Georgia – before the trip

9. May 2023

 

 

Not so long ago, not quite 2 years, I was in Tbilisi for a few days before and after my Armenia trip. At that time, I kept the option open not to stay in Armenia for the whole time, but to see more of Georgia. Although I didn’t find Armenia easy, I felt it was better to see it thoroughly. I didn’t regret it – but somehow Georgia was still open. Especially after an acquaintance showed me mountain pictures of her trip and raved, I was very tempted to walk around there. I already wrote in the Armenia blog about having been there once before in 2008 – and how extremely Tbilisi at least had changed in 2021. And now I really want to go back to the places I was in 2008 – and definitely see a lot more mountains. I have 6 weeks time and will start in exactly a week.

 

 

I have six weeks, so there’s a lot to experience. I’m in the research phase now and I’m finding quite a lot that arouses curiosity. A good source for me is the website of Stefan Applis. And for the hiking I check the website of Jozef. Already in 2021 I discovered the website of Emily Lush – though I get the feeling that I only have to follow her tracks because she has described everything of how to travel in such detail. It’s really incredible – there’s hardly a travel question left unanswered that you can’t research with her beforehand. That’s very practical, but it also makes it a bit unexciting – and so I’ll make sure I don’t check with her too often.

 

 

Here, for example, you can see an interesting change. The photo was taken in Kutaisi in 2008. I had to look up the name of the ruined cathedral and came across the name Bagrati. I looked through the image search and was confused: the entrance and other parts looked the same, but there was much more building behind it than in this picture. I checked Wikipedia: Ah! 2012 Completing the reconstruction! When I look at my picture and remember, I’m glad I saw the ruins. It was fun to walk around there.

 

 

The cave village of Vardzia, on the other hand, looks pretty much the same on the image search. However, I suspect considerably more visitors. At that time we were almost alone – and had another experience, where I also suspect that it cannot be repeated – to be read here. (unfortunately just german)

 

 

The plan is first Tbilisi, then by train to Batumi for a change check, then to Poti to discover – and after that everything is open. If the time is too long for me, I could go to Azerbaijan – although it doesn’t seem appealing to me. And yes, in the back of my mind I am thinking of offering Georgia as a travel destination with Yangla Tours. It starts in exactly 1 week!