Tbilisi

Leaving Armenia we took the northern border crossing into Georgia and headed to the city of Tbilisi. The roads were good and the border crossing took only about 2 hours and was easy. On the way we stopped in a little village to find a place to spend the night. We pulled in to the well kept, but deserted hotel and were greeted by the teen son of the family. They spoke some English. Once he learned we were from the US the entire family came to the reception area. They had never had an American stay at the hotel, much less seeing us riding through their country on a motorbike. We were embarrassingly treated like royalty, with them even cooking a wonderful multi-course meal for us. They had a little boy with beautiful eyes wearing a baseball cap. He and Melanie hit it off and they played little games in the lobby. My bike was parked by the door with someone watching it through the night.

When we arrived in Tbilisi we found our little apartment with a courtyard on a side alley in the main part of the city. The landlady was very accommodating and told me where to securely park my bike. The next morning she even brought us hot water and coffee.

When we get to big cities and want to see the sites we sometimes look for a HOHO, a hop on – hop off, bus that will take you to see the sites. We found one here advertising Free Water, Free Wine, Free Coffee, Free Tea and Free Chacha, a tasty high alcohol vodka. The tour guide would walk around the bus getting you whatever you wanted and she was hilarious.

A zipper on my riding jacket had broke leaving the vent open. After we got off the bus we grabbed the jacket and walked downtown looking for a sewing shop. We found one without much effort and left the jacket overnight so they would fix the zipper. We picked it up the next morning finished and it cost virtually nothing. As we were walking to find the sewing place we passed a UK themed fish and chips restaurant. On our way back we decided to try them out. The only thing really similar to the UK was the theme of the restaurant. The fish and chips were cooked okay but the oil caused my gut to do a flip-flop. There is also a lot of graffiti in the area showing the people’s feelings of the Russian war on Ukraine.

The next morning we decided just to walk around local on the cobbled roads and see some of the sites. My stomach was still a little flip-floppy and I didn’t want to get too far away from where we were staying. By afternoon I felt better and we ate at a Shaurma. It was good, but not really good for me. There was a light rain in the afternoon that lasted into the evening. We wandered around looking at the lights of the city as dusk and early evening descended upon us.

We had a wonderful stay in Tbilisi in the next morning we’ll head towards the Russian border.

Cheers,

2WANDRRs