Kids, do not do what I did. Do not take a seat next to a child in an overnight train. The child WILL perform a projectile vomiting on parents, floor, bedding.. I could go on. But kids, do what I did and book a place to stay in advance when crossing the border. You never know when border patrol will ask for your reservation confirmation.
So, Kutaisi had the best place to stay that you could expect. Absolutely loved it, all thanks to FORREST guesthouse. Lovely hosts, super cheap, good location, nice food... I could go on. Once there you kind of don't want to go anywhere to explore anything, you just want to cozy sit there and sip your cup of tea [or wine].
There is not much to do in Kutaisi itself: small old town, nice central park, few churches, lots of shops - I walked it all on my first day. The second day I have visited two monasteries that were outside the city [but still close by to get a marshrutka for 1 GEL - 33 EUR cents]. It has beautiful landscape, even if not as exciting as Svaneti for example, but they really are working with what they have. In the evening we had a dinner and wine with Nick, as this was his last night in Europe, he is off to Australia to do a 5-6 weeks walk [good luck, Nick!]
On the second day I went to the Prometheus cave. Nothing to do with actual Prometheus, they just named it like that so more tourists would come. No joke - our guide actually told us that. Anyways, the cave was nice - I probably seen better in my life, but it was very well kept and organized that it made it easy to walk around and enjoy all the stalactites and stalagmites [and the third ones I always forget]. Once back in the hostel I have met three Czechs that came to Kutaisi and later on a Polish girl came back from her trip. We ended up having a nice discussion and evening together, I even made the Czechs to change their mind and do a Mestia-Ushguli trek instead of just taking a car to Mestia and then later to Ushguli. I tried to get them all the information they may need and they seemed very impressed by me (you should be a guide AND you are incredibly brave woman AND so on). Lovely people, indeed.
The next day they all went to the same cave I was just last day and I took marshrutka to Batumi. Batumi reminded me both of Palanga and Odessa and other similar beachy place, mostly for Russians. It was so full of Russians that almost no one spoke any other languages. I spent two days there doing not much - wondering around, swimming in the sea, sitting in a park reading a book or taking pictures of the lovers statue that is supposed to be a moving statue, but of course, it was broken at the time I was there. Brilliant.
Then I took an overnight train to Yerevan. Yes, the same one where the kid performed a projectile vomiting. Good thing she did not vomit on a border patrol or there would have been a price to pay.
And then Yerevan. I walked most of it in one day. Little stroll through the city center, to the cascades [no one told me there are lifts, so I was climbing the stairs, like a regular person], to the main monument [something about the Soviets, but cannot really remember what] and to the amusement park that also has mother of Armenians there. The girl from the free tour in Tbilisi explained a little bit about this mother - she has a sword, but is keeping it in her hands. She is facing Turkey as if saying: I will not attack, but I will defend myself and my people. Little different approach to the Georgian that brings you wine or Russian one in Volgograd which is going to fight anyone and anything.
The second day I got myself a Canadian friend and we went to the monastery and an old temple [kind of like two day trips, we just combined into one]. She was a lot of fun, and we had a great day, but it started with a bus driver shouting at us, since we were making too much noise "quacking like chickens" and what not. It did not dampen our day, just made us laugh all the more. We got back to the hostel tired, but my new found friend wanted to cook so much, that we just bought some vegetables and made our own food that night. It was a really good food, I just need not to forget how to make it before I head back to a country of staying. But here another funny thing happened - this Iranian guy came to us - what is this? No meat? OK, one portion for me. And walked away. I mean we don't mind to share, but ask, maybe?? Anyways, in the end we gave him a portion and then some time later his wife comes: and where is mine? Well we did not give her anything. We had food, but there was a principal involved - you do not come and request. Never again!
Next day I left my new found friend and took a long trip to Goris in marshrutka. Once I came here, it greeted me with mists and later on rain. All I managed to do that day is to do a quick block around the center, food shopping and go home before it started pouring rain. So that went well.. But the next day weather seemed to have improved a little bit and I took a day trip to the village close by - where people used to live in the caves that they built up into houses. It was a little walk down through those caves, through the old church to a swinging loooong bridge, then up some stairs for the point view and back. It was an interesting experience and a good trek, even though I do prefer going up first, then down later. Back in Goris I did a similar walk in the "old Goris", basically the same kind of place, where people used to live in the caves, except this walk starts in a cemetery and that is a weird place. I used to think they give way too much space for that in Lithuania, but here you get a huge places, where you can put the entire family of maybe 16 in one spot. Plus on the stones they like to put how people looked like, with all kinds of details, for example cigarette in their hand. Clearly that is very important for the people visiting the cemetery to know that this particular person who died was smoking.
And then the last daty in Goris I took a taxi to the longest aerial tramway in the world and rode it to Tatev. In Tatev I did a hike [first down then up, the type I dislike, but there was no other option] to and old old church towards the Devil's bridge and once back in Tatev I also visited their monastery, the place that most people went there for [a big mistake, if you ask me - the old church in the valley that is broken, but also empty from tourists is quite fascinating and in my opinion much more worth visiting than the other].
And here I am, contemplating if I deserve a dinner out tonight or not. I probably do - since I walked to much and did not complain. I saw some Gorisian food restaurant that is supposed to be cheap and good, so let me see what they got there.
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Off Topic
I am sitting here, in my casino at the end of the world, watching the life quietly happening. You are sitting so close, that not enough I see your cards, I can also see your eyelashes moving by the air conditioning created wind. You bid on me - all you had, you bid on me. Why? No one's ever done that, yet here you are, placing the highest bid without so much as a concerned frown. Who are you, stranger and why? Do you know something I am missing?
Some passing figures catch my eye, disturbing me from focusing on the game at our table. But as casino is not paying attention to them, I start to see their insignificance. They even seem to melt away. I'm focusing on this hand - I am not letting casino at the end of the world to win this time.
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