Georgia

“Welcome – Please come in” – Georgian Border Security.


Tbilisi, Georgia is one of the koolest cities I’ve been to in ages. A city? If you could call it that – as far as capitals go, Tbilisi is more like county town where your distant grandparents might live.

There was an air about it that I coudnt quite put my finger on, sort of Middle-East come Post-Soviet esque. A really great place just to walk around and get lost.

Everything is falling apart and decaying, streets cracked and broken, trees growing through windows, content old men playing Backgammon in the shade, and that feeling you are always being watched but you dont know where from.

After breaking 2 cameras, and brutal sprockets ripping threw rolls of film, this handful of digi shots is all I’ve got to try and convey it how great it is..

Before I knew it though I was en route to the mountain town of Kazbegi with my new Swedish counterparts.

Georgian Snickers

Stream-cooled beers

Guy that built the highway

Kazbegi, gateway to the 5047m Mt Kazbek, doesn’t have an awful lot to do. You stay with little Babuska’s that heckle you when your mini-bus rolls in, there’s a couple of stores selling everything – conveniently called ‘google store’, and locally made wine is a plenty.
Really, this place is all about the hiking. And the air is crisp.

Forgetting our cramp-ons and ice-picks, we opted to go for the local hilltop Monastery, rather than the 5047m giant.
Swapping walking sticks for beers, and compasses for snickers, I think we insulted some of the more gun-ho power hikers along the way. But in better time than most, we reached the Monastery and it was epic.

These little guys are everywhere

Tsminda Sameba Monastery, Kazbegi, Georgia

Quite satisfied with our efforts, it was full speed back down the mountain to our Babushkas homestay for an epic Georgian feast.

Our locally grown feast.

Next day it was back to Tbilisi.

Espresso everywhere. Kazbegi, Georgia.

A couple of notable Tbilisi Attractions.

The Royal Bath House

Baratashvili Bridge

And too many of these.

Khachapuri ($2)

My stay in Georgia was alot shorter than planed, days rather than weeks, and I definitely only scratched the surface on a couple of places, leaving so much more for next time.

Georgia and the Caucasus might sound like an unlikely destination, but make the effort and you will be surprisingly rewarded.

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