The sun was out so I was eager to get on the bike. I had 20 km left to the border. The crossing took some time because of the stamp mess in my passport. All the stamps of cyprus and three entries and two exits in turkey (one pair from 2 years ago) were one, the same two pages. They took me in the office and I feared that they would notice that the last two entries were separated by less six months. If they did, they were not bothered by it, they checked them regulations for my country again and sent be back to them booth to get my stamp. On the way to the Georgian controls I noticed my flat tire, so I needed to fix it in front of the duty free shop. On the Georgian side I was indicated to cut them long queue was looked at carefully during them passport control, finally got my stamp and was welcomed to Georgia.
Even though I like to think of borders between countries as mostly arbitrary lines drawn on a map (sometimes they do however coincide with natural frontiers like mountains or rivers), here one side was quite different from them other. The roads were smaller, the drivers are a bit crazier, the vegetation slighy changed, them houses looked different and the people, especially the women, dressed differently.
In Batumi I, found the house of my old Korean friends (Sungjong and Jihyun) hosts without problems. Ufugu and Prak are two Turks whose work allows them to leadan urban nomad life. They are great guys to be around. It was heaven sitting on the balcony in the sun on this warm day, sipping on a whiskey from the duty free shop, good it felt like heaven.
After a walk through the city and some shopping we started to cook all together. For dinner some of Ufugus and Parks Georgian friends joined. They introduced me to their drinking culture, where the 'ceremonial chief' says a toast before each time everyone holds the bottoms up of their glasses. And don't dare drinking before!
The food was delicious and after a couple of whiskey bottles were 'shot' away this beautiful day slowly came to and ending.
Even though I like to think of borders between countries as mostly arbitrary lines drawn on a map (sometimes they do however coincide with natural frontiers like mountains or rivers), here one side was quite different from them other. The roads were smaller, the drivers are a bit crazier, the vegetation slighy changed, them houses looked different and the people, especially the women, dressed differently.
In Batumi I, found the house of my old Korean friends (Sungjong and Jihyun) hosts without problems. Ufugu and Prak are two Turks whose work allows them to leadan urban nomad life. They are great guys to be around. It was heaven sitting on the balcony in the sun on this warm day, sipping on a whiskey from the duty free shop, good it felt like heaven.
After a walk through the city and some shopping we started to cook all together. For dinner some of Ufugus and Parks Georgian friends joined. They introduced me to their drinking culture, where the 'ceremonial chief' says a toast before each time everyone holds the bottoms up of their glasses. And don't dare drinking before!
The food was delicious and after a couple of whiskey bottles were 'shot' away this beautiful day slowly came to and ending.
