Previously on Teawashere…I may have written a bit about my trip to Georgia here , here and here. Last time I mentioned that the train from Tbilisi to Batumi was cancelled and that we decided to go back to Kutaisi to do the things we initially had on our to-do list, but which were cut short because of the cancelled flight – namely, visiting two caves and two canyons. Let’s get started with the caves – Prometheus and Sataplia to be specific.
If you book an organised tour you can do all four in one day really and have a pitch stop for lunch as well. It was actually recommended by people we ran into from our walking tour in Tbilisi, basically everyone on the internet and also most importantly, by the lady at the tourism office. She didn’t question us though, just pointed us to the direction where we managed to cram ourselves with the 13 other people in the Marshrutka minvan that was meant for 9 and could barely cross our fingers and toes that the bus was heading to the right direction. We were left in a parking lot and from there thankfully another mini bus took us on to our first cave of the day.
The Prometheus Cave isn’t visitable solo sadly, so you have to join one of their guided tours, which means a choice of an overpacked English or German/Russian tour. Don’t worry if you join the German/Russian and are afraid to miss out on any info as it’s not really a tour, they’re there to make sure you make it out alive and just mention which room of the cave you are in and don’t even bother to tell people to not take photos using flash. I guess they’ll realise once it starts affecting the caves, and they can’t make much as money from it. The caves are gorgeous, but nothing I haven’t seen before in France and Slovenia. Also, I sadly no traces of Michael Fassbender being there (bad film, but hot actor nonetheless).
As we went to leave it turned out … the bus back was not coming for 1.5 hours and all the taxis on the lot were waiting for the smart people who had booked in advance….All of a sudden no one at the front desk understood taxi and us making a phone gesture. I don’t know how desperate we looked, but one driver and a woman came to us and the woman who spoke a bit of English explained the driver had to drive them to a nearby hotel, but he could drive us to the next caves back afterwards. Our angels.
The Sataplia Cave is very small compared to the Prometheus Cave, but the forest area it’s in makes it a must visit. You can walk around and check out the dinosaur statues (though a lot of them were broken) and people sat on them for photo purpose, despite there being signs not to so. The winner of the day was the viewing platform with a building that looks like it could be the headquarters of a Bond villian.
You would think a donkey would hit itself on the same stone twice … well this one does. We soon learned the bus didn’t go at all (?) or not for the rest of the day, despite us checking it earlier we will never know what happened. The people at the front desk were the friendliest though and called a taxi for us who brought us back to Just Inn, where we tried to communicate the drama to the super friendly owners, who didn’t understand a word but could feel our pain and shared their cherries with us.
Lessons learned: sure it’s adventurous to go out on your own and do as the locals, but if you are in a place for a limited time and for relaxing purposes then book a tour so you don’t gain a grey hair or two.
Next time – if you think my cave trips were full of drama, then wait til you see what happened when I visited the canyons…
Look at this view! How would you ever want to leave?
Gori seemed to be a place where everyone stopped. It’s home to the Stalin Museum which (depending on your ethical views) you can visit. It turned out it was more a place housing a random collection of stuff Stalin owned without providing real background info, with everything written in Georgian or Cyrillic. You can always book a tour, but in the end it wasn’t worth the money.
If you’re feeling peckish on your travels, I’d recommend stocking up on churchkhela. You’ll see these everywhere, and no, they are not sausages like I initially thought. They are a snack with walnuts and grape juice, also known as Georgian Snickers, and they are actually the most delicious natural sweet I’ve shoved in my mouth.
As we travelled around chowing on our churckhela, we kept spotting the Jvari monastery on the hill calling us to come visit, but more on that later.
Before we trekked up the hill to meet Jvari, we sat down for a quick lunch and our first experience of Georgian lemonade – my advice is skip the vanilla-flavoured version and stick to the original lemon variety, or if you’re feeling daring go for the tarragon infusion!
One of my favourite Bosnian dishes is brown bean soup and I am very picky about it, so you can imagine I was sceptical about trying the Georgian version! Don’t tell my mum … but I LOVED it. The Georgian spices work well and their cornbread was delightfully crunchy. If you see lobio soup on the menu you must try it!
And then it was time for Jvari. And honestly? Jvari is a shameless tease that gets you all excited while driving around it. But once you get on top, it’s not as big or impressive as you might have guessed – Uplistsikhe is a way better experience.
That evening we exhaustedly arrived at our guest house. But drama struck again – our room was given to someone else and we given a sub-par alternative where the only window faced an interior hallway, couldn’t open AND had no curtains so as you can imagine I heard and saw every guest doing all sorts into the night. I don’t have visual proof, so here is a photo of a very extra hotel I spotted the next morning – maybe something for my next visit.
New city means new Free Walking Tour! Sadly the rain had closed the famous vintage bridge market, but all was not lost. The tour was great and I learned a lot about Tbilisi – all of its hidden gems and lots of insider details that are not on Wiki – such as the fact a lot of statues get stolen by local guys trying to impress the ladies. Or that everyone has at least two family members named after St George and St Nino. Teachers must have it very easy.
As part of the tour you ride the cable cart to the top of the hill, explore the fort, see the botanical garden and enjoy the amazing views. And if you are in need of inspiration for your next Instagram pose, this is the place to spot posers.
Like any basic white girl, trying out new cuisines and dishes always tops my to-do list. This scrumptious platter with small dishes included: eggplant with walnuts, chopped vegetables combined with walnuts, herbs, onions, garlic and mashed beans with spices.
All that walking meant it was soon time for a well-deserved soak, which led us to a private bath at Gulo. And it was EVERYTHING!! Soaking in the hot and cold water was the best £15 I spent in Georgia, maybe even the best £15 I spent this year.
Stuffed full of Georgian cuisine we headed back to the guest house to prepare for our day-trip.
The tour ends on the hill where we got to peek inside Bagrati Cathedral, enjoy views of the city and fill up water bottles. Top money-saving tip – most monasteries have a water fountain where you can top up your bottle for free.
After that, it was time to say goodbye to Kutaisi and take a mini bus on to Tbilisi. But not before raiding a mini-market and stocking up on the essentials. Like this Snickers with sunflower seeds instead of peanuts, that means its super healthy right?