Georgia. First trip
Last year one of our friends went to Georgia. After his stories, everyone was attacked by a feeling not of envy, but of a great desire to visit Georgia. Along with the desire, an opportunity arose, low-cost airlines opened the Kyiv-Kutaisi route. Our most active friends started buying tickets, developing a route, renting a bus, and booking hostels. Tickets were purchased in the fall of 2012, and the trip itself took place on 24-29.04. 13. On average, a round-trip air ticket per person cost a thousand hryvnias.
After arrival, we planned to visit the Prometheus Cave. Who was in the Crimea in the caves at first it seemed that we would not see anything interesting. But the further we went, with each hall it became more interesting and more beautiful. The cave is worthy of inspection, well lit, there are almost no broken stalactites-stalagmites. It is a pity that we did not manage to go boating on the underground river, a few days before it had rained and the water level had risen a lot.
Then we drove for a long time on mountain roads to Tbilisi. We passed a lot of villages. All houses in the villages are large two-storey with large balconies and verandas. A huge number of grazing cows, bulls and sheep. Pigs also quietly walk along the roadsides. A huge number of greenhouses. When we landed on the plane, we saw these structures, but only later, when we were riding the bus, we realized that these were all greenhouses. We passed a mountain pass, if at the bottom everything was full of greenery and color, then in the mountain villages there was still unmelted snow. The police in each locality is located in a glass building.
We arrived in Tbilisi in the evening and were amazed at how beautiful the city is. All sights are illuminated, modern glass buildings, a fortress, temples, monuments.
The next day we walked around the city center, climbed the ruins of the fortress, took a picture of a beautiful view of Tbilisi from above. We went to the wine cellar for a wine tasting. Most of all I liked the red kindzmarauli.
After we went to the ancient capital of Georgia, Mtskheta. The tour began with the ancient temple of Jvaria. From there, you can clearly see Mtskheta and the confluence of the Mtkvari and Aragva rivers.
On the third day we went to the city of love Sighnahia. In this city, the registry office works around the clock and it has also been restored. Just like Switzerland, incredible beauty. A large defensive wall has been preserved in this city (Georgians call it the small Chinese wall). We climbed to the observation deck of one of the towers. The view is amazing, the whole Alazani valley is visible, the Caucasian ridge is in the distance. We drank Kakhetian wine in a local cafe. We looked at the exhibition of the famous artist Pirosmani (Pugacheva sang about him “A Million Scarlet Roses”), the archaeological museum.
On the way back we stopped at the active mountain cave monastery David Gareji.
On the fourth day we went to the Vardzia cave complex. We climbed up with hidden passages, tunnels of 25.70 meters.
The last two nights we lived in the seaside village of Ureki, which is famous for its curative black magnetic sands. The beach was dirty, the owners were doing construction work, we were the only vacationers, since the season had not yet begun.
On the last day, we had planned a trip to the mountainous village of Svaneti, because of the accumulated fatigue, we changed the route and went to Batumi. The weather was wonderful. In the village of Kobuleti we saw the ruins of the fortress of Petra.
Then we walked through the beautiful Batumi Botanical Garden. The vegetation differs from the Crimean botanical abundance of tropical plants.
Then we went to the embankment, sunbathed, and the brave ones swam. Batumi has a large beach, a huge promenade. There are a lot of construction projects, maybe in five years it will be a cool city. The boys rented bikes and rode along the embankment.
We went to the local market to skimp on the road, picked up spices, suluguni cheese, churchkhela, dried persimmon, fruit pancakes.
I really liked the Georgian cuisine, especially the Adjarian khachapurik. We tried kharcho soup, very spicy and tastes very different from ours. Even chicken soup tastes completely different, wine vinegar and cilantro are added there. Great kebabs and kebabs --- that's understandable. Walnuts are added to many dishes. I liked the fried eggplant with walnut sauce. They ate mkhali salad with peanut dressing. Chacha guys liked lobio (beans with vegetables), ostri (beef in tomato sauce), khinkali (large dumplings with meat, the cost of one is 2 UAH). We tried to eat in inexpensive roadside cafes where locals go. In one village, our company of 22 people dined (without drinks) for 500 UAH. In Tbilisi, in the city center, at the Budmo restaurant, they dined for 1500 UAH with drinks, they couldn’t eat everything, they took the rest with them for breakfast.
