Georgia 2017

The intention was to write something lengthy and diary like, that would be short if you didn't want to expand. But writing takes a lot of time, and there is a lot of other things to do, so now, I think this writing is close to the short version.

August 9 — Arrival

Landed in Tbilisi one hour late because of Ukrainian Airways. The public space of Tbilisi airport is relatively small, and getting money from ATM was easy. There were several kiosks selling sim cards with 4G data relatively cheap, and we settled for the one with the familiar logo, Geocell/Telia.

Getting a taxi at an airport is often chaotic, and we know that we should not use the people that approach you. But here the people that approached was the big taxi company. The price was high, and they did not know where to drive, but we could call Alisa with the new sim cards (without these, the cost of calling would have costed at least twice the expensive taxi trip).

We felt sorry for keeping Alisa awake so long. We came to the apartment about 1.30 or was it 2.30?

August 10 — Tbilisi

Actually we were a bit scared by the neighborhood in the middle of the night, but that was mainly because it was dark, and the big soviet buildings were of course not modern at all. Norwegians are not used to cracked concrete. As soon as the sun arrived, we could see that there was nothing to be afraid of. This was a neighborhood from the 50s soviet, and had not seen much restoration since that time, except for some individuals that had creatively changed the tiling in front of their doors, and others had extended the living room by building walls on the balcony. There were a lot of «personal taste» on the outside of the buildings which is not normal to see in northern Europe.

Back home we had been moving to a new house, and our backs was still hurting, so the day was spent in a quiet tempo in Tbilisi, where we ate lunch at Singer (when we could not find Schuchmann), before seeing the Sioni (Notre dame/Vår frue) church and walking over the new bridge to the funicular/cable car and walking down from the «Mother Georgia» monument through the picturesque old town.

It was here that the backs got really painful, so we had a very long dinner at Organique Josper Bar when we got back to the restaurant area. We tasted quite a few of the local wine types, and tried to get as much local food as possible. A nice restaurant, and very helpful people that understood what we wanted to taste.

That day we took the local city bus between the apartment in the west and Liberty square. It was 0.5 lari, or 1.80 kroner per person per way (cheap communication is very important for the mobility of people).

August 11 — Tbilisi to Bolnisi

The next day started very painful, and we had to call the travel insurance, firstly to get a suggested treatment. We waited until the norwegian insurance company had opened, but was redirected to the international office that we had read was only for emergency. After a lot of information exchange, first at the norwegian office, and then at the international, we got a name and an address for the clinic. Alisa had arrived with pain killers and heating patches, and accompanied us into a taxi to get to the clinic. We were very happy that Alisa was with us, for the clinic had moved (three years ago, without the insurance company knowing), to the western part, just a few hundred meters from where we stayed. There was a lot of discussion on the phone and Alisa could tell the taxi driver to go back to the western part of the city.

After a lot of forms filling and clinic calling the insurance company to know they would get paid, we could see the doctor. The doctor had a lot of time, and probably did not have patients every day (insurance companies paying him to be ready for tourists) so there was a lot of testing and talking. In the end, we got some painkiller gel, and confident that the best would be to relax and take care.

We got a Taxify taxi to Bolnisi to visit David and his family. (The driver asked if the air conditioning was at the right temperature, and we said we would rather open a window, because of the smell of old cigarettes. But it was too hot for that. The driver took the hint and stopped and bought a wunderbaum thing to camouflage the problem. Very good service!)

David's parents lived in a nice house with a big yard/garden. And we got the big room with a very good bed: Perfect for our back pain. There were lots of uncles and aunts, and one of Davids brothers, and David's kid running around. We got to taste red and white wine, cherry wine, and buckthorn liquor that his dad had made. We were not used to all the different tastes that georgian red wine can have because of the several hundred different grapes they have in this country.

David’s mother served dish after dish of very delicious georgian food. (And in the end, she came out of the kitchen herself.) If I could remember all the names of the food, that would have been great.

The tradition is that the guests should give the first toast, we learned, and forgot the next day.

In the evening, we visited a small church and monastery in the hillside. They also had snails and a big dog. And on the way we saw a lot of animals, mostly cows, and a lot of people from the local minority. They use horses and donkeys, but mostly Ladas.

August 12 — Bolnisi

The next day, we saw the old church of Bolnisi, from around 470s AD. It was mainly an orthodox church, but in a side room there was a man bowing down for Mecca. Religion has an important role after the soviet union dissolved, and it is strange to hear about and see all the money spent on new churches when there is so much unemployment and poor people around.

We also went to the excavation site where the oldest humans outside Africa had been found. We saw copies of the sculls and a video about the findings of these 1.8M year old remains. There was a 40 minutes drive each way, and the roads had sections without pavement. Really bumpy. But we had a careful local driver, which also waited while we were at the excavation site and the fortress, and it costed us 50 lari for half a day of taxi driving.

Back in Bolnisi, we got a barbeque dinner, where David’s dad had bought pork meat from the best butcher in town (waiting for this day when they know this pig was going to be slaughtered). And I am pretty sure I will never eat pork of this quality again. So much taste in meat that is almost tasteless like chicken at home. And his mother served as many well tasting dishes as the day before. Some dishes from the west of the country as well. We will need some recipes and try to recreate some of this at home. It is considered mixing if you drink white wine and red wine during the same meal, even when you finish one before drinking the other. The white wine we had was a perfect match for the barbequed meat. And the red was light enough (XXX) to match too. Sorry that we forgot the kind of grapes used. He is growing vines outside the town, but in their backyard and garden they had tomatos, squash, grapes, walnuts, hazelnuts, pomegranades, ++. (Sorry that my picture of your pomegranades is one of a bad one, but I liked the pattern.)

August 13 - Bolnisi to Telavi

The morning after, we had a little walk around in Bolnisi looking at old german buildings. The city was founded by germans as Luxembourg, but the germans of Bolnisi were considered as dangerous and had been sent to Siberia or somewhere else under Stalin.

We took a local microbus back to Tbilisi, for 3.50 lari per person. Fitting almost 20 persons into a Ford Transit means that there is no room for my knees, but that’s OK when it is not every day. There were some crazy driving by our driver that competed against other microbus drivers about reaching the customers first. We also learned about how you can overtake another car while there are car driving against you. People in Georgia are expecting a lot more from fellow drivers, and there is a lot of situations that would be dangerous if there were more european drivers in georgian traffic.

After a short taxify from the bus station to Maidan, we drank some overpriced juice while we decided if we should take another day in Tbilisi waiting for an SUV or if we should rent a car with limited reach right away. We decided to go at the same day, and ended up with a Toyota Camry (American model, from Wichita, Kansas. The car said “Eddy’s” on a sticker. Eddy sells Toyotas.) David had said that all georgian cars are second hand, from europe or further away. A lot of the japanese brands’ cars was meant for driving on the other side of the road. Maybe as much as 20% had the steering wheel on the “wrong” side.

We had been warned against driving in Tbilisi, but the rest of the country should be good. Driving out of Tbilisi was easy when we had one that followed the maps on the phone while the other was driving. There was not much city traffic to fight through, and the way out was ok. While driving eastwards to the wine region Kakheti, we ordered a room in Telavi and changed directions northwards. I think we had already passed the intersection and went ahead with a route from Google maps. It took forever, and we needed to navigate in the road to decide which side of the road was less likely to damage the car. We saw mostly Ladas and other cars from the eighties on that road, until we got to the bigger road we should have used. This 1 or 3 kilometers were the worst road we saw while driving ourselves.

We got to Telavi an hour after sunset. The room was pretty and new, and cheap (40 lari). Since it was late, we just went ahead for the local restaurant that the landlord suggested, which was also the best one according to Tripadvisor. We got kind-of boring food (this was our first dinner after Bolnisi) of dishes that came one by one, not necessarily matching the previous one. Why do I mention this, because we are pretty sure this place gave us problems the coming days, but there will probably be more on that.

After waiting and eating and waiting, we had a look around in Telavi. It has some very impressive buildings, and people trying to be just as impressive in their expensive or noisy cars. “Råning” like in rural Norway.

August 14 — Telavi to Signagi

We wanted to stay for another day, but without reservation, it was already booked, so we had to go. A pressed trip, of maybe 90 minutes of looking at houses to see if they had adequate toilets, we arrived in Signagi, a town that was supposed to be similar to mediterranean towns of italy. And it was, but we were focused on finding toilets (the public toilets near the bus station are not good, all restaurants should be better) and some food before checking in at our guesthouse.

This guesthouse was run by a woman of about 60 years, her daughter of about 30, and their children. The oldest did not speak english, the daugher enough to be understood, but the children will probably master english pretty quick. The first foreign language has traditionally been russian, the second has been german, but the recent years have seen more english and better english. We spent two nights at this guesthouse, and the breakfasts was very good.

We had dinner at a restaurant with a nice view and their own vineyard. And a cat sitting on the roof beneath us begging for food. We did not see many stray dogs outside of Tbilisi, but we saw some cats. And the stray dogs of Tbilisi were marked with yellow tags in their ear. We also went to another vineyard, Pheasant’s tear, who has wines you can get in scandinavia. Interesting tasting, and a nice place to visit. After this we ate kinkalis at a local cafe nearby. Cheap, good and local, and these kinkalis were not fake. We overestimated and ordered double of what we could eat.

August 15 — Signagi

The evening before, we also went to a nearby hotel and asked for a driver to take us to some vineyards. We went to a cooperative and some place looking more like an amusement park. At the cooperative we got a tour around and saw the quevris up close. We also tasted a few wines, but their knowledge of their wines was a bit lacking. At the amusement park, they knew they made good quality, and their wines was really good. Instead of 2 european plus 2 traditional, we got 4 traditional, and were very happy. At the amusement park, we also baked bread in a ring oven and dipped a string of walnut cores in some gooey mass before hanging it to dry. The tour with the driver to these places costed 100 lari, for about one hour in each direction and waiting.

We went for the local monastery with a holy spring. But the monastery was restored or built new, (impossible to see the difference, but the church there looked exactly like all the other new churches spreading across Georgia) and there was a long way down to the spring, where you could take a bath in a small house if you were earlier. We also drank the local water there. The walk out to the monastery was nice, but we didn't want to walk back, and we took a taxi back to the town. Rough winding roads, and the driver demonstratively buckled up his seatbelt when we got onto the better road (where there might be police wanting him to use the seat belt). It is not dangerous to be a passenger in the back seat in Georgia, most taxis does not have seat belts in the back seat. We only saw these working in the taxify taxis.

After seeing the nice Phesant’s tears the day before, we wanted to try it for some food as well, but at 1800 they were full, without looking full, but who knows. We found a better place at the hotel that had ordered our driver. And it was not more expensive than other restaurants, even though it looked very expensive and had an even better view over the valley. We tried even more georgian dishes and wine, and had a nice and relaxing time. On our way back to the guesthouse, we stopped by the park, where the children were watching outdoor cinema (at 2300).

August 16 - David Gareja and Borjomi

The day after, we went for David Gareja. We had been warned about the roads by the rental car company, but as they understood we had been driving on «unpaved» roads before, they let us drive here if we were careful. It took some time. A lot of time. And it was hot and tiring, but definitely worth it. Both the monastery in the hillside and the walk up to the border to Azerbaijan on the mountain ridge. You can see the difference of geology from the mountain. (Don’t take the route straight up the mountain, but walk past the cave and you’ll have a more pleasant route - where everybody else walks).

There was a lot of driving from David Gareja to Borjomi, and we stopped in Makheta, the old capital. It was like walking around on a medieval or tourist market elsewhere in europe, not very interesting, but kind of touristy and nice. The church was very nice.

We arrived very late in Borjomi. At a luxury hotel which was very expensive (comparing to Georgian guesthouses). We had some wine and beer in the «beach house» at the roof, but this hotel was not worth it. But you need to try if you want to know.

Outside the window of the hotel, there was a cross seemingly hanging, a few hundred meters away from the window. It was red and glowing. The next day we saw how close the steep mountains were.

For a place known as the best or largest «producer» of mineral water, the cooled water in the hotel lobby tasted really awful.

August 17 — Cave city and Kutaisi

The next day, we just bought some fruit and sunscreen at the local market before heading to the cave city.

We had a short rest at the tourist restaurant below, but that was best worth skipping. We also had to be quick to get to Kutaisi before dark, so we had to skip the two other must-sees that day.

Kutaisi seemed like a nice city, but we only had one night as our days started to get few, and we were stressing to get to Svaneti. We arrived late, had some trouble finding the hotel, as neither Google maps or Openstreetmap had the address. But we managed to point Maps-me to the location and follow directions.

We had what could have been a nice meal, if there had been any service at the restaurant. We approached waiter A, asked for a table, and was shown a small table with no space for food. He laughed when we asked if they still served food. He suggested another table with awful chairs close to all the noisy air conditioning equipment (still outside). We asked if the nice table with pillows were free to use, and was allowed to sit there. We got menus right away, but after that, it was waiting and waiting. And the noisy french people at the table beside obviously knew better than the cooks how dishes should be served. After a lot of waiting, some food and more waiting, we got eye contact with waiter A again. Waited a lot longer before we went inside and paid. Will not recommend, even though the food was OK.

While waiting at the restaurant, we had searched for a wine bar, and find a nice one that was about to close. They asked us to get in, talked about their wines, local wineries and georgian culture. We had some free tasting, liked what we tasted, and bought some glasses of even better wine. We also bought a bottle of wine with unknown grapes. When we went for that price, the owner of the place tried to intercept and get us to by an even more expensive wine, but we did not want to, and he left. We promised to write about the wines after drinking them back at home. One of the bartenders said he got sad each time people bought his favourite wine, and we had had one glass and a bottle.

August 18 — Kutaisi to Svaneti

The hotel was cheap (50 lari per night) and clean, and had a fairly good breakfast.

The next day we had a walk to the market to buy some water, nuts and nectarines, before starting a long drive to Svaneti.

We went to the Prometheus cave (which has nothing to do with greek mythology), one of many very long caves of impressing stalagmites and stalagtites. It was easy to get annoyed by the large group of ignorant tourists, and I was happy only one of the caves was open. It was a nice to take the boat out, but if you don't, you won't miss anything. But I should also say that the caves are large and impressive.

We stopped in Zugdidi and ate cheese with cheese and some more cheese at a very hip place, the Art House.

Driving to Mestia was a bit scary, as it took three hours of which two of them was at road where there was fallen stones and rock in almost every corner. Most cars were faster than you let them pass, and some were not fast and did not let you pass, so it was a bit frustrating competing against the dark. Luckily the sun set later in the mountains so we managed to get to the guesthouse just before it was too dark. Driving in the dark is normally not a problem, but in Georgia there are more animals in the road than anywhere else I have driven, and you don’t see them very well when you drive too fast at narrow roads in the mountains.

At the guesthouse/hotel, there was this very helpful (very) english speaking woman that helped to book a tour to Ushguli for the following day. After walking through the swiss-like alpine town, we settled for food at a nice place. They even had a very friendly and english speaking owner who cared a lot about a lot. But it became apparent that they had a problem with an electrical fuse. As in the fuse did not work, and there was a tiny fire in a switch and everything got dark. Some parts of our order was supposed to be made in the oven, but now they only had gas at the stove. It was a nice place, and a place we would eat again. The food was nice, and the atmosphere both before and after it got extra cosy. After seeing how they struggled with the electricity, it was nice to see that the house was still there the day after.

August 19 — Ushguli and Zugdidi

The drive to Ushguli started fairly early, and we shared car with a polish couple, which became very handy as the driver was able to communicate with them. We got an extra opportunity to see the Svaneti mountains from 3000 meters above sea level. We were driven up to the top of an alpine lift, after the fairly new 4x4 Mitsubishi needed a five minute stop to cool down.

The mountains where magnificent! We could watch the pointy mountains all around us, even the highest mountain in Georgia (Shkhara, 5201 m).

From there, the roads got worse. We could not have done this trip in the rental car, and an one point, our driver pointed at all the cars standing on the side of the road, by the river: They were helping a guy that had driven into the river. At another point, we stopped so that we could take nice pictures while the car was standing in a small waterfall.

Ushguli is five combined villages, and is of the highest continuously inhabited villages in the area at 2000-2200 meters. The villages are so remote that the mass tourism has not yet destroyed it. We were there on a rainy day, and some of the shops had closed because they were out of power for that day. But we found the new restaurant with proper toilets, and appreciated the level of tourist friendliness we saw. Both Mestia, but most Ushguli has a lot of stone towers, traditionally to defend themselves, and both walls and roofs were made of stone.

We were back in Mestia earlier than we planned, so we probably insulted the guest house owners by wanting to leave a day earlier than booked (even if sait we had little time, and we payed for the unused night, it was probably still an insult). But the drive back south to Zugdidi was nice, as we were getting away from the steep mountain sides and into nicer weather.

In Zugdidi we stayed overnight at a guesthouse which was more of the house of the people living there than any other guest house we were in. We had been warned that people in Zugdidi were not as truthful as the rest of the country, and there were some reviews of the place that should have made our internal alarms to start ringing. But the people were there were friendly, and our issues were sorted out. The owner of the place was an unemployed eye doctor, which tried his best to find other sources of income, and his home made brandy was very good. And we met this very interesting swiss family travelling through Asia and Africa in their french old military ambulance.

August 20 — Zugdidi and Tbilisi

We had breakfast at a hotel in Zugdidi, and went off quite early, as we wanted to get back to Tbilisi before dark. We picked up a couple of hitchhikers, which could tell that there were mostly europeans picking up hitchhikers in Georgia. These people were very useful when we needed to refuel before returning the rental car, we needed to communicate to the servicemen that we wanted a full tank, and we had the needed money, without using english.

Driving eastward is a lot faster, as there are more motorways this way. They are constantly expanding the motorway network, and the hitchhikers could tell that the hilly part in the middle will be replaced by a tunnel in a few years time. Driving in Georgia is actually not a problem, as long as you don't drive in Tbilisi, which we had to to get to our last hotel, in Maidan. It got a bit tricky where some people didn't drive on the right side of the road, and people trying to tell us that we could not continue in the same way. But we managed to get the car to the hotel. And the very helpful rental car company came and picked it up at the hotel for no extra cost. Very nice.

We had a very nice dinner at Schuchmann's restaurant, which we did not find on our first day in Tbilisi. If people would say that it is the best restaurant in Georgia, we would believe it. And they serve traditional, but maybe refined versions of the traditional food. A worthy finish gastronomically.

We also tried to get a bath in the traditional sulfur baths, but there were to late as all were booked. We ended up at «Amy's winehouse» instead, tasting and discussing and buying more georgian wines.

August 21 - Departure

We have to thank David and his family, Alisa and all other helpers who made this trip so good! We had a great time, and this was just as exotic as we could hope for. The hospitality of his family, and their eagerness to teach us more about this country: the history, other stories, food and wine, and of course all the travel tips.