7/6/22
After arriving back in Mestia, we checked when the next marshutka was and discover it was in twenty minutes or so. We got a taxi to take us back to our guest house so we could grab our stuff and agreed with the marshutka that they would pick us up on route from our guest house. We swapped numbers in case anything went wrong, which to me seemed a little excessive, since there was one road out of Mestia which the marshutka would have to take. We got to the main road on time, loaded up with our big rucksacks and proceeded to wait around forty minutes with no marshutka in sight. After awhile, we decided we needed to go back into Mestia to see what had happened and to get our money back, since we had agreed to pay ‘half now, half later’. Paulo wanted to walk, but it was 3km, my bag was heavy and my legs tired. I wanted to hitchhike.
We tried a car which drove on past and then a pick up which stopped and waved us into the back! We hauled our bags over the side and then climbed on up. We stood up in the back, holding on to the top of the roof of the driver’s cabin. When we arrived, we thanked the guys and went back to the bus stop. The driver was there chilling and when we went over to him, he looked sheepish. He said there were not enough passengers to go and noone had thought to tell us. It seemed that the phone numbers they had given us had been incorrect so when I was ringing to see where the bus was, noone would say anything. He gave us our money back and we went to a different marshutka place. We ended up leaving finally at 4pm, instead of 2pm, but this was okay as we still make it to a real city before dark! We had to wait on a country lane in the valley while a digger cleared a recent landslide off the road! We stopped halfway and got the UNESCO meat bread, kubdari, before continuing on to reach Zugdidi.
Our guest house in Zugdidi was just around the corner from the bus station and it was glorious when we arrived, comfy, clean, white beds, with a nice, shiny bathroom. What heaven! We showered, chilled and drank free coffee – ideal!
8/6/22
Today was basically a move day, but since we had done a lot of our journey the day before, first we were going for brunch. Paulo found a pancake house, which seemed to be the best breakfast place in the area so we went there and had great savoury pancakes filled with ham, cheese, lettuce and others bits. I got an iced coffee with ice cream in it because YOLO (yep, I’m bringing it back!) and then we went to grab our bags before heading to the bus station. The bus was leaving within the hour so we waited roadside. We tried to get a coffee but there was nowhere close by. Instead I sat on a step and random street dogs came to collect love off me. There were three dogs sitting around me at one point!!
When we got to Batumi, we went straight to our Airbnb to dump our stuff before heading out. Our place had a balcony overlooking a fancy park so we decided to roam that way and see what was about. After all the hiking and bussing about the last few days, I was ready for a nice drink! We walked through the park and along the beachfront until we found a rooftop bar with fairy lights. SOLD! Up we went! I ordered a margarita (of course) and Paulo an aperol spritz (bloody Italians🤣) and then we got some foodie bits. We sat and chatted and joked about since my margarita was fairly big and apparently also fairly strong and made me silly. Afterwards, we walked back via Carrefour and bought wine for the balcony and breakfast.
wanderingwelshie travels 