Georgia Day 3

Monday 15th August 2022 - თბილისი

We woke up, showered then headed down for another fantastic breakfast. Stanislav decided that we would explore little bit and we got metro tickets. We wandered through the streets a bit, where grape vines grew wild, they were growing up the sides of buildings like ivy, with large bunches of grapes just hanging there for the taking. I decided to try a few, the were extremely rich in taste and the skin was very tough so I spit it out. The taste was kind of similar to the wine and was quite wonderful, my hands were stained black too.

Escalator in metro

We found a rough top café next to Rustaveli metro station where there was a huge cinema. I had a cappuccino and a Borjomi (ბორჯომი) sparkling water. Refreshed we bought metro cards and headed to Tbilisi central station. Wow. This was another world. There were lots of minibuses and a woman's voice was making frantic announcements on a tannoy. The station was an old run down communist style building with shops on the inside everywhere. We saw people waiting to be served at the train desks. We picked a number, 013, and waited patiently. When we asked to buy a ticket to Batumi we were told that the trains were all booked out until August 24th.. We found a bus company, but they left at midnight arriving at 06:00 so I didn't like that idea. Out of desperation I started looking up flights to Batumi on the internet, but they were frightfully expensive and we would have to go via Turkey! I called my language teacher Dato, he advised us to go to Didube where we decided to book a trip with my broken Georgian, but it worked. The bus station was next a to rather chaotic market full of old ladies selling gorgeous looking vegetables. There were also lots of black clad toothless grannies begging for money. We deduced to get the metro back to the hotel and call the bus to confirm.

Khacharpuri

We rested a bit and headed back out into the city. I got a khachapuri and Stanislav ordered a cake, we also had pomegranate juice. We then wandered down the cobbled streets to Nino's winery, what a beautiful street that was with lots of little shops, restaurants and bars.

Me and Nino

At Nino's we tasted a complete range of wines, starting with the Amber, then white and ending with the reds. After the wine tasing Stanislav and I tried to find the Irish pub but it didn't exist. Stanislav went back to the hotel and I staid out exploring. I order myself an over expensive wine while a saxophone player with no talent tried to entertain. I moved an to another wine tasing place, there was a Swedish guy with his Asian looking female companion. They were working their way through the tasing and the host totally exaggerated everything.

Friendly Russians

One pit stip close to the hotel, I ordered a wine and befriended some Russians and I bought a round of Chaha for everywhere. They were quite contented.

In a word #ღვინო

#Wine #Tbilisi #Georgia #საქართველო #თბილისი #ღვინო