Postcard from: Ozurgeti

This trip was a little different, as the primary motive was to get our Covid-19 vaccines. (After our second dose, I’ll post about getting vaccinated in Georgia). Our appointments were in Ozurgeti, the capital of Guria, which we chose in part because we had never been there and I had recently read Emily Lush’s post about interesting things to do in the area. I have some friends from the area and it seems to inspire great loyalty. Now that I’ve visited I can see why.

The 5ish hour drive from Tbilisi was slightly complicated at this time by the 11 PM curfew, but G was able to leave work a little early and we made it out of the house by 5, giving us enough time to get there comfortably. The highway has been improved since we last went to Western Georgia, so the drive was faster and easier. There are multiple roads from the main highway to Ozurgeti, and we took the one from Lanchkhuti. The road was in pretty good shape, but the narrow twisty mountain road after dark was giving me conniption fits. We probably should have taken a different route at that hour. I’m sure that area has beautiful scenery when it’s light out, though. We had pre-booked our stay at Komli Guesthouse, and we definitely should have called Lika for directions earlier on the drive. GoogleMaps will get you VERY close to Komli, and then it will send you driving around in circles rather than getting you the last two minutes. Honestly, if you listen to Lika and not GoogleMaps, Komli is very easy to find, even in the dark. Even though we arrived late she had a feast waiting for us, including Gurian wine, some of the best badrijani nigvzit (eggplant with walnut) I’ve ever had (and that’s my favorite, so I can judge), bamboo pickles, and the Gurian version of chakapuli made with beef and cilantro. Everything was delicious, and we quickly decided that we would add board to our room while we were there. I was a bit nervous about staying in an “historic farmhouse”, but Komli understands both Georgian hospitality and the hospitality industry, so the beautiful old room had a comfortable bed, clean modern bathroom, and wasn’t the slightest bit musty while still being full of character.

Komli

After staying up late chatting with Lika, we woke up on the late side on Saturday morning. We had a massive breakfast (featuring a huge pot of wonderful homegrown tea), and met Lika’s family, friends, and neighbors–everyone was very nice. We agreed to do the tea tour, and Lika told us about the history of tea in Georgia and Guria and her family’s history. We then went to pick some tea from her tea bushes. It’s easier than I thought, and actually quite nice (when you don’t have a quota). We then visited the area where they’re constructing an eco-friendly straw house on the property. Throwing mud at the walls seems quite fun. There’s a rivulet through the property, so Lika has constructed a little boat and you can go on a “mini cruise” which was nice and relaxing. The colors of the bamboo grove were surprisingly bright and pretty.

Picking tea

After a relaxing morning and early afternoon, we went into Ozurgeti proper to get our vaccines at the clinic. The vaccination center was on the 4th floor, so while we were being observed post-vaccine, we had a lovely view of verdant green mountains. We decided to go for a drive and see the scenery while we were out and about, so we picked a road to follow for awhile. Seeing a village with some interesting architecture, we looked on GoogleMaps and realized we were already closer to Batumi than Ozurgeti! We decided it was worth a visit to the Black Sea so we continued on to Kobuleti. We checked to see if our favorite fish farm had survived the pandemic (It has and they’re doing pretty significant renovations). Then we went to the beach and I played in the sea for a bit. We took another road back to Ozurgeti, making a loop. I knew Ozurgeti wasn’t far from the Black Sea, but I was still surprised by how close and accessible it was. If you drive (or are a marshrutka master), I would highly recommend staying in or around Ozurgeti for a beach trip that avoids the hustle of the beach towns.

Playing in the Black Sea

We had hoped to spend more of Sunday in Ozurgeti and explore on the way back, but it turned out we needed to return to Tbilisi sooner than expected, so we took the road back via Chokhatauri, which I think is the main road. Before we left Komli, we bought some of her tea to bring home and continue enjoying.

Even though there “isn’t much to do” in Ozurgeti, we didn’t do nearly everything and would be happy to visit again. Gomi Mountain, the Ozurgeti Theatre, and some Soviet mosaics still await us on our next trip to Guria!

Postcard from: Kyiv

Now that I’m only working one job with strict hours, I decided to use our break to travel. My cousin lives in Ukraine (no, we don’t have a family connection to the region, we independently found interesting opportunities), and I’d been meaning to visit for a while. I was surprised that ticket prices didn’t go down after the UIH 752 crash, but they still weren’t too expensive, and it seemed like a time the airline and the country could use some customers, so I booked a visit. I thought it might be a little crazy to go to Ukraine in February (cold, right?), but my cousin assured me that with the right gear it would be fine. Lucky for me, I had just bought a proper winter coat. Buying my tickets was ridiculously difficult (no longer a fan of CapitalOne), but I did manage to procure them eventually. I have nothing but good things to say about the individual customer service agents from Ukrainian Airlines, though their website could use some work.

The flight times weren’t ideal, but they were manageable. I had to get up pretty early Saturday morning, but I did manage to snooze on the plane. There was some unplanned drama on the flight when a gentleman smoked in the lavatory, but I was quite impressed with the flight attendants’ handling of it…I don’t think people who weren’t nearby even noticed. My family were pretty much ready to start the day once I got to their house, so the timing was good in that regard. Since they live there and have stuff to do, we spent time together on the weekend and I explored on my own while they were busy with work and school. They introduced me to Ukrainian food at Ostannya Barykada and Khutorets ne Dnipri, some of their favorite Ukrainian restaurants. They were very different, but I enjoyed both. Turns out borscht can be delicious!  We also went to their favorite modern Georgian restaurant, Chichiko, which was fantastic. It was interesting to see how the different food trends in Tbilisi and Kyiv have influenced the menu. Everything was undeniably Georgian food, but there were things on the menu that are not common or popular in Tbilisi–loads of turkey and lamb dishes. The tonis puri was served with an excellent Kakhetian sunflower oil and green onion dipping sauce (I’m working on duplicating it but haven’t been fully successful yet), and we loved the “khachapuri diavola” with adjika baked in.

Most of my top must-sees were museums, and I found that, unlike in many countries where all museums close on Monday, different museums in Kyiv were closed different days. On the one hand this was an advantage, because there was some museum for me to see everyday, but on the other hand it required paying attention to the schedules and planning accordingly. I wasn’t sure how I felt about going on a tour to Chernobyl, so my cousin suggested I go to the museum first and decide after that (Chernobyl tours do need to be booked a few days in advance due to security procedures). I followed his advice and went on Monday (I would recommend this strategy for others who are not sure, too). The Ukrainian National Chernobyl Museum was really impressively put together, mostly with historical artifacts, but with some artistic touches mixed in. I got the audioguide and found it interesting and helpful. From there I grabbed some lunch and walked up Andriyivskyy Uzviz to the National Museum of the History of Ukraine, which was also well worth the visit. It was a good-sized museum; complete but not so big as to be exhausting.  I was impressed by the attention to details in the design (curtains with traditional embroidery in the textiles room, actually comfortable chairs in front of the video exhibits, kids’ activities in most rooms).

Cabbage Dessert from 100 Years Back in Future

I decided that after an emotional day of museum viewing, I deserved to try some of Ukraine’s famous coffee and pastries. I opened GoogleMaps and was headed to the closest highly-rated coffeeshop when I noticed I was walking past 100 Years Back in Future, which had been recommended to me on Twitter. My mind was made up. I decided to go for it and order the weirdest thing on the dessert menu, a cabbage-based dessert, with my coffee. My tweeps have excellent taste, because the cabbage-based dessert was delicious. The weather was pretty nice and I had some free time, but as it was late afternoon most museums and tourist sites were starting to close, I decided to get to know the city better by walking home. It was a little far (certainly further than would be a reasonable daily commute), but it gave me a great view of the city and helped me figure out the layout.

The next day, I decided to go to Rodina Mat and Lavra Pechersk Monastery since they are near one another and the books said they were open on Tuesdays. The weather was gorgeous (actually warmer than Tbilisi that day!) and I enjoyed walking around in the sunshine and seeing the memorial. There were signs to “the museum” which seemed to be in a different place than I had thought, but I followed them anyway and wound up in the “Museum Making of Ukrainian Nation”, which is not the museum I was looking for. The ticket was also much more expensive than I had read, but I paid up and went in. It was in fact a different museum, and the reason it hadn’t come up in my research was that it had just opened last fall. This is a museum designed for people who don’t like museums (so I’m not the target audience). It had plenty of selfie opportunities, and scenes from Ukrainian history up to the present. The audioguide was generally good, but there were some exhibits that had neither audio nor text descriptions. It was a good overview of Ukrainian history, though the exhibits didn’t provide much information on their own. You could get some great Instagram shots, though.

Cossacks in “Museum Making of Ukrainian Nation”

Then I found my way to my intended museum, the  “Museum of the History of Ukraine in the Second World War”, which was cheap and heart-wrenching and interesting. I remember in history classes in school drawing maps of WW2 battles, and drawing a big marsh between Germany and Moscow. This museum hammered home the fact that there was NOT nothing there; there were good-sized cities and many people living in this area. Kyiv and other parts of Ukraine played a major role in WW2. There was also an exhibit on the ongoing conflict in Eastern Ukraine, so the museum wasn’t limited to WW2 alone. I was in definite need of sustenance after an emotional morning, so I made my way to the Kyiv Food Market, a conglomeration of the best restaurants from a variety of styles and cuisines. I tried three different places, enjoying my green borsht (that’s sorrel instead of beet–also good!), mors, matcha latte and a cinnamon roll. It was a good type of place to eat alone, with the shared tables and simplified service, but it would also be great with a group to share nibbles and try lots of different things. I then wandered back towards the Lavra complex, passing through the Holodomor Memorial (museum under construction) and entered the Lavra complex itself. Most of the museums there were closed on Tuesdays, but the one I was most interested in, the Museum of Historical Treasures, was open and well-worth the visit. So much historical bling that is still absolutely stunning! I found Lavra as a whole a strange place. A door with a sign that said “bookstore” demanded to see my ticket, and all but one of the churches I tried to visit were closed (the open one was nice). The caves that I got to at 3 had closed at 2, and the caves that I got to at 4:01 had closed at 4. But there were loads of shopping opportunities! The grounds were full of stores, restaurants, and kiosks (my tea and donut were really cheap). One door looked like the entry to a church, but was actually a hallway filled with vendors yelling “Girl! I’ll pray for you if you buy something! Curse you for not buying!”. I had thought about going back to Lavra the next day to see more of the museums and churches and maybe go into the caves but I found the whole place had a creepy vibe, so I decided I had seen it and didn’t need to go back.

Wednesday morning I went to Mezhyhirya, Former President Yanukovich’s former home, now billed as the “Museum of Corruption” (a national park) a little outside of Kyiv.  However, when I was there, most things were closed. The house is inaccessible (rumored to be because everything was stolen), there were a number of cafes and souvenir shops that were closed, and even an art gallery that said open but was locked. It was a nice, scenic place to walk around, though, but nothing more at the time I was there. Just when I was getting cold and hungry from walking around a few hours and had decided to head back to Kyiv, a guy started bringing out racks of bicycles available to rent, but I was ready to go so I didn’t rent one. Mezhyhirya is a particularly controversial place. The driver told me he would never go there because everything had been stolen from the Ukrainian people, but he seemed OK with driving me there. However, as a national park, it is the Ukrainian people’s again, but it seems they don’t know quite what to do with it. Turning it into a national park brings up a whiff of the forced collectivization under the Soviets, but it was ill-gotten gains in the first place. It’s unclear if the national park is meant to be a warning to other corrupt officials, a way of educating the public, or a form of retribution. There’s a lot of potential here, but when I was there, none of it was realized. In the afternoon I went to the famous Ukrainian fast food chain Puzata Hata for lunch, and strolled down Kreschatyk to do some shopping. I kind of wanted to buy a vyshyvanka, but the prettiest ones are also the most expensive, so I decided to save my money this time and plan ahead for my next visit to Ukraine. I bought lots of nice little non-souvenir souvenirs at Vsi Svoi, including a hoodie, a trivet, some soap, an English notebook, and other interesting everyday items. Vsi Svoi is a department store (two actually, one for clothes and accessories, one for homegoods) of all Ukrainian-made objects. Not necessarily souvenirs or folkarts, just regular stuff made in Ukraine. They have a great variety and prices are reasonable. If you aren’t sure what type of clothes you’ll need when visiting Ukraine, I’d recommend packing minimally and making a stop at Vsi Svoi early in your trip to get stuff that is definitely seasonally, culturally, and fashionably appropriate. I went next door to a cool coffeeshop filled with ex-pats for my afternoon coffee and a raspberry-chocolate croissant.

The next morning I decided to finish my souvenir shopping and went to Ocean Plaza mall, the second-largest in the city, for the Roshen store (one of my favorite chocolate bars is Roshen’s milk chocolate with sesame seeds, and it’s been scarce in Tbilisi lately) and to see what there was to see. I picked up a few postcards and souvenirs at the UA Made store (not as cool as Vsi Svoi, but still fun). In the afternoon I took myself on a little tour of the metro using this really helpful blog post as a guide. The Kyiv metro is really beautiful, but not as complicated as the Moscow metro. Given my familiarity with the Tbilisi metro, it was a breeze to navigate because all the signs were the same style, and the tokens looked like the ones Tbilisi used to use. It was a fun and cheap afternoon activity.  I had noticed a Ukrainian Museum of Revolution 1917-1921 in my research, and I’m interested in that time time period, but Google suggested it might or might not be open. I decided to check it out with no expectations. When I got nearby, I realized that the address was of the VERY closed-looking building I had walked past before, and indeed it was closed, though the Museum of Pedagogy in the same building seemed open. I went back to Kreschatyk to pick up a few more souvenirs, and went back to hang out with the family.

On Valentine’s Day, I went for my tour of Chernobyl with SoloEast.  I chose them by looking up all the tour companies recommended in my travel books and by the Chernobyl Museum, and seeing who had availability and the lowest price on the day I wanted. This strategy worked out fine. I took the metro to the meeting place outside McDonald’s on Maidan (and grabbed a hashbrown, too!) and met with my group. I was the only solo traveler in the group, and folks weren’t very friendly, but our guides were good. The most important thing for a trip to Chernobyl is that the guides know what they’re doing and where they’re going, both for safety and to avoid bureaucratic delays, and the folks at SoloEast definitely did that. The tour was really interesting, and though there was a lot of information provided and I had been to the Chernobyl Museum (and we did a big commemoration for the 25th anniversary when I was in grad school), I still wanted to know more and more. The church in Chernobyl town is one of the prettiest Orthodox churches I have ever seen (and I’ve seen a lot).  The “Russian woodpecker” was an incredible structure, and it’s hard to believe how well-concealed it was. Seeing the endangered Chernobyl wild horses just standing at the side of the road was something I don’t think I’ll forget for a long time. The reactor itself was not particularly interesting, and I personally didn’t get a kick out of trying to find radiation hot spots with a geiger counter, but that was the highlight for some people. Lunch on the tour was the only meal that lived up to the stereotypes of Slavic food as boring, flavorless, and stodgy (and to be fair, no one was marketing it as a food tour). Chernobyl was good practice for the “Don’t touch your face!” “Don’t touch anything!” times that are upon us now. I’m glad I chose to do the tour.

The scale of Covid-19 was growing over the course of my trip, and people were posting all sorts of alarming things on Facebook (rumor mill, I know) about being denied entry into Georgia, so I was getting a little nervous about my return. There were definitely health precautions in place that I had never seen in Tbilisi before, but at that time it was still fairly calm. There were apparently body temperature scanners, though I didn’t notice them; we had to fill out a health card, and there were doctors in the terminal keeping watch. Unsurprisingly, the precautions have been strengthened since then–if you’re planning a trip to Georgia, here is the MFA’s post with the updated airport health procedures as of March 12. (I recommend checking for updates if you’re on your way to Tbilisi anytime soon). Nonetheless, I still got a warm greeting and a second bottle of welcome wine!

If you, like me, have been saying to yourself “I should go to Ukraine sometime”, you really should! I loved it

Postcard from: Bulgaria

In January due to a bad luck/good luck situation, we received fairly substantial compensation from Lufthansa for a delayed flight. In a funny coincidence, it arrived the day after our legal wedding, so we referred to it as our wedding present, and decided to use that money half for the honeymoon and half for the wedding reception.  We also decided that, out of loyalty, we should at least fly Star Alliance, if not Lufthansa, for the trip. As we were browsing the places Lufthansa flies from Tbilisi that are not at weird hours, I got back in touch with an old friend I hadn’t talked to in a while. He was getting married! In Sofia! We should come! Turkish Airlines had flights to Sofia with a reasonable itinerary (no stupid o’clock AM flights, and long-enough but not-too-long layovers) and average prices, and G thought a Bulgarian wedding sounded fun. Bulgaria, though not a member of Schengen, follows Schengen policy on Georgians, so it was a destination that was visa-free for both of us.  A family friend had relocated to Plovdiv not so long ago and had praised the city and invited visitors. The wedding day was miraculously between my students’ final exam and make-up period, so it was meant to be: we booked our tickets to Bulgaria!

Our flight from Tbilisi to Istanbul was uneventful, and we arrived in Istanbul New Airport for the first time. Our layover was a little over an hour and a half, and people on the internet said the airport was crazy and you needed at least two hours for a layover and so on and so forth, so I was rather nervous and rushed us out of the plane to hot-foot it to our next gate. There was no need; we had to go through security again, but everything was running smoothly and we had about a half hour before boarding even started to sit at the gate. On the way back our gates were about as far apart as possible (there was one more gate before the end), but we didn’t have to go through security that time, and again had plenty of time. There was some strong turbulence on the descent into Sofia (G loved it. I did not), but it was another relatively uneventful flight. The Sofia airport was small and easy. There were a few people who took some extra time at immigration, but G’s Georgian passport didn’t raise any eyebrows…they looked at mine more than his! Luggage also came through the baggage claim quickly, and we were ready to go.

We were going straight to Plovdiv, so we wanted to change a little money into leva and buy a SIM card before we set out so we could pay for the transportation and meet up with our friend easily. There was only one FX booth open at the time, so we didn’t have an option to compare rates or anything, and only changed 100€ for the time being. We couldn’t find a place to buy a SIM card (which we thought was strange but the info booth confirmed there wasn’t one), but there was WiFi, so we sent off a quick message and then booked an OKSuperTrans (THE taxi company that constantly came up in travel recommendations) to the bus station. There are multiple companies offering buses from Sofia to Plovdiv, but the one we had heard was cheaper (Karats) didn’t have a person at the counter, so we bought from the other company (Khebros) that had a bus leaving at the same time. Apparently the lady didn’t like us much, because she gave us the worst seats on the bus (back row in the middle) though there were vacant seats at the front. It didn’t have WiFi as it claimed, and while it was air-conditioned, our vents didn’t work. It was not comfortable, but fortunately it wasn’t a very long trip. We tried to pick up a SIM card at the bus station, but they didn’t seem to be sold there, either. Once we made it to Plovdiv, we were easily able to get a taxi off the street to our friend’s apartment. We had a bit of trouble connecting with him because we had assumed we would have a Bulgarian SIM card, but the very nice staff at “Planet Club” let us use their WiFi without buying anything, and we connected….I felt bad that we were so busy in Plovdiv we never stopped back in to spend money. That evening our friend showed us how the public buses worked and we caught up with our friends, had dinner, and went for a walk in the park along the river.

In the Roman Stadium in Plovdiv

The next day was our big tourist day for Plovdiv. We met our friends in the morning, and they helped us get a SIM and change money at a good rate. They recommended Vivacom, and we got a great deal for a short-term SIM. We paid 8 leva total, and didn’t use all of our internet, much less the call and SMS packages! BulBank had much better rates than the airport, and the customer service was good. Then, we went for a walk through the center of Plovdiv. The center is amazing! A huge pedestrian zone, fountains, green parks, Roman ruins…just lovely. After walking around all morning we stopped at PizzaLab for lunch (our friends had recommended it, and the travel books kept recommending pizza as something to eat in Bulgaria, so it seems to be a thing). It was set-up kind of like Subway–you chose your preferred dough, sauce, and toppings. Mine was SO GOOD. Then we went back out to be tourists. We stopped and watched the 3D show at the Roman stadium, which was interesting, but the 3D seemed to be off. Our ticket for the show included free admission to the House of Stambolyan, an old Balkan-style house displaying the works of painter Dimitar Kirov. We wouldn’t have gone if the ticket hadn’t been included, but I’m so glad we did! The house was beautiful, the guide was friendly and interesting, and I enjoyed the artwork. At the end of the tour, the guide gave us some fresh figs from the yard, and it was such a nice and hospitable gesture. We had planned to go on the walking tour that evening, but there was confusion over the starting point, so we missed it. Oh well. We strolled around with our friends, and when a thunderstorm came out of nowhere we had a delicious dinner at Antik Turkish Restaurant.

Wearing shorts in Bachkovo Monastery

The next day, we decided to visit Bachkovo Monastery, the second largest in Bulgaria, and just over a 30-minute ride from Plovdiv. G’s friends from back home had told him he had to visit it, because it was founded by Georgians. The “bus” (which was a marshrutka, which is fine, but not a bus) departed from the Rhodope bus station, so we found our way there by city bus, were told the tickets were sold out but we should ask the driver anyway, who said they were not sold out and happily sold us two, and set off. The Georgians weren’t exaggerating or being over nationalistic in saying that Bachkovo had Georgian roots, as the introductory sign prominently displayed this information. The oldest part of the church did indeed look like a Georgian church, but the rest of the complex certainly looked Bulgarian. Bulgarian churches are known for their beautiful, brightly colored frescoes, which make them great subjects for photos. The Bulgarian Orthodox Church is less strict about dress codes than the Georgian Orthodox Church (our Bulgarian friends more or less said “Wear what you want! Why would they care?”), and so G made sure we got a picture of him wearing shorts at the church. The museum was also quite interesting. We walked back down to the main road, which is lined with little stalls selling food, and picked up some pastries and corn, baklava, Bulgarian delight, and chips–good lunch!

Because of the slight confusion over the marshrutka to Bachkovo, we decided that upon our return to Plovdiv we should but our bus tickets to Veliko Turnovo the following day so we wouldn’t miss our hotel reservation. Turned out the bus station was less than a block away from where we were staying, so it was an easy errand! We rendezvoused with our friends to visit the Plovdiv Rowing Canal--yet another beautiful outdoor public space, and had dinner. The next morning we gathered our things, said farewell and thank you to our friends, and headed off to Veliko Turnovo!

The view from dinner at Ivan Asen, Veliko Turnovo

We checked into the Boutique Hotel Tsarevets, which we would highly recommend as excellent value for money, and freshened up a bit. G was craving fish, so the receptionist recommended the restaurant Ivan Asen where we got a 10% discount as hotel guests. We lucked into a table on their beautiful balcony and enjoyed Bulgarian wine and beer, grilled fish, and chicken and broccoli with Bulgarian cheese. The food was WONDERFUL, and I really enjoyed the chardonnay, which is not usually one of my favorites. After dinner we went for a walk (though G might call it a hike, or even a march), exploring both the old and touristy parts of town, some residential districts, and a highway. We stumbled upon the bus station, so we decided to buy our tickets to Sofia well in advance. And then we heard the music. We decided to check it out since it sounded like people were having a lot of fun, and found ourselves at the Veliko Tarnovo International Folklore Festival.  It was such fun watching dancers from all over the world (even Georgia–we can’t escape). We also enjoyed the food trucks outside–sweetcorn and fried fish, yum!

Georgian dancers performing at the folk festival

The next day was the 4th Thursday of the month, which we didn’t know when we planned, but apparently meant that there was free admission to museums and historical sites. So we did all the museums and historical sites. Tsarevets fortress was much bigger than I had imagined from my reading, and we spent quite a few hours there exploring. The church was particularly interesting, as the frescoes were in a contemporary style (it reminded me a bit of Picasso’s Guernica) and were very movng. We then went to the Modern History Museum, the Jail Museum, the Museum of the Constitutional Assembly, and the Archaeological Museum. They were mostly small and only had limited information available in English, but were worth well more than the price of admission! We went to Inn Khadji Nikoli for dinner, which brought us into the old residential district to explore. The Inn itself is an historical house, and the service was excellent. Don’t skip the bread rolls! The portion size was big even by American standards, so although the meal was more expensive than other places we had eaten, we didn’t feel cheated. After dinner, G wanted to go back to the hotel for a break and I wanted to keep exploring and see some souvenir shops so we split up and agreed to meet at the folklore festival. G took the phone with data, so I had to use my pre-digital skills to get there. According to the map, the park where the festival was being held was just a bit down the road and a block off to the left. I didn’t notice it when I walked past, and ended up in ANOTHER large beautiful park a few blocks away, where I asked for directions and was set straight. Silly Veliko Turnovans with their multiple big beautiful parks! The folklore festival wasn’t quite as magical on the second night, but it was still fun and we had a good time.

The next morning we were set to depart to Sofia for the wedding festivities. There was some confusion, because there are multiple bus stations in Veliko Turnovo, and the woman who sold us the tickets had definitely said “Central Bus Station” and the taxi driver bought us to “South Bus Station” because that’s where the buses to Sofia leave from (my guidebook  said they also left from a private bus station, which looked kind of central). When we got there, though, there was a bus to Sofia with the livery of the company we had bought tickets from, and the same woman in the ticket kiosk said it was correct. I was still nervous though, afraid that we were in the wrong place and there was a parallel bus from another station, and eventually we would be found out and kicked off. I didn’t fully relax until the bus pulled out with no one else demanding our seats. The ride was longer than I had expected it to be, and not as well air-conditioned as it could have been, but relatively fine. G figured out that the “Central Bus Station” in question was not our departure, but our destination in Sofia. We then went to Hotel Forum, where the bride and groom had arranged a block of rooms, to check in and freshen up. We then joined the other guests for welcome drinks at 65 Fireflies. The place had a cool vibe and great pizza (See! Pizza is a thing!). We stopped at a shop on the way home for supplies and snacks to keep in the room and got some fruit (and a really good knife to cut it), interesting beverages, strange flavors of Pringles, etc.

Saturday was the wedding! The legal wedding was short and sweet, and I didn’t understand much of the Bulgarian, but they definitely agreed to get married. They had a receiving line after the ceremony, and at the end the guests were given chocolate–fantastic tradition! However it was hot so the chocolate was melty and I am a klutz, so I squirted my chocolate all over my dress. I did, of course, have a Tide2Go pen in my bag, so I was able to clean up the worst of it. After a few group photos, we had a short break before the bus to the reception while the bride and groom took their photos. I took this opportunity to wash my dress and get the chocolate out. I was all cleaned up by the time to leave for the reception. We were greeted at the venue with some delicious champagne cocktails on the reception patio, and were given little felt flowers to pin to our clothes. The reception building was really nice; apparently it used to be the South Korean embassy, and as such had a great vibe for a wedding. There were a lot of Bulgarian traditions incorporated into the party, though overall the format was familiar to me as a European Christian wedding reception. There were folk dance performances, which were really impressive and lots of eating drinking and dancing (though I couldn’t figure out the horo). It was really fun to hang out with the other guests, and the couple seemed to have thought of every detail to make it easy and fun for their guests (I can only hope our guests were as pleased with our wedding!). It was a blast.

One of the Bulgarian traditions at the wedding: breaking bread. The story is that whoever takes the bigger half will be “the man” in the relationship. She “won”.

The next day, the foreign wedding guests who were still in town went together to Rila Monastery, the largest in Bulgaria. It was a very pretty drive, and the monastery lived up to the hype–big and colorful. We climbed the Tower of Hrelio, which had a few little historical artifacts and amazing views, saw the frescoes in the main church, and ate fried dough and Bulgarian cheese while spending time with friends. That evening, G and I went to a restaurant called Chevermeto which is known for Bulgarian cuisine and folkdances. They charged a cover to enter, but the dance program was very good, and the dancers invited the audience to dance with them in a not-pushy but fun way. The roast lamb was incredible–the best I’ve ever had; the other dishes ranged from “fine” to “good”. It was the most expensive meal we had in Bulgaria, but the entertainment made it worthwhile.

The last day of our trip was the first day we had to explore Sofia, so we walked towards the center and stopped at places that looked interesting, making sure we looked at the major sites. We went into the Central Sofia Market Hall (which was weirdly hard to find) and had some juice, and checked out the exhibits in the Natural History Museum when it looked like it was going to rain. G had never been to a natural history museum, and I predicted he would like it. I was right. We then walked a bit more, stopped for shaurma and to buy my copy of Harry Potter in Bulgarian, and then went back to the hotel to pack and head back to Tbilisi.

Bulgarian souvenirs

Thanks to Kiril and Bilyana and their friends and families, Amol, Dipali, Isha, and plenty of friendly strangers for making our trip fantastic. We highly recommend Bulgaria! We could easily have spent another day in each city without being bored, and we didn’t even make it to the Black Sea coast, so we hope to visit again someday!

Postcard from: Mestia (4 years later)

Clockwise from top left: Museum rooftop selfie, Mount Ushba from the museum rooftop, Svan tower, millet tchvishtari

Mariamoba was on a Tuesday this year, and since my Monday classes took a summer vacation, that gave me a 4-day weekend; actually enough time to go a little further afield. G had never been to Svaneti, and my previous trip was far from enough, so we decided to make a weekend of it. We planned to leave mid-day Saturday, but work intervened, so we didn’t leave until late afternoon. Our plan was to drive to Zugdidi to spend the night there, break up the drive, and spend some time with G’s relatives. The thing that had come loose on the car on our trip to Poka was making noise again, and there was heavy traffic, so it took longer than planned and we didn’t get in to Zugdidi until quite late. We got to hang out with the family a bit in the morning, though. One of the little ones is book-obsessed and loved the board books I had brought her, so we got along swimmingly.

We left Zugdidi around noon and drove into Svaneti. We’d stopped at the Enguri dam and taken photos before, so we skipped that stop, but did pull off for the odd scenic pitstop. It took about three and a half hours to get to Mestia. Just outside Mestia, we picked up a group of hitchhikers, who were a great boon to us. They were all Tbilisi Svan English teachers spending their summer vacation in their ancestral home. They called a friend of theirs who ran a guesthouse and hooked us up with a cheap, clean guesthouse with a private bathroom. They also gave us some restaurant and sightseeing advice, and were just generally very nice and helpful. Unfortunately I didn’t catch any of their names, but one of them works with one of my co-workers (small country), so hopefully I can meet her again and say thank you.

After dropping our stuff off in the room we went for a wander in the town and relaxed a bit in the park at Seti Square, and then went to make sure we made it to the Svaneti museum before they closed. I’m really glad we made it to the museum; it’s small but well-presented and really worth visiting. I found the display of coins left at the churches really interesting in their age and geographic range. After seeing the exhibits, we climbed to the museum roof to see the panoramic view of Mestia and take some photos. We finished the day at Koshki Bar (also recommended by our hitchhikers for kubdari). I was surprised that a place next to the bus station would be so good…it’s usually better to walk further afield. The menu was extensive, and despite all my years in Georgia, I wasn’t familiar with all the dishes. We were discussing what to order in our usual mish-mash of Georgian and English, and the waitress kept right up, speaking to us in both languages.  We wound up ordering the kubdari (the Svanetian version of khachapuri, filled with spiced meat), the house salad (which the waitress made sure we knew was made with beef tongue) and a tchvishtari (Svanetian cheesy cornbread, a favorite of mine) made with millet. Everything was delicious, though I thought the tchvishtari was a little on the salty side. When I went to the restroom, I noticed in the refrigerator a legit-looking chocolate cake, so I splurged and had dessert and did not regret it in the least. It was one of the best cakes I’ve had in Georgia. Walking around Mestia I was struck by how different it was than four years ago. Then there were lots of empty new buildings and not many people around. This time, Mestia was vibrant! Tourists and locals alike were playing in the park, strolling along the streets, and eating in cafes. There were far fewer empty storefronts, but there were still cows walking down the main street and old men in traditional hats minding their own business. Right now, they’ve hit the balance between tradition and development right on the head for me…I desperately hope they manage to hold onto that balance, as the place is only going to keep getting more and more popular.

After sleeping in the next morning, I started the day with my first-ever flat white at Erti Kava which brews my beloved Coffee Lab beans and has a really extensive drink menu including the lovely flower fairy tea from the baths (…must find the name of that brand!). We had a breakfast that was really more of a lunch at Cafe Panorama  where I sampled their version of millet tchvistari (I preferred Koshki’s version, but this was also very good) and G had a massive plate of ojakhuri (pork and potatoes cooked together…this version included some wine, too). We walked down to the riverside and relaxed and listened to the rushing water for a while. Then we walked to the Hatsvali Ski Lift. The idea was to take the ski lift up, and go for a short hike/long walk once we were at the top. However, the ski lift was closed for repairs. Given what happened at Gudauri last winter, this is probably for the best, but it was annoying that the sign said the lift would reopen on August 10, and we were well past that with no information on when it would actually reopen. Our plans were foiled, so we wandered around the town for a while and returned to Seti Square, where G to a little nap to digest his ojakhuri. After another little wander through the other part of the town, we had dinner at Buba, which was recomended by our hostess for kubdari. G was still pretty full, so we didn’t order it, though. We got “Svan fries” (french fries with Svanetian salt), millet khachapuri (which was amazing! I think the millet was mixed in with the cheese rather than the used for the dough, though, so I think it still contained wheat) and chicken soup (which may also have contained millet). All the food was really good.

Tuesday was Mariamoba, which is apparently a particularly big deal in Svaneti, but we had to drive back to Tbilisi. Only Laila was open for breakfast but their breakfast menu was limited and kind of disappointing, so G decided to wait and I grabbed a packaged croissant and a banana from the market and returned to Erti Kava for a latte. They also had a little bit of quiche left (they don’t sell much food, but apparently have some), so I got a piece and was quite satisfied with my breakfast. We set off, and stopped along the road for G to have his last taste of kubdari in Khaishi. Despite the holiday, traffic wasn’t too bad on the highway, so we made it back to Tbilisi in decent time.

Postcard from: Tusheti

A friend and I had tried to go on a trip to Tusheti a few years ago, but it was too expensive for just two people, so we passed up that opportunity. This summer another friend suggested going and put together a group of four, so it was more financially possible (I also have a better salary now). Tusheti is one of the most gushed-over regions of Georgia, so I was really excited about the trip.

Tusheti is one of the most remote regions of Georgia, located on the northern slopes of the Greater Caucasus range; the only road is closed from October to May, and sometimes longer. That road is only accessible to 4 wheel drive vehicles, and it takes at least 4 hours to make it to the main village, Omalo.  Very few people stay in Tusheti over the winter (and most of those who stay remain in Omalo, not the other villages) though the government does provide weekly helicopter service for those who do. Pretty much the entire region is a protected area or national park, so the nature there is relatively unspoiled, especially compared to other parts of the country (there are big chunks of woods!). Administratively, Tusheti is part of the Kakheti region. Tushetians are quite well-integrated into the rest of Georgia, but they do have their own culture and history. One of the most obvious demonstrations of this is the prohibition on pork in Tusheti (whereas pork is synonymous with food in much of the rest of Georgia). Instead of pork, lamb is the primary meat source–this is great for me as I love lamb and it isn’t always easy to find in Tbilisi outside the Easter holidays. Accordingly, the people are mostly shepherds and semi-nomadic. The superstition is that if you bring pork into Tusheti, it will rain. I was pretty sure the pate we brought was beef (and it had a picture of a cow on it!) but some Tushetians scolded us for it anyway…

We left early on Monday morning, picked up the others, and made our way to Telavi where we had a khinkali brunch. We proceeded then to Zemo Alvani, where we met the friend-of-a-friend we were staying with. While he was preparing the last things, we went to the local grocery store and stocked up since the boys were afraid they would starve in Tusheti.  We packed up the Delica (300 GEL/car, shared between the number of passengers: “maximum” 6, so 50 GEL/person), stored our car in another friend-of-a-friend-of-a-friend’s house in Kvemo Alvani (the main jumping-off point) and were on the road to Tusheti. This road had me a bit apprehensive; it was featured on the BBC’s Most Dangerous Roads, so that’s hardly an endorsement, is it? To be honest, it wasn’t that bad. The road is very narrow and windy, so it definitely requires a driver who knows how to control the car and pay attention, but the road itself was relatively well-maintained. The other big thing about the road is that many of the mountain streams run straight across it, so the driver and the car need to be able to ford some water. I’ve been on MANY worse roads in Georgia, though. The scenery out the window is certainly beautiful. We did get stuck in a traffic jam mid-way caused by a rockfall that needed to be cleared before cars could continue to pass. There are a number of memorials along the road to those who have died, which does undermine one’s confidence a bit, though I have heard rumors that not all of those are actually due to car accidents…

Our destination that night was the village of Parsma, about an hour and a half drive past Omalo, and the last village generally accessible by vehicle. It was dark when we arrived, and we were told that we needed to just climb that little mountain to get to our place. Before we had been told that the car could bring us to the door, so we hadn’t packed accordingly. I grew up with the Girl Scout advice that you should be able to carry your own supplies one mile, and I try to abide by that. HOWEVER, one kilometer straight up a slippery mountain after dark is not the same as a normal one mile, and somehow the shoulder strap for my duffel bag was nowhere to be found, so that was a struggle. We had been told it was a “normal house”, but we were in a remote region, so I wasn’t really expecting electricity (and I was right), but I was kind of expecting beds (and I was wrong). The sleeping arrangements were tables with padding on them (actually not bad), except they were both shorter and narrower than a regular twin bed, and lacking sheets and pillows. I’m not so high maintenance–I can sleep without a pillow on my back or on my stomach, just not on my side. But since the beds were so short, I was too tall to be able to stretch out to sleep on my back or front. Add to that a sunburn on one hip and an ear infection in the opposite ear making sleeping on either side uncomfortable, even if there were a pillow… We had managed to have too much stuff to haul up the mountain and yet not have the things we needed to sleep properly.

After no sleep and a fair amount of crankiness (not just on my part), the boys decided to let the girls “sleep in” and went off in search of a guest house. They returned heroes when they informed us that we could stay at Guesthouse Baso for two nights (2-person room 60 GEL/night; food available, but we had our own). With hot running water, electricity (thank you, solar technology!), WiFi and real beds with sheets and pillows, this place was paradise! (The hostess also, surprisingly, spoke very good Spanish–better than me, for sure!) The first day we were all tired, so we just hung out with the other guests (some French hikers who are starting a bakery when they return to Paris!) and enjoyed the view and the “fresh air”. Tusheti is famous for fresh air, but in my experience there was always someone smoking their cigarette nearby, so I had more breathing problems there than I usually do in Tbilisi. I did sleep like the dead that night, though.

View from Guesthouse Baso

The next day was cooler and cloudier, so we mostly just hung out at the guest house. In the afternoon the boys decided to try their hands at fishing…I think we can say that no unknown talents were discovered, but it was nice to sit next to the river and be outside. We returned to the guest house to hang out, but the (new) other guests, European hikers, asked us to be quiet starting at 7, so we couldn’t do much. (What do you think of that? I’m an early-to-bed early-to-rise person myself, and I understand that they had to wake up early to leave and complete their hike in daylight hours, but given the fact that “quiet hours” in Georgia are more like midnight to 10 AM, it seemed like a big ask…even small children tend to stay up until 11 here, so 7 is really early). I climbed into bed and read my book, and the boys went off to drink with the friend-of-a-friend. And then the rain started. Oh, boy, it was a serious downpour, complete with thunder and everything. It was one of the scarier rain storms I’ve been in, and of course I started worrying about the guys who were who knows where, drinking, and unfamiliar with the terrain. And then the beeping started. Remember how this day was kind of cloudy? That meant that the solar power system hadn’t gotten enough sun to make it through the night, and it was beeping to let us know we were running out of power. We didn’t particularly want to turn out the porch light so the guys could find their way home, but the beeping was also REALLY annoying, and European hiker guy poked his head out to ask me to make it stop (I don’t work here!). We turned the system, and all the electricity, off to make the beeping stop, and eventually the guys found their way back, but between all that and the thunder and pounding rain, it wasn’t a great night’s sleep.

The next day was the village festival, but because of that Baso was out of rooms. They very nicely helped us arrange a room for the next two nights at another guesthouse in another village called Mirgvela. In the morning, we hung out at the parking lot of the village to find a driver who was planning on not drinking at the festival…that was actually easier than I thought it would be. We walked up the mountain to the village to attend the festival. The boys “had to” go to the shrine to be beaten with wooden swords, but the girls weren’t allowed to approach the shrine, so we went to the friend-of-a-friend’s house to hang out. His mother asked us why we hadn’t stayed in the nice room with proper beds! Had we known of the nice room with proper beds, I’m pretty sure we would have! The supra was also gender-divided, but this time that was kind of an advantage…no one was forcing the women’s table to eat or drink, but there was lots of delicious food and drink available. We finally got to eat some lamb, and the pickles were some of the tastiest I’ve had. At the supra, the men with wooden swords became the supra police. I was afraid that they might be forcing people to eat and drink, but actually they were stopping people from saying things that would cause fights, so they seemed to actually be a pretty good addition to the supra! Then the rain started again, which made the outdoor supra and festival significantly less fun (and kind of chilly). We went back to the porch of the house to watch the horse-race, which our friend-of-a-friend’s horse won! Since G had left his suitcase there since the first day (not wanting to schlep it up and down mountain again), we left in a break in the rainstorm to get down the mountain and meet our driver. Our driver’s cousins had asked him to drive them to Dartlo, so he said he’d be back in an hour. Then it started really pouring and didn’t let up. We hung out in one of the little cafes, drinking ქონდრის ჩაი (kondris chai, savory tea). Our driver was quite prompt, especially given the weather conditions (only 10 minutes late!), and we bumped our way over mushy roads to Mirgvela.

Mirgvela greeted us with a view of misty mountains beyond mountains and comfortable rooms and beds (but shared bathrooms) (2-person room 50 GEL/night; food 25 GEL/person/day). The staff there were very sweet and friendly, and spoke a little English and were eager to try to communicate. It kept raining the whole next day, so we didn’t do much other than eat, drink kondris chai, read, and hang out. The food at Mirgvela was really good! They made some mchadi that tasted halfway between normal mchadi and American corn bread and was served with real butter and honey–amazing! The food price included wine and chacha, and we always had loads of leftovers from the portions they served us. However, it was really really cold the whole time we were there, and the cloudiness and the fact that everyone was stuck inside meant the limited electricity was used up pretty fast. Unfortunately, G and L got sick one day, but I think it was because of the raw melon, so it’s not the guest house’s fault. The day we had planned to leave, we learned that the road had washed out, and they weren’t sure when it would re-open…and G and L weren’t feeling well, so we waited (and mostly slept).

View from Mirgvela

The next day (the extra day) we were pleasantly surprised with the news that the road had opened, and our driver was probably on his way, since his neighbors said his car was gone and his phone was out of the coverage area, so we packed and waited.  Eventually the driver’s phone came back into the coverage area, and he said he was on his way! We were heading home! The road back was much bumpier after days of rain, but still only one spot was scary (the road was totally flooded, but apparently it wasn’t too deep if you knew where to drive on the road that you couldn’t see…).

All in all, I can say that Tusheti is pretty and I got a lot of reading done (finished Now I Rise and The Paris Spy, made progress in Let Our Fame be Great and War and Peace), but I don’t know if it was worth the long and expensive drive, particularly since the weather turned out to be bad. Prices are higher there than in other parts of the country because of the difficulty of getting products and the short growing season. We had more adventure and quite a bit less action than I had hoped. If you have plenty of time and money (if you get stuck, you have to pay the guesthouse for those extra days of course) and have already seen other parts of Georgia then maybe it’s worth a trip, but I wouldn’t recommend it for a first-time visit to Georgia. There are lots of beautiful places in Georgia, many of which have significantly less hassle.

Postcard from: Lake Paravani (Or: Do Not Trust GoogleMaps)

Since the semester is mostly over I currently have a little more free time. The heat in Tbilisi has been intense (and record-breaking!), so I was ready to get out of town. I had long-ago read an article about the Convent at Phoka, and I had tried their chocolate from an Old Town souvenir shop. Someone mentioned Paravani Lake in a conversation (the convent is on its shores), and an idea formed in my mind. It was an especially perfect plan, because one day isn’t enough time to go to the seaside, but I did want to be by the water. I woke up Sunday morning and said “Let’s go on an adventure!”. Famous last words.

Paravani Lake is located in the Southern part of Georgia in the Samtskhe-Javakheti region. Southern Georgia (Kvemo Kartli and Samtskhe-Javakheti regions especially) is interesting for its ethnic diversity; there are great numbers of ethnic Armenians and Azeris, villages of Russian spiritual Christians, the odd historically German village, and a few others. There are two roads from Tbilisi to Tsalka, from where there is only one road to the village of Phoka, via Kojori and Manglisi or via Tetritskaro on the Marneuli road. We went via Tetritskaro, as the road is supposed to be in better condition. I had been on part of this road a few times before, including on my first trip to Georgia in 2010. What was amazing about this drive was that nothing looked different. Every time I travel westward on the main road to Gori and beyond, there’s something new and more developed: new marshrutka stops, freshly painted signs on shops, better roads…the road towards Marneuli was just the same as 8 years ago. This is the poorest area of Georgia, and you could see it. Once you leave the dry, brown plains, just after Tetritskaro, things turn green and you enter what is one of the most beautiful areas of Georgia I have seen. Green, with lots of streams and ponds, plentiful wildflowers in the meadows and evergreen forests atop small craggy peaks and rolling hills. It was a beautiful drive. There’s an organization, Elkana, which is working to develop rural tourism in this area, and now I get it. The Georgian government just released a video promoting tourism in the region, with many beautiful shots but ignoring the region’s ethnic diversity, which ruffled a few feathers.

Just before Tsalka, we decided to go explore a few of the villages, more or less at random, and see what there was to see. We turned down the road to the village of Kokhta (I was told this means tower, but I can’t find confirmation of that…) and drove on to the next village, Chrdilisubani (shadow neighborhood). There was no tower, but there was some shade. If anyone knows anything about these villages, please let me know! We spoke to someone in Chrdilisubani to clear up whether or not the road connected back to the highway (answer: it goes back to the highway, but it isn’t really a road. GoogleMaps Lie #1). He was clearly a native Georgian speaker. When we retraced our route back through Kokhta, I noticed that the church had a three-barred Russian cross on it rather than the Georgian cross of grapevines or the Armenian cross I would expect to see in an Armenian village. This piqued my interest since this region is known to be very diverse. Do the Russian spiritual Christians use the Russian Orthodox cross? Did we stumble across some Dukhobors? Maybe Georgians or Armenians just preferred that cross in this village? I couldn’t find an answer in a few quick Google searches, though I can say I’m pretty sure the village is not Azeri.

We continued on to Phoka, through the segment of bad roads in the village of Sameba (the rest of the road from Tbilisi to Phoka was fine).  The beautiful scenery continued, especially as we drove along the shore of Lake Paravani, and the further we were from Tbilisi, the cooler the temperatures got. It was down to 61* (F) on the car thermostat by the time we were in Phoka. There was also a little bit of rain, but nothing major.  We found the convent shop by following the convenient signs. This is a very entrepreneurial convent, who have studied cheesemaking in France and take advantage of their location and solitude to make high-quality gourmet products. We splurged on cheese and chocolate and fancy jam.  The plan was to go to a little marketi, buy some bread and maybe tomatoes, and have a little picnic and return to Tbilisi. End of Day.

Treats from Phoka (that white chocolate with rose petals was so good!)

HAHAHAHAHA

G had the idea to make a loop, rather than going  back to Tbilisi the way we had come. Ninotsminda is the next major town down the road from Phoka, and he knew of a road from Tabatskuri Lake down to Ninotsminda, and had driven from Bakuriani to Tabatskuri Lake before and said the road was good enough. Our new plan was Phoka–>Ninotsminda–>Tbatskuri Lake–>Bakuriani–>Borjomi–>highway back to Tbilisi. It would be beautiful and nice and great.

HAHAHAHAHA

We went to Ninotsminda and bought some bread, and picked up a few (very lovely) Polish hitchhikers outside town. Their goal was to go to Vardzia the next day, so they wanted to find a bed in a place where it would be easy to get a tour to Vardzia. We suggested Borjomi, because it’s a nice town, there are organized tours there, and we could drive them all the way. Perfect! We consulted GoogleMaps which didn’t show a road straight to Tabatskuri, but said that the road to Bakuriani that went near there was a highway, the M20, and off we went. Now, I didn’t expect this highway to be a highway like the divided highway between Tbilisi and Gori, but since it was the same color on the map as all the roads we had been on earlier that day, I expected it to be, you know, passable. It was in yellow, and village roads are generally shown in white. Village roads are dicey, sure. But this was a yellow road; it would be fine.

HAHAHAHAHA

Clearly it was not fine. (GoogleMaps Lie #2) There was a bit of asphalt, and then good gravel, and then….After a short way of bumping and scary crashy-grindy noises and no indication of a better road ahead, we thought to reevaluate the plan. The black storm clouds behind us clinched the deal, and we turned around back to Akhalkalaki. Here we had two choices: go back the way we had come (leaving our hitchhikers further from their destination than they had started) or continue the loop on the road to Akhaltsikhe. We knew the road we had been on was fine, and we knew the road from Akhaltsikhe to Tbilisi was fine…but what about the road between Akhaltsikhe and Akhalkalaki? GoogleMaps said it was yellow. And as we had learned, yellow can mean pretty much anything. We saw that Aspindza was along that route, and I remembered that that was the road to Vardzia, and that THAT road was OK, so it was only a little bit of mystery. We went for it.

Luckily, this part of the road was fine. Potholes, of course, but normal potholes. (This is ALSO a beautiful drive along a small river with mountains on either side). However, the poor little Prius had had a long day, and between Aspindza and Akhaltsikhe a rattling emerged. G climbed out and looked and saw “something” hanging, but couldn’t reach it. We arrived in Akhaltsikhe a little after 8 (on Sunday evening) and saw a lot of closed garages. We found a tire shop and carwash that was open. They let us use the bathroom, and the backpackers bought some coffee in the unfortunately named cafe “Coffee. Oil”. They couldn’t help us with the car, but they told us where the open mechanic’s shop was. Once we found the mechanic, the car got lifted up and we got the good news that it was only the protector that was dangling, so they put it back in place, and after just 10 lari we were good to go. Onwards!

The backpackers had cleverly gone online to book a guesthouse in Borjomi, so we dropped our new friends off and said goodbye (of course the guesthouse wasn’t where GoogleMaps said it was. Lie #3). Now we had been on the road for 10 hours, were hungry (never got that picnic!), and not as relaxed as we had hoped. Clearly we needed a khachapuri break in the village of Akhaldaba outside Borjomi, where they make amazing wood-oven khachapuri. It finally started raining seriously, so we waited it out while we ate. Refreshed and with the rain abating, we had an uneventful (but late) drive back to Tbilisi.

Long story short: visit this area of Georgia; it’s stunning; do not trust GoogleMaps there.

 

Postcard from: Surami

I had a glorious and rare free day the day before Easter vacation this year, so I decided to get out of town, get some fresh air, and try to avoid the Easter traffic at the same time. Luckily, it was nearly perfect weather, so there were plenty of options. I convinced G to join me for a day trip to Surami, a town I had passed through hundreds of times, but had never visited. If the name rings a vague bell, it might be because of the film by Sergei Parajanov “The Legend of Suram Fortress”. I’ve never seen the film, but I did see the ballet Gorda (a must-see at the Tbilisi Opera!) which tells the same folktale, and so my sights were set on that fortress.

The tree-lined lane from the road up to Surami Fortress

Turns out, the fortress is pretty easy to access; it’s just a short not-too-steep walk up a lane from the main road. We timed our visit just right, as the fruit trees lining the little lane were blooming, making it a lovely sight. We shared the fortress with a cow and, briefly, one other group of visitors. There were lots of places that would be an Instagrammer’s heaven, but posing for photos isn’t my thing. We still got some nice shots, though.

Ready to explore some more, we stopped at the town mineral water fountain, which was quite beautiful but not very delicious. I guess the water is supposed to be good for your health, or something, because it wasn’t particularly refreshing. We went on to try to visit the museum dedicated to Ukrainian poetess Lesya Ukrainka, but it was closed, seemingly in early celebration of Easter.

We couldn’t leave Surami without purchasing some of the town’s famous nazuki (ნაზუქი sweet bread). It’s quite the sight the first time you drive through Surami on the highway, and all along the highway are huts selling bread, often with ambitious salespeople flapping around their wares. Nazuki is rarely sold outside of Surami and neighboring Khashuri (they say that they have special matsoni (yogurt) there that makes the bread especially good). I really enjoy nazuki (but don’t tell too many Georgians that I like to spread cream cheese or mascarpone on top!), so it was an important part of the expedition.

Nazuki huts along the highway

We had a surprisingly good dinner at a place in Khashuri, and then made our way back to Tbilisi to spend the holiday weekend in the unusually quiet city.

Postcard from: Mountainous Adjara

The accepted way to spend a summer vacation in Georgia is to head to the Black Sea coast. Some people prefer Kobuleti, others Batumi. Usually I stay in Gonio, as it’s a bit cheaper than Batumi but very close by, and the water is cleaner and more pleasant for swimming. This year, I stayed in Gonio again, in the same guesthouse that I have for the past few years, but had a very different trip. This time, we did the MOUNTAINS. The weather wasn’t very good at the beach, and I’ve seen the Botanical Garden and the Boulevard a few times (not that they’re not still fun), but I was looking for something new. This time we had a reliable car, so we went exploring. One day, we set off on the back road to Akhaltsikhe. The road goes along a very wide and scenic river, so there are lots of beautiful views. The name of a village caught our eye: Bzubzu (that sounds funny in Georgian, too), so we turned and drove up that road. It was a surprisingly good road, and we followed it for a while taking in the scenery and fresh air before coming back down the mountain and returning to the main road.

BZUBZU (and awkwardly placed cow)

As we drove on, we noticed multiple rafting companies operating and a number of wine cellars open to tourists. There seemed to be lots of tour groups visiting, as well. There was a medieval bridge, an early Soviet aqueduct and a few waterfalls, all with people gathered around taking photos. (I’m also guilty…the photo of me posing with Akhali Cola in my summer favorites was taken atop the Soviet aqueduct)

Funny sign at Mtirala National Park HQ

Our next adventure was to Mtirala (literally “weeping”) National Park, the rainiest place in Georgia. True to its name, it was indeed raining off and on as we drove to the park headquarters. Unlike the road into the mountain villages, this road was shockingly bad. I’m really not sure how the little Prius made it. If we’d had more time, hiking in wouldn’t have been a bad idea. We did the short hike to the waterfall, and the trail was very well-marked and -maintained. Some of our party, however, complained that we had had to walk so far just to see some water. Hiking’s not for everyone, I guess. On the return leg, it started raining in earnest, so we skipped stopping to see the lake. We returned to the visitor center to have a picnic, but they were charging a fee for tables, so they suggested we go next door to the restaurant next door where we could use a table for free (Capitalism: you’re doing it wrong). Then we hit the road back and crept across all the potholes back to Chakvi.

Our final excursion into the mountains came on Eid, or Kurban Bayramoba as it’s called in Georgian. The owner of the guesthouse where we were staying is an Adjaran Muslim, and he invited us to celebrate with him and his friends on the mountaintop near the village. Of course we said yes! This time the trusty little Prius nearly didn’t make it (it overheated a few times–despite the high altitude chill–so we had to stop multiple times on the way up to let it cool down). The host’s estimation of how long it took to get to the village was a vast underestimate. Then, we weren’t actually visiting the village, but the mountaintop nearby. It took a REALLY long time to get up there. The village was a little place named Tsablana, and they tell me the mountain is called Ghomis Mta, though I can’t confirm that on any maps. Ghomis Mta translates literally to “Grits Mountain” and there’s a great story for why it’s called that. Two neighboring villages disputed which village owned the mountain, so they agreed to a contest to settle the matter. Whichever village could bring hot food to the top of the mountain faster, and without the food getting cold would get ownership of the mountain. Those silly people in the other village prepared the Adjaran specialty of borano which is very delicious, but apparently doesn’t hold its heat very well. The wily Tsablanans, however, made the Megrelian staple ghomi (grits). Even wilier, they put a fire-warmed stone underneath the food so that it would stay hot longer. Tsablana’s trick worked, and they gained claim over the mountain. So this is where we gathered with our host and his friends to celebrate Eid with a feast. They grilled fish and chicken over a fire, and we had fresh fruits and veggies and some cold khinkali. And lots of wine and chacha (level of observance of Islam: pork, no; alcohol, yes). I was delighted that the mountaintop was covered in juicy sweet wild blueberries (they’re hard to buy here!). I’m told the view is stunning on a clear day and you can see the few kilometers into Turkey, but we only saw mist:

Misty view from Ghomis Mta

I can’t believe it took me this long to get into Mountainous Adjara, and there’s still so much left to explore!

Postcard from: Bakuriani

Wildflowers and mountains, very Bakuriani

I FINALLY made it to Bakuriani! It’s odd that I’d never been there before, as it’s just up the mountain from Borjomi, one of my favorite weekend getaways. I went there a different way than I usually travel, though; I was teaching at a summer camp held there. It was, to be honest, a pretty sweet gig (despite some incredibly rude kids): as a teacher I wasn’t responsible for the kids outside my class hours, so I got to have plenty of free time to read novels, go on walks, and catch up on Jane the Virgin. Bakuriani is primarily famous as a ski resort, but they’ve done quite well in marketing themselves as a summer destination, too. The place was full of summer camps and families relaxing outside the heat of Tbilisi. Though room rates are cut in half for summer, it looked like the hotel was making a fairly good profit selling the campers Coca-Cola and ice cream. It was on average about 10*C cooler in Bakuriani than back in Tbilisi, making the weather just lovely. We were lucky to have sunshine for the majority of our time there, and somehow I didn’t spot any mosquitoes!

Since camp was keeping the hotels quite full, I actually spent time in three different hotels: Hotel Ritza, Hotel Ana-Maria, and Hotel Edemi.  None of them were perfect, but all of them were quite good–especially for the summer season prices. I was definitely comfortable. They all seem to be managed by the same people, but Ana-Maria was the most recently renovated.

View of Aghmashenebeli Street from below, where Hotels Ritza (the big yellow one left of center), Ana-Maria, and Edemi are located.

Since I was at summer camp, I didn’t try any of the restaurants in town, eating with the camp at Ritza. The strawberry-apple jam and (home made?) pelmeni were excellent (though pelmeni for breakfast was hard on my stomach). Other meals were less impressive, but nothing was disgusting or anything. Likewise, I can’t comment on transportation to Bakuriani, as I traveled on the camp bus, though I hear the train up from Borjomi is wonderful.

Thunderstorms rolling in over the mountains at dusk

Everyone working in the little shops in town was incredibly friendly and helpful (not always the norm), and I really liked walking around, poking in various places, and exploring. The town layout was pretty simple, so I never worried about getting lost. One nice little walk was to a suspended footbridge behind the “Bakuriani Resorts” hotel (I think that’s near the “Otsdakhutianebi” ski slope. Visiting the Didveli ski slope and taking the cable car up was also fun, but be warned–5 GEL only gets you halfway up; you’ll need to spend another 5 GEL for the next cable car further to the top (I didn’t…this time). There’s quite a lot to do in Bakuriani (I didn’t have time to do it all): it has one of the few cinemas outside of Tbilisi, there’s an amusement park and a botanical garden, and you can rent horses, bicycles or ATVs to go for a ride. The scenery is beautiful, and in early July, at least, all the meadows were full of wildflowers. Bakuriani is definitely a nice place to escape the summer heat and relax–I hope to go back sometime soon, maybe I’ll even try skiing.

Postcard from: Lechkhumi

I kept delaying this post as I tried to get the names of villages from a friend who was keeping track, but that never happened and it’s now embarrassingly late to post about last summer’s travels, so let’s call this an anniversary “throw-back” post, with a little less detail than originally planned. This trip was to the Lechkhumi portion of the Raja-Lechkumi and Kvemo Svaneti Region of Georgia which is in the north and center-west of the country and part of the Greater Caucasus. I visited in July 2016. #TBT

 

Model cows on the trail to the summit of Khvamli

The cloud-shrouded summit of Khvamli

I think this was the second waterfall? I love this pictures, despite the messy pigtails.

We started the weekend with the drive to Kutaisi, from whence we went into Lechkhumi via the village of Rioni, mostly following the Rioni river. This route was beautiful, but the roads were bad (we had car trouble in a Delica!), so I wouldn’t recommend it for independent travel. We stopped at a few waterfalls along the road, and visited a variety of village churches, some with beautiful frescoes. One of the last towns we stopped in featured a cemetery with nicely decorated gravestones and a treehouse which was fun to climb. Down the road a bit was a beautiful panoramic view, where we could apparently see into Svaneti. The only village name I remember on this route is Lailashi, which I remember because we ran out of time to go there. At the end of the day, we arrived in Tsageri to a cheap home-stay that let some members of our group camp in the yard for free while the rest of us paid for beds in the house.

The next day, we woke up and headed to the Tsageri museum which was EXCELLENT–one of the best curated museums I’ve visited in Georgia. It housed taxidermy, ancient artifacts (coins, statues, and weapons), photography, and other bits and bobs all labelled in understandable English. The director of the museum (I think…the man who showed us around) is also, apparently, an artist and he showed us some of his work as well. The whole town of Tsageri was really impressive. The locals clearly care for their town; everything looked well-maintained and tidy. I’ve since met someone who grew up in Tsageri and he agreed with my conclusion, saying people only leave because there are so few jobs there. I’ve seen plans to re-build the airport and build a football stadium to international standards in the town, so maybe that trend will stop.

Our next stop was the fortress overlooking Tsageri, which guarded the crossroads between the different principalities in the medieval period. At this time, the weather was starting to turn for the worse, so we spent a lot of time fiddle-faddling around deciding whether or not to go up to the summit of Khvamli Mountain. We actually went halfway up, decided to turn around and visit Tskaltubo instead, and then went back all the way to the top the next time. The view from Khvamli was incredible, and the clouds causing the poor weather made the view mystical and magical, but I really could have done without all the indecision and time-wasting. We did end up with some nice photos, though.

Then we were back on the road to Kutaisi via Tskaltubo and then home to Tbilisi, tired after a busy weekend and a lot of fresh air. Unlike the other road, this road was very good quality. It you’re flying into Kutaisi and want to visit the mountains, Tsageri and Khvamli might be a good, accessible option. It’s certainly a beautiful corner of Georgia.