Batumi

  Batumi, Georgia
Wednesday, June 14, 2006

We've made it across our first border on the overland truck with minimal hassle and by all accounts minimal bribes. The two of us and our fellow passengers have developed a rolling blocking move to thwart any would-be local queue jumpers who spot us polite bunch and try and queue-jump. I have a feeling this technique will prove useful through out the year, but may need some perfecting as the whole process of getting across the border took about 4 hours.

By the Black Sea

Still we made it across into the wonderful country that is Georgia - we're huge fans and are currently considering applying for citizenship - I mean what's not to like? Drinking wine it seems is a national sport / pass time / religion and is taken extremely seriously.

So to Batumi, which until the Russians arrived was a sleepy little fishing village but has expanded rapidly into a kind 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.

Classic architecture

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 - you must NEVER toast in beer or soft drinks - so the pattern goes like this: your host proposes a toast (and you can forget the usual British "cheers!" or "bottoms up!" this is the real thing) typically lasting 4 or 5 minutes and evoking all sort of tales from childhood, folklore and family history, then if no one else wants to add anything - you all try and remember what it was you're drinking to and then you can take a serious slug. If however, one of your group would like to say something more on the same subject, then they may also wax lyrical for several minutes and so it goes on.

Our Georgian guide, Zaza, is so good at this he brought a tear to everybody's eye with his first toast - very sentimental. It took the rest of us a while to get into our stride, but after Jim and the other men in our party had necked wine from a traditional Georgian wine bowl (not to mention the drinking horn...) we got the hang of it.

Cheesy group shot

Batumi is also the first time we've been to the Black Sea - so an opportunity for our group to introduce our (highly bemused) guide Zaza to skinny dipping (after a v.entertaining evening in the local nightclubs). Nuff said.

So that my friends was some of the things we got up to in Batumi and a quick lesson in the art of Georgian toasting.