Back to normality today and a 7am alarm. I forgot to mention yesterday how crazy things were on our holiday day in that we didnt even set an alarm! Imagine being on holiday and not setting an alarm.crazy right?
Today we set off to meet at a metro station where some really good progress had been made on the area outside. Someone waving an orange flag directed us to the office again but there was no free tea or coffee today. After the obligatory group photo we did get given a free bottle of water. Oh and the trip is again booked with Get Your Guide. They whatsapped me last night to ask us to swap our last two trips around so today we are heading for Vardzia, Borjomi and Rabati. Our fellow guests are from Germany, Russia, Israel and Birmingham so we have increased the nationalities again. And again, three people are solo travellers. I dont think Ive been to a country with so many people travelling alone.
far, informative and friendly. This trip is the longest on offer and should last 14 hours. The minibus (no today!) has only seven guests on so plenty of room. As we wont be back until about 11pm I shall be blogging as we go along. Try and keep up.
First stop was a service station where it was 1 lari (about 30p) to pee. Clean toilets but I wish I could have pushed out a poo for that price. I treated myself to some tomatoes from the supermarket while Claire had a Kitkat. The items in the bakery were only marked up in Georgian so Claire couldnt tell which were vegetarian. I didnt fancy a lobiani as Ive had a few already and you cant always live on Georgian Greggs!
Note: The worst recorded taxi driver in Georgia was as follows. A guy arrives in Tiblisi and offers a taxi driver $300US to take him to Batumi which is over 300km away and by the sea. The taxi driver drives round a reservoir just outside Tiblisi for a bit then drops him off by a part that looks like a beach. I dont feel so bad
Next stop was a recreated village type thing where everything had been rebuilt. So there was a synagogue, a mosque and a fortress all made to look like theyd been there for centuries. Not sure they pulled it off but it was certainly an interesting stop off. The name of it literally translates as Newcastle although Im not sure if it was On Tyne or Under Lyme.
Lunch was next thankfully as I was getting a bit peckish. It was really good too but the Israely guy outdid me in the amount eaten.crazy I know! He was thin as a rake too but I guess I used to be the same until my metabolism turned on me. One day matey, one day.
And on we went to one of my favourite places in Vardzia is another cave city but more extensive than Uplishtikhe. High up of course but a minibus took us part of the way for just 2 lari. Our bus was there first, another group (of Russians I think) came along next. The minibus turns up, all the other group start pushing to the front. I managed to elbow a couple
There was still a way to go after we were dropped off, all uphill of course with some steps to enjoy too. used to house up to 20,000 soldiers and was hidden from view by rocks so it couldnt be seen from the road (or track as it probably was back then). The outer rocks have since fallen down so lots of the entrances are now visible from below.
Inside there is a labyrinth of tunnels, all very low of course so Claire was in her element. The steps inside were often quite tall with low ceilings so we think the people had long legs and short bodies. It was quite fascinating seeing all the different rooms and the fact that they had a reservoir in there as well as ventilation. Im not sure how it would have been with 19999 others but it was good today. A bit hard on the old back and knees in places but well worth it.
their bottles. On the way down the Russian couple in our group were taking some grapes from the monastery vineyard. I forgot to mention that two monks still live in part of the so they have a cave church (that doesnt smell of wee) as well as some caves that they live in.
