Archive for June, 2010

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In the heart of the Caucasus


2010
06.30

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Posted in Georgia | 3 Comments »

The Mestia sign

The Mestia sign

We arrived to Mestia on the 13th June. It was not a difficult day, we cycled 10 km only. We took some photos at the Mestia sign when a girl came to us and said that they already have waited for us and we are the cyclist who slept at Lahamula some days before. We were surprised but soon we remembered that the guy who sold us milk and other stuff gave a phone number of a host where we can sleep. There are a few hotels in Mestia but the most common accommodation is at families who rent rooms in their homes. So we already had a place to sleep. They expected us to come one day earlier and they already thought that we are not coming. The room was 10 lari per person for a day. Fortunately the family had internet so we could send some news home but we couldn’t plug it to our computer to upload photos from Picasa, so you still couldn’t see the photos we took. After we unpacked the bikes we went to the center to meet Misha, a couchsurfer. He couldn’t host us because he was already hosted but he was very nice to show us around. He is a polish guy and volunteers in Mestia for about 8-9 months, he teaches English. We learned from him that Mestia is a city and not a village with population of 2500 people and that water and electricity is for free. Water comes from the mountains, electricity from the dam at Jvari. It is free because it is a kind of support from the government. People there mainly live from tourism, in the main season there are more tourist than locals, and they also grow vegeteblas and have animals. Although tourism is the main source of income there are only a few small grocery stores and there is not even a single sign of souvenirs. If we were e.g. in Austria probably there would have been everywhere magnets and key-case with the peaks of Ushba.
Misha took us to the top of a tower which was part of a museum. There are many towers like that in the mountain villages/cities. One tower group belonged to one family and it had a protective function. The mountains were actually never attacked, it is quite difficult to get there but the families fought sometimes with each other. After we saw the nice view from the top of the tower we went down on the steep stairs to the museum which consists of one room and it shows how a family lived in the 14-15th century. It was a relative small room if we take into account that 30 people lived there together with all the animals except the pigs because reputedly they smell bad. Our experience is that other animals we have seen on the way don’t smell nice either… Anyhow, it was interesting that the people slept above the animals to utilize the heat produced by them. When we came out of the museum someone asked us in English if the bikes belong to us. It is not very common to hear English words here. The guy was Lukas, a Canadian who was also on a bike tour with 2 other friends. They also arrived the same day and headed to the pass but later we didn’t meet so I don’t know how they felt about the pass. They route was Istambul-Baku, you can check out their blog at bakubybike.wordpress.com. After Misha arranged accommodation for the Canadians he showed us a place where spring water comes from the mountains. There are many places like that in mountains, the one we tried was sparkling, it tasted good!
We had some bad experience when we wanted to eat something in a local cafe (Cafe Ushba). First we received the same french fries that was a leftover from the previous guests. It was cold so Felix asked for a new one. Then we got some meat which we couldn’t figure out what part of which animal was. It tasted a bit as liver but it felt like sinewy eraser.
Next day we met Misha again because he came with us to the mountain Zuruld from which you can a have a good view to Ushba. I think Felix was exited because it was something he wanted to see on every account. We got up early, at 5am because he was afraid that clouds will come later and he can’t take nice photos. Well, no clouds that day but unfortunately we couldn’t reach the top of Zuruld. After a while we lost the track, the signs and tracks are not well maintained. Everywhere we went we got stucked in bushes. Anyhow we could see the twin peaks, we were only about 100 m below the top.

Ushba, Zsofi, Felix

On the way we passed by an elevator which was built for skiing but has never operated because the holder stations were not built in line so the cord constantly fell off. We got home tired in the early afternoon. Unfortunately there was some reconstruction on the water pipe line and so water came only in the evening that’s why even we slept in a house we took a shower from our Ortlieb water bag. It was a warm day so we could bear the cold water. We spent the next day by just doing nothing, having a rest. I had a really bad muscle fever, my legs got used to ride the bike but got unused to walk.
We needed the rest because from Mestia the road got more and more difficult, the quality got worse and we climbed higher and higher. Ushguli, the next bigger place was on 2100 meter and there was a pass before that with 1926 meter. There was even a creek on the road. We put on our sandals and walked through, it was ice cold, quite deep with big rocks on the bottom, so we didn’t dare to risk cycling through. That time we didn’t know that it was not the last one on the road…
In Georgia we have nice experience with policemen. On the way to Ushguli a police car stopped and wanted to take us over the pass saying that the road is very hard but Felix with his great Russian declined the offer saying that life is hard. The policeman didn’t lie though, the road was full of rocks, we couldn’t go faster downhill than uphill. It was a hard day so we decided to take the Mestia-Ushguli road in 2 days. We stopped at Bogreshi and as we were very hungry asked for a shop or a place where we can have some khachapuri.

The village of Bogreshi (Ipari)

As it is very common in Georgia the guy we asked invited us to come in and offered us to sleep there as well. Georgian people are very hospitable but sometimes they want to take advantage from tourists. This time the guy who was an forester didn’t say the price of the room but something like “there won’t be a problem, we will agree on the price for sure”. When it came to say a number he asked us how much money we have for that. We said we paid 10 lari in Mestia so we said we would pay the same. He seemed upset and said it is at least 20 lari because in Mestia it costs 30 lari. So we decided to sleep in tent. In these cases when they want money they ask us what we work or how much we paid for the bikes. We suppose it helps them to estimate how rich we are.
The son of the forester told us that the pass would be cleaned next day, it was good to know that we won’t face snow blockage.
The rain started to fall at night so next day the road was full of puddles, and in the next days it got worse and worse. We asked an old man for bread in a small village (just a couple of houses) and he invited us to eat bread and cheese – you can always eat bread and cheese here (and usually that’s all). Meanwhile, some Israeli tourists came by car and bought 2 chickens from this old man (they offered 20 lari for a chicken).
My kickstand was breaking out so I finally dropped it out – from now on I only could lean it against a wall or post or something, or Zsofi had to hold it, which is quite uncomfortable, but my kickstand was really weak for the weight of my bike. The problem is that the front wheel tends to turn out if it is not stable enough – even from the whirlwind of a truck passing by. If there was a lockable handbrake and a handlebar lock (which blocks the handlebar from turning while it is standing still) it would have helped against accidental bicycle falls. But there isn’t. This will be the next thing I will invent after I go home. (I’ve already invented the handbrake lock – which is just a velcro-strap.
We also met a family from the Netherlands in a Jeep – they were traveling with 2 small children on the Middle-east and in Europe for 6 months. They also told us that the pass will be opened the next day so we were quite confident now that we can cross the pass.
Before Ushguli, the road got quite steep and the rain began to fall. A guy with a jeep stopped next to me in the rain and asked “I know that you are tough and I am spoiled, but can I help you somehow?” :)
I think he offered that he can take us with his car.
In Ushguli, we met a Polish guy who was taking photos. He traveled alone from Bangladesh to home, taking photo reports. His blog is www.nomad123.blogspot.com – you can check his Ushguli-photos for example! He showed the way to the only “shop” in the village, where he used to put down his backpack during the day and he also recommended us a place to tent, he also sleeps there. The shop was rather a store, with boxes laying around everywhere so we (or she, the shopkeeper) could hardly move or step anywhere. We asked for Nutella, of course, and she told that there is, for 5 lari. We told her that we’d like to buy one. OK, she started to look for it. It is in a small paper box. After a while I offered my help to search. We couldn’t find it so she assured us that she will find it by next day (but she couldn’t). What we bought was some wafers (measured by kg on a hand-held scale). And khachapuri, of course. And we indicated that we’d like to buy 2 breads the next day. Yes, do not think on a regular shop in Europe – there are very few tourists here, only we and the Polish guy, so they carefully estimate the demand and only produce what will not be wasted. It is a very homely shop but from bra till toilet seat you could find everything – if you are lucky, with Nutella we weren’t.
And it was cold! The cloudy sky and the occasional rain (and the 2100 m elevation) cooled the air down so we had to put on our pullovers, raincoats and rain-legs, winter caps and winter gloves as we sat there by the outdoor table!
In the evening we tried to find a place for the tent – after fighting through several puddles in the mud, we set up the tent on the top of a little hill. Later it turned out that it is also a favorite place of cows and bulls. The cows seamed to be very curious and interested in the bikes so some of them licked my saddle and handle bar. Later in the evening, I had to beat the wall of the tent from the inside to stop them sniffing into my ear. When I peeped out from the tent, there was a huge bull standing just half a meter away. I have never seen such a huge bull before! There are cows, you know the size of a cow. But this was twice as wide and twice as tall at least! I imagined that it will bump into the spanning cord of the tent and fall on me with its one ton of body mass and I will die flattened out… They bulls were also producing some very frightening sound so I hardly could fall asleep. And the ground was quite uneven, very uncomfortable, a big bump right under my waist (I didn’t choose the place carefully). So I decided that next night I will pay for a room in Ushguli. We didn’t want to start next day because of bad weather, so we decided to spend a day here. I wanted to see the highest hill of Georgia, and it was covered by thick clouds.

A really big dog appeared

Next morning a light rain came, we still couldn’t see the mountains. We went back to the shop, which is also a guesthouse, we got it for 10 lari per person (instead of the original 15). We like to get the rooms early because we can enjoy the comfort for a longer time than when we take the room late at night. So even if it was a half-ready wooden house, we enjoyed that we have a room! We wanted to take a shower. OK, there is no shower in the houses (as is the case usually in Georgia) but we had the Ortlieb mobile-shower so we just needed a private place, protected from eyesight. The lady first offered us the stinking toilet, but after we made her think about a less disgusting option, she showed us the way to a half-ready “bathroom” which consisted of a non-functioning shower and a non-functioning floor-drain (the water just stayed there, didn’t flow through). The good thing is that we had warm water filled into our shower-bag! So it was a relative luxury for us.
Back in the room, we had to pull the beds a little bit further from the walls because the rain came through the half-made roof and the ceiling was dripping. In the evening I had luck with the view, because for a couple of seconds, I could have a glimpse on the highest peak among the clouds.

Shkhara - highest peak in Georgia, 5068 m

So I told Zsofi that we can move on the next day and continue our way through the highest pass in Georgia…

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Caucasus, khachapuri, matsoni


2010
06.23

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Posted in Georgia | 6 Comments »

During the 3 days in Batumi we felt that we just got even more tired but somehow we managed to leave. We realized that here in Georgia the cars and trucks smell worse than before. E.g there was a tunnel where we seriously were thinking whether we really should enter it or not. It was ascending and full of smoke but having no other option we crossed it and survived. After such tunnels we always eat some vitamins. We slept 1 night in tent then in Kobuleti we asked for a place to sleep and a man told that he has got free rooms and even internet so we spent 2 nights there. They were very kind, gave us food several times, let us wash our clothes in the washing mashine and when we were just about to hang the clothes to dry we noticed that the grandma already did it. We really could use the internet whenever we wanted although the guys were also using the computer. Once we went to the stony beach, it was quite empty and the wheather was a bit cloudy as well. It was Batumi feeling in a sense that we hardly could start from here as well.
The next bigger city was Poti which is a port town. Here we inquired about the possible ferry routes and prices to Ukraine. In the ticket office (Instra) the lady couldn’t give us a timetable, they only knew that the next ferry leaves the next day and costs 175$ per person. So there is no schedule for the ferries. There was a guy there who heard our conversation and told me another cheaper option, namely to board a cargo ship to Kerch because the captain can take 5 passangers on board. This option costs probably only 50$ in total.
You might be curious why we are interested in shipping to Ukraine because it is not on the way to the Himalayas. Well, after having that break in Batumi and Kobuleti we couldn’t get out of our mind to have some more rest, to have proper shower whenever we wanted, to speak the language of the country where we are, to eat good meals, to buy the food whatever we wanted etc. We also wanted to avoid Tehran with the heat and the smog. We had bad experience riding the bike in big cities (Istambul). The main reason is that this 2 months riding the bike was enough. So we wanted to see the Caucasus and then go home. Even with the new plan we will still ride the bike for several more weeks and km’s.
This guy told us to call him several days in advance so he can arrange our transportation to Kerch. Having his phone number we left to the Caucasus.
In Chaladidi we asked for a place to camp and we were invited to a house. We got some potatos with onion which was very tasty. Unfortunately there was no bathroom, only one tap in the garden. The whole village looked very poor and we learned that salary is so low that most of them don’t work just like our host, Irakli. His plan was to collect enough money to go to Austria after his brother who worked there although he didn’t know where exactly in Austria. We set up the tent in their garden. We didn’t know that we didn’t choose the best spot, we only realized that at 4 am when a rooster started to kukorékol about 1 m next to the tent… It was horrible, my ears still hurt if I just think about that noise. We also learned that it is not worth to ask for e-mail address. We wanted to send the pohtos but after asking for the address both times in Kobuleti and Chaladidi as well the guys left for several minutes in the house and when they showed up again they brought a paper with their names. We couldn’t explain that it is not an e-mail address. Communication is not so easy, my russian is not the best. :-) What could have happen was that they thought we were asking for normal post address and so they wrote their names what we can write on the envelope. The reason of taking so long to write their own names was that they don’t use latin alphabet. They speak Georgian and Russian but both alphabets are different. We were suprised that Irakli called me 2 and 4 days later in the evening just to ask where we are.
Chaladidi also seemed to be an endless village, probably it was more but we didn’t know when one was ending and another starting. We couldn’t see any crossing, all the houses were next to the main road.
The next bigger city was Zugdidi where we ate khachapuri. It is a Georgian food, similar to a pizza but there is dough on the top and inside only cheese. Sometimes they put other stuff inside as well, like meat or beans. It is very tasty. Zsófi liked Zugdidi, she said it was cute. At the end of the city some guys offered to take us to Mestia with the local bus service, Marshrutka. Of course we denied the offer. They seemed a bit drunk and they also offered us some chacha, the local spirit. We already tried it in Chaladidi, it is really strong. Even though Irakli and his friend had about 5 or 6 shots in half an hour. :-)
Just like in Turkey, here in Georgia we are a strange phenomenon, people are staring at us as we pass by and if we stop they immiadetly ask where we are from. In a village before Jvari we seemed interesting for some policemen, a policecar followed us for a very long time. Whenever we stopped they stopped as well, sometimes they passed us staring out of the car. Then not far they stopped, waited for us to pass them and followed us again. We couldn’t figure out why we seemed suspicious. :-)
Not far from Jvari we found a perfect spot for our tent, there was a table and bench there, some trees that gives us shade and it was enough far from the road as well. We just needed water so we were looking for a tap. Then a guy came out of his garden to help us. After that the following conversation took place:

Felix – Is there any water here? (Voda jeszty?)
Guy – Yes, there is. (Da.)
Félix – And is there a shower? (I dus jeszty?)
Guy – Yes, there is. (Da.)

That’s how it happened that we could take a shower. :-) Ok, it was a bit more complicated but the point is that nice and clean we went to set up the tent. Even though we had a shower we filled the Ortlieb bag with water. It was the first time we used it and we were really satisfied. It is a lot easier to was our hands or wash vegtables from the bag. It was my name day that day so we celebrated with some potato pasta (krumplis tészta).
Next day we said good bye to the flat roads and started to ascend to the Caucasus.

Ascending into the Caucasus

We passed by a dam and a 30 km long lake. We learned later from a guy where we had khachapuri that the dam was built in the 70’s and people lived where the lake is now but because of dam the houses were flooded so they had to move.

Felix takes a shower in a damn cold waterfall

Felix takes shower in a damn cold waterfall

We crossed several tunnels on the road, they were quite scary. There was no light in the tunnels we could hardly see the road which was bumpy and some water was dripping from the ceiling. The good thing is that we didn’t meet any car when were in the tunnel. It happend only once that we almost had company in one tunnel but we rather waited for them to leave – because it was a goatherd, at least 100 goats in a tunnel could have some smell!!! That day we slept in a little wooden house next to a restaurant. We could also use the bathroom, although it need some repairing the point was the hot shower. Sleeping in a house was a good choise for the night because there was heavy rain in the evening. The bad choise was to have some khachapuri with meat. Or at least they called it meat, we rather felt as mócsing and it was so spicy hot that we had to cool our lips with some ice cream. We couldn’t eat the whole thing it was so bad. I was looking for the expressions in our little Russian dictionary like “This is not what I ordered” or “This is uneatable” but Zsófi dissuaded me to tell that to the cook when I brought back the remaining pieces.
In the morning it was the second time we waked up on some noise from an animal, this time it was a few pigs. Animals like pigs, goats, cows and chicken is not a rare phenomenon. The same day happened that we went through a tunnel where some cows were cooling in the shade. They look mad but when we get close to them they jump away. The road was not always easy, we met less ans less asphalt and sometimes there were constructions on the road because some rocks were falling down. For lunch we tried some soup, again instead of meat with something else but otherwise it was good. We ate it in a little wooden house with some plastic roof so if outside was 28 degrees then inside in the house about 38 degrees. Zsófi laughed a lot when I said I will ask if the sauna is also included in the price of the soup or will we be chagred extra for it. Again although she found funny she dissuaded me to ask it.
In the evening when looking for a place to camp we passed a wooden house where a guy worked. He showed us a nice place for our tent, he said it was his property. We wanted to make some pancakes for dinner, flour is heavy and pancakes are tasty but we had no milk. We don’t carry milk anymore with us because it goes wrong during the daily heat. We asked the guy if we can buy from him or maybe he knows where we can get. He was nice and told that we can buy in the nearby village and he will go there soon. We thought he needs something as well from the village so he can take me to a shop in the village and I can also come back with him. What really happened was that he lived in the village and took me to his home where we got fresh milk from one of his cows and he and his wife also packed us some jam and wine. I started to realize that he drives back to our camping place only because of me when her wife said that she will come as well to see Zsófi. I already asked in their house how much does all this cost but they answered something from which I thought it is a gift. Already at the camp place I asked again when the wife said it is 20 lari included everything, camping place as well! We felt bad because the guy didn’t say he will ask money for the camping place and 20 lari is quite a lot for half a litre of milk. Fortunately we could agree in 10 lari. The “shopping” took so long that at the end we didn’t make pancakes, only in the morning. The same evening we tested the shower function of the Ortlieb bag. It is also satisfying, both of us could comfortably take shower from 10 l bag and it is much better than pouring water from bottles to each other. There is only 1 tiny problem… it is cold but we are taugh guys!!! :-)
Next day was very nice. From one part of the road we could even see the famous Ushba twin peaks (4710 m) which is the toughest mountaineering challenge in Georgia.

Ushba - only one of the twin peaks is visible yet

Because it was my big dream to see it I told Zsófi that we have to stand there for 10 minutes in silence but she didn’t take me seriously.
10 km before Mestia, in Latali, we wanted to have something to eat so we asked for a shop or restaurant. We learned that there was no shop but the lady said we can have dinner at their place and later also offered a room to sleep. All for free. The dinner was delicious! We had a different kind of pancake made of matsoni (instead of milk), which is the caucasian kefír in Georgian language. Although I didn’t expect it we could also take a shower, the bathroom was very nice. I have mixed feelings about the Georgian hospitality, some of them are nice but some of them want to take advantage of tourists.
Next day we cycled the remaining 10 km to Mestia but this is already another story…

More photos at http://picasaweb.google.com/felix.kovacs/BikeToAsiaGruzia#

Zsófi & Félix

Ps.: We got a response that you never know who writes the post. This time we wrote it together, although “I” refers to Félix.

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Rushing out of Turkey


2010
06.06

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Posted in Georgia, Turkey | 11 Comments »

For a few more days we continued slowly knowing that we have not much chance to ride through Turkey in 30 days. After we spent a day on Inebolu beach in the evening we rolled out of the city to look for a place to camp. The place we found was quite close to road but we thought was not visible from the there. Around midnight, when Zsofi was already sleeping, 2 guy came and talk to us in Turkish something like we should not camp there, they mentioned police and jandarma (and cakal again). We didn’t understand completely what they said. We tried to explain that we just stay there for a night and then we will leave in the morning. The same evening earlier we cooked some chicken first time using the petrol cooker. Gas cooker was easier to use but probably we won’t be able to find a compatible gas canister. We have to try out exactly how much petrol it needs. Before using it, it requires some pressure in the bottle, which I can produce by pumping the built-in pump 20 times. Then I have to prime it by letting some petrol into the pre-heating area and burning it – at this time it burns with a huge flame! Then after a minute, it will be OK and the orange flame turns into a blue one, indicating that it is ready to use.
We started to hitch-hike 6 days before our visa expired on the 45th day. We didn’t like the idea of hitch hiking but we had no other chance, we couldn’t extend our visa and couldn’t go faster either. If we really want to stick to the plan we could go back by buying the visa again and cycle the route we didn’t but right now I don’t really feel like doing that. We used 2 cars. The first van stopped after Türkeli and took us to Ayancik, it was about 30 km. Then we continued cycling, we thought it is still faster than just standing next to the road. Later, a truck stopped for us which carried medical toxic trash. When the guy opened the back door, it was full of closed plastic bags full of garbage, and a smelling liquid covered the floor – he said it is just water. OK, maybe 99% of it is water, but the remaining 1% can be still smelling… We were a bit afraid that the bikes will smell strange (and our CS host will fire us) but it was not that bad. The 2 guy who took us was very nice because there was only 1 empty seat left in the front and still they took us for about 200km till Samsun. This way unfortunately we couldn’t visit the city Sinop (where we originally wanted to hitchhike) just saw it from afar from the road. On the way with the help of Felix’s mom we could arrange a couch in Samsun – it was quite last minute! We entered the CS’s coordinates into the GPS – the truck went almost exactly to the same place and the driver also offered that we can stay one night at their place! Ersan, our CS host had quite a big flat. The living room, where we slept, was more than 60 square meters. There was warm shower, we could wash our clothes and use the internet – the 3 most important things for us in these days! :) He didn’t let me pay in the shops and so invited us for a dinner at home. Next day we started late because I didn’t know that Zsofi wanted to ride the remaining 535 km in Turkey in 5 days, I thought that she will want to hitchhike again, but she wanted to cycle all the way! So we made 70 km on the first day after Samsun (then 135, 106, 140 and 93 to Batumi). Looking for a camp place was easy – we agreed that after 70 km we’ll start to look for one. We left the main road and asked the owners of a house whether we can sleep in their garden. They not only allowed this, but we could also use the bathroom and they invited us to a dinner. Unfortunately the language barrier didn’t let us communicate too much.
We spent the next 4 days with serious riding, we didn’t stop so many times to take photos, just rushed through the towns. However, we marked those which are worth for a revisit: Ünye, Fatsa, Giresun, Rize.

Fatsa - we had a rest here

We had a CS in Giresun, the cousin of the Samsun CS host :) They prepared us lavas with some very delicious (red) breakfast sauce which I couldn’t find in the shops (and I can’t remember the name of it). It contained paprika, tomato, walnuts, hazelnuts, garlic, oil, etc.
We met some kind people on the road – before Giresun, where we stopped to check our GPS, they gave us a pack of famous Giresun hazelnuts. (They say that 90% of the world’s hazelnuts are from Turkey, and the Giresun region is the most famous.) It tasted really good! Sometimes we ate it with pure milk chocolate :)
We crossed lots of tunnels (total maybe 20 km), the longest one was almost 4 km before Ordu.

Our longest tunnel before Ordu

But the road quality was superb and there were no steep and high hills to cross. However, looking back on it, we preferred the small and steep roads in the western part because there was much less traffic, it was much more quiet and the landscape was beautiful. In the east, it was like going on a highway, as if we also were cars. It was noisy! But the towns here were more modern, there were lots of nice parks on the seashore.
We met another cyclist traveler, a french guy, who was riding to Mongolia alone, then to Africa. He looked quite tough, he left his 2 children at home and wants to spend 6 years from the next 10 by traveling. For a while, we cycled together but after I got my first flat tire (I couldn’t see the glasses because he was in front of me) we said goodbye.
Just before the Georgian border, there was suddenly such a heat (about 20 degrees sudden rise in the temperature – as if they had switched on the hairdryers in front of us!) that we thought it came from the roadside trucks. But after we left them, the heat remained! So we thought that there is an industrial plant in the near. But it was still hot after we left the town. In Hungary I’ve never met such a heat.
We soon reached the border – it was a complete chaos. Lots of trucks, buses, crowd… People got off the buses and queued for passport control (some 200 people in a queue on the sun). They said that we should go for a check to the same window! We were frightened but fortunately we did not have to queue up… It was around noon, there was heat, we were sweating like hell, the sun was shining from the top, people in the queue tried to shelter themselves with their suitcases. The Turkish guy just stamped our passports after checking it in the machine, but the Georgian side was much more complicated. We had to go through customs control – they had us unpack every bag and they checked them with a device like at the airports. I told them that I cannot unpack my rear bags and I can only place them on the FUTÓSZALAG together with my bike. So the man opened the bag and looked into it – he could only see the things on the top: a bread, and some dirty clothes. :) So he let us go. The guy said that this heat is normal here, and for them this is still winter! In July and August it is much worse.
So our first impression of Georgia is the extreme heat. We quickly tried to find a beach to cool us down. There were a lot but there none of them could be approached by bike. Finally we found one in Gonio. The sea was very cold, the air very hot and humid! Everybody was expecting a big storm, and in the evening it has really arrived. On the beach Zsofi got a small flower from a man who later invited us to their house, and we also ate dinner. We also learned from him that we must set our clocks again forward by 1 hour (actually, Tbilisi’s time zone is UTC +4 but there is no Summer Time). I must refresh my Russian language knowledge immediately. Almost everybody speaks Russian here besides the Georgian language, which has its own alphabet and strange letters. For Zsofi it is difficult, she didn’t study Russian at school (She is too young :) ). I’ve studied for 4 years but completely forgot everything.
The dinner was very delicious, we have experienced new tastes that we’ve never tasted before. We started to Batumi in the evening, when the storm came! It was big wind, we hardly could see anything, the wind blew the dust everywhere.
In Batumi, the roads are in very bad condition, they are rebuilding the city but it takes years. The park and the surrounding near the sea is already nice, but the rest is a mess. The roads are even worse than the worst road in Bulgaria on the mountain pass! The smaller streets are dark, even the one where we had the CS host. But, as we’ve learned from Petra, it is not dangerous now, as it was 6-8 years earlier.
We were so exhausted after the long cycling days that we stayed there for 3 days in spite of the fact that there was no shower, washing or internet. We used the internet cafes in town for 1 lari/hr. The town is like a mixture of Budapest’s VIII. district and the Chinese market, multiplied by 20. :)

Market in Batumi

However, Petra still likes it! She has traveled almost every continents. I also had a slight fever and my bowels moved when we arrived (so we were not such an entertaining company to Petra), but it is better now.

Leaving Batumi

Leaving Batumi

Félix