The new year is starting with traveling again, this time it wasn’t going so far away. Cheap flights for less than 60 Euros were booked and let’s go to Georgia! Packed the bags with camping equipment and headed to the airport where I was meeting Maral, my Mongolian partner.
We were flying from Hamburg to Kutaisi, it took several hours and it was an intense flight without going into detail here.
Kutaisi airport
While arriving at the airport in Kutaisi it was surprising, it looked new and very modern, something I wasn’t expecting. It is located right next to the main road in the middle of Tbilisi and Batumi, the biggest cities of the country.
After immigration it was time to get the sim card which wasn’t hard and actually quite fair prices. It was super early, so we decided to sleep in the airport which was super comfortable actually besides the loud usual announcements.
Let’s get started with traveling!
We were leaving the airport in the morning, after getting in shape with brushing teeth and so on.
For Maral it was the first time hitchhiking, but we chose a great airport for that, just going out to the main road and starting putting the finger in the air.
Doing so wasn’t easy for her, putting you out there is quite hard but she managed after a while. We waited for less than 10 minutes before someone was actually stopping.
The ride to Batumi
The guy who was stopping worked for a few years in Germany back then as a truck driver and told us a little bit about life in Georgia. Communication worked with some words of Russian, German and English. All of us wanted to communicate with each other, so with hands and feet it worked out somehow.
Maral and I were planning to just hitchhike to the next little town to get some breakfast, but after seeing the little town, we decided to join the driver to Batumi, the place we planned to visit at the end of the day.
Chacha is a homemade drink in the country. It is a Brandy which is up to 85% alcohol and the driver really wanted us to drink it. He was deciding to give us a whole bottle from his friend so we could enjoy the beauty of it. It was super strong and also wasn’t tasting as good, but we had a gift for others.
Batumi
Arriving in Batumi was great, it was nice being at the Black Sea. He was dropping us off at a place to eat some traditional food. I ordered a Khachapuri, this is a cheese filled bread, in my case with an egg in the middle. When visiting Armenia I was eating that often and couldn’t wait to eat it in the country it is from.
We didn’t find a host on Couchsurfing, actually nobody was answering me, but that was fine, because we ended up booking a hotel room with sea view for 15 Euros a night for two people.
The place was located in the touristic center so it was easy to reach everything by walking, that’s also how we were exploring the city.
Discovering the city
Batumi was unique somehow, there was a lot to see and way more than I expected. There were many sculptures everywhere. Some of the buildings were amazing and looked a little bit like I know it in Budapest.
It was not very touristic in the time we visited. The time of the year was perfect for me to travel there. Also I found cute and interesting socks with Khachapuri, Dumplings and Stalin, an interesting combination, I bought all of the mentioned ones.
The weather wasn’t the best, quite bad actually, always raining a lot but it was great. We were seeing the most popular sights of the city and it was interesting. There was a statue called Ali & Nino and it represents a love story between a guy from Azerbaijan and a girl from Georgia. It is a statue moving and merging inside of each other. They are becoming one, where it looks they are kissing each other, and moving away from each other again.
The statue was next to the sea and the Ferris wheel, but the statue was actually quite small, not as it looks like in the pictures.
Meeting up with Couchsurfer
There was actually one person answering me and it was a guy from Turkey. We were meeting up with him and two of his friends at a beer place, where it was quite cheap ordering one. We were trying local beer and it was quite nice being there, it was a little bar which was not easy to notice from the street. I probably wouldn’t have gone if it would be just myself, but it was nice.
He was such a nice guy living always abroad and got a very positive vibe. It felt quite nice spending time with him. We went after the beer place to a wine bar in which we were each drinking a glass of wine and having just great conversations. I enjoyed the night a lot and Maral did as well. After that we also went back home.
The time in the city
Each day in Batumi went the same, we woke up and explored the city for at least 12 hours, which I am not used to when I travel by myself, but it was amazing to do it with her, we had a great time.
We always went out to try some local food and it was something I tend to do less when I travel solo, because of not feeling like treating myself well when I travel. Probably not the healthiest way of dealing with myself, but it is getting better in general I suppose.
Batumi is a great city and it feels like being a mix of many countries. It was way better than expected. Actually I didn’t have an idea of the city, but enjoyed it a lot and can for sure recommend visiting.
What’s up next?
Next is how the further trip went, it was getting very interesting, that for sure, stay tuned!
