It was time to leave the winter wonderland and make our way to our last destination. Walking to the end of Bakuriani, we were back on the road to do some hitchhiking. The sun was shining and we both felt like staying longer in Bakuriani. We agreed to stay with a guy on Couchsurfing. Waiting not actually that long until someone was stopping and the guy, who had a snowmobile in his car. He was actually driving to Tbilisi which was just perfect for us!
Walking to the host
After changing the car one more time in the capital we had like three more kilometers to walk, so we did. It was interesting to walk through the city. Passing by some things we wanted to check out during our time there.
Probably the most interesting thing was the school in front of which they were selling books. One of them even being illegal in Germany. Just something you are not really used to seeing when being from there.
Tbilisi is different from the other cities we were seeing in Georgia during our time. It had much more soul to it. There was a lot of graffiti on the walls and a lot of them were directed in the direction of being against Russia and being for freedom. Some graffiti was real art and it was fun looking at them. Especially as we were getting to our host, as more street art was there! He was living quite in the center of the city, so perfect for us to explore actually.
Meeting Audun
Our host was a guy from Norway, who lived in many countries of the world and was just starting a life in Norway. We got along right away and were amazed by the huge apartment in the center of the city. He works remotely and is very flexible, often I think that it could be something for myself as well. For Marla it was the first Couchsurfing experience as a guest, so for me it was important that it would work out well. I believe overall it was okay at the end, but more to the story later.
He was giving us some tips to explore the city and so we basically went out in the evening to meet a friend of Marla, but Audun wasn’t ready to eat yet. Audun was recommending us a place at which the food would be weighted and paid in 100g steps. Actually perfect to try out many different things.
Our first night
The friend from Marla was very kind and also happy to meet the two of us. We had great conversations and I felt included as well. That is not the most normal thing when two people meet each other after a long time again, quite nice.
We enjoyed some good food and at the end he had to go back to work and was even inviting us for the meal.
The night wasn’t over for Marla and myself. We were walking in the city center and entered a hotel in order to receive a great view on top of it. It was super easy to enter the luxury hotel and also getting upstairs was easy. Basically there was a bar, but the bar was closed at the time and also the windows made it hard to actually take good pictures from the top. In general, it’s still nice having the view and just being us up there. When we went down it was interesting because we actually could have entered the spa. We were seeing the pool already and nobody to check anything. Sadly our swimming clothes were not with us, otherwise that would have been actually perfect, maybe a good idea for the future!
Fresh start in the new day
We had a good night’s sleep and got up to explore the city. Audun was still sleeping, so I just sent him a text. Marla loves coffee and was excited to check out this cafe which was serving portraits with the drink. It was of course more expensive than normal coffees, but still it was something special and a free souvenir included.
We were getting there and it was such a great experience, the staff was friendly and able to tell us a little bit about the store. Of course there were many tourists besides us to also receive their cup of coffee.
Now we had to run around with the cups the whole day, but that was fine. We walked along the roads and were just randomly exploring the city a little bit. Out of the distance we saw a shop which was selling wine and cheese for quite cheap and on the mainroad. It was a weird location and not quite the time, but we decided to check it out anyway. The owner was a very friendly guy who spoke perfect English. He was giving us some wine and cheese to try, before we each ordered a glass of it. It was very tasty and cheap as well. Actually we felt the alcohol a little bit after, so the day was getting even more fun.
We walked through an art bazaar and had a fun time talking to the people. They seemed to have also tried out some wine before we met them.
Marla and I enjoyed the time and the things we explored. The peace bridge for example, and went in the direction of the huge church of the city.
Sameba Cathedral
It took quite some time to actually reach the cathedral, it was at another side of where we stayed. The church is just so beautiful and massive, we were so hyped to actually see it from the inside. Sadly it wasn’t beautiful from the inside, which was such a bummer to be honest. Usually don’t judge a book by its cover, because the content may surprise you so like the church just negatively.
Well it’s fine, the place itself is very pretty anyway and both of us enjoyed staying there actually. It was great being there and checking it out. After we were done, it was time for my drone to check it out even better. Such a great idea, I haven’t used it much, but in the capital I wanted to make it worth it at least.
Meeting up with Audun
Exploring the city was fun for sure. We even invited Audun to meet up at the wine place earlier that day to just make him see it. We waited in front of him and waited. After 15 minutes we realized that he was the whole time inside waiting for us. We joined and took another glass of wine, while he was drinking a bottle of beer.
For sure we should have eaten something before. We didn’t feel the first glass anymore but after the second glass we started feeling it a bit again. He liked it at the store and we invited him for the beer.
When we were finished, Audun had something to do, but brought us to a local restaurant, so we could finally eat something. It was a restaurant we probably wouldn’t have checked out ourselves, but it was good we were there. Problem was only that they were so local, they didn’t accept any type of payment which was not cash. Had to change some money, which btw works amazing at local banks instead of changing offices.
The food was great and it felt amazing to finally eat something again.
When we went home, Audun wasn’t home but his friend from the Czech Republic who was quite sick. It was such a hustle to enter the door and communicate with him. Everytime we wanted to get in it took quite some time, which was something Marla didn’t like at all and to be fair it never happened like that to me before on Couchsurfing.
The last full day
In the morning of the last full day we were woken up by two new Couchsurfers, also from Germany. They were sharing the last night in the same room as us and after they arrived we all were sleeping again.
We had some more hours in, until we were going out for some more exploring.
Marla wanted to go to a hostel, which sounded similar to a wine factory to which we also wanted to go. I got confused and told her that I knew the way, but I knew the way to the wrong destination. When we were almost there Marla was quite annoyed, because it was not where she wanted to go at first. We did the best we could and ended up making our way there. Before reaching, we were checking out something else.
Factory hotel
On the day of arrival we saw some interesting places with many plants which looked like a library. When we arrived we were quite confused, it was a restaurant. The restaurant was filled with some plants and also had a backyard to which we went.
At the backyard there was a food lab, completely in pink color and with plants inside. It was very interesting to see and take pictures. It was such a cool place to be fair.
When exploring the region more, we realized that we were on the ground of an old factory on which this was taking place. When we went further we also realized that it wasn’t only a restaurant, there was also a hotel which had a library.
It was all so surreal and a great design as well. We went up with the elevator and went to places we were not supposed to go, but it was cool anyway. After wandering around the hotel for quite a while security was telling us to go back to the public places. There was at least better security in the other hotel we went to, something good for people staying over there.
Finishing the walk in the wrong direction
We wanted to drink a wine glass from a popular traditional wine seller, but it wasn’t the way we thought it would be and we realized everything was basically closed. Usually people would go there in the afternoon, but we messed that up a little bit.
We wandered around at all of those closed places and were quite upset that the wine seller was closed, but was it? There were so many doors open at the seller and some light was on. I went inside and I found nothing besides a full bottle of wine. The bottle was not completely full and decided to finish it. It might be something not to do. The intention was to buy a bottle of wine, it just ended up not being possible and seeing nothing besides one wine bottle there. It felt like destiny somehow, I don’t know why.
Never mind, we went back to the wine store from the previous day and he was telling us that the wine would still be fine and was trying it with us a little bit. We ended up walking to the hostel Marla really wanted to see.
The hostel
The hostel was recommended to us by a guy from Turkey, whom we met in Batumi. We went there and it was just crowded by tourists and digital nomads who were just hanging out there. There was indeed quite a lot of street art. Everything was way higher priced than at normal places in the city and country. We were grabbing something to eat and drink though, because we didn’t really have anything to eat for breakfast.
It was interesting hanging out there, but still not as special and I could not recommend it to be fair. The fabrika hostel is for sure the most popular one in the city. I guess it wouldn’t be that much for me when being completely honest.
Meeting the others
We were going to meet up with the other Germans and our host. All of them tried the wine as well, so it felt good to share the wine in general, after receiving it in an unethical way. We went all together to a local restaurant, so the Germans could try something local.
Marla and I were already eating something before, so we decided to not eat something, but to sit down with them. It was also quite expensive in the place, so nothing I would prefer anyway that much.
They ordered quite a lot and seemed to enjoy it as well. After we were done it was time to explore the region with them a little bit and Audun went home. We were just wandering around and checking out the region. It was quite fun to do it with other people as well, but I didn’t really see anything interesting in my opinion.
Marla really wanted to eat some honey cake, before flying back and we actually found it. The honey cake was very tasty and I liked the little peace. I was trying a lot. Never had that before.
Flying the drone and finishing the day
I wanted to fly my drone at night as well and actually I ended up making some nice pictures. I also went back up to the church which was lit up at night as well and it looked quite beautiful.
In general cities at night always have a different vibe. I had a lot of fun and after we went back to the apartment we struggled a lot to get in. The Czech guy was sleeping and having noise canceling headphones it. It took over an hour until he finally managed to let us in, which was such a shit show to be honest. In return I was receiving in the morning a very rude message from him telling me that I should not be so rude to him and trying to wake him up. I will not get deeper inside that, but yeah at the end we went back to bed and tried to be as quiet as possible in the morning when we left for the bus station.
The bus took us to the airport in Kutaisi and everything worked out well with the flights back to Hamburg. My parents picked us up and we were still enjoying the rest of the day. Before we had to go back to work and responsibilities again.
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