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Date of the journey:- October 2019
Distance travelled:- 88 miles
Mtskheta was our next stop. Only a simple 2 hr marshrutka journey. Leaving Hotel Victoria, we walked back to the Borjomi Bus Station. The purchase of the tickets was required prior to boarding the marshrutka. Directed to the ticket office we purchased our tickets for Mtskheta at 7 GEL per person.
The marshrutka left Borjomi at midday. Making its way through the countryside before joining what we think was the motorway. The only motorway we have ever travelled on, where cows freely graze on the verge!
The closer we got to Mtskheta the more the landscape changed. Losing the Soviet look that is so characteristic of western Georgia. Passing the city of Gori, the birthplace of the Soviet leader Joseph Stalin and ballistic missile designer Alexander Nadiradze.
The marshrutka driver did not leave the motorway at the Mtskheta exit instead, dropping us off on the hard shoulder just after the exit. Adjacent to a set of steps. The driver pointed up the steps whilst saying something in Georgian.
We were the only passengers getting off in this remote area so a little worried that we had just been dumped. Our fears soon went. Other vehicles were stopping and dropping people off as well. People were heading towards the mystery steps, so we followed.
Up the steps we went and into a waiting marshrutka at the top. We had no idea where it was going. Luckily for us, it was going into town, costing 0.5 GEL per person. The driver dropped us off at a junction, again pointing down a road.
Following his directions we walked down the road he had indicated. We knew that our Booking.com accommodation, Hotel Magdalena, was somewhere behind the cathedral. Not being able to locate our accommodation on Google maps we went into the tourist information centre in front of the cathedral for help. The very nice lady behind the desk called our host, who came to collect us.