Day 21_to_24

We try to leave the hotel soon because it’s a “border day”, and we get a little nervous when that happens. The road it’s pretty much the same as the past two days, but now with more trucks. We don’t really enjoy riding on it.

We reach the border earlier than expected, they check a little our baggage at the Turkey side. Then, we approach the Georgian side… And we feel the chaos there. A police officcer says to us to skip the queue. The paperwork is easier than expected. They check anything about our baggage, and suddenly we are in Georgia. I can’t explain well enough how this side of the border is … It seems a crazy bazaar! Full of people screaming, offering insurance, currency, transport … whatever. What get’s me really shocked are the minibuses, they are normal vans full of people standing!

It’s really hot, so we keep riding to Batumi. We want to arrive there and get the motorcycle clothes out. The Adjabara Boutique hotel is really good, and the crew is nice and friendly. At lunch we take our first “khachapuri” (it’s a dough filled with cheese and egg), if you learn that word you’ll be fine in this country. They are delicious!

We walk around the city and it surprises us, it’s so modern and beautiful! The promenade, the beach full of life, the new fancy buildings…

We are still full, so we decide to go to the hotel without having dinner. They have a nice terrace where we can write and enjoy a drink until the storm starts, time to go to bed!

Today we start riding a bit late, and when we are ready the hotel crew wants to take some photos of our departure (we are famous!!! just kidding).

The roads in Georgia are fairly good enough; the problem are the drivers. They don’t respect us at all. They drive in a really aggressive way passing us in the worst conditions. We are a little freak out, and the hot it’s not helping. We reach Kutaïsi after a few hours of slow riding. The road passes through villages, and constantly a cow, a child, a pig or any other alive thing tries to cross the road.

Kutaïsi it’s a surprise, but not in a good way. We didn’t know what to expect, but we know that’s the legislative capital of Georgia, and its 3rd most populous city. At first we think that we entered through a bad neighbourhood, but no.

Our hotel it’s in a barely paved street, and we are near the city centre.

Another time it’s too warm, we need to cool down at the hotel for a bit before exploring properly the city. When we finally get out to find something to eat, we end up at a “fruit market”, but we are not able to buy anything. How to say it in a respectful way… it’s not the cleanest market we have seen ever. After that, we head to the city center, and what a surprise we have! a Mc Donalds is waiting for us there!! I think I’ve never been so happy to see one.

The city center:

Later in the evening, when the temperatures are finally below 30C, we walk to the Bagrati cathedral to visit it and see the views of the city. It’s going to be another “doggy day” with just one meal, we’re tired so we head to the hotel to rest until tomorrow.

Today we want to arrive to Tbilisi soon to visit the city, but again we are slow at the road and we reach there at afternoon.

Today it’s just another crazy day at georgian’s roads with the georgian traffic. We stop for a quick rest on the side of the highway like the georgians do. It is really hot and we need to drink something, but there is any petrol station on the way, so…

Then, we stop for lunch in Gori (Stalin’s birthplace), but we don’t have time to visit Stalin’s Museum. A statue of Stalin stood outside the Town Hall until being removed in 2010 as part of the country’s de-Sovietization process, now the square looks like that:

We see something interesting though, an EUMM (European Union Monitoring Mission) vehicle. The EUMM is an unarmed civilian monitoring mission, and is working to prevent the renewal of an armed conflict, as well as to help make the areas adjacent to the Administrative Boundary Lines of the breakaway regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia safe and secure for the local residents.

We continue our way to Tbilisi. Once we arrive we rest for a while and at evening we go to the center with the metro… what a thing!!!! it’s deep as hell!

We will spend today hanging around Tbilisi. It’s a great city full of things to visit. Here you can see how beatiful it is!

Here the Metekhi St. Virgin Church (1278-1289).

Narikala (ნარიყალა) is an ancient fortress overlooking Tbilisi, and the Kura River. The fortress consists of two walled sections on a steep hill between the sulphur baths and the botanical gardens of Tbilisi. Those are the views from Metekhi St. Virgin Church

Typical georgian houses:

The bridge of peace:

The Freedom square:

Views over the city from Narikala (we have taken the scary funicular!!!!!!!!)

After that we return to the hotel and we take a deserved rest until tomorrow!