Days: 539-540 (16 December 2015 – 17 December 2015)

Total distance travelled: 136,919.5 kilometres (85,043.17 miles)

Still rocked by the loss of our Vegemite, we needed Georgia to bounce back in a hurry, lest our impressions of the place become tainted.

Our hostel was a short walk from the scene of our tragedy, and after a long day in transit, our first thoughts were on a feed and something to drink.

Fortunately, a nearby restaurant recommend by the man at check-in promised to deliver both.

We’d heard good things about the Georgian food from an Australian couple back in Sofia, so we were pretty keen to get stuck right in.

It didn’t hurt that one of their staple foods, Khinkali, are simply oversized dumplings!

After polishing off a few of them stuffed with cheese, we were soon sat contentedly before a heaped plate of spicy potatoes and lamb, nice and salty pork skewers and a couple of cold beers.

All of a sudden Georgia was looking up!

It couldn’t replace our Vegemite, but it was delicious!

Washing away our pain… (left) & Part of the surprisingly modern Batumi skyline (right)

After calming ourselves over this cheap and satisfying dinner, we had a quick wander around the well-lit old town, before retiring to our hostel, the lure of a real bed proving too hard to resist.

Blue skies and sunshine were our morning greeting, so we thought we’d check out a little more of this resort city before getting on our way.

We were surprised at how modern the city looked, at least the downtown/old city areas, with many new corporate looking structures (including one that had a Ferris Wheel attached to its facade), and the older buildings, they looked very well restored and maintained.

One of the structures we’d spotted the previous night and again in the morning sunshine, was actually shaped like the DNA helix, and adorning its side, were all of the characters from the Georgian alphabet.

The beautiful old… (left) & …and surprising new! (right)

Now, what would a beach resort town be without the beach and it certainly wasn’t long before we found ourselves standing on the rocky shores of the Black Sea.

Sure, it was winter and sure, it was going to be cold, but given that we were already wearing our flip flops, we really couldn’t leave without dipping our feet in…

Empty Black Sea beaches, apparently in sharp contrast to the summer months

The challenge now before us, was to find a marshrutka from here to Kutaisi, Georgia’s second city, and our next destination.

Given that we couldn’t read a word of Georgian, this was potentially going to be a difficult exercise.

Our hostel had advised we could simply flag one down at this major intersection, but which side of the road should we be, and how to know which one?

Should we just wave our arms and ask every one that stops?

That was looking like being our plan, until eventually some guy approached us asking where did we wish to go?

Minutes later we were being walked to an office where we could buy tickets to either Kutaisi or Tbilisi.

Sitting there waiting by ourselves, we soon realised that the guy who’d sold us the ticket had disappeared.

Were we supposed to follow him?

Eventually he returned with a fresh customer in tow who bought himself a fare to Tbilisi, and after waiting around a little more, we were all motioned to follow, customers for Kutaisi and Tbilisi alike.

At first I thought there’d been some confusion. Was one party about to get to head to the wrong destination?

Turns out that all was sweet, the Tbilisi service actually swings via Kutaisi.

Crisis over, and we were on our way!

Maybe not yet love, but a strong first impression!

Notes:

* Our bus tickets from Istanbul to Hopa (although we stayed aboard all the way to Sarp on the border) was ŧ80.00 Lire per person.

* A marshrutka from the border to Batumi cost us ₾2.00 Lari.