vive le vélo

Our bicycles bump into stones and the mudguards rattle steadily. This is what the map of Georgia shows as ’secondary road’.

In Soviet times probably, nowadays it’s more an involuntary walk down memory lane. A walk, because with the road in this state we mostly cycle at the speed of a pedestrian, and down memory lane because of the Lada’s that go by every now and then. The Lada. How long has it been since this boxy car was as much part of European traffic as the Volkswagen Golf and the Opel Kaddett? On the ST-31 from Manglisi to Tsalka Lada’s appear in a cloud of dust, criss-crossing the dirt track like rally cars in first gear, the wheels bouncing in and out of potholes.

We zigzag the same way, focussing on a passage in between the holes.

When we continue by foot we can take our eyes off the road and look at the bleak Caucasus landscape, this wilderness that roaming cattle and the pastures can’t tame. Except for the odd shepard there’s little human activity.

Down the hill of Manglisi we enter the humbling vast plain of Imera.

Open space, endless open space, only interrupted by power poles and a farm.

photo giorgi samkharadze

As we pass it a voice from behind calls us in Russian. “Hey you, come in! Have some bread and cheese! My house is your house!” An old man approaches. He just milked the cows and finished working the land, he says.

We follow him to a grey bricked house. The living consists of a wooden
table, three stools, a bed and a dressing table. Pealing wall paper. Hasn’t been renovated since it was built in 1945, he says. With a broad smile he offers a bottle of homemade vodka on the table. We make the pedaling sign as to show we have to cycle still. Fresh milk it will be, then. He pours it from a big glass jar and for himself a glass of vodka. He toasts.

“I was born in 1945 in this house. As a child I loved to dance. If you know Georgian traditional dance you know the moves are similar to ballet. I was fifteen when I auditioned for the Tbilisi Opera and Ballet Theatre. I made it and was trained as a ballet dancer.”

“Eighteen years I’ve been with the Theatre. Played the lead roles in Carmen, Swan Lake, Othello, you name it. Giga Lortkipanidze, Gizo Zhordania, Guram Meliva, famous directors in Georgia, I worked with them. We often performed for a full house.”

“Then, one day during rehearsals I broke a muscle in the belly. I fell to the floor and shriveled up. The muscle healed after a few weeks but I lost my stretchability. The break was caused by lifting the girls up in the air. That was it, my career was over.”

“I went back to Manglisi and started working on a farm, working the land with the tractor. After a while I got fed up and returned to my parental house and joined my parents here at the farm.”

He offers more vodka. “Come on, I’ll show you the fish.” We step into the yard and gather around a bathtub with mullets. He takes one out and displays it.

“You know, last night I dreamt of fish. In Georgian folklore that means you will have guests that day. Today you are my third. Spring is here, the snow and wolves are gone. Traffic is passing again.”

this post with audio and video here.