Autumn has (finally) arrived, and it’s time for cozy sweaters and earth tones. But I decided to postpone my autumn a little by taking a trip to Georgia, a country I’ve long dreamed of visiting. Georgia gave me a mix of three seasons. It was extremely hot in Tbilisi, then very cold in Svaneti and towards the end of my time there, autumn colours started appearing. Ahh, my favourite time of the year is upon us!
A visit to the farm on Lolland
August ended with a visit to a friend in Odense, and when September arrived, it was time to head back to Lolland where I lived until June and will live again from January. I had missed my host family and their dogs so much, so it was wonderful being back. And thankfully, the dogs remembered me (although Chico was a little wary in the beginning).
I spent four days there, all of which were very warm and full of doggo cuddles and walks. I ate fresh fruits and vegetables directly from the garden, and visited my colleagues at the museum. As much as I adore travelling around, I also miss my life on Lolland, and I’m excited to return to it in January.
Time with my family in East Jutland
After Lolland, I went home to my family in East Jutland and spent two weeks there with a few trips around other parts of Jutland in between.
We had a lovely day with the entire family, celebrating the christening of my darling nephew, Sam. I went for walks into the autumnal forests, cuddled a lot with my cat and tried my luck at bingo with my mum, but was unsuccessful. The day before I left Denmark again, we went to Aarhus Street Food to celebrate my dad’s birthday.
It was lovely to spend so much time with my family before setting off into the world again – the rest of my 2021 will be travel-heavy.
A disastrous fleeting visit to Haderslev
In between my time in East Jutland, my mum, grandmother and I went on a trip to Haderslev further south in Jutland. We’d booked a lovely and cozy Airbnb (or so we thought) as a gift for my grandmother’s 75th birthday.
Unfortunately, the Airbnb was nothing like we’d imagined. Sure, the location between the forest and the ocean was amazing, but every corner of the apartment was dirty. There were spiders in the corners, cobwebs and long hairs on the walls, dust everywhere, etc. We even found the shell of a snail under one of the mattresses! It was by far the worst Airbnb I’d ever been to in terms of cleanliness, and we felt so uncomfortable that we just couldn’t stay there under those conditions. We tried to reason with the host, hoping she’d send over her cleaning lady, but she rudely told us to get out – and that she didn’t see anything wrong with the cleaning (despite me sending her lots of photos)… So we left the same evening that we’d arrived, and drove the long way back home again.
Thankfully, the Airbnb team were quick to refund us, and we’ve postponed our trip for next year – and an entirely different location!
Digging up family history in Skals
I also went up to the northern part of Jutland for a few days of genealogical research – on my own family. I stayed with my dad’s aunt who has lots of knowledge about our family history, which I scribbled down. We searched through books, newspaper articles and photographs of our ancestors, and I ultimately decided that I want to gather as much information as possible and then make a book for my family and all the other branches of our family tree. I’m thankful to my great-grandfather Jens who already did most of the work. He gathered lots of information about our family and found my 11x great grandfather who was born in 1570! My job will be to rewrite everything, do some more digging and contact distant relatives. I actually owe this all to one of them, to Joy who contacted me through Instagram as her mum shares my surname. I found out that Joy and I share the same great-great-great-grandparents!
It will be a long process, but I’m sure it will give me a better understanding of the family I come from, and of my own identity. However, this is only the history of the family of my grandfather on my dad’s side. I also hope to research the history of my grandmother on my dad’s side and both grandparents on my mum’s side. Let the work begin!
Off to Georgia and arriving in Tbilisi
On the 18th of the month, I set off on a rather spontaneous trip to Georgia and Armenia. I’d booked the tickets after doing minimal research, and ended up changing my plans entirely. While I did eventually make it to Armenia (albeit only for an afternoon and to catch my flight back), 99 % of my time was spent in Georgia, a country so beautiful that it gives even Kyrgyzstan a run for its money.
I had a long journey to get there with stopovers in Frankfurt and Munich before finally landing in Tbilisi at 4 AM on the 19th, over 16 hours after I’d left home. Since no busses were leaving at that time, I searched around the airport for a fellow backpacker and found Belgian Yente with whom I shared a taxi to the centre. I headed straight to my hostel (Envoy Hostel), which I’d mistakenly not booked for the night of my arrival, but the staff let me sleep on the rooftop for free. And guys, that rooftop was nothing short of incredible! I swear it has the best view in all of Tbilisi, and it’s also the best place to meet other travellers. But first, sleep…
I had a really comfortable night as the air was warm, and woke up fresh around 11 AM, ready to explore Tbilisi. I spent the next two days doing just that, walking the busy streets of the capital city, feeding street cats, exploring monasteries in abundance, finding amazing viewpoints, eating in vegan cafés and restaurants (you’d be surprised how easy it is to be vegan in Georgia!), climbing up to the Narikala fortress and strolling through the Botanical Garden.
And then, in the evening of my second day, I met Gabi, Alma, Matija and my now-boyfriend A. The girls are from Israel, Matija is from Slovenia, A is from Russia, and me being from Denmark, we were an international bunch that set off on a great adventure together the following day.
An overnight visit to beautiful Kazbegi
We caught a marshrutka in the morning and headed to Kazbegi, a gorgeous mountainous area close to the Russian border, which famously holds Georgia’s most well-known church, Gergeti Trinity Church. Famous not because of its history or its extravagance, but because of its location on a hill high above the village of Stepantsminda with a backdrop of the Caucasus Mountains.
Of course, the goal for our visit to Kazbegi was to see that impressive view. But first, food! I had my first visit to a Georgian restaurant, and was blown away by the amount of choices I as a vegan had. I particularly loved lobiani, a savoury bean-filled bread.
With our stomachs full, we met up with Polish Martha who was staying at the same guesthouse as us, and started our hike up to the monastery. It was a steep climb, first up to a ruined tower and around a hill before the church finally revealed itself. We joined the tour groups and explored the tiny church before hiking up to a gorgeous viewpoint far above it. After several hours of uphill hiking, we were getting tired, but we still faced a long and steep descent down to the village. However, we were rewarded with another meal of delicious Georgian dishes, making every effort worthwhile.
Slow days in Tbilisi
We had hoped that the lovely weather would stay for the day after so we could go for another hike in Kazbegi before returning to Tbilisi, but we woke up to rain and mist in the mountains. A, Matija and I decided to head back to Tbilisi in the morning, while Gabi and Alma stayed another night in Kazbegi.
The ride back to Tbilisi was long and bumpy, and involved a mystery black bin bag with something in it that resembled a human body (however, upon further inspection, I concluded that it was most likely bread). We arrived back in the early afternoon, and of course went back to the fantastic hostel. We spent the next two days taking it slow in Tbilisi, exploring without a goal, cuddling more kitties, visiting the national museum and taking the funicular to the fortress to see the city from above at night. Matija was set to leave Tbilisi on the 24th and head to Kutaisi, and A and I couldn’t quite face saying goodbye to him, so we decided to join him, postponing our trip to Svaneti….
Two days full of surprises in Kutaisi
I didn’t know what to expect of Kutaisi.
I’d put it on my list of possible destinations for one reason only – to visit Gelati Monastery, a UNESCO site. But Kutaisi turned out to be so much more than just the monastery. It was a time of joy, friendship and unexpected beauty and historical sights.
A and I booked the same hostel as Matija, Dingo Backpackers Hostel, which turned out to be the best choice we made while in Georgia. The hostel is run by Riccardo from Italy, and his volunteer is Ricardo from Mexico (I was confused up until an hour before we left when I finally realized that they both react to Ric(c)ardo because they’re both called Ric(c)ardo 😂). And as fate wanted it, Gabi and Alma stepped into the hostel moments after we’d arrived, reuniting the group.
We spent the first afternoon together exploring Gelati Monastery as well as another lesser known monastery close by, Motsameta. The latter was more beautiful in terms of location, but Gelati blew me away with its exquisite interior murals.
In the evening, we went with Riccardo to a natural sulphur hot spring, something Georgia is very well-known for. I’m not a water person (at all), but I actually really enjoyed the evening in wonderful company.
The next day, A and I were supposed to leave for Svaneti (again), but we decided to stay another night as we just couldn’t leave the group. We spent the day exploring an abandoned sanatorium in the abandoned and run-down Soviet spa town of Tskaltubo, and walking through the majestic Prometheus Cave. In hindsight, I would’ve spent more time in Tskaltubo and missed out on the cave as I’ve seen many similar caves around the world, but still it was fun to see this side of Georgia as well.
Multi-day hiking among dreamy landscapes and isolated villages in Svaneti
After two wonderful days, it was time to say goodbye to Kutaisi and everyone at the hostel as A and I finally went to Svaneti, Matija flew home to Slovenia, and Gabi and Alma continued on their travels together.
A and I caught a marshrutka to Zugdidi, the nearest city to Svaneti, which is known as Georgia’s most beautiful region (I have to agree!). Hungry as always, we decided to spend two hours in Zugdidi to eat some local food, exchange some money and explore a little, before meeting up with a Belarusian couple that we’d met on the marshrutka. We shared a cab with them that took us all the way to Mestia, the main village in Svaneti, with lots of photo stops on the way.
We arrived shortly after nightfall to our guesthouse three kilometres outside of Mestia. It was actually a mistake that we hadn’t booked a place in the town, but it turned out to be amazing. The view we woke up to the next day was unbeatable.
We walked into Mestia and sat down at a café, just in time for my 12 PM work call for an upcoming project. While I was talking, A ordered lots of food and we had a feast before finally leaving for a hike in the afternoon with full stomachs. The Belarusian couple had mentioned some large swings with a scenic view in the village of Heshkili, and we were curious to try them. We took the chair lift up into the mountains and followed a 4 km trail with wonderful views to the swings. We arrived just before sunset, giving us the most perfect light as we swung high above the valley below. Walking back to Mestia and our new guesthouse in town, we were picked up halfway by a Polish couple that felt sorry for us as daylight gave way to the night.
The next morning, we set off on the first leg of the popular four-day hike from Mestia to Ushguli. Our end destination for the day was the village of Zhabeshi, thirteen kilometres of easy uphill hiking away. We took our time, took many breaks in the sun, and enjoyed being fully immersed in nature with no other humans in sight. That is, until we ran into Lukas from Czech Republic who’d started four hours after us and still caught up with us… Ooops.
But it was fate, I believe. We instantly clicked with Lukas, and actually ended up hiking with him the other days too. The second day of hiking to the village of Adishi was my favourite. Although very steep (and the steep part was loooong), it was incredibly beautiful, and we reached the snow! On the third day, we had to cross a river, which was cold and had a strong undercurrent, but Lukas was well-prepared and didn’t mind sharing his equipment, so it was no problem. We saw the Adishi Glacier up close and were rewarded with more gorgeous views before reaching the village of Iprari in the evening.
Unfortunately, we were given the news that a landslide had blocked the road to Ushguli, leaving us with a very difficult choice to make. If we finished the hike to Ushguli (a short four-hour hike was all we had left), we might get stuck in the village, and Lukas and I might miss our upcoming flights. We ultimately decided it wasn’t worth it – and thankfully heard from other hikers that we missed the least beautiful part, so that made us feel better.
We had a wonderful last evening in Svaneti with most of the people we’d met during our hike, and then set off in the morning of the next day to Mestia, on the 1st of October.
Destinations visited in September 2021
- Rødby, Rødbyhavn, Hov, Hørning, Odder, Haderslev, Aarhus and Skals, Denmark
- Tbilisi, Kazbegi, Kutaisi, Tskaltubo, Zugdidi and Svaneti, Georgia
Highlights
- Finally seeing my doggos again on Lolland (and also eating all the fresh fruits and veggies from the garden, it was amaaazing)!
- When little Sam got his name, and the whole family gathered to celebrate him <3
- All the information my dad’s aunt and I were able to gather about our family heritage. I’m amazed by how much information there is on the Villumsen family. It can be traced back to 1570 (so far)!!
- Hostel life at Envoy in Tbilisi and Dingo in Kutaisi. Oh how I’ve missed it!
- All the amazing people I met and travelled with in Georgia. I was so afraid to not meet anyone given it was shoulder season and Covid times, but I was hardly ever alone. It was wonderful!
- Exploring Gelati Monastery and Motsameta Monastery – both were way more beautiful than expected!
- Discovering every corner of an abandoned sanatorium in an abandoned Soviet resort town.
- Hiking from Mestia to Iprari in beautiful weather conditions and with the most incredible views. In fact, I loved everything about Svaneti. Our time there was magical.
Challenges
- That disgusting airbnb in Haderslev. It was by far my worst experience with airbnb to date (although airbnb itself handled it really well!).
- Realizing that I wouldn’t have enough time to see everything I wanted in Georgia, let alone make it to Armenia as well. Oh, when will I ever learn to research my destinations before I book my tickets!
- Missing out on the last part of the hike to Ushguli. Nature was against us, but we’ll live.
Most popular post
- Highlights of the Faroe Islands: The perfect two-week itinerary for hikers – By far the most popular post in September was my hiking itinerary for my favourite little country!
The other posts
- My August 2021: Island hopping, Austria & Liechtenstein – Everything I got up to in August, including visiting one of the smallest countries in the world!
- A week in Sesselebene, our tiny summer village in Tirol – My first post from our family holiday in beautiful Austria
- Highlights of southeast Lolland: Frejlev Forest, Fuglsang and Nysted – Back to Lolland, spring time and a visit from my besties
Most popular Instagram picture
My photo series from Tbilisi (and first post from Georgia!) was the most popular Instagram post in September!
Coming up in October 2021
October began in Georgia and included a quick trip to Yerevan before flying home on the 4th. I was at home with my family until the 9th when I set off again, this time to Serbia for a two-week archaeological project and some travels in the country afterwards. I’m so excited to finally return to the Balkans and to be getting relevant work experience in yet another country!
Towards the end of the month, I’ll travel to Berlin to visit A and celebrate his birthday. I don’t know how long I’ll stay, but I’m excited to revisit Germany’s dynamic capital, and to see some friends of mine in the area!
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