DiDi Madloba Everybody!

After hitchhiking close to 2,000 Km, Georgia was without any questions an excellent surprise. Not only for discovering a whole new country but also for the people I've met that made this trip so special - Koka, the always awake manager of Sky Hostel in Tbilisi who has kindly picked me up and dropped me off from the airport. Ever in a good mood, Koka also works as an air traffic controller during his free time; Regan Cannon, the brave american from Tennessee who is hitchhiking from France to Australia and was stuck in Tbilisi as all is stuff has been stolen in Turkey; Regina, the manager of Zugdidi Hostel who is in Georgia for 2 years and is now moving to Tbilisi to start her master on Caucasus Countries Sciences; Natia, an old face from my Erasmus in Lithuania who is now moving to Egypt to teach social sciences. To all of you and many others, all the best luck!


A special thanks to Ricardo Silva who has given me the idea and encouragement to write this blog and, finally, the biggest and most special thanks to Giedre for "organising" the trip. You have been simply wonderful since the begging.. Thank you for your excellent Russian who allowed me to enjoy the rides while you're chatting with the drivers.. Without you it wouldn't have been the same ;)

Over and Out.

Truck Drivers

This post is to all the truck drivers that have kindly stopped for us. Some recent cars have seat belts that give you warm hugs but big trucks (TIR) have these amazing seats with springs! They are just the most comfortable seats ever ;) a big thanks to you all!

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! ;)