That keeps Georgia on my mind! Yes, it is the 4th of July and yes it is time to leave Georgia. We are up quite early as we don’t want to be hornswaggled out of our Turkish Airlines flights again. The plan is to be picked up at 7:30 to reach the airport by 9:00 AM. Andrew kindly gets up early to carry our bags down. Janet is also up to wish us goodbye. We are early for our station and the driver is late. He shows up 15 minutes late and we say goodbye and head off. He is a very good driver and cuts 15 minutes off the trip so we get there at the targeted 9:00.

But Turkish Air is not ready for our check-in even though there are plenty of staff hanging around. Eventually they start to check-in but as inefficient as ever there is a single entry point with the attendant in an argument with the passenger and 4 check-in stations without customers. Eventually we get checked-in and there is still plenty of time left.

As we wait to board, I reflect on our visit to Georgia.

The Wine

Definitely an interesting part about Georgia including his long history and maybe even the beginning of wine in human society. The making and ageing of the win in the Kvevris was also good. We had some very good wines and some home made wines that were not special. A special mention should be made about the Chacha, Bryn’s favourite.

The Food

Well, this is a tricky one. There were some interesting foods, the Green Plum sauce fro example. And there was plenty of it looking at all the photos of the food that we left behind. But this was not an exciting cuisine in general and frequently the food was over cooked e.g. the Seafood place in Batumi.

The Roads

The roads ranged from a few good ones, to some OK ones, some not that swell ones and some absolutely terrible – see the Post called “Duane Eddy” for more detail. The drivers were a bit ordinary too. Many times we were travelling one direction and a car was overtaking another in the other direction effectively creating a third lane in the middle when there was not one there.

The Weather

Given that this was summer it was not that great but then it is a mountainous country so I guess that could be expected. Some rain in the mountains did not help the roads situation.

The People

A major plus, at least all the ones that we met that were serving us. Over generous to a fault, incredibly friendly, immediately accepted us just about everywhere we went.

Conclusion

I am certainly glad that we did this tour of Georgia, there were a number of good points and we got to see somewhere new, one steeped in history. Having said that, been there, done that.

Turkish Airlines

We board the first leg to Lyon which stops in Istanbul. Smooth enough flight, food unexceptional, 25 minutes in a holding pattern then a wait through security after we land. A very busy airport but we have time for a drink, especially as they would not let us go to the boarding gate until later on.

The flight to Lyon is unexceptional. As usual, the food and drink service in Economy was inefficient. We were in the middle of the plane and by the time both trolleys got to us, only one food choice was available and a large part of the flight was over. The kebab was OK, just.

So comments about Turkish.

* I could never forgive them for the banning us from the flight to Georgia because of 10 minutes late of an artificially enforced deadline. Not only did we miss the first day of the tour, but also we got slugged for additional airfare and of course Hotel accommodation.

* Their inefficiencies at check-in and food and beverage service were annoying.

* Having said that, they had the best leg room in Economy that I can recall seeing.

For continuation see the next Post.

Friday, 3 July, 2015

After another ordinary breakfast – we sat outside in the back this time – we meet John out the front of the Hotel. We walk around to the local Museum which is actually only a few meters away from where we had breakfast.

We then go out in the bus to have lunch with a local woman to learn about medicinal herbs, cheese, bread starters and ancient methods of silk production. Lamara is like a walking encyclopedia of folk knowledge, she is bright eyed as she walks us through the inherited wisdom she acquired from her grandmother, and she is a great chef to boot! A real character we are told by John.

Lamara talks to us, via John, about several of the natural plants growing in her garden and their health benefits. I have a sore on my finger which has been there for the whole trip and longer and she grabs a leaf to put on it. (To be honest, when the leaf is removed some time later there is no improvement.

For those that do not know anything about silk, such as us at the start, she tells us the silk comes from the cocoon for baby silk moths. The best silk comes if the pupae is killed before it hatches. Lamara holds up an empty cocoon and states that this small thing can generate 1,500 meters of silk.

Then after quite a delay, there is – wait for it – a lunch.

Lamara tells a story about how her older brother used to torment her for the first 10 years of her life but then really looked after her after that. Sadly, the brother died young leaving her without a protector until another “brother” came along – John himself. Great story.

After we depart Lamara, we stop at another monastery briefly.

Back to the Hotel for a rest up before the finale feast tonight. We walk to Pheasant Tears.

The table is structured so that a group of nine sit in the middle with the rest of us around them. They are lead by John’s wife who heads up the Zedashe group and they provide music all night long with their polyphonic singing with traditional Georgian instruments, sort of randomly breaking into song.

Bryn had borrowed some PVC tubing so that he could do his Didgeridoo which he did well. No photos sorry.

I even got up, talked a bit about Australia and sang? a couple of stanzas of “Downunder”, no photos thankfully.

So then it is time to go. After farewells at the restaurant, we go outside and Besu has kindly brought his van to drop us off at the Hotel.

We are off early tomorrow morning to avoid the check-in limit hassles with Turkish airlines. So, we have teary goodbyes with our magical group vowing to meet again, probably in Australia, probably in 2017.

Thursday, 2 July, 2015

After an unexceptional breakfast in the Hotel, we set off for another Monastery some distance away.

We went into the grand old cathedral but were not allowed to take any photos in there. Andrew could not go in because he was wearing shorts. The girls “frocked up” so they could go in. After that visit, we are treated to a wine tasting.

It was a quite nice tasting and the wines were good. BTW: by now I had identified a Georgian wine style that I quite liked – Saperavi. John claimed that it was an early predecessor to Syrah/Shiraz. Any way we drive to our next stop which is lunch.

We depart back to our village and the Hotel. In my case, I had a nap. What do we have to do next? That’s right another dinner. It is in a restaurant across the street from our Hotel, next to John’s house.

John and his three visitors depart early as one them leaves tomorrow morning so they need to go out and party more. We oldies stay behind for a while.

It was a long walk back to the Hotel, well there were steps to walk up and time to retire for the night.

Wednesday, 1 July, 2015

Wait, there could not be another utility failure? Yep, Sure Can. In the night we discover that there is no Water. In the morning we find out that Georgia Water has closed down water to several streets in Tbilisi including ours. The water does not return before we leave. At Breakfast I christen the 6 tour guests – The Dirty (Half) Dozen.

After a good breakfast, we start out for the village of Sighnaghi in the Kakheti region. This is where John lives, has his winery and also shop/restaurant. John joins us with his three friends and gets on our bus leaving one of the others to drive the car. As we get to the town we stop for a photo stop at the hill above it.

It is decided that the guys would walk down into the town. I elect to stay on the bus as we head to John’s restaurant / shop.

As the tour happens, we learn more and more about John. He is an American who came to Georgia around 21 years ago on the basis that he liked the music he heard on a CD of a Georgian band. In time, he has done more and more things and seems to be loved by everyone. He has a house in the village, opposite the hotel where we will stay, a wine shop / cellar / art store, another restaurant in Tbilisi etc. etc. His brand name for the wines and restaurants is “Pheasants Tears”.

John is married to a local Georgian musician, more about her in later Posts and has two children, a boy and a girl. And no there will not be a John Henry VI. One thing in this vein, he does a weekly cooking class on Georgian TV and it is on for today. Furthermore, us tour guys will be participating in the live TV show. Thus it can be said that the Dirty (Half) Dozen are TV stars.

If you would like to see the action, watch this link to a video. A lot of the talk is in Georgian but there is some English too. Note that the group was making dumplings – first potato dumplings then mushroom dumplings and finally was to be cheese herb dumplings.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=izmxiKk3GYg&list=PLvH9znMEyNxGZlKdIPRN8YS-g60CcRLYy&index=348

Watching this video, near the end, it shows that I have been quite remiss in not mentioning Chacha, a Georgian “moonshine” that is served at the end or during almost every meal. Bryn was especially keen on it. To learn more about Chacha refer to the following link.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chacha_(brandy)

I extract the following from this article primarily for the Dirty (Half) Dozen since we missed out.

The “Chacha Tower” spirit fountain was opened on 18 October 2012 in Batumi, Georgia’s Black Sea resort town. Free chacha flows every night at 7pm for 10 minutes.

After lunch we check-in to our Hotel. When our room is to be opened, none of the keys worked (another utility failure?) We are given another (nice) room on the 3rd floor and I immediately have a nap. I am sleeping peacefully when Julie comes and wakes me up to say we were moving back to the original room as they had found the keys. I was grumpy about it but eventually moved – it was a smaller room but OK.

Presumably all of the six, and others, finally had their shower during this period so it looks like the end of the qualifications for the Dirty (Half) Dozen.

Later in the afternoon we make a visit to John’s Pheasant Tears winery.

It is a longish walk back to the Hotel but at least it is down hill. And so it is the end of an interesting day. Two more to go in our Georgia Tour.

Tuesday, 30 June, 2015

It is a pretty full-on day today so after a quick breakfast we are on the road. First stop is the Batumi Botanical Garden. Because there is a lot of walking and I am slack, I ride in a 14 seater Golf cart. Andrew joins me for the first part of the visit.

We were part way through the tour when the driver got an important message – there were Japanese tourists who needed my cart so, even though I had paid the 40 Euros, it was bad luck. Not to worry we were near a picnic area and our group soon followed.

There were fruit snacks as well as the wine. Eventually, my golf cart comes back and transfers the whole group down to the bus at the exit of the park. We drive for a while and end up at another natural winery. As we get there the owner suggests that we go straight up into the vines.

We had quite a detailed explanation of what he was doing, his grapes, wine making etc. I ask him about Frosts – seldom but 2012 got totally wiped out and phylloxera. He said there is debate here about using the American root stocks that prevent it and the flavour of the wine. In Australia, we had no choice.

We finish the tour and there is a small lunch.

We get back on the bus and drive towards Tbilisi. We stop at this massive pub outside of town, it must have had 500 patrons there.

The pub is known as the Bean Hotel. We found this out from John, from the first day, who arrived with three of his overseas visitors.

So, it is time to go back to Tbilisi for a night’s sleep.

This is where we stayed our first night. It is goodbyes, especially to Miriam who does not rejoin us for the rest of the tour. Apparently she got quite ill and had to be taken to Hospital. A few EOFY activities and off to bed.