I decided that there was no better way to celebrate finishing finals than another trip. During the planning for our Spring Break trip in Eastern Turkey, I had flirted with the idea of going to Georgia. We all really wanted to see it, but decided that we didn't really have enough time to make the trip worthwhile. However, with the end of finals and the extension of my plane ticket, I had plenty of time on my hands to see more places in the region.
I was happy to discover that another exchange student, Alex, was staying at Bogazici for summer classes and had some time off before the summer semester began. Alex was also interested in going to Georgia. We also thought we might try to travel to Armenia (time permitting).
Two days after finals (June 11th), we decided sort of spontaneously to head for Georgia. We boarded an afternoon bus that would take us to Trabzon and from there we would change to a bus bound for Tblisi. Originally, we looked for a bus that went directly to Tblisi, but it had already left. The total cost of the trip was only about 140 Lira one way (about 100 dollars). We weren't really sure how long the trip would take or anything and kinda decided to play things by ear or as Alex would like to say, "improvise." Actually that sort of became the theme of this trip (and I think his favorite word for the duration of it).
The trip to Trabzon was a solid 17 hours (we would arrive at around 7am the next morning). While waiting for the bus, I befriended a Turkish guy who was in the military and returning back to his home somewhere in the Black Sea region. He was a nice guy. Apparently, Alex was both pleased and annoyed at my ability to speak Turkish and claims that when he mentioned his annoyance (because he actually wanted to learn more Turkish and never got the opportunity to practice too much with me around) it only stroked my ego. He is probably right about that. :) After a long and relatively uneventful bus ride, we arrived early the next morning in Trabzon. We discovered immediately that a bus to Tblisi would arrive in about 30 minutes, giving us hardly any time to use the bathroom and adjust to being off of the bus.
Part two of our trip began around 8:30 and we were bound for Georgia. Near Rize, we stopped at one of the most disgusting bathrooms I think I have ever had to endure. It cost 75 kurus for the use of the bathroom plus 2 napkins (which is a big problem if number 2 is required). Let's just say...there's a reason you shake someone's right hand and not their left in these parts. I will spare you any more details and merely say that it was an unpleasant experience.
We boarded the bus and continued for a couple more hours before we finally reached the Sarp Border crossing in Georgia. This was the first time I had ever crossed a land border before. All of the other times I had experienced controlled border access was in an airport. The process was sheer insanity. By this time on the trip, we met an Asian American woman on our bus with a Georgian friend. This was actually kind of nice because we had the opportunity to speak English. Apparently, no matter where she travels she always carries around good ole American "Greenbacks," (aka US Dollars) because she believed that they were still taken in more places than the Euro. If she is right, she won't be for much longer.
In order to cross the border from Turkey to Georgia, it was necessary for everyone to stand in a long line outside in the heat to be seen by the border guard. This is what the scene looked like:
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As you can see, it was not pretty. Alex and I lucked out though. Instead of being forced to stand in the line from hell, the bus attendants motioned for us to get back on the bus. After all of the Georgian and Turkish occupants had left the bus, we were directed to the side of the building where a supervisor stamped our passports and allowed us entry (with the bus staff) into Georgia. We were allowed back on the bus to wait for the other passengers to complete the crossing. I must admit, I felt something like a VIP in a club at that moment. It is sometimes good to be an American.
It took about two hours for our companions to finish their crossing. We then left the area on a road along the Black Sea towards Batumi. As soon we crossed the border, the difference in prosperity between the two countries was noticeable. The roads on the Georgian side were in worse condition than the ones on the Turkish side. I also noticed that the gas station was quite a bit more rustic when we stopped. I had to take a picture of the gas pump because it was hard for me to believe. The gas pump featured a dial (like the older ones before digital tanks) to measure how much gas had been pumped. The arms of the dial rotated around like the hands on a clock. I honestly believed the gas tank resembled something that you would have seen in 1950 rather than 2010, which gives you an idea about just how rustic some parts of Georgia were.
We crossed into the city of Batumi, but did not stop for long. The place is revitalizing itself and has added casinos that are themed like Las Vegas casinos. I think when it comes to gambling that I still prefer Las Vegas.
After Batumi, the road turns inland to traverse through the center of Georgia, into Gori (the birthplace of Stalin), and then south into Tblisi. The journey from Batumi was only about 309 km (which is about 180 miles). The trip, which would only have taken 3 and a half hours on back roads in the United States took approximately 8 hours in Georgia due to bad road conditions and winding roads through the mountains.
The scenery on the way to Georgia was absolutely incredible! As we turned inland, there were flat lands at first, with abundant farmland. As we progressed, the terrain became more hilly and eventually we were in the mountains. By sunset, we were weaving through narrow valleys as we made our southward descent into Tblisi. We met some Swedish guys on the bus when we stopped for dinner at a random restaurant in Georgia. They spoke English, which made the trip on the bus go by a bit faster. Actually, in the restaurant they wanted me to translate for this Turkish guy because they wanted to ask him some questions (the Swedes were much more interested in the fact that I could help them ask Turkish people questions than they were in me). I also thought it was funny, considering how abysmal my Turkish was, that they were asking me to translate. I feel like I did ok, but there were definitely parts of the conversation I could not understand and did not translate. It was certainly a challenge for me, which was pretty cool.
We finally arrived in Tblisi at 10pm Georgia time (which is one hour ahead of Turkish time). After essentially 30 hours straight on the bus, I definitely did not want to see the inside of a bus any time soon. Although we had no way of knowing what time we would arrive when we started, this trip taught me that it is never a good idea to arrive in an unfamiliar city at night. We were originally trying to get all the way to Yerevan that day. However, when we arrived in Tblisi, the bus station was closed and the only people around were cab drivers. The guys in the cab told us that there was no bus to Yerevan and that the only way we would be able to get there is if one of them drove us for 100 USD. Obviously, he was full of shit and I knew better than that.
Alex and I ended up choosing the only cab driver that spoke a little English. We did not have a place to stay and the driver wanted to show us hotels. At first the cab driver tried to charge us $30 for the taxi ride! Luckily, Alex and I knew better than that and reluctantly accepted when he dropped the price to $10. It was still probably too much, but what could we do in our situation in an unfamiliar city by ourselves at night and not speaking the language? Alex was a douchetruck and made me sit up front with the taxi driver, who at that point, I did not trust for the life of me.
He drove around for quite a while before he found an internet cafe. I am not sure he actually knew where one was originally. The one good part about this is that we got to see a bit of the city. The amazing thing was the quality of the roads. Keep in mind that we are in the capital city of a country. One of the roads we went on had gravel and was incredibly bumpy (you couldnt drive more than 20 mph on it). It resembled one of those dirt roads that we have in rural America sometimes (like the ones in Nassau County, FL in some remote areas). We also passed George W. Bush Rd (which even had President Bush's picture on the sign)! I think Georgia is one of the two countries that actually liked Bush because we protected them from Russia in the 2008 war over South Ossetia.
The internet cafe was in a fairly sketchy looking part of town. I felt uncomfortable and it was clear that we were in a seedy area. We got on the internet, searched, and found a hostel called the Green Stairs. Afterwards we got back in the taxi and headed towards it. The driver tried to get us to stop in at other hotels along the way, but we decided that we were going to our economy priced hostel whether he liked it or not. I also think his desire to pawn us off stemmed from the fact that he could not find the place at first and we were costing him more money than he thought we would. He eventually did find the place and we exited. He demanded that we pay him a higher price than we previously agreed upon before we left the internet cafe site. I was not going to budge on this one and told him we would only pay what we agreed on and nothing more. He took the money unhappily. He also gave us his card and informed us that he would be happy to give us a tour around the city to major sites in Tblisi (for a fee I'm sure!). Now, I know Americans can be stupid, but does this dumbshit really think we are so stupid that we would call him after he already tried to screw us twice? (I imagine we were still somewhat screwed and probably gave him above the market rate for a taxi ride like the one we took). Anyways, luckily, I was not that dumb. I did decide to write his number down to make him think we were considering his request (I didn't want him to think otherwise because we were still kind of vulnerable to him at the time.
We left the car and knocked on the door of the Green Stairs. The owner spoke English, thankfully, and we requested a room for the two of us. Unfortunately, we discovered that there was no vacancy at the Green Stairs. It was the cheapest place we could find online and it definitely looked the part. The guy did say that he had two cots that he could pull out and we could sleep in the room at the bottom of the stairs. We wouldn't have any privacy but at least we would have a place to sleep. It was 11pm and we were exhausted from our trip so we decided to accept. Actually, he told us that since we did not have a private room, he wasn't going to charge us for spending the night there. It was incredibly nice of him and we were grateful.
Just as we were getting settled in, Alex made a troubling discovery. His digital camera was missing. He accidentally left it in the back of the taxi. Understandably, Alex really wanted his camera back so he could remember the trip we had taken. If the cab driver was trying to make off with the camera, he did a stupid thing by giving us his phone number. At any rate, we told the owner of the Green Stairs and he promptly called the Georgian police. I waited inside while Alex went outside to speak to the policeman.
After about 20 minutes, the police arrived. Although there had previously been no answer on the taxi cab's phone, when the police called him they were able to get through. The police were able to intimidate the driver into returning with the camera for Alex. Apparently, Alex and the police had an interesting conversation. The Georgian police officer had an American accent. The officer told Alex that after the Russian invasion in 2008, the Americans had offered support and training to Georgian military and police officers. Many of them had apparently trained in Albuquerque, New Mexico. They also talked about Georgia's position of preventing Russia from maintaining an oil monopoly in the area (pipelines go through Georgia and Turkey to give European markets access to Azeri oil in the Caspian Sea). Many believe that one of Russia's objectives in the war was to destroy the oil pipelines in order to maintain its natural resource monopoly. We had learned a lot about this in my EU Relations with Russia and CIS countries class I took the previous semester. The Georgian police officer, Goga, also explained that the reason relations between Armenia and Turkey are still so bad is because they want to remain on good terms with Azerbaijan because they are reaping profits from the pipeline that goes through Turkey to the Mediterranean Sea. The policeman also talked about his love for George Bush and his dislike for Mikhail Saakashvili (current President of Georgia). I learned about all of this second-hand from Alex, but it was interesting to hear the opinions of the average Georgian on many key global and political issues.
The taxi driver eventually did come and demanded 15 Lari ($10) as compensation for returning with the camera. The police officer apparently told the taxi driver that 5 lari would be enough for the trip (I think the policeman understood that the cab driver had been screwing us). Goga gave Alex his number and said that if we needed anything while in Georgia not to hesitate to give him a call. He was a really nice guy. Alex returned and we went to sleep on those uncomfortable cots. It was hot, even with the fan in the room, but we had arrived in the former Soviet Union.
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