The annual Senior trip to Tao Klarjeti is always an exciting event that the twelfth graders eagerly await. And why not? The journey features international travel through a dramatic landscape, visits to historical monuments built by Grigol Khandzteli, and the incredible opportunity to explore Georgia's rich history. Why wouldn’t students want to participate in such a meaningful experience?
Well, this turns out to be a good question as only around 30 students from the Class of 2025 took part in the excursion. No matter, because some say this low turnout might be why everything went so smoothly! Also the group had Anamaria Bayraktar who is fluent in Turkish and was the official class translator, to help smooth the way.
Even so, the trip was not an easy one. It took around 11 exhausting hours (with breaks) in the marshrutkas to reach the Turkish village of Yusufeli. On the way there, the group had to cross the border which, as usual, was not without its surprises.
Upon arrival, the border guards collected everyone’s passports and permission slips before letting each student across one by one. As the kids waited for each other to cross, they browsed through the tiny duty-free shop on the Turkish side of the building. A few minutes into this process however, a commotion arose: Anastasia Zuroshvili was being denied entry! It turned out that she was holding the passport of Anastasia Grishikashvili! Apparently the border officers had mixed up these two passports and allowed Ms. Grishikashvili to cross the border holding Ms. Zuroshvili’s passport. Luckily, the guards quickly admitted the fault was theirs and soon enough the motley crew of GZAAT students and teachers set back out on the dusty road.
The group made a number of stops while traveling through Turkey. The most notable ones were a viewpoint overlooking the ancient castle of Kajeti, mentioned in Rustaveli’s epic Vepkhistkaosani and the ancient church of Tbeti. It was raining and chilly and everyone was tired from the long day on the road, but the drama and grandeur of these sites energized the group: it’s not everyday that one can get out of the classroom and peer back into the lens of history.
Upon arrival at the Yedigoller Hotel, students were pleasantly surprised by the cozy cottages with a fireplace and rustic, wooden interior. That night they had a late dinner of local trout (grown in the waters of the hotel) and cutlet. Before bed many played Georgian national card games such as Mafia and Joker. The ultimate bedtime challenge was getting a fire lit in the cast iron stoves found in each cottage. Giorgi Nozadze, like Amirani, rose to meet this challenge as he went providing each group with the gift of fire.
The next morning students woke up to a beautiful view of surrounding cliffs and a small lake that hadn’t been visible on the night of the arrival. After a pleasant 9am breakfast, it was back to the marshutkas!
Despite the disturbingly large number of long, dark tunnels, the driving views were beautiful. On the second day there were three stops at three different churches and monasteries. The most memorable of these spots was the old Otkhta monastery, half buried in residue from a landslide and with remnants of beautiful frescoes painted blue with the gemstone lapis lazuli. While it has been vandalized by previous visitors, it hasn’t lost its charm and many photos were taken.
This day the students also visited the city center of Yusufeli. It was a new experience for the Tbilisi-dwelling students: there were mostly restaurants and clothing shops with very low prices, and most of the people in the street were men. Students bought Turkish snacks, drinks and spices to bring back home. They also shopped at cheap second-hand shops and bought memorable T-shirts, hats and gloves. After a bit of roaming around, everyone headed to lunch at a restaurant to eat some doner kebab, courtesy of Anamaria Bayraktar’s father who invited the entire group to this delicious lunch. What a treat!
After returning to the hotel and having dinner, with lots of Turkish tea, students and teachers gathered outside to dance to some Georgian and Turkish music. Some of the hotel staff joined in and the requisite dance moves were exchanged. Turkish-Georgian relations are strong in Tao!
On the final morning, the students were sad to leave. They just didn’t get enough of Tao! (and also didn’t want to sit in the bus for another 12 hours). However, every bus stop turned out to be a meal of its own. Everyone took advantage of the unfamiliar Turkish snacks and potato chips at gas stations and were especially excited after finding the famous “Dubai Chocolate” and delicious Nutella cookies on the way back.
After arriving back at the border, (and not mixing up passports this time) students and teachers alike were surprised to be greeted by a mini hail storm. Apparently, back in Georgia winter is coming… This was especially evident in Javakheti, where they made a final stop to eat delicious Khachapuri. To everyone’s surprise, it was snowing! The Christmas spirit had arrived early, leaving the exhausted students with big bright smiles on their faces as they sang and danced in the cold snowy weather.
People packed into the buses as the final snowballs were thrown, happy by the unexpected seasonal changes and tired with the long but iconic Tao-Klarjeti field trip.
Edited by: Lizi Schierman
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