Trip to Georgia/Armenia – 7 unforgettable days. Part one Georgia

This is an encouragement for Russian-speaking people! If you speak Russian, you’ll never ever feel lonely in Georgia of Armenia. Those two countries are way too amazing to describe them at once. So now I’ll say about Georgia:

Georgia – around 4,5 million people, capital city – Tbilisi. Beautiful county with strong cultural background. When you go across the street or open market place you always see old ladies “so called babushki” selling chebureki, khachapuri, mandarins, gold apples… For me, no surprise cause in Russia or Ukraine there are always babushki selling something, but for my friend it was unique. Streets are busy and people are not used to see tourists. Georgians do not treat Russians as friends, so sometimes it’s better to underline that you are Polish – as for me I told I’m Ukrainian and suddenly their face went shiny. We came in first days of December – the weather was good, no snow. Of course we took our favorite Wizzair and paid a little bit less than 300 zlotys. We took direct flight from Katowice to Kutaisi. The time difference with Poland is 3 hours, so basically we landed at midday.

First day Kutaisi: We landed, took the bus which was going to the city but not to center. There were only Polish passengers so the driver took all of us directly to exchange office – good business. Then, we took marshrutka no. 1 and went to the city center. Marshrutka is a small bus. The approximate cost of marshrutka is less than one zloty. The currency called LARI is weaker than zloty, so we could afford to eat in a restaurant in the city center and take taxi from time to time. After the meal consisted on soup and coffee we went to visit Bagrati Cathedral, Georgian orthodox church which belong to UNESCO. The view to beautiful mountain and the entire city from the hill is really terrific. We took a lot of picks and decided to catch marshrutka to Tbilisi. It was around 6 p.m. It took us 5 hours to get to Tbilisi. Small bus for around 17, but somehow there were 21 people – quite extreme but I’m Ukrainian and I know the “marshrutka system”. I don’t like it but what can I tell, “no pain no gain”…

Second day – Tbilisi: We went to the city center. Passing the National museum I couldn’t help myself not to enter. I am the museum lover so I enjoyed it a lot. We took a walk through Rustaveli avenue, where we could buy some souvenirs. We visited the old presidential palace – it looks unique cause the from side of the alley looks so fancy, but it’s only “the dummy” because right behind are the old, ruined houses. As we took a walk up to presidential palace, we reached Cathedral of the Holy Trinity – very fancy place, looked more like huge park.

Third day – Tbilisi: Sneaking around the restaurants and trying local food. When it started to get dark we went to take a gondola to Narikala fortress. Of course the place wasn’t protected or there were no warnings signs, we started to climb up on those ruins – a bit dumb but the view was breathtaking.

Fourth and fifth day we spent in Erevan in Armenia. I’ll describe it next time. Actually we didn’t plan to go to Armenia, we wanted to take the helicopter and go to Mestia but according to the weather condition there were not available flights.

Day sixth – Way from Tbilisi to Batumi: 7 hours in marshrutka. When we got to Batumi it was already a bit dark. We saw the sea or rather to say we heard it. We took a walk and enjoyed the nice summer resort covered by snow. It was really cold and even local people were amazed and not well prepared to the weather. I bet Batumi is beautiful in summer but we saw the other face of the city.

Day seventh and go back to Poland: We walk up around 7 a.m. and took our favourite transport marshrutka to Kutaisi. It took us around 3 hours. What I know about Georgia now is that “puri” bread is very popular and there are a lot of dished made with puri. Georgian dumplings are delicious but I refer Russian pielmeni made according to my grandma’s recipe . As our host in Tbilisi explained – Younger generation while drinking alcohol is trying to cover the glass with the hand so the older person won’t see. Girls are not allowed to smoke in a public place – they need to hide in a restaurant. And the heritage of Georgia is really huge and worth to discover by travelers.

Pictures will come later when my friend finally send it to me. So far one picture taken in Rustaveli avenue and one in front of the cathedral in Tbilisi.