Georgian Sheeps

We have arrived at the Black Sea again! :) About 30 kilometers from the resort of Batumi, we found a great place under trees right on the beach.

We have had eventful and exciting days in terms of landscape, weather, and travel plans. We came to Tbilisi in a special way: for a change, we didn't drive ourselves, but had Knut drive us.

When we left our sleeping place by the river near Chaschuri, our goal for the day was Tbilisi. Shortly after we set off, we stopped at a raspberry stand by the road to get some supplies for the journey. But then we couldn't continue! Knut just wouldn't start again because the gears wouldn't engage, so we couldn't move forward despite the engine running! We quickly made it clear to the couple at the raspberry stand that we had a problem and couldn't get away. With our "Without Dictionary", with many helpful pictures, we were able to explain that we probably needed a tow truck. All right, a short phone call and the tow truck arrived 5 minutes later. Since we wanted to go to Tbilisi anyway and we expected a longer repair, we agreed to drive directly to Tbilisi (about 2 hours). The drive in the old Mercedes, which rumbled uphill quite nicely, was quite comfortable. We were even provided with coffee and fresh raisin bread along the way.

When we arrived in Tbilisi, we were dropped off at a chic VW car dealership with a workshop. At that moment, we were finally convinced that today would cost us a lot of money... but first Knut had to be moved from the tow truck to the garage, which was behind a winding driveway. Unfortunately, in the middle of the maneuver, the tow truck's engine failed!!

When it still didn't start after some wrenching with a lot of sparks, the police pickup truck came to the rescue. With the tow truck on the rope, the pickup truck drove backwards into the workshop, giving the tow truck space to roll forward. Fortunately, the engine started again on those few meters! Now the tow truck could finally position itself so that Knut could be lowered. A short time later, it was Knut's turn and this is how it went:

The master mechanic got in the car, tried a few things, got out, opened the hood, reached specifically under the engine, and pulled out a rubber ball: "Problem," he said! We were so flabbergasted that we could only stare with big eyes. He disappeared for 10 minutes and came back with a new ball - reached into the engine compartment again and that was the end of it! 30 minutes after arriving at the workshop and with just 7 euros less in our wallets, we were back on the road (the towing cost us 100 euros). You can probably imagine how relieved we were... because we suspected a gearbox problem and we would probably not have gotten away with less than 500 euros even in Georgia!

In Tbilisi, we had a great hostel where we felt like in a big shared flat. We explored the city slowly because it was extremely hot! We also went to the Embassy of Azerbaijan to apply for our visa there. The processing time was supposed to take a week, which we were okay with because we wanted to go to Kazbegi in the mountains first anyway. We had Katrin and Immo from Münster with us on the fun trip, whom we met at the hostel. We dropped off the two of them at a potato farmer's, where they wanted to wwoof. Unfortunately, the weather in the mountains was so bad that we couldn't hike or even see the highest mountain in Georgia at all. But what we did see was a bearded vulture that landed right next to our bus. The bearded vulture is the largest of all birds of prey and has a wingspan of up to 3 meters! When it flew away again, we briefly wondered if we had just seen a flying dinosaur! After two days, we escaped the weather and drove back to the lowlands to visit the wine regions of Georgia.

On Friday, we wanted to pick up our visa for Azerbaijan as agreed, but it wasn't ready yet! Since we would have had to wait until at least Tuesday for it, we decided against it and had our passports returned to us without visas. It's a shame, we would have liked to see and experience more of the Caucasus, but now we already have a new destination for another trip: Azerbaijan :)

On the way from Tbilisi to Batumi, we drove through the mostly Armenian-populated part of southwestern Georgia. Beautiful landscape with many small villages and incredibly kind people. When we drove through the village of Gandzani, we were greeted so joyfully and beckoned to that we stopped and were promptly embraced. A short time later, we found ourselves in the cozy kitchen of the house in the middle of the village with the entire family. There was incredibly delicious food with homemade yogurt and cheese, fresh lemonade, and several glasses of vodka for the men.

The next day, we had another visit to the workshop, but this time it was less dramatic. Our front brakes had been making suspicious noises for a few days. In Achalkalaki, we came across an older gentleman in search of a workshop who only does electrical work himself, but who had lived in Magdeburg for two years and was therefore absolutely thrilled when he found out that we came from Germany. Coincidence or not, but his son has an auto workshop, which we were taken directly to. While the new brakes were being obtained and installed, we were spoiled by the family in the finest way. Since we don't speak Russian and hardly anyone here speaks English, the smartphone with the Google Translate function proved to be a somewhat peculiar but well-functioning means of communication. In the late afternoon, we were able to continue with new brakes (30 euros including installation and full board) and another great encounter. In the evening, Lucas had eventually recovered from the numerous vodka rounds...

Tomorrow we will already be crossing the border back into Turkey, where this time we will drive along the coast. Of course, we are looking forward to the tea and ayran, but we will really miss the Georgian food, the wonderfully juicy fruits, the warm mentality of the people, and of course the diesel price of 50 cents! But we didn't choose the Balkans as our destination for nothing, we are really looking forward to it!