Getting to Tbilisi was a debacle.
Pay for bus from Trabzon to Tbilisi (US$30 should take 20 hours - about 600k) - bus driver seemed dodgy - should have payed attention to instinct and not hopped on bus. Get close-ish to Georgian border, bus pulled over by police - seems that the driver doesn't have the right paperwork - 1 hour later and with my ticket confiscated by police we start again. Not happy. About 15k from border bus breaks down - by this point there are only 3 passengers left. Driver makes some attempt at looking like he knows how to fix the engine but it won't start (probably dodgy Georgian petrol). Driver leaves bus, hails down a car and just scarpers off, no explanation no nothing. Getting less happy. It's getting dark and it's a dodgy looking area so I decide to hitch to the border. All fine.
Border is chaos. Old Georgian ladies elbowing me and stomping on my feet to try to break into the scrum that should have been a queue. My passport is a novelty to the immigration officials (who all had lovely new department of homeland security computers and scanners - replete with large stickers so you couldn't not know that the USA paid for them) they all take a look at my strange looking passport and the visa from the countries I've been to and question why I would want to visit Georgia - clearly think I am mad - I am starting to think that as well.
About 2 hours later I find myself on the Georgian side of the border and it's very dark, I have no Georgian money - ATM broken - and there is no bus to Tbilisi. Find taxi driver who extrorts US$ out of me for a trip to Batumi, the nearest town.
Decide that I really need a drink but hotel I end up in is a bit dodgy and while close to the centre of town (200m) there are no street lights and the area is basically shop after shop of poker machines so I stay put and try to get some sleep.
But it's so cold. Heater not working, power and lights shaky at best. Put on all clothes that I have and lay there shivering til about midnight.
The people in the next room roll in - seems to be about 5 men and 1 woman - they sound quite drunk and they are truly the noisiest people ever. Lots of arguing and then a bunch of them leave their room - I think ah peace. No. TV goes on, on high volume and then they start with incredibly loud and lengthy sex - eventually ends - I think ah peace. No. The next guy comes into the room and the whole thing starts again - at this point I realise that these guys have hired a hooker and they are taking 'turns' and I am never going to get any sleep. Not brave enough to bang on their door or leave room to complain to management.
Next day am tired and grumpy. 1 bus only at midday so spend the morning waiting on said bus trying to snooze. Bus takes about 7 hours to get to Tbilisi as the roads are in really bad condition.
The whole way there is dotted with fallen down grand old houses, masses of abandoned factories - the place just looks broken. It looks like people just upped and left. Not everybody could leave and there are tens of soviet style housing highrises that look like they are in the process of being demolished but no - this is where all the people seem to be. A lot of refugees from the disputed border areas and breakaway regions. Even the churches are falling down. Depressing.
Georgian language is incomprehensible - the script may as well be chinese. in the way of signs there is very little in Cyrillic and nothing in latin script so getting from A to B was always going to be a challenge. I made friends with everybody on the bus (well they enjoyed laughing at me) with my attempts to write down the address of my hotel in georgian - this provides for a good hour of amusement for all.
Getting to my hotel showed the true georgian spirit of welcoming guests. Firstly when I try to get out of bus at the station there are a bunch of taxi drivers grabbing at me - the bus driver decides he didn't like that so he puts me back on the bus and once everybody else was off the bus he and the conductor try to take me to my hotel.
The streets are a bit narrow for a passenger bus but this doesn't deter my protectors who stop off to get me a special treat - special sparking mineral water and some bread - all good. They find hotel Beau Monde but it's the wrong one - why are there 2 hotels with the same name?.
This day just gets better - at this point I really don't care what hotel I stay in. But "No problem, no problem, we find your hotel" - so a conference of about 15 guys is held in the middle of a busy street - with the bus blocking the street, phone calls are made, taxi is a negotiated and I am packed off to the right hotel. But the day ended well with the place I am staying in being quite fancy, food great, rooms spotless and they give you red wine. It's all good.
Tbilisi is fantastic. Like the rest of georgia it looks like whole parts have been abandoned for 20 years but at least here there are signs of a recovery - museums are amusingly soviet bad, churches wonderful - and so friendly, I have been fed communion bread about 20 times today.
The russky's did a pretty good job of trying to destroy the religion (georgia was the second christian country and the georgian orthodox church while having some similarities to the russian and greek churches is very proudly georgian) but its been rebuilt and the Georgians hid their icons and artwork from the commies so they have been able to put many things back together again.
