Udzo Monastery — a mountain monastery on the outskirts of Tbilisi

What kind of trip can you possibly start planning when it’s already 4 p.m. and it’ll be dark in another four or five hours? A trip to Udzo Monastery in the mountains, obviously. It’s very close to Tbilisi, at an elevation of 1,400 meters. You can go there, take a walk, and be back in about three hours. And not only is the monastery close to the city, it’s also served by two city buses, which means the one-way trip costs just 1 lari.

After leaving home, I walked to the bus stop in Sololaki. I didn’t have to wait long — the right bus showed up in five minutes. In general, the buses run about every 40 minutes, but since there are two of them, one or the other arrives roughly every 20 minutes.

The bus was moving along at a pretty lively pace, skipping stops left and right and only pulling over when someone was waiting at the stop or someone inside pressed the STOP button. If, like me, you prefer to ride standing up, hold on with both hands, because, as I said, the bus moves briskly, barely slows down for turns, and generally doesn’t seem overly concerned with passenger comfort.

Outside the window, one mountain landscape gave way to another, one little village to the next. And everywhere there seemed to be an impressive amount of fresh construction.

Google said the bus ride would take 50 minutes, but after just 35, I was already getting off in Kojori, at the stop closest to the monastery, with about half an hour of walking still ahead of me. The first thing I noticed after stepping off the bus was how light the air felt there. Not especially fresh in the way seaside air can be, nothing like that, but it was surprisingly easy and pleasant to breathe. Though if you think about it, the real reason may simply have been the temperature: when I left Tbilisi, it was +29°C in the city, and after half an hour on the road, Kojori was already down to +22°C.

The road from the stop to the monastery first follows Kojori Street for a bit, and then a small forest begins. The forest is sparse and bright, and the road is unpaved. A few times cars passed me on the way, so if you go to Udzo by taxi, you can get even closer to the monastery itself.

At some point during this walk through the woods, I decided I was losing my mind, because I started hearing music. And the farther I walked, the clearer and clearer it became. It sounded like it was coming from far away, and overall the whole thing felt like I had wandered into some kind of movie — either a fantasy, in which case the music was playing in a clearing where elves and dwarves were gathered, or a horror film, in which case it was drifting over from a pagan festival where a sacrificial ritual was about to begin. But the illusion dissolved quickly enough, and reality turned out to be far more prosaic: the music was coming from the Magic Forest restaurant, which was where most of the cars that had passed me were actually headed.

When I finally reached the monastery, my first impression was that it was closed entirely, because the gate leading up to it was locked. But next to it I found a small spring-loaded side gate that wasn’t locked. The monastery itself, despite being so close to Tbilisi, turned out to be a very quiet and peaceful place. There were visitors, but it didn’t feel crowded.

Among the amenities for visitors were...

Walking paths.

Benches for resting.

More benches and paths.

A lilac-colored mug, in case you need to drink some liquid.

A bell, in case there is some urgent need to ring a bell.

And, of course, lots of views in every direction...

Of the mountains.

Of the city.

Of the villages.

More mountains.

And more villages.

And mountains again.

And mountains with a little chapel in the foreground.

It felt slightly unusual to be looking down on the TV tower from above.

The entire monastery consists of just a few buildings.

The main monastery building and its courtyard were closed to visitors, but the rest of the grounds were wide open — stroll around as much as you like.

If you walk a little farther past the monastery, you can find a Soviet geodetic marker on the mountaintop.

You can get to the monastery not only by bus or car — there are also a couple of hiking trails leading there from the city: one comes out by Lisi Lake, the other by Mtatsminda. They’re about 10–12 kilometers long, and the walk takes around three hours.

I walked a little way onto the start of one of those trails to admire the views. Admired them so enthusiastically that I slipped on the slope, fell, and gave myself a huge bruise on the leg. But the views were excellent — over Tbilisi and the surrounding villages.

The way back from the monastery was, predictably, easier and quicker, so I made it to the bus stop in just 20 minutes — just in time to hop onto an arriving bus and be back in Sololaki half an hour later.