Royal N Hotel Tbilisi

... families. I just wondered what the thought of these families was when millions were poured to build these two buildings.

We spent a day and a half in the city, seeing the must-sees, visited a museum that had a temporary exhibition of Picasso's lithographs (seems to me this guy always had sex and women in his mind), and met a couchsurfing member to talk about the country’s ...

... talking to other protestors who had joined us in front of the government controlled media building for an all night rave. Worringly the Gergian media are painting a completely different picture of the events unfolding and gradualy the papers are falling in line too setting the stage for a tyrannical grasp on power. These jails were being filled all over the city, representations of the imprisonment of their democratic rights. I for one will be watching this space.

Yesterday I went to a village called Kazbegi. The Caucusus are even more beautiful than I have dreamed them to be. The bus ride itself was worth it (even after the driver stuffed bags of potatoes in every extra inch of space in the minibus, including where our feet should have been). The road is the Georgian Military Highway, and it basically heads straight up from Tbilisi to the border with Russia (and beyond, if the border was open). As ...

... The city is split in half by Mtkvari river and dominated by heavily lit brand new Tsminda Catedral [yes, religion in Georgia is on the rise...some people even cross themselves just when passing by a church]. Btw, the last two places are one of the few bit lonely ones in the town where couples of Georgians can meet and even, argh my god how naughty, kiss and hold hands. Because normaly people can't/don't want to/don't even think about showing any kind of affections and for a rendez-vous ...

Saturday 7th June Mestia - Kutaisi- Bush Camp Away 8am on a cold, but clear morning, with good views of the mountains and early sun on the towers. Make sure we get at least one seat on the preferred left side of the bus, MP on the left back, K on the right. MP wary of the wrath of another passenger, so only opens window occasionally for exceptional views, such as the precipitous mountainside below the bus, the village on the ...

That's it! Now the last 24 hours in this wonderful country has arrived. Michal felt sick when we were on the bus, but she felt better when we arrived to Irina. We knew exactly what is going to be the next 24 hours: dinner, nice evening at Irina's living room, and tomorrow - Shopping day! (it was my idea but you can be obviously sure that Michal should have enjoyed it a lot more than me!) I tend to leave the last day in every trip for shopping. This is the time when I can fill ...

... honour of the old city. When we came back to the taxi, the driver murmured something we didn't understand, but he pointed on the back seat, and petrified me: I forgot my wallet in the back seat. In other places, a driver could have taken the wallet and drive away, but this driver was honest enough to stay there, and wait for the payment. I'm not sure I was lucky - later I was told the this is the mentality of the Georgians. Nice story - but I prefer if it wouldn't have ...

... An hour later, we going up and over grassy hills on a dirt road, but the snow drifts had accumulated in the tracks up higher. We were stuck. For one hour, I pushed and we dug snow from around the taxi. Finally we were freed, but returned back to Rustavi, as the road was impassable, wýth 10 kilometers to go and late afternoon approaching. Winter travel has its obvious pitfalls including impassable roads. Several times more in Georgia, my "schedule ...

... Shé unfortunately got a bacterial infection that silenced her for two days - an amazing feat - I think even her brother acknowledged that we were in dangerous territory when she refused to rise to several barbs, which usually result in physical violence. For all of two days the Ugandans thought they had the perfect seven-year old, docile and well behaved. Once the drugs kicked in the ...

... our next move, given that we were effectively in the middle of nowhere and had to somehow get back to Yerevan so that we could get up to the main border. The trouble was that minibuses in the Caucasus very rarely go anywhere after 3 o'clock and we had no Armenian money. Stuck in no man's land and with the rain starting to pour we started the long trudge back into Armenia, only to be apprehended by the over zealous Armenia ...