(I have to write about
this one before I get too excited for my next destination. Disclaimer: This is not
going to be a travel guide if you are expecting one. I am not good with rates
and prices and I hate computing the money I’ve already spent. Also, I’m not
good memorizing the places and tourist spots we visited. I’m sorry!).
A month -- that’s all the time we had when we decided to
pack our bags and spend Christmas in Georgia. It may be a hasty decision but it
was a good decision, a great decision in fact.
Days before our flight, I was worried for two things: (1)
for not meeting my report deadlines and (2) for not being able to enjoy the
snow since I am not a fan of winter. We are scheduled to fly on the 22nd of
December while my deadline for a budget report is on the 21st. Perfect timing,
right? Well, it was no easy-peasy. A few minutes before our Christmas Party and
while everyone is feasting on the food, I was there in the corner typing madly
on my computer just to finish everything.
One item stricken through on my worry list.
December 22, all my bags are packed. I am normally a light packer when travelling but I’m too afraid of the cold that I had a medium-sized luggage bag full and squeezed in for a 5-day vacation. We’ve checked in by 10:30am through Wataniya Airways. The flight was delayed and there was a little issue with the security before boarding but I don’t want to talk about that and ruin a beautiful memory so let’s move on.
We arrived in Tbilisi, Georgia late in the afternoon. Our
hired transport drove us to our accommodation where we will be staying for one
night. It was still early to retire to bed so we decided to walk and explore
the place. Who am I kidding? We were just hungry.
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| Holy Trinity Church in Tbilisi, Georgia |
Sameba – Holy Trinity Cathedral is just a few-minute walk
from our hotel so we went there first and holy moly it was freakin’ cold! I
mean, it was already 9°C but the wind made it unbearable. I can barely feel my
hands! It was too cold up there so we decided to walk back and look for a
restaurant because we’re really starving. We kept walking and entering dark alleys
until we reach the vicinity of President’s Palace. Good thing the security
thought we were lost rather than suspicious or we’d end up in the interrogation
room. Haha! We only decided to hail a cab when we reached
a dead end.
A fellow Filipino tourist directed us to that “I Love Tbilisi” place where there’s rice and pork in the menu. Oh, he knows what just we need but my friends and I agreed on Italian and some wine in the end. We walked around the place after dinner to explore more and have a feel of the city, have some coffee and explore some more before we call it a night.
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| exploring the city at night |
Day 2. It is my favorite part of the tour. I know I said that I
am not a big fan of winter but as soon as I saw a trace of snow along the road,
I was so close to tearing up. I was so happy. I was just dreaming of
experiencing snow when I was younger but there I was, I can almost touch it. It's so beautiful just like in the pictures.
It was more than a two-hour drive from Tbilisi to Gudauri but I didn’t mind (except that time when I needed to pee, really needed to pee). It took us a while before we settled in a place to ski. It seems our driver loves to drive a lot so he kept driving as long as there’s a road. Good thing there's snow showers so we had to stop at some point because the snow got too thick and driving a car on the road is no longer possible.
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| enjoying the snow like a little kid |
We geared up for our first ski adventure. Ski shoes/boots
are not made for walking though. They are too heavy for a small girl like me! I
wanted to quit even before my feet hit the snow. But I had to endure it. I had
to if I wanted to try skiing. We only had our instructor to teach us the
basics, do some practice and we’re done. It was also difficult to do the activity
since it was snowing the whole day. We just decided to ride the open cable car
which was a challenge as well. It was too cold up there! I was scared my
fingers will fall off my hands without me noticing. Tsk! What I am doing
complaining about the weather when that is the reason why we visited the place.
Anyway, it was still fun up there except I cannot open my eyes because every
time I do, the snowflakes will go straight to my eyeballs.
We purchased our train ticket to Batumi ahead of time and it is scheduled to leave Tbilisi
station at 5pm so we should be leaving Gudauri by 2:30pm. But it was already
4pm and we were still stuck on the road due to bad weather also known as snow.
It's a beautiful disaster as described by my friend. I drifted off while waiting for the cars to move. I didn’t know what happened
after but I woke up to our van trailing a bulldozer. I have no idea where’d the
other cars go.
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| Gudauri, Georgia |
We asked our driver to stop the van for a couple of minutes on
the road so we can take pictures of the beautiful snow covered trees and
mountains. When it was sure that we won’t reach the city in time to
board the train to Batumi, we just decided to have dinner in one of the
restaurants along the road. Our driver introduced us and taught us how to eat different
Georgian cuisine like kachapuri and khinkali. It was a challenge though because he only speaks a little English.
We were not able to go to Ananuri because it was still dark when we passed by the place in the morning and it was already dark when we passed by it on our way back to Tbilisi. We opted to spend the night at the hotel inside the building where the train station is located so it would be easier for us since we bought the 8am train tickets to Batumi. It was a 5-hour trip but I didn’t notice it since I was too busy admiring the trees and the red brown-ish forest outside. It feels surreal. I only see it in the movies. I only imagine it reading John Grisham’s books. Ugh! If only I could ask the operator to stop the train so I can jump off and disappear inside the forest.
We reached Batumi at 1pm, a little late to start our
1-day tour schedule. Inside the train station, two young men approached us
offering their hands for a handshake. I panicked a little so I was about to ignore
them when I saw my two friends shaking their hands and asking their names.
Gahd! Haha! I was so paranoid. Liam Neeson’s Taken immediately came to mind. That was a
funny moment I kept to myself.
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| Boxwood Forest |
The tour started with half an hour drive. Haha! I feel like
we’ve been travelling non-stop since we got here (in Georgia). Our first
destination was Boxwood Forest where you’ll feel like you’re in a Twilight
movie with the all the tall moss covered trees and a waterfall at the end of
the path. Next was King Tamar Bridge or the stone bridge which is not good for you if you are afraid of heights and/or water. Close to it was the
Makhuntseti Waterfall. That one’s bigger and taller than the other one in Boxwood. We then
drove to Gonio Fortress which, unfortunately, is closed because we got there
too late. It was already dark. Off to our next destination, another Sameba Church, where we got lost going
up the steep road and when we reached the location it was again too late. It is
closed. Huh! What a lucky bunch that we are.
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| King Tamar Bridge |
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| Makhuntseti Waterfall |
The group just decided to visit our tour guide’s wine bar located near
Europe Square where Statue of Medea is located . We tried and tasted a couple of drinks and bought two bottles
(one Cha Cha and one white wine) which we decided to consume in our hotel room
(for safety purposes *wink*). We just
left our bags in the hotel and headed to Grill Town Restaurant to celebrate
Christmas Eve. Most Georgians are Catholic Orthodox and they celebrate
Christmas on or around January 7 so that night wasn’t a big event there.
As planned, we had a drinking session in the hotel room and it feels good to finally taste a real alcoholic drink after more than two years of not having any. I was crimson red after my third glass of Cha Cha. My friend says it tastes like lambanog in the Philippines but I haven’t tried it before so I cannot attest to that. The white wine served as our “pambanlaw” and we hit the bed after consuming half of the bottle. I woke to up at around 7am in the same position that I was when I slept last night. Comatose! Haha! That was one uninterrupted sleep. Feels good.
Our second and last day in Batumi was spent touring the different popular locations like the Alphabet Tower where Georgian alphabets are displayed. Of course we didn’t miss the chance to reach the top floor of the structure where there is a restaurant (nope, we didn’t try the food) and you will have a view of the Black Sea and the skyline of Batumi. Just a few meters away from the Alphabet Tower is the Miracle Park, Chacha Clock Tower and the moving tower of Ali and Nino, The Statue of Love.
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| Alphabet Tower |
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| Miracle Park |
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| Ali and Nino, Statue of Love |
It was still early to drive us to the train station so we
roamed around Batumi Boulevard for a while. We also wandered the streets of Old
Batumi, took picures in Piazza Square and Europe Square and whispered our
wishes and threw coins in the Statue of Poseidon. We know it is not a wishing
well but what are we going to lose, anyway? Just a few cents worth of coins. We again stayed a few minutes in Winedom and tried hot red wine. By 5pm we
were already at the railway station, ready to board the train.
Day 5, our last day in Georgia. You know that feeling when vacation’s almost over? You don’t want it to end. So to compensate for it, we planned to start our day early. We wanted to explore more of Tbilisi and experience its beauty in clear daylight. This last day is our free day, meaning no scheduled tour. We’ll just go wherever we decided the moment we wanted to. The plane won’t be leaving until 4pm anyway. We still have an ample of time. Or so we thought.
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| Beautiful morning view from our hotel room. |
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| Holy Trinity Cathedral (in the morning) |
We went back to Sameba, Holy Trinity Cathedral.
Man, if it was super cold when we first visited, it was extremely cold when we
came back. It was 6°C cold plus the strong wind. We better just find something
to eat. We hailed a cab to bring us to that place where we first had dinner but
the driver had a different plan. Haha! Your destiny really depends on the taxi
driver. He kept driving and driving and no one among the three of us dared to
ask where we were going. What is with the people of Georgia and their love for driving?
He kept driving the ascending road and we all thought he’s gonna bring us to the other side of the cable car until he stopped on a parking lot of a monastery looking structure. So we got off the car and started walking the ascending path until we reached a church/cemetery which is called the Mtatsminda Pantheon. We took some pictures and were about to leave when we met a man who is the caretaker of the church. He asked us to wait for him because he’s gonna show us something. Alright.
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| City of Tbilisi (view from Mtatsminda Pantheon) |
When he came back, he told us the story of the church, what was
it before and who was there before. He let us enter a smaller chapel, say our prayers
and drink from the spring water inside the cave. But he also reminded us that
our prayers won’t be heard by the higher power just because we drank the water from the cave but
because of our beliefs. He even let us take home some water from the cave using
our own water bottles. How did we get so lucky? J
Our next destination as decided by our driver who’s certain
he’s gonna give us a tour is the Statue of Kartiis Deda, Mother of Georgia. She stands atop
of a hill in an elevated part of Tbilisi. She holds a bowl of wine which
according to Wikipedia is to greet those who come as friends and a sword for
those who come as enemies. Thanks, Google!
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| National Botanical Garden |
The driver brought us next to the National Botanical Garden
of Georgia. I was looking forward to seeing the Orangery but we had limited
time to roam around so we just walked down to Old Tbilisi to finally have something to
eat. On our way down, we saw the Surlfur Baths which is another tourist
destination in Tbilisi. We took more pictures but I was worried of the time and I was really starving then. I didn’t
have dinner the night before nor breakfast that morning. No coffee as well so I
was so close to throwing a tantrum.
While we were having our pictures taken in front of the “I
Love Tbilisi” sign, a girl approached us to let us know that they are serving
rice and pork in their restaurant so maybe we want to give it a try. We immediately
followed her like she was an angel sent from above. Haha! We haven’t had rice
for 5 days and we feel so… uhm… rice-deprived. We were craving for rice. And
pork. And coffee. When food was served, I wasn't sure if we were just hungry or the food really is
good. But I'm positive the food was good. So yeah, thanks to our angel.
We rushed back to our hotel to get our luggage and drove straight to the airport. It was 2:30pm and instead of checking in the airport, there we were stuck in the Tbilisi traffic. I was trying to distract myself of the time by observing the surroundings, how it is different from Kuwait and the Philippines. And finally, we reached the airport. We rushed inside to check in and get our boarding passes where our flight and seat number is written manually. It didn’t say which boarding gate so we asked the staff who told us it’s Gate 101.
We waited until it was 4:30pm, 30 minutes past our flight schedule and we thought maybe the plane is delayed again so we waited some more. A few minutes later, we were being paged and asked to go to Gate 108. We kept asking the airport staff where Gate 108 is but nobody can understand us. No one can point us to the right direction. We were then again paged and that's when we figured out it wasn't Gate 108 (one hundred eight), it was Gate 100A (one hundred A). Good Lord! That was unnerving! We all thought we will be called off the flight. I was already planning our New Year’s Eve celebration in Batumi. Haha! That could’ve been fun. Who knows?Maybe next time I can spend New Year's Eve in Georgia. It's a beautiful country with nice and beautiful people. I want to come back. -C
Shameless plugging:
You may also want to check the links below for a 3-part video compilation of this trip. Enjoy!
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