Anyway, today being the 17th, all going to plan I should be beginning my long journey towards Australia in 2 and a bit days (!!!!). Barely thought about it at all until now...
The vague plan (the only way I know) is to stay in Sydney for a week or so, get acclimatised, organised and then maybe dive straight into the fields. Or, I could spend a couple of months sightseeing before Christmas, then get to work in the new year.
I've been hearing about Wwoofing (its an organisation consisting of a network of organic fruit farms across Australia) which could be a good beginning step. It only costs a few dollars to sign up, and generally includes board. The downside to that is, you don't earn anything. I mean, I'm not looking to make that my priority, but it'd be handy to have a small income to supplement beer and maybe some food. With Wwoofing, you work for 6 hours a day (half a day) in exchange for a full day's board - all seems pretty reasonable.
Onto the recap then...
Georgia is a beautiful country. Having heard this and that about areas of conflict and kidnapping, I was sure to check up on the FCO website. Sure enough there were areas to avoid - namely the South Ossetia and Abkhazia regions.
I pounded my way through Tiblissi, Gori, Khashuri, Kutaisi and Batumi.
There was a very rugged, edgy feel for the most part, even the big capital city of Tiblissi (Tiflis to the locals) felt a bit more behind the times than other cities. It’s hard to put my finger on what the main differences are with Turkey.
I suppose the first one that’s noticeable is that there are no longer mosques in every village and town, but churches. People here are still religious though; examples being on the numerous taxi and bus rides where the driver would often draw a cross in front of himself just as the trip was beginning.
That brings me to the driving in Georgia. This blows most places out of the water in the extreme madness of it. Think people overtaking five cars at a time on a blind corner on what would be a motorway, running red lights, and turning four-lane traffic into 6 and 7, when a space presents itself. I’d be lying if I said I didn’t enjoy these journeys though. We’d all be bumping along in Ford Transits that were pushed to their absolute limit.
Driving here seemed more like a game. Whenever we got overtaken ourselves, our driver would make it his goal to overtake the other guy again. Sometimes this would go on for most of the journey and sitting above the axel was not advised.
Tiblissi
At night the city wasn’t really pedestrian-friendly with large areas unlit and it was very easy to get lost. From the Ford Transit minibus I was dropped off in the centre and was handed over to a ‘gypsy’ taxi driver, who, through one of the other passengers on the minibus, said he could take me to a cheap hotel for 10GL.
The guy was pretty helpful even though his smile made sunflowers wilt. He’d drive around for ages, find a hotel, take me to the desk and ask them if they had room and at what price. If they were full, he’d take me to the next one, and so on. Every now and again we'd attempt a conversation, trying to overcome the language barrier, but I was somewhat concerned with keeping the guy's attention on the road.
After a bit of circling back and forth around the city, we (he) found a reasonable hotel. It was on a street lit up with casinos, which seem to be quite a big thing in Georgia. One day I'll have to try one...
I was pretty exhausted by this point, so I wasn’t on much that evening. I found a little place to eat, had a bowlful of something looking vaguely healthy and got some cheap ‘David Hard Drink’ Georgian Brandy – a pint for around about 3€. Before heading down the dusty road and armed with a tattered sheet of notepaper, with phonetic phrases I'd jotted down the day before, I practiced a little Georgian on the hotel staff.
Gori
I wasn’t in the mood for a big city, so I set about leaving Tiblissi and heading towards Gori the next morning.
Once at the train station, which looked broken and barely used, I realised that I'd be in another minibus or two that day. Sure enough, this was the case, but it has to be said that the scenery was beautiful on these journeys. Also, because of the relatively small size and nippiness of the Transits, we would go off the beaten track quite a bit, sometimes dropping farmers off at their fields, up and down winding lanes.
Before the Transit set off I browsed the markets in the area surrounding the train and bus stations.
Rows of fruit, clothes, books, nick nacks and interesting looking (and smelling) pastry snacks. I had a heavy pastry, slightly bigger than a Cornish pasty filled with crushed kidney beans (I think) that I could only just finish it was so filling. It must've cost about 1,50 Georgian Lari, somewhere in the region of 40p. I'd bought it from one of the little bakeries that are typical of Georgia - you get served from a tiny, almost cashpoint-sized window, which you could look through to a small kitchen where two ladies were tolling away and churning out pastry after pastry. The smells from these kiosks made you forget what else you were doing.
I also tried some brown drink, tasting vaguely like a mix between Guinness and Dr. Pepper, though less sweet and flat. Very refreshing.
Once I arrived in Gori it was chucking it down, so I thought on the spur of the moment I'd just jump in another bus rather than fight the rain trying to find a hotel.
Kutaisi
I arrived in this town after a brief stop in Khashuri, which had no hotels. I liked the feel of the place so decided it was worth spending a night or two.
In one of the hotels, I ended up getting very drunk with one of the owners. It was early evening, maybe 7pm, and I headed out to get something to eat, found almost everything nearby shut, except a little bakery where I got a tasty lump of doughy goodness.
When I returned to the hotel I offered the old guy some of my food as it was quite big anyway. He declined, but instead introduced a bottle of whiskey to the table, then homebrewed grappa, (or could've been vodka... verrrry strong!) we were clinking glasses for a good few hours. The Grappa (or whatever was) was so bitter it had to be chased by some homemade red wine, which still had remnants of grape left in it.
We communicated (or tried to) using something almost like sign language only much less sophisticated and used the dial of the cordless phone to enquire on ages. He was 55 - maybe trying to teach this whipper snapper how to drink! When neither of us could drink anymore we called it a night and we nodded to each other, shook hands and I clambered back up the stairs.
Breakfast was a nice thick omellete(sp) followed by two huge pastries containing feta, potato and some other magic ingredient. All that washed down with as much coffee I could drink. Then I wandered down to the Otogar and spent what seemed like a lifetime getting to Batumi.
Before the journey had even started I was reintroduced to last night's celebrations - so handy that I had a plastic bag on me! That trip was not fun at all, I felt terrible throughout, feeling each turn and bump in the road.
Batumi
Batumi was another lazy city for me, as in I was not upto much when I was there, mainly due to my ringing head.
The bus let us out near the port and I went towards all the shops and before long found a small hotel round a corner and through a small arch. Think I paid 20GL for one night.
I parked my bag in the corner, poured a litre of water down my neck and laid down for a few hours.
Later on, feeling a bit brighter, I went out in search of a traditional Georgian meal. I walked a bit until there were less shops on the streets and it was generally quieter then I found a place that looked ok, with original wooden beams and medieval seating.
From the off I got the impression the woman in charge didn't have much time for me. For a start she had to run around for ages to find the one menu that had English in it, as if it was my fault they'd lost it. Then when I didn't take half a second to make my order she started tapping her foot and giving me odd non-smiling looks. Of course, I wasn't going to rush, I took my time.
I ordered veal and potatoes (maybe Georgian, I don't know, they couldn't tell me what was typical Georgian cuisine) and a beer. All in all it was good enough, but they must've kept me waiting for 45 minutes or so, didn't offer me another beer or a dessert and gave me the bill before I'd even finished my meal. The sour-faced waitress was just the icing on the cake.
After the disappointing meal I wandered around Batumi in the dark, taking one or two pictures of the impressively lit up blue church.
I called it an early night and watched some film called 'Bone Dry' - I could tell it was shit, even without hearing the dialogue. I spread out in the huge double bed and drifted off without much effort.
Then I'm woken up with a start by knocking at my door at 3 or 4am. Something told me this didn't seem right, so I left the door locked and called out 'Hello' to no response.
I'm not 100%, but I think it was a couple of guys who had come through the hotel's front entrance (which didn't actually have a door) and were knocking on people's doors, for what reason I am unsure. All I know is I'm glad I had my door locked as a few minutes later someone tried my door, all the time not a word being said. When everything quietend down I tried getting back to sleep again, but perhaps understandably this was easier said than done.
The next day I was back on my way across the border to Turkey.
I'm regretting not spending much time at all in Georgia, but I was really wanting to concentrate my time in Turkey, the East inparticular. The people I came across were mostly helpful and friendly, just as in Turkey and I would gladly go there again and spread my time out a bit more.
At the time of writing there are works ongoing for a railway line to be built from Turkey into Georgia, which I think would take a lot of the hassle out of it, but might well be less fun!
