Back to Georgia - Tbilisi

The border crossing back into Georgia was straight forward and it wasn't long until we found ourselves in the outskirts of the capital city of Tbilisi. We'd booked a central hotel with parking so we could stay with Colin's niece Maddie, but hadn't thought about the logistics of getting Lolly down the narrow old town streets. After a few hairy turns where we thought we were too tall or too wide to fit down a congested street, we found ourselves outside our hotel - The Marita. The owners had kindly reserved a space right outside, and there was someone sat outside watching the street and controlling the traffic. It felt a bit strange moving into a hotel room, but the location was fantastic - right in the heart of the old town.

Our first job was to drop our car papers and Colin's driving licence off at a translator who needed to translate them into Russian and notarise them ready to submit with our Russian visa application. We tried a couple before we found one that could do it, but the young lady didn't fill us with a lot of confidence, being a bit vague on the cost and when she'd have it ready by. We felt a bit more assured when she WhatsApp'd us later with the details, saying the papers would be ready to collect in two days time. Maddie wasn't due to arrive until around 9pm, so we had a little wander around the local area. Our first impressions were we loved the quirkiness of it all and the old buildings.

Back in the hotel I had a look at the Russian Transit Visa application form and my heart sunk at the level of detail they required - the worst one being 'list all the countries you have visited (including dates) over the last ten years'. I set up a spreadsheet and started working backwards using the photos on my phone as a reminder. However pre-2018 I had obviously been using an old fashioned digital camera, so that involved trawling through our photo cloud. Add to that Colin had random business trips abroad, it was getting very messy. I suppose we should just have taken the view of 'how can they prove what we record is right or wrong', but we were caught out on our Russian visa application back in 2014 when they spotted an error on our form so I wanted to get it as accurate as possible.

We went out for dinner at a popular restaurant around the corner from the hotel. We enjoyed some good Georgian cuisine and red wine. There was a band playing too.

Feeling a bit more chilled now, we had another drink in an English type sports bar near our hotel. There was a lot of people (tourists and locals) arriving to watch the Liverpool Champions League match.

When Maddie arrived she was keen to get a drink and a bite to eat, so we headed off to a couple more bars, Being out of practice on this level of drinking we soon realised we were a bit out of our depth.

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We'd booked a walking tour the following morning, but not too early which was just as well. Maddie had only flown back from Houston two days before so her body clock must have been shot.

We met the guide and group in Freedom Square and enjoyed a three hour tour around the old town, picking up the main highlights of the old city walls, looking at the beautiful architecture of the old buildings, many of which have been or are being renovated, the old clock tower, the Peace Bridge, the Sulfur Baths, and the Waterfall to name a few. The guide gave us a good insight into the history of the city. Tbilisi was a terrible place to be in the 1990's after the fall of the USSR, and became a dangerous and lawless city run by the mafia. A change in government gradually moved the mafia on (to other European countries!), and it is now one of the must visit cities for it's architecture, culture, cuisine and nightlife.

The name Tbilisi translates as 'warm' which reflects the city's many hot sulfur springs. Maddie managed to book us a slot at one of the bath houses, Gulo's, where we had a private bath (hot and cold) and a sauna for an hour. After being on our feet for the walking tour, it was a lovely way to relax and unwind in the warm waters.

Maddie had also booked us on a wine tasting tour to the Kakheti region for the following day, so we opted for a quiet night with dinner in a restaurant in the square where our hotel was and had an early night. The meal didn't quite go to plan for me. I ordered a chicken dish, but the waiter came back and said it wasn't available, so I asked for another choice, which also wasn't available, so when I said 'what sauce can you do with chicken', he suggested a 'green' sauce. When our food arrived, Maddie and Colin got what they'd ordered, but there was no sign of my chicken dish. When I asked where it was he looked puzzled and pointed to a small dish of green relish that we'd thought was for Colin's dish. He looked even more baffled when I asked where the chicken was - he said I had ordered just the sauce!

Where's the chicken?

We had to meet at a hostel for the tour the next day, and eventually found ourselves on a minibus being whisked out of the city towards the Kakheti wine region. The guide was very good giving his perspective on life in Georgia. The first stop was at a traditional bakery where we were given some bread and local cheeses to taste washed down with a small glass of wine - our breakfast.

We continued on to the Monastery of St. Nino in Bodbe which was in a beautiful setting and the church had some well preserved murals (no photos allowed though).

Not far from here is the lovely historic town of Sighnaghi, where we had a walk through the centre, then onto the walls which had stunning views over the valley.

We were then taken for lunch where we were given a nice selection of Georgian dishes - I even got to try the one the restaurant the night before had failed on. We were given wine with the meal, but the guide made us all drink out of a horn shaped cup and individually make a toast to the group. There was a lot of 'cheersing' or Gamarjoba in Georgian. On the way out we also tried three different flavours of Chacha - a hideously strong Georgian spirit.

Note this was all before the wine tasting part of the trip......

The next stop was to a small local family winery where our guide ran through the production technique and we were given three varieties to taste.

We were then taken on to a large scale wine producers plant (KTW) which wasn't anything special - they didn't even grow and produce their wines here. An uninterested employee took us around the metal Vats and we had five tastings poured straight from them - I think 3 wines, a brandy and some luminous green chacha.

We were deposited back in Tbilisi early evening, and after a day of wine tasting thought we needed a sundowner. After downing a nice bottle of white wine, we then went in search of somewhere to get dinner, which ended up with another bottle of wine. Lets just say none of us really remember how we got back to the hotel that night, although Colin had to find his way back to the restaurant to retrieve our bags that we'd left there.

Colin and I woke up very bleary eyed the next day. Poor Maddie had booked herself on another day tour - this time going up the Military Highway towards the Russian border which has spectacular scenery. I nearly went with her, but realised Colin and I would be driving this route the following week and I needed to get our Russian visa application forms complete.

Colin and I had a leisurely breakfast, then tried (and failed) to focus on some shopping we needed to do before continuing on with the dreaded application form. I had a list of over 100 entries for the countries visited section. I went to fill it in and found the form only accepts ten entries - what the *#?% ?? We finally pressed the submit button on our application forms and booked an appointment at the Visa Processing Centre for the following Monday morning.

We picked up the translation papers later in the day and heard from Maddie who was having a very long day and wouldn't be back until around 9pm. It had been a very bumpy twisty journey and she admitted to having been "travel" sick. We found a lovely little restaurant in the back streets and met her there for a late dinner.

The following day, Maddie was jetting off again heading to Bali for some sunshine and scuba diving. We had a final breakfast together, waved her off and did some more exploring of the city. First we took the cable car up to the Mother of Georgia monument where there were nice views over the city.

Back down in the city we walked to the Dry Bridge Market, which is a colourful flea market selling antiques, Soviet bric-a-brac and arts and crafts. With a need to detox after a heavy few days, we ended up at a steak restaurant for steak and chips followed by an early night.

We booked another night in the hotel for convenience to get to the Russian Visa Centre on the Monday morning. We had a day doing admin jobs and I managed to get a hair cut. We met up with German Colin and Theresa for a drink early evening, who expressed an interest in doing the Russian transfer with us, so we agreed to stay in touch and see how our application went. Colin and I went back to Georgian cuisine for our last night in Tbilisi.

We got ourselves to the Russian Visa Centre early on the Monday morning. The centre should open at 10 am, and we had been asked to come in at 11 am for our 'premium lounge appointment.' There were a few other people hovering around when we arrived, but no sign of the staff until around 10.30. There was no premium lounge and we kept being told we'd be called when it was out turn, but it seemed to us that everyone who came in was being seen straight away. I suspect they didn't realise we had booked the premium service which we think entitled us to having our application checked and being given tea or coffee - nowhere to be seen. We finally sat down with one of the ladies and she pulled together all our documents to submit. We mentioned the fact we'd not been able to fill in all the countries, and she said she know the forms limitations and they wouldn't be bothered. The express service meant we should get our passports back with the visa within three working days, then we would need a day to drive to the border, so we asked for the three day visa to start on Saturday 25th April. We knew the road to the border had been closed due to heavy snowfall the previous week, so we asked what would happen if we were not able to reach the border for the first day of our visa. She said we'd have to come back to Tbilisi and reapply - we'd had to pay nearly £500 for this application with the premium and fast track service, so it really wasn't something we wanted to have to do due to the time delay as much as the cost.

We stocked up with provisions and headed out of the city to a reservoir south of the city. It felt great to be back in Lolly. The journey took us through the much more gritty and less glamorous suburbs. The last few kms took us down a unpaved rough road, and when we pulled up at the reservoir we weren't wowed by what we saw - there was lots of litter and it was very close to a village that looked half derelict. However, we realised we weren't at the spot other motorhomes had left good reviews about, so drove on a little further to a much nicer area. There were a few fishermen around, but it was a lovely tranquil spot and we enjoyed a nice sunset with the sound of frogs chirping in the background.

We woke to rain the following morning which carried on most of the day. It didn't put off the fishermen. We got on with route research for central Asia. The forecast for the next day promised warm sunshine, so we decided to stay on to enjoy this, hoping we'd get the nod that our passports would be ready for collection on Thursday (the next day). It got even busier with fishermen and their families in the lovely weather, but we had a nice chilled day. Colin had spotted some bulbs weren't working on Lolly which was a worry as we didn't want to give the Russian police an excuse to fine us, so a visit to a auto-electrician in Tbilisi was arranged for the following afternoon.

Late afternoon we both received confirmation that we could pick up our passports the following morning. It didn't actually say that they had issued the transit visa, but we had a Whats App from the lady who had seen us at the Visa Centre saying all was good.

So the following morning we trundled back into Tbilisi.