Fresh fish and interesting conversations

After the nice mafiosos, the aggressive dog, and the funny Russian, we just managed to make it back to civilization – that is, onto a paved road – before the last light of day faded.

Then we broke the next golden rule for any trip to Georgia – we had to drive about an hour to our next accommodation in the dark. Given the sudden potholes, construction sites, etc., that was an extremely bad idea.

Finally arriving in the village of Olaverdi, we had no idea where on earth our accommodation actually was. Google Maps was completely unresponsive. And we would have preferred to get out of the Gregor as well; those were some terrible roads! After maneuvering into two wrong courtyards, a very nice gentleman, about 90 years old, kindly offered to show us the way by simply riding in the passenger seat with us. It definitely helped a lot 😁.

And we were very glad to finally arrive at the guesthouse, especially after that day.

But it seemed that the day was far from over!

Hovik and his wife Nana welcomed us warmly but didn’t give us any time to catch our breath. He now starts catching a fresh fish from his own fish farm, explaining to us with Google Translate. He can’t speak English, but he had a teacher from Germany in school from whom he learned a few broken phrases. Most notably: Hands up, I shoot 😊

Together, we killed the fish, removed the innards, marinated it, and tossed it into an air fryer.

30 minutes later, we had excellent fish, along with potatoes, salad, juice, and even wine. Everything homegrown.

After that, we enjoyed a very cozy evening with the help of Google Translate and the few bits of German he could speak until the wine was gone 😁