FINAL DESTINATION

Duration : More than 3 hours travel from Tbilisi

At last! Our dream to lay down, play with snow and do ski has come true! There's an entrance fee here of about 80 Lari however the fee is inclusive on the tour we took. So we enjoyed the rest of the day skiing, riding cable cars and playing. I am supposed to do paragliding but unfortunately, the fog was too thick so it was cancelled :(.

DAY 2 : BODBE MONASTERY - SIGHNAGHI CITY OF LOVE - SIGhNAGhI CITY WALLS - WINERY KHAREBA

Unfortunately, we did not see the full beauty of the Bodbe Monastery and Sighnaghi City of Love thanks to the zero visibility caused by the fog. Nevertheless, we still had ourselves enjoyed the winter feeling and the surroundings.

FIRST STOP

Duration : 1 hour and 40 minutes drive

Our tour guide said that this monastery has an awesome landscape and overlooking view. Thanks to the fog, we were not able to see it. :(

SECOND STOP

Duration : Less than 30 minutes from Bodbe Monastery

This is literally Europe feels. The structures, road bricks and street designs made us feel like we're in Europe. And again, we tried to take pictures of the entire view but the fog was just very thick. This is my favourite city as you will really feel in love with it.

THIRD STOP

Duration : Less than 15 minutes from the City of Love

Our tour guide said that the view behind the walls are incredible and breathtaking. This wall was built to protect the entire city of Sighnaghi

FOURTH AND THE FINAL STOP

Duration : An hour drive from Signaghi City Walls

DAY 3 & LAST DAY : MTSKHETA AND TBILISI CITY TOUR

FIRST STOP

Travel Time : 30 minutes from Tbilisi

This is one of the oldest city in Georgia. Here, it's like you're inside of a compound where you can feel like a royalty with awesome view of the Caucasian mountains.

SECOND STOP

Travel Time : less than 40 minutes drove from Tbilisi

THIRD STOP

I told our tour guide that it is my dream to step into frozen lake although this was not part of the tour, he was being nice as they took us to the Turtle Lake in Tbilisi which has turned to ice! Again, another list has been checked on my bucket list.

Next, we went and explore the city. We were able to ride the oldest cable car in Georgia and it really freaked us out as it was very scary and old. Though we have ridden their new cable car as well on the way up to the Mother of Georgia monument which was situated at the top of a hill where it is overlooking the entire city and the neighbouring town.

It was indeed a very short trip but it was worth it. :)

Thank you for your time reading. Until our next trip! :)