Georgia, Georgia and once again Georgia!
Georgia! A great start to the 8th travel season. We are back again, and this time with Mishka! Our separation lasted for a long year and a half, but we are together again! I don’t understand how, with the price of UAH 1330 for a round-trip ticket, there are still those who have not discovered this delicious and beautiful Georgian world for themselves? And even the departure and arrival is such that you can fly away after work, take a walk for the weekend and arrive even before the start of the working day.
Our plane flew smoothly and confidently. It shook in places, but it was just the plane was worried before visiting Georgia. When we landed at the airport, after taxiing off the runway, the plane began to pick up speed. The speed was getting higher and the takeoff began! Why? Is everything all right? I opened my eyes, Dasha and Misha were sleeping, we were still flying, about an hour before landing. Phew! Dream about this, right during the flight. We landed at the Tbilisi airport, fortunately, without incident. The first thing that pleases upon arrival is the price of a taxi. For 22 lari ($7.5) you can easily get straight to the center. Or take a bus and get there for a couple of lari.
Our housing was rather secret, it seemed to be in the center, but in a house that looked completely uninhabitable. We never saw the owner, we communicated with him by correspondence, we even made payment through the terminal, complete secrecy! At first we could not find our accommodation, but when I ventured behind the uninhabited and abandoned front door, a light came on there. Pipes, wires, all communications were carried out along the walls. On viber I received a photo of a floor mat, under which I could see the key. We found the same rug, there really is a key under it. We opened the door, there is a full-fledged good apartment with everything you need. We didn’t have enough towels, I wrote to viber and the next day they appeared on the couch. The owner himself also answered us with interesting mistakes, for example, he called the refrigerator a refrigerator. I felt like a Georgian secret agent. But it was just a warm-up.
Movement around the city the next day was very limited, to the point that taxis had to be called instead of minibuses. A lot of streets are blocked, people in uniform are standing around the perimeter, two sports cars are rushing in the center, a hefty armored personnel carrier is behind them, an army vehicle with a machine gun is rushing behind them, a shootout begins, a helicopter flies out of nowhere, rushes right over the cars. A man in uniform yells at us to press as close as possible to the wall behind the columns of the building. The helicopter sped by, followed by a car with 360 cameras. One of the cars was driven by a bald man, possibly Vin Diesel. Although with my memory for faces, all bald people look like Vin Diesels to me. People in uniform are broadcasting "Cut! " on the radios. The street is opened and allowed to pass through it until the next take. We are at the epicenter of the filming of "Furious 9"! All the conversations in the city that day were about filming: ". . . and she tells me that Fast and the Furious is being filmed here, and I laugh and ask, is it really the Georgian Fast and the Furious, and she nods her head in all seriousness. "
We arrived, as always, for three days. In order not to waste time on breakfast, Dasha made cheesecakes for one and a half kilograms of cottage cheese. I wonder if someone has already carried so many syrniki across the border. Our first day was devoted to Tbilisi. Even though we know the city by heart, it is always a pleasure to walk around it. We lived near the Davit Aghmashenebel walking street. So we started right from there, the pleasant atmosphere of cafes and restaurants, hanging light bulbs and green bushes. Walk back and forth, right to the eye joyfully. Further we had the center, where the Peace Bridge is, and then we went up to the Cathedral of the Holy Trinity.
The cathedral, of course, knows how to impress not only from anywhere in the city, but also up close. Indeed, it looks impressive. Walking back and forth, the long-awaited time has come to feast. A week before we were in Georgia, Anton and Tanya, they did not work out a bit with wine, for some reason they ended up in restaurants where there was no homemade wine. But personally, I believe that no self-respecting Georgian will open a restaurant without homemade wine. As a result, from each restaurant we visited, we sent Anton and Tanya a photo of the menu, where homemade wine was indicated. Anton suggested that perhaps we were with him in different Georgia or even in different years.
I basically saw a movie where the main character had a similar problem, but not with wine. Cheap prices are a problem, I want to order everything and a lot at once, as a result, the bill is not so cheap, but on average we had a bill of 44 GEL for three, including 0.5 liters of wine ($15). But this is if you really walk in a big way. GEORGIA I LOVE YOU!!! ! Sorry, I couldn't resist, after a very hearty lunch we went to the Mtstatsminda park. As always, the entertainment traditionally began with a descent on a log.
For some reason, the older you get, the scarier it is to go down that log. Misha, unfortunately, was not allowed in due to his height. And Dasha said that once such an extreme was enough.
Further, a mandatory point to visit is the Ferris wheel. In Tbilisi, the wheel is located really well - on the mountain. Near the wheel is a rather interesting scam with free photos, the price of which is included in the ticket price for the wheel. After an interesting photo session, it turns out that only one photo sized 2x3 cm is given out for free. I asked the girl if she was not ashamed to breed people, at first she tried to answer something prepared, but one of my hobbies is just sorting out various fraudulent schemes and other scams. Our Dasha is also very savvy in such things. The prepared phrases of the girl failed miserably against our questions, and she said that she would not have fallen for such a thing in her life, and she herself had just proved how honest everything was... Her manager was clearly dissatisfied with the answer, because when we When they left, they began to quarrel with each other. Moreover, the manager tried to correct the situation, trying to explain that it was all fair, we just forgot to ask what size the free photo is included, etc. By the way, in front of us, I saw that a woman paid 60 lari ($ 20) for the photos. Well guys, we are tourists here for a couple of days, and you will continue to live in this... But we took the photo.
In general, over the past years, interesting positive things have appeared about Georgia, we have used a taxi more than once, all the cars that came were powered by electricity, and this is really very good and right, the goodwill and hospitality of Georgians, as before, remains on top. When we were sitting in one of the restaurants, the waiter brought ice cream to Misha and said that it was from Yura's grandfather from the next table.
Grandpa Yura, like the rest of his company, happily raised their glasses to our health, and we to theirs. When we left, we happily once again raised our glasses for friendship between countries and mutual hospitality! From the amusement park, we went down the funicular and began to move towards the sulfur baths. The road was not easy, we were blocked by armored vehicles, cool cars and a film crew. Our bathhouse was booked from Kyiv. Since the last time it was not possible to book on the spot.
For 70 lari ($24) we got an hour-long sulfur bath for three, and another 20 lari ($7) for the services of a bath attendant. I would not say that I want to go there again (really, a very hot sulfur bath), but once you go to such entertainment, you must definitely order a bathhouse attendant.
We had an evening meal of huge Adzharian khachapuri (really huge - for 10 lari, i. e. $ 3.5), lobiano and Megrelian khachapuri, we washed it all down with traditional Georgian lemonade.
Signagi
Georgia without Sighnaghi is like wine without grapes. That year, our visit to the city of love failed miserably, this year we will catch up. In the morning, we set off from the Samgori metro station. The minibus cost 6 lari per person ($ 2). The road took 2 hours, and we are back in the fabulous city. The views of the Alazani Valley are still beautiful and unique, this time we climbed the towers of the fortress and were charged with beauty at the tops of the wall. 6 years ago, looking at these walls, we discussed that the Chinese wall looks somehow similar. Now we have already visited the wall and got an interesting flashback.
In fact, the wall turned out to look quite different. Since we did not have time for the return minibus, which departed at 16:00, we had another hour and a half more to recharge. We set off along the forest paths. Over time, a Georgian taxi driver caught up with us in a car so ruined (by the way, not electric) that when he persuaded us to go with him, I thought that he was simply afraid to drive further in such a car.
But no, we are charged with beautiful strictly on foot routes. We wanted to walk to the ancient monastery of Bodbe, but the signs were so clear that after an hour and a half we came exactly where we started.
We arrived back in Tbilisi, but the metro was closed for some reason. They explained to us that an emergency had occurred at the station, go to the next one. Nearby were two girls from Germany speaking English, and two Chinese women speaking beautiful Chinese. I explained to the girls that we need to go to the next station and we started walking. But somehow it became embarrassing for me to leave the Chinese themselves, that I decided to explain to them with gestures that they need to go with us. They looked at me very suspiciously, but I was persistent (I remember us in Hong Kong, then such persistent assistants would not hurt us). The Chinese followed us.
It was about a kilometer to go. Having covered half of the route, one of the Chinese women was able to quickly learn English, and said that they would take the bus here. I also asked if they knew exactly where to sit down, they assured me that everything was on the ointment! I wish I could learn languages so quickly, 10 minutes ago they couldn’t even pronounce a letter in Latin, but here it’s so beautiful, even without an Asian accent.
In the evening we had dinner at a restaurant that we fell in love with a year ago, what a chic Kutaisi kebab there. Anton, by the way, said that the restaurant did not go to him very much, and they were shocked. However, later it turned out that they went to a completely different restaurant, which is located in a completely different region of Georgia, just called the same.
After the restaurant was the longest walk through the city at night. We were during the full moon period, just a fantastic moon hung over the city all the time, especially on the first night when we arrived. Looking at such a moon, you begin to regret that you are not an artist and cannot capture it with a picture, and the camera, unfortunately, does not take such images.
I started reading one of the books with the abstruse title "Flow", which just described that at different times they tried to find true happiness in different ways and gave examples that the more you look for it, the less likely you are to find it, if I'm correct understood the message of that chapter. But in our case, with a love of travel, isn’t it happiness to walk with the family in distant cities with traditions and culture unusual for us? It's just wonderful, and even more wonderful to get other people hooked on it.
Every year I manage to motivate more and more people to travel independently. But, to be honest, more and more I am visited by the thought, what if the journey lasted all the time? What if you move to another country and stay there, at least for a trial period for yourself, if you don’t like it, come back. It would even be interesting for me to work for a short time in a completely alternative field. But I see it as one of the options for developing a whole new stage in life. I already noticed earlier that life can be divided into different stages, and it is clear that the current stage is not the last and there will be new discoveries. In the meantime, we continue to discover Georgia.
Mtskheta
Early in the morning, having finished the supply of cheesecakes, we went to Mtskheta from the Didube railway station. Ride for 30 minutes, 1 lari per person ($ 0.35). To be honest, I like Mtskheta even more than Tbilisi in terms of comfort, but, unfortunately, there is an order of magnitude less entertainment here. We have already been here once, we went to the mountain, this time, in addition to the mountain, we began to explore the city in detail. We walked and walked and Dasha at one moment said: "I know this city, we have already been here! " I peer at the places and a delicious Mingrelian khachapuri and a glass of wine pop up in my memory. There were! It’s hard to believe that the two of us completely forgot how we had already walked here, other places in the city and the details of the walk immediately began to be remembered. It's good that there are these stories in which you can always restore the journey of a long time ago in the smallest detail.
When visiting Mtskheta, it is simply impossible to miss the Jvari mountain monastery. This time we were able to negotiate with a local taxi driver for 18 GEL to take us back and forth. Upstairs, everything was just as beautiful, despite the cloudy weather. But about the confluence of the rivers - an interesting point: apparently, in the rainy season, the border of flowers is more extended along the rivers. We photographed Misha in the same place where I once sat. Misha picked up our trend of burst photos through the years pretty well. Misha found places and suggested which of them could be used for future photographs.
But the cancellation of UIA low-cost tariffs hints that future trips to Tbilisi will not be as frequent as we would like. Now, when there are no similar fares, as they were (1300 UAH round trip), it seems, well, why didn’t we fly every weekend? Although the density of trips turned out to be a record for the year, I think that it is unlikely to surpass. Once upon a time, eight trips in a year seemed like something of a record.
We returned to Mtskheta, we had to have lunch. Oddly enough, we found a very unfortunate restaurant that looked quite cozy. The problem was the size of the portions and the taste of the food. I can’t understand how you can spoil Georgian food at all. At the neighboring tables, people also left without finishing their food. We opened the rating on Google map, it turned out that dissatisfied reviews of tourists have been pouring in for a year now. Apparently, everyone first enters, and then reads the rating in bewilderment.
We have changed the course of events. A young couple wanted to come in for lunch, they met our eyes, and I showed them a slight gesture from one movie, issuing a beheading order. The guys nodded their thanks and went to look for another restaurant. In general, you will be in Mtskheta, when visiting a restaurant that has beautiful vines hanging over the tables, check the rating) We rightfully refused to pay the service that was forcibly included in the bill. But nevertheless, it was both fun and incomprehensible: "How can you cook something tasteless in Georgia ??? ". Most likely, the cooks were not Georgians. We returned to Tbilisi.
Among all the intrusive advertising of boats, I remember one guy who handed out leaflets and told us not to ride with him, since his boats are the worst. I don’t know what it was, but I liked the publicity stunt, I really paid attention. By the way, we came to the center for the boats. We were offered a great price - 30 GEL for two and free for Misha ($10). We were first taken to a restaurant, where they gave us wine and chacha for free. Moreover, Dasha turned out to have a lot of wine, and I washed down chacha with wine. Then we were put on a small motor boat and Misha was given the steering wheel. The driver at first corrected how Misha drives, and then completely gave Misha freedom of action. Misha began to steer as famously, but professionally, as we do when we play GTA with him.
The captain's equanimity and relaxation were unshakable. Even when Misha turned the ship 180 degrees in a rather narrow place, and we swam in a completely different direction, the Captain only slightly leveled the steering wheel so that it didn’t work all 360. It was clear that the other tourists on the boat were divided into two groups - those who caught euphoria from what is happening, and those who watched with apprehension as a seven-year-old child learns to drive a boat with passengers in the form of themselves.
The walk lasted up to 30 minutes and was worth every lari. I wonder if you can fly a plane somewhere in Georgia?
After the boat, we went to the cable car to the top of the city. In our rating, this cable car continues to hold the first place in terms of cheapness. The rise costs 2.5 lari ($0.85). At the top, another pleasant surprise awaited us. Misha kept wanting to look through the binoculars, and here was the one into which it was necessary to throw a coin, but there were apparently so many coins in it that he no longer covered the lenses.
After about 10 minutes, I already regretted that those lenses were open all the time. Barely Misha was torn off later.
By the way, on this trip I had a trick - to carefully step between the paws of sleeping dogs, however, once I had to step near a dog that looked more like a bear. The heart has stopped. But nevertheless, the challenge was successfully completed, I stepped between the paws of sleeping dogs in absolutely all the cities that we visited on this trip. Do you know what distinguishes the countries in which the trip was a 100% success?
In the evening before leaving, it becomes a little sad, just a little, but this note slips inside. Misha seemed to have caught this moment and asked: "Daddy, why did we fly only for three days? " At this moment, it seems that one wants to stay, even sacrificing other trips. But nevertheless, we know almost 100% that on the next trip we will be caught by the same thoughts, and so on in an endless chain. But in any case, until you run into some winter Bratislava)))
When we went to one of our favorite restaurants, for the first time in three days, we were not so much actively clung to as they praised us for our identical family T-shirts. Dasha, by the way, came up with this. At 3 am the alarm clock rang - it's time to go to work. We ordered a taxi and went to the airport, there is still a long working day ahead.
Trip Information
Date of travel: 14.09. 2019-17.09. 2019
Duration: 3 full days
Air tickets: UIA per year
Hotel: Booking
Excursions: All by yourself
Trip difficulty: 1/10 (very easy)
