Mission Lissi

Hello friends, how are you all?? Its been a great day today as I just keep remembering about different hiking experiences that I had in Georgia. Here I wanted to share an amazing experience that I had during my first year of stay in Georgia. This incident happened before three years and even today it gives me a good feeling when I think about it. It was my first year in Tbilisi, me and my friends knew nothing about this new city and we were finding it too difficult to manage without knowing the local language properly. All that we were able to speak in Georgian are " Gamerjoba, Rogor khar, Madlob, and Nakvamdis" which means "hello, how are you, thank you and good bye" respectively. However we were able to manage situations at that time without knowing the language.

During the first year of my university life I was staying with four other Indian friends sharing a single appartment. One of our flatmates birthday was about to come the next week and we wanted to cut cake in a place where no Indian has never been before. It was a bright sunny day as we went to have lunch in a restaurant. After having lunch the weather changed. As I said in my previous article its hard to predict the weather here in Georgia. The weather was now windy but it was not that cold. We were walking towards our home and suddenly one of my friend asked if all of us can go this way pointing towards a road that went further up our home. We all asked him why he wants to travel that way. He said that he heard from a senior student that there is a lake that way. We were really stunned and we asked him if he was serious or just pranking us. He said it was serious but he also said that he was not sure which way to go. As one of our room mates birthday was about to come we just thought that it would be really great if we could locate that lake as we could cut his cake there next to the lake. The sudden plan was approved by three of us who were standing with them. Luckily the birthday boy was not with us as we wanted the party to be a surprise. We started walking in a road uphill. From the point we started the road appeared to be short but as we kept walking the road stretched far and wide. After walking a little distance we were able to see the road  ascending up the hill. The road was moving in a circular way just like all other roads that goes up to a mountain. We thought that following the road will consume a lot of time and energy therefore its better if we climb vertically. The hill was not that steep and therefore we all started to climb up the hill. In between we also came across a children's play park located in the slopes. There were people living in the hill. As we started to move further up we were able to see a single house with no lights and nothing located in the middle of a large pit among the trees. It just appeared to us as a haunted house and we were just terrified on seeing it. We didn't want to stand there for a long time and therefore we continued our journey. We joined the main road near the top of the hill which took us to an intersection. There were four roads intersecting and it gave a look of a highway as the cars were moving very fast. As no one knows where the lake is we were just standing there and admiring the beauty of the city. We were able to see the entire Tbilisi from that place. Some prominent landmarks such as the Trinity church and Holiday Inn hotel were visible. Spending some time there to take rest we decided to continue our search for the lake. We all decided walk straight in the same road that took us to the intersection. As we kept walking in the road that we chose it suddenly forked into two. One was moving towards a place that was full of tress and the other was the main road. We decided to follow the main road because it would be easy to return back just in case if we get lost somewhere. Walking a short distance we were able to see a small sign board on a light post saying "Lake Lissi". We were really glad to read it and it built up a confidence that we were in the right path and we would identify the lake for sure. As we were walking on the top of a hill the wind was heavy. We were able to see some cows on the roads. It was the first time when we saw cows after coming to Tbilisi. We kept on walking but we couldn't get a view of any lake or water. Suddenly the tar road came to an end. The road was replaced by a mud path and it was extending further for kilometers. At a very distance we were able to see a snow capped mountain. We thought that we missed the lake and we were about to return.This was when one of my friends took just a few steps forward to the mud road and to his right he was able to see water. Seeing the water he screamed that he found the lake. We all ran towards him and we were all able to see the lake. It was there below us on our left side but we were all a step above the hill. We had no time to go back and search for the exact road. As soon as we saw the lake we started to climb down hill vertically through the grass that was covering the slope. The slope was actually made of dirt and it was slippery. The grass was covering all these and there was huge log of wood that was acting as a barricade. We just jumped through it and finally we were there at the beautiful lake of Lissi. 

It was too windy out there and we were feeling really cold. We were not able to stand near the lake for five minutes. The wind was making the water to splash everywhere. The lake was really big extending far and wide. There was even a boat anchored to the bank. To our surprise there was no one in the lake except us. We were able to see a little cottage near the lake which was closed. There were some hedges decorating the cottage. We ran to the back of the hedge and sat there to protect ourselves from the wind. As it was winter in Tbilisi the lake was so cold and windy. In summer the lake would be a really pleasant place to be in. As the lake is present so close to our home whenever we get time we used to go there to while away our time. After sometime we decided to return back to our home so we followed the road from the lake. It took us to the place where the main road forked into two. We were now able to understand the point where we made the mistake. It doesn't bother us a much as we had a really great time in exploring a unknown place. When we reached back home it was 6 in the evening and we all were really tired due to the long walk and the heavy wind. Me and some of my friends even caught cold due to the cold wind the next morning. We were having a look at the pictures that we took during our hike and sharing with each other all the fun we had.

The next week we had our roommates birthday. We bought all the items necessary for the party including cake, chocolates, snacks, cool drinks etc etc... We were all waiting for him in the Lissi Lake where one of my friends was with him pretending that he doesn't know anything about the party. The person with the birthday boy made him get ready and took with him as if they both are going somewhere else. Both of them boarded a taxi [as he was the birthday boy and all of us were waiting there in the lake we didn't want him to walk] and our friend brought the brithday boy to the place. He was so amazed on seeing the place and he also said that it was too beautiful. Luckily that evening there was no such wind like the day when we first visited Lissi Lake. We cut the cake, had a small party, played some party games and finally we all returned back home. We were finally contended that we clebrated the birthday of our friend in a new beautiful location.

In our second and third trips to Lissi Lake we got to know that there was a bus to the lake. It saved us much of the time and energy. However travelling by bus didn't give us the fun and enjoyment that we had by walking. There is also a resort near the lake which has some cool benches in the shape of "Lips". Inside the resort is available natural hot water baths which is said to be good for health. There is also a small bar near the reception serving different forms of alcohol. Once it snowed heavily in Tbilisi and on the very next day we planned to hike in the Lissi lake. We hired a taxi from our home to the Lissi Lake from where we just walked climbing the snow covered mountains surrounding the Lissi lake. It was really awesome to have a look at the lake from a mountain covered with snow. It was freezing cold out there and the slopes of the mountains were really slippery. We fell on the ground not less than three times however we had people to hold our back. After hiking some distance through the mountains we met a shepherd who was looking after his sheeps. He was getting warmth from the fire he made using some of the tree logs. He was also having a giant hunting dog. It almost appeared to us like a Lion. We asked him if we could share his fire for which he accepted immediately. It felt like heaven to show our hands to the fire which were really frozen. After some minutes we left the fire place, thanked him and continued on our journey. Two or three hours later we were able to reach the other end of the Lissi where our hiking plan appeared to come to an end but it didn't. There was no bus at that time and we had to walk down hill from the Lake back to our home. Reaching back home the first thing we did was to remove our shoes and the totally wet socks and we all ran to the heater to save ourselves from getting frozen by the cold. Although the journey was a bit difficult it was really a good one to speak about in the future.

Lissi lake is a small yet amazing tourist attraction especially for us. We have celebrated a lot of birthdays and have been there for no reason at all. It has always been a great place to have fun and even today it remains so. Very recently the government is taking steps to develop the lake for tourist attractions which would be a very good news to us. Hiking is one best thing you can do anywhere in Georgia and we feel great as we have an amazing place to hike very near to our home. Hope you enjoyed reading it. If you have any comments or suggestions please mention it below and thank you for reading :) :)