GEORGIA

As expected Georgia looked the same as Armenia, after a quick and painless border crossing it was off to the capital Tbilisi. Visually more impressive than Yerevan but when I walked the streets it was obvious that it was far more touristy. Also there was a big increase in the number of beggars (who seemed to be all old women), nothing on the scale of third world countries I had been to but it was noticeable.


The first night in the hostel was very quiet and everyone there seemed to be part of some big group. I discovered the following day that they were some sort of Christian group in the city for a multi day conference. As friendly as they were I knew they were in Tbilisi for a purpose so it meant that finding people to go on tours with or for a beer in the evening were much reduced. As I was flying home from there a week later I would see it in detail later on. I spent that full day doing what could best be described as a self walking tour. Early night followed by early morning and a 6 hour bus ride to Batumi.



As with Tbilisi it was well lit up at night, as I was tired from the journey I spent a while talking to other travelers including the first one I met from Saudi Arabia. The national park nearby was a bit of a hassle to reach so I spent the following day doing a massive walking tour of Batumi. It was a stony beach but as with the rest of that area there was a huge amount of construction work going on so they were expecting the place to do well in the future. I found the town to have that fairly empty end of season feel about it.




In the evening a group of us went out for food and drink, it was great walking round at night with the group. We ended up on the beach in some comfy seats and didn’t move for the rest of the evening. I wanted to move on to a bar or club towards the end but it wasn’t happening so we all headed back in the early hours.


I would best describe the following day as lazy because I did little of note other than a few short walks and hang around talking to other travelers. In the evening I went for food with a German who was looking for a Sushi place. We ended up in a shockingly expensive Monte Carlo restaurant opposite the Sheraton hotel.


Friday it was another 6 hour bus ride back to Tbilisi to the same hostel I was in before. No tours were running that weekend which was just my luck. I did arrange to go to Kazbegi with 2 Germans who were in my hostel. That evening I went out for food and a few beers with others I had met from the hostel. Things were ok until my stomach started playing up big time and I had to make an early exit.

The following day I still felt bad but chose to do the trip, the Germans then told me they were only going one way so I had to come back alone. We hired a taxi and headed north.


On the way we had a few short photo stops this was at Zhinvali reservoir.


This was slightly further up the road at Ananuri



I was still feeling ill from the previous night but so far so good, at we started going into the hills to our final photo stop at some strangely painted lookout point the weather got colder and wetter and the roads got worse and worse. The car slowed down to a crawl and I started to wonder how long I would get in Kazbegi before I had to head back. By the time I got there I had more than enough and jumped back in the taxi to Tbilisi. It was a bad choice to try and do that all in one day.



I went out with others from the hostel at night but was still not back on solid food. The final day was uneventful as I just got some shopping in to take home.

Overall I made a good choice with my destinations, I prefered Armenia over Georgia but both of them were good. The trip home was a little stressful as I had to get out of the hostel at about 2am !!!!!!!!!!