[ July, 2018 ] After leaving Kutaisi in Georgia, on the way to the capital city, Tbilisi, we stopped and visited the monastery in Ubisa village.
This monastery was built originally in the 9th century and even now there are about 5 monks living here.
The bell tower was built by Dmitri, the son of David the Builder, the famous king in the 11th and the early 12th century.
In the church here, it was full of frescoes.
During 
this holiday, we visited a few churches with white walls, because the Russians had painted in white over the original frescoes, but the churches like this one in the countryside seemed to have avoided such misfortunes.
The frescoes here were painted in the 12th century by a well known painter, though I cannot remember his name.
Most of his works are in the churches in the territories of Turkey now and this church is the only one where people can see his works in Georgia, apparently.
In the church, a monk with a long beard was reciting a prayer the whole time, which gave a lovely atmosphere.
After this visit, we had lunch at a river fish restaurant nearby.
In fact, this was the only time we had fish during this holiday.
The name of the restaurant apparently means ‘fairy tale’ and people can have their meals on the terrace along the river, which was really nice and refreshing.
It seemed
that this was the place where the local tourists come.
We wanted to thank our guide and the driver, so we had said to our guide that we would offer a meal and she decided to take us here.
They fried the fish, whose name I do not know, but the length was about 15cm.
It was a very simple cooking, but tasted very nice.
We drank their homemade white wine in tumblers.
What surprised us was the price, which was very cheap.
It cost only 40 Lari (£12, €13, $15) for four of us.
I wondered if this was the normal level of prices for the local people.
After lunch, we just drove on and on to Tbilisi.
On the way, we saw many roadside stalls selling terracotta potteries.
After them, we saw stalls selling sweet bread, after that chopping board vendors and then hammock vendors.
Then we passed the long tunnel, which was as long as 2km and when we came out of it, there were no more stalls and the view became dry.
Apparently, this tunnel is the border between the east and west of the country.
The mountains above the tunnel block the humid air from the west.
So finally we arrived in Tbilisi and it was still very hot, like the day we had left it, 6 days before.
According to the thermometer in the car, the outside temperature was 40 degrees centigrade.
