About a week ago we rocked up to the Georgian border and my relationship with the country got off to a rather bad start! As Nick mentioned I wasn't paticularly fond of the lack of queuing etiquette that the Georgians (and Turks) seem to have at the border crossing, but as my blood boiled I found myself joining in on the pushing culture so I guess I can understand how if you'd grown up with the monstrosity of manners you'd just join in or you'd never get anywhere!
The funny thing is in comparison to this pushing and shoving Georgian people, as promised, have been as friendly and hospitable as the Turks, and I've certainly had my cheeks and nose squeezed off more in the last week than ever before (I thought that kind of behaviour stopped once you reached adulthood, but apparently the grannies here don't adhere to that rule...either that or I'm cute as a button!).
Anyhew, we hopped on a mashutka (?) a little minibus thingy and were in Batumi, a Georgian beach resort within half an hour. We met the lovely french girls and guy on this bus and they helped us out of our culture shock.
The weather was awful but we had a traditional Georgian dinner with Pierre, Laurienne and Miriam. We all ate khinkali which is basically a giant dumpling with usually mince meat inside. It's....nice. Nick like it more than me, maybe a bit to meaty for my liking.
We were helped to buy tickets to Tbilisi the following day by a lovely Georgian fellow we met on the street. There are, like in Turkey, four types of tickets on Georgian trains, and we booked our sleeper car and set out to pass the day before heading to the station for the evening.
We randomly bumped into Nick the Aussie yet again! We first met him briefly in Fethiye and then again in Kars, where we had a few drinks and exchanged emails in the knowledge we'd all be in Georgia at the same time. The emails it turned out weren't needed because there he was in a cafe in Batumi! We ended up spending most of the day cafe/bar hopping as the rain tipped it down almost constantly. This was not exactly the best plan (6 beers and 1 sleepless bumpy train ride later=not jolly) but we had lots of fun and got to know the lovely Nick aka Shaggy.
We organised to meet Nick in Tbilisi the following evening as we were getting different trains.
The train ride was awful but we saved on a nights accomodation atleast. We arrived in Tbilisi and after a couple hours of early morning waiting around we were given two beds in a dorm at Dodo's Homestay and had a couple hours sleep.
Over the following 24 hours the two Nicks, two Israeli guys Assaf and Kovi also staying at Dodos and I all decided to set off to Kazbegi, a region in Northern Georgia about 3 hours from Tbilisi. We arrived to a very eager man called Rezo insisting that we stay at his homestay. We had been given contact details of someone else by Dodo our pushy, odd but sweet guesthouse owner, but were eventually convinced by Rezo to go with him. SO glad we did. What a wonderful place. For 9 pounds a day we had comfy beds, hot water, cooked breakfast and dinner and a packed lunch. There were sweet little kids running around giggling and playing football which was very cute!
We had our own little apartment and spent the days walking the valleys and the evenings drinking and playing cards! One day we went off into the distance on a terrible road and ended up having to hitchhike back in a tiny Lada with Nick sitting on Kovis lap in the front seat! Georgians will pick up anyone, certainly a great country to hitch hike around!
The Israeli boys are very sweet, both are about to start university after having sertved in the Israeli army. They really couldn't be more different, Kovi is a devout Jew, a thoughtful and more reserved guy, while Assaf is gay with a cute little lisp and a big personality! They're the best of friends and along with Nick the Aussie (Shaggy from scooby doo according to Assaf) who's awesome we've had the best time.
We returned to Tbilisi and we went off to couchsurf and the boys went back to Dodos for the night. We stayed with a lovely girl called Natalia who has 4 rescue cats one of which wears a diaper and drags itself around as it's spine was broken by a dog bite. She was so kind and welcoming and yet again couchsurfing has been a pleasureable experience.
So in a couple hours we'll be back with the boys on a night train off to Sveneti for some more valley walking and card games! Can't wait! From then we'll be thinking about heading off in the direction of Armenia....
Love and kisses,
Nattyxxx
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