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Published: August 29th 2010
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It started right away when we came out of the airport. The busdriver shows us how to put the two coins in the automat. He does it twice, so that we will never forget it again. Georgian people are extremely friendly and helpfull. In the subway we cannot understand the Georgian letters. They are wonderfull, but no one can read them apart from the Georgians. Everyone will help you even when they do not speak English. "My daughter teaches English", says an older woman. With a quick move she puts something in my hands and walks away. I say thank you and put it in my bag without a single glance at it. When I open my bag in our hostel later that evening, I see she gave me some candles. I will lighten them the next day in the Tsminda Sameba (The Trinity Cathedral).
We are only two days in Tblisi. Actually it is too short for such a wonderful city: nice architecture, nice food and delicious wine. We meet Mariam, a fellow student of my son Robin. She invites us to her mother' s house, where we drink wine and eat watermelon.
That night we take the
nighttrain to Zugdidi, in the North of Georgia. The main trainstation of Tbilisi is ultra modern, but it takes about 2 hours before we have the tickets, because there are no computers. The names on our pasports are carefully translated in Georgian and written on the tickets. My name is apparently Andre Willemino. Then the tickets are cutted with scissors and according to some system we do not understand the tickets are perforated. It takes hours. We try to sleep on our berches while the train crosses the night up to the north. The other berches are occupied by a young Belgian woman with whom we have nice talkings and a Georgian woman. At 6 am we arrive in Zugdidi. There we take a mashrutka (a mini van) to Mestia, a litlle village in the Caucasus, not far from the Russian border. It takes about 5 hour over a bad road. We are broken when we arrive. In the garden of hostel Manoni Ratani we put our little tent under a couple of appletrees. When we look out of our tent we see the peaks of the Caucasus. It is absolutely perfect!
Manona, the owner of the hostel, is
like a mother for us. The table is full of dishes she had made herself. She speaks a little English. Around the table are Americans, Japanese, an Israelian, an Italian and an Australian man. The Australian is called Alex. He is 70, looks and speaks like a gentleman and travels now since 3 months with a little bag around the world. We like him right away.
Together with Alex we make a 10 hours walk up to the mountains. The scenery is absolutely breathtaking. We see Mount Ushba. According to Lonely planet here are the highest mountains of Europe (more then 5000 meter high), but according to this travelblog Georgia is part of Asia. We don't know if we are still in Europe or in Asia. The climb is hard and we take the air in as if it was water.
The day after we go with a 4wd car over a dirt road to Usghuli. According to Lonely planet it is the highest permanently inhabited village of Europe. Everywhere we see the mysterious watchtowers, where people used to retire during upheavels. It is extremely beautiful. We lie in a field till the moment some horses disturb us.
At Thursday 26 of august we leve with a mashrutka. It is a terrible drive over a terrible road in a terrible mashrutka. After 5 hours we arrive in Zugdidi, where we take a mashrutka to Tbilisi. The road is better now and so is the mashrutka, but still it is 6 hours. The same night we take the nighttrain to Yerevan (Armenia).
When the train arrives it is already full with Armenians who return to their country after their holidays. The train is supposed to leave at 8:30 pm, but stands for some reason during 2 hours on the station. We are sleeping already when the doors open and we have to come to the customers for our visa for Armenia. It is 1 am then. We walk over a rainy platform to a little room, where we get our visa for $10,- a person. At 7 in the morning the train fills with loud Armenian folk music. At 10:00 am we arrive in Yerevan. We have travelled more than 24 hours. We take a taxi to our hotel, but can check in only at 1 pm. We find a bench in a parc nearby and fall asleep
against eachother.
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Majorie
non-member comment
It looks just as beautiful as you described it!