Georgia's Best

Before I left Georgia, I jotted down some of my favorite experiences.  Yesterday, I found this list and want to expand on and share each memory.  They are in the order I remember them happening.

First, some words I use and their definition:

Supra – a Georgian feast that is always accompanied by copious amounts of alcohol.

Marshutka – Minibus, a type of public transportation.

Chacha – Georgia’s national hard alcohol.

Bebia – means grandmother but is used to refer to anyone of grandparent age.

Hitchhiking

I had never hitchhiked before and starting in Georgia has probably ruined it for any other place I might try it (though I already know it’s equally amazing in Turkey).  The people in Georgia are so incredibly friendly that on a hitchhiking trip, you are bound to end up in someone’s house for a meal and some wine or even a full out supra.  Hitchhiking allowed me to experience the hospitality of Georgians time and time again.

One home we were invited into 

Anaklia supras

A friend of Blesssing and mine lived in a neighboring village and the evenings spent with Daniel, Lela and everyone else in Anaklia, will forever remain as happy memories.  It was nice to know we had yet another home away from home in the village of Anaklia.

Mestia cross

Svaneti is the most mountainous province of Georgia and has some of the most magnificent scenic views of mountains I have ever seen.  The most spectacular hike I took in Svaneti was to a cross about a kilometer above the capital town Mestia.  The hike offers a never ending view of mountains that are up to 5,000 meters tall and the view at the cross is the most stunning, as you have a 360-degree view of surrounding mountains with Mestia looking tiny, one kilometer below.  My pictures just don’t do the view justice.

Hiking in mukhuria

This was supposed to be a day-trip hiking in the mountains near Zugdidi.  Once we made the decision to hitch a ride on a logging truck, however, it turned into an overnight trip with an abundance of chacha.  We slept in the logging truck.  Unfortunately, the hangover is especially (but not most) memorable.

The logging truck

The morning after

Martvili police supra

Blessing and I made our way to Martvili to check out the beautiful waterfalls we had been told about.  We reached the village and asked some police officers where to go; they saw we did not understand their directions so they took us on a tour themselves.  They brought us to the waterfall and some other beautiful spots along the river, places we would never have found on our own.  Afterwards, they brought us to a restaurant for a supra (of course).  We drank, talked and laughed for a few hours before we realized we needed to get home.  At that point, the policemen offered to take us the 2 hours back to Zugdidi!  Once in the car, we were given a breathalyzer which immediately beeped loudly; the cops found it hilarious and insisted we keep doing it, with each beep came another eruption of laughter.  The ride home also included a rest stop at one of the officer’s homes so he could show off his foreigners.

Bebia watching music videos and infomercials

For eight months of our time in Georgia, Blessing and I rented a room from a bebia who lived next to my school.  We occupied a bedroom and shared the rest of the house with her.  She was an 81 year-old woman with a dark sense of humor.  It was hilarious to watch her watch TV.  She would just sit and watch crazy techno Russian music videos with half-naked women on screen or laugh hysterically at the show Wipe Out.  The most hilarious thing for me was when she was watching an infomercial, hosted by Mr. T, of an oven that cooked food really fast.  She was amazed at how fast the food cooked and when I asked if she wanted one she answered, “who wouldn’t want one?!” as though I were insane for even asking.

That's our bebia!

Camping in Chikhorotsku

This was mine and Blessing’s very first camping experience in Georgia, thus, it was when we learned that you can camp ANYWHERE in Georgia.  We hitchhiked to the village Chikhorotsku then walked to the outskirts of town and camped!  The next day we went for a hike and found ourselves starving towards the end of the day.  Of course we had food at our camp, but we wanted food now!  If you live in Georgia long enough, you figure out how you can put yourself into a situation to be offered food.  So, we went up to a house and asked for water, we were invited to sit down and drink the water and started some small talk.  We asked where the next shop was (knowing full well that it was a few kilometers down the road).  They asked is we were hungry.  We said yes.  Success, we were invited in for a meal!  After eating, we headed back towards camp but decided we wouldn’t mind having some wine to drink around the fire.  If you live in Georgia long enough, you figure out how to get some wine.  We went up to a couple of houses and asked if they had any wine we could buy, one house finally had wine and of course gave it to us free of charge!

Our first campsite

The family that fed us

Our sh*t backing up

In March 2012 Blessing and I moved into a house with our friends Aly and Adam.  The owner of the house never told us not to flush toilet paper but a few weeks later we learned our lesson as raw sewage started leaking into our backyard.  Blessing and Adam managed to clear the pipe using a really long piece of wire.  It was grossly entertaining.

At first they tried to stay clean, eventually they were knee-deep in sh*t

Walking to Anaklia

Anaklia is 30 kilometers from Zugdidi and Blessing and I decided to walk there for our friend Daniel’s birthday.  Even though we didn’t even have our hands out to hitch a ride multiple people stopped to offer one.  We were also invited into four different homes along the way for a meal. Georgia at its best.

One family that took us in

And another meal

Lagodekhi

This is a national park in the far eastern province Kakheti and we headed there for the beginning or our 2012 spring break.  We set up our tent on some church property in a village on the outskirts of the park.  We only did one hike and it was a great adventure!  During the previous winter, the rivers had surged and taken out all of the bridges on a hike to a waterfall, Blessing and I decided to attempt the hike anyways.  We managed to make to the waterfall by crossing the river at a number of strategic points along the hike.  The adventure of crossing the river and even making a stick bridge for future hikers made the hike truly memorable.

Surami

After Lagodekhi, Blessing and I had no plan but to hitchhike and see where we get.  Two young men picked us up and when our response to where we were going was “we don’t know,” they brought us to their home.  We spent one night with their family and had we not met them, we would not have gotten to spend Easter in Vardzia.

Our hosts

Easter in Vardzia

The cousin of the family that hosted us in Surame invited us to his village, Vardzia, for Easter.  We stayed at his childhood home with his parents.  Easter in Georgia is a day of feasting and remembering the dead; in Vardzia, the feasting is done at the cemetery.  In the morning, we packed up food and wine and headed up the hill, joining the procession of villagers to the cemetery.  At the cemetery we picnicked at the grandparents’ gravesite, placing red-dyed eggs on the graves and pouring out some of each glass of wine on the grave.  We proceeded to walk around with our host, stopping at different gravesites to socialize and drink wine with distant cousins and old friends.  After a few hours, we headed back to the house and continued the drinking and feasting with neighbors.  It was the best way we could have imagined spending Easter. 

The procession to the cemtary

Gravesite

A feast with some cousins

Hiking in Khazbegi

Khazbegi is just as magnificent as Svaneti in its mountainous views.  Blessing and I were able to set up our camp at the base of the hiking trail to Mt. Khazbegi; it was before tourist season so we had the place to ourselves.  During our first night, we heard rumbling thunder and took a peak out of the tent and watched dark clouds rolling over the mountain towards us minutes before we were pounded with a torrential downpour.  It was so cool to watch those clouds rolling so quickly towards us.  It was also the first test of our tent and she held up perfectly.  The next day was sunny and warm and we had a perfect hike along a ridge of the mountain.  (The background of this blog is a picture from that hike)

The campsite with Mt. Khazbegi in the background

Mt. Khazbegi

Hiking to Ushguli                                                                                  

Ushguli claims to be the highest inhabited village in Europe (the accuracy of the claim depends of whether Georgia is Europe).  The village sits at 2,200 meters in Upper Svaneti and is another beautifully stunning place to visit.  This trip makes this list not only because of its beauty and height but also because of the difficulty in getting there.  I don’t know when Blessing and I decided it, but at some point it was decided that we would never pay for transport anywhere in Georgia, this was no problem anywhere except for the road to Ushguli.  Tourism has led the native Svans to lose touch with the hospitality displayed by the rest of the country.  Every car we stopped wanted money; we were shocked, it was entirely out of the ordinary for Georgians to ask us for money.  I guess it’s inevitable for tourism to change the mindset of native people.  You should go to Georgia now, before tourism takes its toll.  In the end, we did get a couple of free rides and spent the night about ten kilometers from Ushguli.  The next day we hiked the rest of the way and it was beautiful!

Ureki beach

This was my last experience in Georgia and a beautiful way to wrap it up.    Ureki is one of the only sand beaches in Georgia, making it a very popular tourist destination.  Blessing and I did not realize just how touristy it was going to be; there was not a patch of empty beach in sight.  However, there seemed to be empty space on the other side of a pylon, so that’s where we headed.  There was a private beach on the other side and just past that, on the other side of a small river, was more sandy beach that was empty and waiting for me and Blessing.  We set up our tent and spent our last two nights on our own private beach.  We were even visited by some young Tbilisi tourists who came for a beach supra…you can never escape supras.