Georgia feels like a brand new world. The cycling experience is completely different from what we’ve been used to in Ukraine. Here, everyone seems to be more curious about us, cheer for us, horn if they ride a car and shout if they’re walking. People talk to us a lot more, and are extremely friendly. We’ve been reading about the legendary georgian hospitality and quickly experienced it, with people giving us food -bread, cherries, cucumbers ; fresh water and also Chacha, the local brandy. Everytime we stop, a group of curious people is gathering around us, asking how we are, where we come from, and checking out our bikes. So far, it is pleasant.
The language and beautiful alphabet are impossible for us to understand, but Georgians are doing better with English than Ukranians. We therefore communicate with English and we’ve been learning in Russian so far, and it’s working fine!
We entered Georgia from Poti, an industrial city where we only stopped to eat, then headed up towards Batumi, 75 kilometers south, close to the turkish border. We saw our first backgammon players on the side of the streets, watermelon sellers, palm trees and eucalyptus. There are many cows on the road, blocking the traffic, not caring about it at all, and forcing trucks and cars to stop for them. No doubt, we’re not in Ukraine anymore.
Arrived in Batumi, the main beach resort of Georgia, we took a room in a cheap, family run hostel, to relax before attacking the Caucasian mountains. It started raining -a lot, and the city, which looks good, was pretty empty because of the weather conditions. We stayed there for another day, as it rained heavily for nearly 2 days.
Batumi skyscrapers
Threatening sky, from our hostel
The day after : blue sky is back, we’re good to go!
Love the cows on the road! It is a different pace of life!