Batumi - The Posh Side

The title of this post was not an easy one as I had many in mind - "Las Batumi"; "Batumegas"; "Batumi - The new Sin City" among others. In a way, the idea was always the same. Batumi is a new born city by the black sea with lots of 5 stars hotels, posh casinos and the ever so needed dancing fountains. It's not quite as Vegas or Macau but is getting there on a supersonic speed. However, it has something that those cities don't really have, a real beach! It's definitely a plus as it makes the city more attractive to a bigger range of tourists. Also, it's fairly close to Europe and of course to the Russian magnates..

For this and much more, Batumi is well worth a visit (specially for hen parties) and according to Donald Trump, Batumi is going to be the best place in the world just as he is getting ready to build another of his towers right in the heart of Batumi. Let's wait and see Donald..

The hitchhiking is still on top of the list of the most exiting stuff that I've done in Georgia..This time we got a ride from a carriage pulled by a horse. A whole georgian family was on it - mom and dad, 3 little boys and the grandmother... Priceless!

Poti - The Yacht Club

On Monday the 27th we're invited for a gathering in the Yacht Club of Poti to welcome the arrival of Reliant’59. Basically, a Lithuanian - UAB Advance Advice - company as won a tender from the EU to sail around the black sea with graduates in order to give them the experience of sailing and also to present their business ideas across the countries on the black sea.

Here is more about the project - "The Captains of Seven Seas" is aimed to raise young and enterprising leaders who will boldly state that they have crossed the seven seas, have overcome all of the challenges and have themselves prepared for the future business journey.
The project integrates different tools and methods for promoting entrepreneurship – lectures, workshops, camps, communication with mentors, contests, journeys, consultations etc. We would like to emphasize that this projects is not a separate competition of business plans, seminar or start-up accelerator. This is a complex set of smoothly integrated measures aimed to promote youth entrepreneurship.
Read more about the Project
Press release, 25th of July, 2012
The project C7S is funded by the European Union and organized by the most influential Lithuanian business association – Confederation of Lithuanian Business and Employees. During this project more than 160 students and academics from Lithuania are trained to start their own business and establish enterprises which can develop an international business. One of the stages of the project C7S is entrepreneurship trip around the Black Sea: Bulgaria, Romania, Ukraine, Russia, Georgia, Turkey. The selected 30 best students will sail around the Black Sea and meet the representatives of the local businesses in 14 cities in this region.
Vilnius city mayor greetings brought to all this region cities by the crew of the yacht Reliant’59 and the project Captains of the seven seas:
Alushta; Batumi; Burgas; Constanta; Feodosiya; Gelendzhik; Hopa; Istanbul; Yalta; Odesa; Poti; Samsun; Sevastopol; Sochi; Varna; Zonguldak

Zugdidi 'n the Black Sea

Hitch hiking to Zugdidi was showing to be another long journey but it turned out to be quite pleasent as we got 2 very interesting rides. One was from a Polish man who is working for the European Union to monitor and report about the tension between Georgia and Abkhazia. On the other side, we got a ride from a Captain of the Georgian Army. He had already been in Kosovo, Iraq, South Ossetia war in 2008 where he got badly wounded and is now going to Afghanistan on the 5th of September. To the force to be with you soldiers!

During this journey I got to find out a couple of others quite interesting facts about driving in Georgia. Apparently the only 2 things that the police actually stops you for are: drink and driving and if you don't have the seatbelt on (in fact, this has only been a rule from 2 years ago). Apart from these everything else is pretty much allowed. So it is common to spot crazy drivers speeding and doing all sorts of dangerous manoeuvres. Surprisingly, there aren't many road accidents. Also, it looks as thou insurance is not mandatory too.. Well, it actually makes some sense in a country where there is no MOT and you can find all sorts of animals crossing the road at all time.. From cows to pigs and even buffalos. If you have enough money to buy a very good car you'll probably be ok to pay for the repairs in case of accident. For this and much more I'm seriously thinking about renting a car! (mom, what you have just read was a huge translator error!)

With lots of walking and whatever happens done, Zugdidi was the place to do loads of wine and add another "w" to the list.. Watermelon!! Aren't they tasty here! It's definitely a must do in Georgia but with moderation.. The watermelons of course! :p

Anaklia was the place to go for a swim on the black sea being just over 30km west of Zugdidi and only a couple to Abkhazia (one of the regions which is claiming independency from Georgia). Anaklia is a quite renovated place and still under renovation that is being used by the recent government as a show off with new hotels, a Marina and amusements zone specially because of its proximity to the Abkhazia region.

Enjoy the pics!

Vardzia 'n Hot Springs

Enough of the cold and mountains from Kazbegi, we're now heading south to Vardzia - 370km from Kazbegi and around 30km to Turkey. Along the way we've past by the city of Gori - birthplace of Stalin and one of the cities under attack during the tension with the Russians in 2008. Right next to the highway it is possible to spot recent build houses for the georgians who had to leave South Ossetia.

7 cars, 2 trucks, a Van and 9 hours afterwards we finally arrived to Vardzia around 9pm. The idea was to camp by the river and when we arrived to the "camp site" a few people (2 polish couples and some locals) were already having a small gathering.. We hurried to set up the tent but it wasn't as easy as it was supposed to since one of the bits was missing.. Improvising we had to :)

Joining the locals and the polish couples was the best we did since they offered us food and booze. ;) they were all very nice and after a couple toasts of chacha (a very strong georgian liquor), georgian cognac and some polish vodka the locals asked us all if we fancied going for a swim at theirs hot water swimming pool.. At first I found it very strange but then the polish explained that that area was known for having hot springs - basically those are pools with heated water that comes straight from the underground at a temperature around 35 degrees. Why not? was my thought and we all went. The pool was in a falling apart warehouse but we only got to figure that out on the next day. However, I have to say that it felt really good to go in a Hot Spring at 1am. Not too far away from here, there was also a kind of a jet stream of the same heated and salty water where we had a really nice shower on the next day.. 

It was the perfect place to take really cool pictures!

The next morning we got along really well with one of the polish couples (Olia - the actress and Karol - the photographer) who were travelling around Georgia by Marshrutka (fully packed vans - most of them Ford Transit - driven by crazy drivers). We all went together to visit the nuns and the monks monastery which are separated by around 4 km. Some say that there was a tunnel that would link both monasteries so nuns and monks could meet in the middle to "share thoughts". This story was actually confirmed by one of the nuns but in her version the tunnel was to the village and not to the monks monastery.. Yeah, right! Not very good for a nun to be lying.. 10 Holy Mary's for you!

Once again we have changed our plans. At first we're going to stay in Vardzia only for one night to then go back to Tbilisi to watch a basketball game of Georgia against Lithuania (apparently) but the weather, the hot springs and the people made us stay for another night. In fact, it was a great evening as we decided to improvise a bbq, sticking sausages into wooden sticks and play a little like cave mans! Dzięki Olia and Karol - you guys are proper travellers!

Kazbegi 'n Georgian family

Kazbegi was the next stop 150km north of Tbilisi and 15km to the Russian border. In fact, the town of Kazbegi has been renamed to Stepantsminda in 2006 but the locals still call it Kazbegi.

Hitch hiking to Kazbegi shouldn't be as hard as to David Gareja since it is a much touristic place and as so a lot of people would be going up. With this in mind we left Tbilisi around 4pm. Again it didn't take long for a truck driver to pick us up - I have to say that they have been fantastic so far; in fact I'll be making a post by the end of trip with pictures of all the truck drivers. It was a smooth trip as we just got rides from 2 trucks and 2 cars. Well.. As smooth as possible as Kazbegi is 1740m above sea level right in the middle of the Caucasus mountains which means that we had to go through a very rocky and serpentine road. On the plus side the landscape was breathtaking. A not so funny but still quite cranky episode was when the engine of a bus started to get on fire just in front of us while our truck driver was dealing with some parallel business. The passengers from the bus got out safely and quickly put the fire off with dirt and stuff..

After 4 and a half hours hitch hiking we finally got to Kazbegi where we would stay in a guest house recommended by Giedre's Lithuanian friends. It is said that to have the full Georgian experience you have to stay a couple of nights with a Georgian family which I couldn't agree more. Staying with Vano's family was quite pleasant. We have actually stayed for 2 nights when we're only planning to stay for one. They live in a house with a small farm where they grow and plant everything they eat.. From tomatoes, potatoes, all sorts of vegetables, to cows, chickens and pigs . Also they produce they're own cheese which for me (I have to be honest) was only good with jam (also homemade).

Kazbegi is known by the huge Kazbegi mountain on the west side of the town and the Gergeti Trinity Church sitting on the the top of a big hill on the east side. Climbing to the Church takes about 2 hours but is totally worth it. There are no words to describe the view from the top.. I hope the pictures can do some justice!

Enjoy the pictures and stay tuned.. Next post is going to have some more action! ;)

Shits & Giggles 'n David Gareja

These last days have been about learning the Georgian Culture and trying to survive the occasional adventure. As the whole idea of the blog I'll try to make this post more experience than touristic wise.. I leave that job to Google ;)

Tbilisi was quite a good surprise as it still keeps lots of the old town whereas a new city is emerging. I like to technically call it as a Work In Progress city - the work is progressing well, some milestones have already been completed but there are still a long way to go for the final delivery. However, Tbilisi isn't too far from other eastern European capitals.. From the occasional street fight to the huge gap between rich and poor (Hummer H2 showing off big wheels next to really old Ladas without windscreens) and past the usual chaotic traffic where the one that drives faster, horns consistently and has the crappiest car is the traffic King. All of this makes Tbilisi to be right up there with other Eastern European capitals.

After enough chilling and a couple of nights sleeping in the reception floor of Sky Hostel we decided to hitch hick to  David Gareja. This is a monastery built up in the mountains right next to the Azerbaijani border. It's also known for the wild snakes all around it but if I can take the word from a truck driver, apparently no one has been bitten since the 5th century.. So, fingers crossed, mosquito repellent all over and off we go!

We started hitch hiking around 12pm ish from the South of Tbilisi and it didn't take long for a car to stop. It's quite normal to do it here and people are quite friendly..Oh! funny fact about Georgian road safety.. MOT (Inspeccao) is not mandatory in this country. It looks as thou it was so corrupted that they just thought not doing it at all.. So, cars without bumpers, windows and all sorts are quite often. Back on the road and after getting a ride from a black windows SUV and 2 dodgy trucks, here we are on this 3rd truck and funny story: Pedro starts getting excited and goes - "Wow, this is an awesome truck". Driver - "yeah, it has been a good truck but it's getting old and needs some repairing" - Pedro: "No, no no! It's great as it is! Leave it!". Five minutes after, truck breaks down (clutch failure is my guess) and we are back on walking.. Anyways, after 1 suspicious SUV, 4 truck rides and at least 10 km walking we got to David Gareja at half six pm. The place is definitely worth a visit but we were running out of time to get to Sighnaghi (a big village where we would be spending the night).

Here we were in this fantastic place with about an hour and a half of daylight and just like this wasn't enough the sky was already starting to get dark by heavy clouds as we were the only visitors in the monastery by then.. The only people there apart from ourselves and the monks where some construction workers who were building a house close by. Since sleeping with the monks wasn't an option, the workers were our only one.. It turned out not to be that bad since they were all very friendly and for some reason (I don't really want to know which one) loved my name.. Anyways, there was this Van that was just about to leave to take the workers back to a village nearby. Unfortunately thou it was full but it'd be comming back in one hour to pick up the rest of the workers and hopefully us.. By now our plans to get to Sighnaghi (80 to 90km from David Gareja) on that night were out of the window. The picture was getting quite pretty and it got even prettier when the threatening storm kicks in.. :) we were told to jump into one of these huge constructor truck to wait for the van and protected from the rain I've witnessed the most beautiful storm of my life with massive lightnings and thunders pretty close to us. After an hour and a half of waiting, one of the guys opened the door of our truck and started shouting something in Georgian which I could only understand Pedro and Tbilisi.. Apparently the Van got stuck because of the bad weather but there was a truck that had just arrived going to Tbilisi to take some rocks.. back to Tbilisi it was! ;)

To this point I already had a really good story and I just wanted to get back to some sort of civilisation.. sorry, there's more! As we drive off from David Gareja, the driver seems to be quite comfortable with his driving by the speed we were going on mountainous roads.. All fine by me ;) however after a couple of quite skilled escaping from ditches we did get stuck in one.. Just what we needed! Well, on the bright side the rain had stopped but on the dark side we were now stuck in the middle of the mountains known by having poisonous snakes.. Sweet! The driver and I had this look at each other that there is no need to speak the same language to understand.. I read on his eyes something like "mate it would be nice if you could come out with me and help to take this truck out of here" my eyes replied back something under these lines "mate, there is no way I'm getting out of this truck in the dark with the risk of getting bitten by a snake. I'm fine here, let's sort it out tomorrow" .. I think that after a couple of minutes he got the message ;) I know it wasn't a brave move but this was me looking after myself mom! In the end he got out on his own (I have to give him all the credit in the world for that) got some rocks to put under the tyre and after going back and forwards with the truck we were miraculously back on track.. After that is driving style changed from Dakar racing driver to 80 year old lady driving to the shops on a Sunday afternoon. As I thought this was going to be it.. He gets lost! Only because my georgian isn't good enough yet to give directions as he completely ignored me when we missed a turn.. So here we are at 10:30pm without any sort of clue to where we were going and even better the Azerbaijani border was just a few kms away.. Good thing I had my passport with me so there was nothing to worry about apart from what the heck was a lithuanian and a portuguese doing on a construction truck in the middle of the night crossing to Azerbaijan. I'm sure we would be able to come up with a pretty decent story if they didn't shoot us first.. We then started to spot quite bright lights on the top of a hill which I really thought it was the Azerbaijani border. It turned out to be a Georgian Military base.. At this point I had no idea if it was a bad or a good thing. No problems there as we drove past it and after another good hour in mountainous roads we finally found a tarmac road which would takes us safe to Tbilisi.

Here goes a few pictures from the trip so far.. My apologies if the quality isn't as good as the pictures in the first post but let's just blame Apple..