Georgia Palace Hotel Batumi

... History and Architecture, Gonio Fortress, Botanical garden, a walk in the seaside park Borjomi ...

By the time I get on the milk-run bus to Trabzon, I'm already changing my plans in-flight. Suddenly a ferry trip across the Black Sea to the Ukraine doesn't sound so good. For one thing, it's not that cheap. For another thing, why? The original idea was to circumnavigate the sea IF a Russian visa were no problem. It is, time-consuming and costly. Once I do it, I'll want to see the place, not just fly by. I can pick up the ...

... This way it's also cheap. On the contrary classical bottled wine is more expensive than wine in Europe. Wine is mostly white and dry. After a relatively long ride with Orchatala-Telavi marshutka we are finally there. Telavi is quite average-looking city with average-looking castle walls in the middle. We stayed at Nineli Zaridze homestay (20gel). It's recommendable and there was a library including a complete collection of Lenin's work in our bedroom. First we plan to visit ...

... Cathy whho I am supposed to be sharing with grabbed herself a single room - the only single room in Tbilisi whhich meant that I had to sleep in treble. The other 2 women , aged 40 and 41 !!, nabbed the 2 beds and I got the sofa bed which has been in use since Stalin last slept in it. The only thing i could feel was the 3 main struts going widthways and the metal links which were supposed to support me sagged pitifully in between. the first night i made a nest in the middle ...

... in black rounded pebbles. Nearby at Gonio was a two thousand year-old Roman fortress, though it had been used for many years after that, as its location was highly strategic, guarding a thin strip of flat land between the mountains of Adjara and the Black Sea. Because of its regular use, the fortress was in excellent condition, with an orange grove inside. Ruins of ancient buildings were ...

... link to relatives from the steppes of the Ukraine. We are here seeing some of the ancient sites that exist of the Armenian culture and have poked arround several palaces, castles and churches. At Kars we stopped to see the 9th century ruins of the Armenian city of Ani. Mostly parts of churches, one of which was built to house an original piece of the cross. In Dogubayazt, at the foot of mount Ararat, we climbed a ...

... are allowed to enter Adjara unlike the other two autonomous regions. I went to the beach on the Black Sea in Batumi and spent sometime there but first I went a little further south of Batumi, almost to the Turkish border, and visited the remains of Apsaros-Gonia fortress where St. Mathew is said to be buried. Going back to Kudaisi for the evening, I enjoyed traddition Georgian dancing and music.

... 10000 other sardines who desperately want to get the hell out. i think there must be some kind of smuggling or duty avoidance going on from turkey to georgia. the passport control was fine, but customs and immgration was ridiculous. imagine 60 people in a room the size of a toyota van. all pushing and shoving trying to get to the official first. little old women being crushed and then somehow in an almighty burst of brute force, breaking free with luggage ...

... lit by a dim chandelier, and fancy in an abandoned-Russian-manor sort of way. By this point I had picked up four Russian words (it's the second language of most Georgians), which seemed to please Gula enough that she instructed Robert to take me out on the town. <br><br>Hours passed but Robert would not leave my side, and by the next day I was desperate for an excuse to escape his clutches. Suddenly I was being chaperoned by a 15 ...

... of cross between Blackpool and Cannes... It was the resort of choice for the Communist elite and is now in the midst of a revival. We spent a great evening trying the fantastic Georgian cuisine washed down with copious amounts of the local wine. However in Georgia you cannot drink without perfecting the skill of elaborate toast-making. It's an art learnt at your father's knee the Georgians take it extremely seriously ...