City Partner Hotel Primavera Tbilisi

We felt the famous Georgian hospitality right at the border: we got a lift to Tbilisi without asking. From there it was only 10 km and an easy bus ride to Mtskheta, the ancient capital of the country and still its spiritual one, where we planned to spend the night. <br><br>Despites its importance, Mtskheta is a quiet and small city. We found a great homestay/hotel in the old town, across the street from Svetitskhoveli Cathedral, an enormous building inside a ...

... 10 of us all together. We had pork, chicken, potatoes, eggplant, tomatoes and hot peppers, all done over the fire. Today we visited a cute town about an hour from where we're staying. <br><br>The Armenian's are also very nice people and such a wonderful variety of faces here, even more so than Georgia, I think. I'd highly recommend both countries as great places to visit. The only downside is that it would be harder if we didn't know a little Russian.

Tomorrow I'm leaving Tbilisi for a town that starts with Z, and then making my way on to Mestia in the mountains in northern Georgia. The train to Z (Zugdide? Forgot it. Have the ticket for it. But it's all in Georgian) will be overnight and when I get there in the moring I hop straight onto a minibus to wait for it to leave for Mestia (when it fills up...that could be a long time). I've been in Tbilisi longer than I meant to- but ...

... corruption, he has simply canceled many services prone to it - traffic police, car technical inspections, etc. Nowadays, there are many young oh-I-look-like-from-a-US-movie policemen and cars in the streets&amp;metro, new streetlights and one feels quite safe in the city. I should note that I speak about Tbilisi - most of the countryside doesn't appear to have changed at all during the last years. Seeing the changes, many people (of Tbilisi) have very good spirits about it and feel ...

... another day for upset tums and it calmed mine down immediately so I bought half a litre of it for medicinal purposes only. The wine he got by dipping a jug into these underground vats but the chacha was much more precious and only came out of huge jars. I'd spotted a few animal horns on dislplay and these were old wine vessels and so Zaza poured my wine into one of these - good and orthentic but you can't put down an animal horn witjhout it spilling so you need ...

... gherkin", where there is a heavy security presence. See a local pulled out of a car from which he is filming something. He is escorted away, but the tone of the "arrest"seemed pretty friendly. MP careful to ask before taking photos in the other direction, of a precariously bulging building wall. Further down the street photo a tall building with the verandah posts hanging in space. Try to cross the road here but pretty ...

... marshrutkas and a taxi or two. We stopped for a few minutes before going to the main attractions in order to take my lonely-planet guide out of my bag, and most of the passengers who came with us just disappeared. The city looked nice, but empty. We walked a few minutes (the distances in this small town doesn't demand any vehicle), and arrived to the peak of holliness in Georgia and probably in the whole caucasus area - Sveti Tskhoveli cathedral. Two old women sat in the ...

... j* meeskoor v*heldumisi. Kv*rteti l*ulj*tel olid ikk* erilised "torud", hääl oli väg* võim*s! Gruusi* kööki iseloomust*b "käikude" rohkus. Õhtu jooksul oli vähem*lt 5 käiku. J* kogu *eg p*isk*s mid*gi uudset pe*le. Kui eestl*stel on kujutelm, et se*l on el*v*d "lih*sööj*d", siis eksit*kse. Üldiselt on toit t*imne, kun* lih* on k*llis. Restosse minnes *rvest*ge s*muti, et lih*roog tähend*b küll*ltki väikest portsu. Õhtu oli pikk j* hotelli purjet*sime umbes süd*öö p*iku. M*g*m*.

... equivalent of about 5 days of our combined budget, but the driver is in tbilisi. Friend: 'you'll have to say the night.' i don't claim to have some kind of travellers e.s.p. , nor does stephan, but plainly, we just don't believe him. we decide to try our luck. Friend says (a last ditch attempt) he's expecting to hear from us later when we're freezing cold from wandering around in the snow in the dark, wasting our time. we race, slipping and sliding ...

... security to be on high alert - full body search you name it - the two cops who even deigned to look my way where playing catch the Uzi tossing a machine gun from one to the other - I kid you not. It was just another hot day and the customs officer was pretty much hoping to get off so he could go to the beach. I am sorry but after the earfuls from CNN since Sunday, scared shitless - to reach ...