An Eejit Abroad in Georgia!

Hello!

Christ almighty so much to say so little time. In case your wondering since my last post I have been dubbed "Ireland's answer to Karl Pilkington" so that will be the theme of the blog from now on even though being compared to a dumb Mancunian  isn't something I would usually shout about...

Alrite...

So Georgia. We arrived I dunno how many days ago after a few bushcamps in some mountains in Turkey. Those of you who know me will be aware that camping in Bush is something I usually enjoy so I was quite excited.. It is a lot of fun. Some days I feel like a "Traveler" as we stop on a flat piece of ground and just set up, we don't shower and we go trying to sell gates to people. Ok the last ones not true but you know....The good thing about it is great scenery. The first night though there was a huge thunderstorm which was really cool because it seemed to happen either side of us so we could see it happening but it wasn't really raining on us..

Oh and for those of you wondering about the field shitting.. In a word: Liberating.

So when we got to Georgia we headed to a place called Batumi the second city. Strikingly different to Turkey the streets were all rubble because of the harsh winters and every second shop was a place where you could exchange money. Vodka was bloody cheap though. We had a bit of a strange meal in a restaurant shaped like a boat where we got hunks of meat and salad. We didn't care though because the hotel had a shower. We're easy to please after three nights bushcamping.. You know how it is after a long stint in Bush.

The next day was a bumpy 14 hour journey to a village called Mestia in the North West of the country. You might think this was a drag but not so my friends. At lunch we stopped on the side of the road and were setting up when these drunk guys came over with shit loads of wine and chocolates (only for the girls) and a party was in full swing before CJ reminded us we had 8 hours driving left so we continued the party on the truck all the way to Mestia (without the drunk guys!) and drank every drop of alcohol on the truck including Wine, Beer, Vodka and Gin. Accompanied with an ipod and speakers and drunken singing we managed to piss off everyone at the front of the truck. But good times and a good Birthday for Susie Q.

We stayed at a homestay where we had a Georgian Mrs. Doyle looking after us. If you stood still long enough you got a cup of tea that was the rule!

The following day we had a tour of the village and a hike up one of the mountains to the top (that only 2 of us managed cos everyone else was wrecked from the day before) which was amazing scenery. The village was incredible. Its the first time my eyes have been properly opened on the trip. I consider where I live to be remote. I live 10 miles from a town about 15 mins drive away and an hour from a city. These people live 8 hours drive from ANY form of civilisation along a bumpy mountain road and in the winter they are completely snowed in. They only built a little airport there about 5 years ago and there was NO road in at all until the 1950s! They didn't even have a McDonalds!

The top photo above is a local church. The next one is Steve inside one of the old traditional houses they used to live in. The next one is Katya the 17 year old guide who took us around with her dog. They have huge dogs in Georgia and train them to look after the sheep and fight off wolves! The others are the view from the hike and the snow on the mountain.

From Mestia we went onto a few Bushcamps. We stayed in a place called Nakalakevi next to the ruins of Sheki Palace which unfortunately was closed. Here CJ our guide showed off his Russian by chatting to the cops who came over to see what we were at. They liked him so much we had two Policemen sitting watching us all night for our own protection as well as them showing us the way for a few miles the next day. They either didn't trust us or they were extremely bored not sure which!

The next day we headed to another Bushcamp beside a river and beside these really cool caves that me and Denis had a look around. More feckin dogs hanging around the bleedin Bushcamp this time barking and keeping us awake.

From here we went to a town called Gori (Co Wexford wha?) which was Stalin's hometown. We had a look around the Stalin museum where the guide was very pro Stalin and didn't mind telling us that he was a great man who had bad staff working for him! It was incredible to hear here talk about him like she fancied him. But then I am a great believer that History is written by the victors so who knows maybe she was right? We had a look at his house where he was born and his personal railway carriage. Pretty Cool.

Next up was two more nights of Bushcamping in a place called Kasbergy. This was a really scenic drive through the Caucaus montains and I was sitting up in the cab so got a great view. We were at our highest yet 2400 metres going through some of the tunnels was surreal.

We had two nights Bushcamping where the scenery was just amazing. Once again we had a load of friendly dogs just hanging out with us. It was strange because we have a special tent for going to the toilet and the dogs seemed to hang out around the tent and they'd sit there while you tried to go and wouldn't move. Then they make eye contact with you when you're going for a poo so frickin weird! Why make eye contact? Why??

We had a hike up to a monastery overlooking the campsite in great weather and chilled out around the camp for the evening.

Yesterday we arrived in Tblisi the capital city. The shower. What can I say? Words just can't describe my appreciation! As Mel said "Heroin addict no more!"

We were all cultured out so we went for dinner to an Irish bar to watch the Heineken Cup Final. All I'll say is we made the most of it!

Today our Georgian guide Zaza took us around Tblisi and it is a really nice city, very modern and different to the rest of Georgia. There seems to be a lot of money being spent on it and the good weather helped us out!

Right well that took ages you better appreciate these you ungrateful sons of bitches!

Off out to dinner now heading to the Georgian wine region tomrrow and the saga of the Azerbaijan visas is sure to continue.

As KP would say: Alrite...