Karen and Compass, Phe and Me in
241
Had a good chat to Vivian this morning and he suggested a looped trip today through the village of Gremi where there is a small palace built in the 1600's for King George the 8th and a chapel built during the following one hundred years. Just outside the tiny village of Gremi I visited the small palace and ancient church perched up on an outcrop of rock. The service was about to begin in the very small chapel with a congregation of maybe twenty people – all standing, as the Orthodox churches don’t give you pews to doze off on. I was barely inside the doorway at the back but was aware the “doorkeeper,” a large man, was giving me a black look. Quite un-Christian I thought, so I stuck to my guns, but when the priest started the service I felt it would be better if I wasn’t there and turned to leave. I was then shuffled very gently into the “museum” next door and was asked to pay 1 lari for a trip around the 6-metre square building. The museum man had enough self-taught English to show me the bowls, old spear heads, bows and arrows, cannon balls, muskets etc., all going back to early centuries. After having a good look at all the exhibits and listening attentively to his narrative, I went outside for a look at the view of the surrounding farming country and vineyards and was joined by the museum man and then by the big doorkeeper who had no English at all. We chatted for a while, then the big doorkeeper disappeared to return only a few minutes later with a tumbler and a plastic screw-top bottle of fruit juice. He poured a tumbler full to the top and offered it to me and I accepted. Right! Not fruit juice! It was an okay red wine from the vino cellar below. What makes this encounter so memorable is that he gave me the rest of the bottle, plus an apple and two lollies. I took out my wallet. Protests of “No! No! No!” How could it be better than this?.........Bad Lands?