Georgian Night - What a delight!

We met our country host, Sasa, and were escorted through the brightly lit city past many new era buildings. They certainly like neon lights! The opera house was new, done in a neo-classical style. There were several ultra modern and uniquely designed high rises as well. The town square had a dancing waters fountain all cued to music.

We walked to the beach where we found our restaurant. Called "The Old Ship" it looked like a 1700s wooden sailing vessel fully equipped with masts, guidelines, decks, and the like. The dining room was two stories with the balcony overlooking the dance floor.

We chose to have Sasa, pronounced " Zha-Zha" as in "Gabor," order for us. What followed was course after course after course of appetizers and entrees. What stands out for me was the pickled flowers, I think dandelions, the chicken dumplings, and the braised liver-yes, I actually ate the liver! There was so much food that we finally had to ask for it stop coming out. We must have gone through the entire menu!

Wine was served by the two liter carafe and was delicious- so delicious that we drank and drank and drank. To say the ten of us went through at least nine carafes would not be an exaggeration! It is the custom of this region to offer numerous toasts during the meal and all around people were constantly standing and toasting each other. We followed in suit. It was great fun.

A trio of tenors sang and played local and popular songs and everyone was dancing. It is the custom for men to dance together, and for the first time we saw them with women as well. This is an emerging and Christian country.

With all the wine it did not take long until we were all on the dance floor having a great time imitating the local dance moves. Other tables began to buy us more wine and we returned the favor. We were openly welcomed and it was quite a party.

After midnight (yes, I actually was still awake) we called for the bill with a bit if trepidation. Double portions of 12 different dishes, nine full carafes of wine plus six more sent to other tables totaled a whopping 32 Lari, or yikes, all of $18 dollars per person! We could have eaten and drank more.....NOT!

A brisk walk in the fog and back to the hotel had us in bed after 1 am. Quite an outstanding welcome to Georgia! And, sorry, no photos as I left the iPhone at the hotel. Bummer.

Sumela Monastary and on to Georgia

A chilly morning and a full breakfast in our lovely camp park was followed by a bit later departure. Our first stop this morning was at the Sumela Monastery. Started in 385 AD, it was added to and modified until completion of its current configuration in the 1300s. Abandoned and damaged by war in 1923, it was reoccupied in 1930 and hidden relics retrieved.

Another steep, narrow and winding one-lane road to the top greeted us. It took Sura almost 20 minutes to climb the 1.5 miles! Then we climbed stone steps to the site. It was quite foggy. Our group was the only ones there. We toured this Greek Orthodox monastery for an hour before driving to the Black Sea coastline.

The sea was calm with small waves breaking on the rocky and beach-less shore. There were no good picnic spots so we stopped for lunch at a bus stop along the highway. It was raining so we made and ate lunch inside Sura.

Two hours later we were at the Georgian border. Customs and immigration took 2 1/2 hours, mainly because of Sura who drew quite a bit a attention from the officials. An hour further we crossed a time zone, lost an hour, and were in Batumi looking forward to a hot shower, good meal, and a glass of famous Georgian wine!