Travel to Akhaltsikhe

I traveled to Akhaltsikhe with my co-teacher Wendy Morales from New Jersey. It was a great ride down. It was very nice to leave the city. I could feel all the stress from hustle and bustle of the city leave me as I saw some of the most gorgeous mountains I have ever seen. I was relieved when I got to see snow on the mountain tops. On the way to the Akhaltsikhe, we stopped in Borjomi National Park to visit the hot springs and visited the Green Monastery.

I especially like the Green Monastery because it was snowing and looked very majestic. It was built in the 9th century. We first went inside the bell tower and saw skulls of monks. Our cab driver told us these were from monks who were killed during the Ottoman empire. We then went into the monastery and saw monks chanting. Chanting goes on 24 hours a day. Each monk chants for three hours. There were candles in the monastery as well as pictures of Jesus and other saints. It was very spiritual. We were not allowed to take any pictures of inside the monastery.