We took some photos by the bridge at Metekh.

Then we left Tbilisi.

From this section of our route the views were quite out of the ordinary, on the left in a flat valley we spotted a lake from the road.

We stopped to have a rest under the terrace of a petrol station. Two Armenian guys started to talk to us and we ended up sitting at Artur and Ando’s table with them. They taught us a few Armenian words,  and we parted with an agreement that we will see them again at Sevan.

We waited under the roof while the skies have opened and the thunder finished.

The rain didn’t stop, but it was possible to cycle in it, so we put on our Vaude rainproof gear and rolled out onto the road.  We probably looked like a couple of extraterrestrials.

Even the policemen had a good laugh at our getup.

Eventually we finished the day at Sadakhlo, which is the last big village before the Armenian border.

In the evening we were invited in by Ajdar, a 69 year old English teacher, which we accepted with pleasure, considering it was dark by then to look for somewhere to camp, plus I was rather exhausted by the end of the day, having been on a forced diet since the afternoon before.  Ajdar was an Azerbaijani, so we can say that we sampled Azerbaijani hospitality even though we had never been to Azerbaijan.

We spent 11 glorious days in Georgia, which has a beautiful seashore, pretty villages, magnificent mountains, a magical capital and above all very open, kind, helpful and hospitable citizens. In other words, Georgia is a fantastic place. Both of us felt that we could spend a month in this country.  Thanks to all our lovely Georgian friends, who contributed to us feeling like this!

We had big walk in the city, more than 10 km, so we got very tired for the end of the days.

On our first walk we went to Rustaveli, straight on the boulevard to the Tavispule, until the Freedom square.

Next day we went up on a hill, on the east side of the city, to see the big church with the top of gold, to the Tsminda Sameba Cathedral. The view was amazing from here .

We saw here the postcards allude to the Georgian-Russian contact.

We saw several beautiful churches, also some Armenian.

One of the churches, the Metekh had a gorgeous lay.

Is laid down next to the river, not so far from the old city, next to the east side of the Metekh Bridge, on the edge of a big rock over the river.

At the first time we were here was sunset, so the view was beautiful. Next to this bridge there is also a new bridge, for the walkers.

We had a minute also in the free Georgian National Bank to see the money museum.

On the 4^th day we got an invitation for the Catholic Junior Meeting. Wasn’t thousands of people like in Madrid, but maybe hundreds of them. The meeting was in a camp, in the way we saw that émigré camp where those Georgians leave who escaped in 2008 from South-Ossetia and Abkhazia.

Zita was the speaker: she mentioned our serious decisions like the wedding and also this trip.  Young people asked us what we would do if Zita would get pregnant. We answered that this is the next project and if the baby would come than we would decide to stop the trip and go home.

Everybody was applauding us as this would be the best thing we could do.

As we moved deeper into the mountains, the scenery got nicer and nicer. The place was picturesque, in spite that there we saw an unfinished reinforced concrete viaduct. 

Along the way, by the roadside, local women were selling various things. For example, there was a sweet which had hazelnut pieces in a jelly bean mass.

In the evening, Paul suggested that we could sleep in the restaurant’s storage area.

On Paul’s birthday people were happy and in a good mood. Khinkali, the Georgian national dish was served at the table.

For several days the wheel of Zita’s reclining bike was causing problems. It was not a simple hole in the tire. 

Three of us had to do surgery on the it and we removed a metal filament, one centimeter long.

In the morning we said good by to Paul and started to move upward.

We soon reached a tunnel at 900 ms height. It is located at Rikoti, and according to the map, it is at 997 ms. Here lies the divide between West and East Georgia.

Getting further away from the beach we reached a wonderful region, the world of the Georgian villages.  There was village after village by the road.

There was always somebody by the road, someone to wave or say hello to with a „Damardzsoba”.

There were dogs, cats, calves, hens, geese and pigs on the roadside.

We decided to finish the day after cycling 70km.

We stopped in Vazisubani.

When we asked where we could pitch our tent, there were quite a few village people around us, trying to work out what we want.  One of them waved to follow him.

He wasn’t taking us to an interpreter, he was offering his own garden and house to us.  This got us a little embarrassed again, but accepted his offer as it was late and we were tired.

They showed us their home, we found ourselves in the middle of a smallholding, the core of which was the family of three generations.Under the terrace they laid a small table for us, brought lovely home made cheese, home made bread and all manner of goodies.

They gave us a lovely breakfast, fresh  hadzhapuri, tea and lots of other nice things.

After Samtredia we stopped to have lunch, the rain stoopped and we could dry and pack away our macs.We heated up a Hungarian tin and gobbled up the taste of home.

Our next stop was in Kutaisi, where we could not only eat, but get on the internet as well.

In the evening we turned off at Argveta.

Our hosts were Manana and Avto.Quickly half the village gathered on the terrace of the house. Manana was just milking the cow when we arrived.Being townies we have never seen milking before.Around the house there were loads of animals, other than the cow there was a pig and many hens, plus a cat and a puppy.

Even on this short day we had our little surprises in the form of smaller mountain passes and serpentines.

In one bend we met a cyclist on a racing bike, who warred to us cheerfully. We greeted him in the same way and stopped at once at the edge of the road. There we saw white-haired „old-man”  coming towards us on an old „highway-bike”. His name is Soso and we learned that he was 75 years old, and that he was Georgian champion in 1966. He must keep himself very fit if he is riding about such serpentines, alone, just for his our pleasure.In Kobuleti we watched the sunset on the coast.

The with the help of the local people we got to Soso’s home. There was a special room for bicycles Soso too kept his bikes there. He proudly showed us his „steeds”, kept boasting about them, there were a few Russian, and one or two Italian ones, too.

The following morning we pulled down our tent and invited Soso to have breakfast with us. Naturally we had Kadzhapuri.

Soso accompanied us for a short while.

We stopped at a petrol station and suddenly two girls appeared who greeted us in Hungarian. They invited us to their nearby caravan.

Mariann, her husband, their daughter Ajsa and Mariann’s sister Kitti are travelling about in this part of the world. They have been to India, Armenia, Pakistan and on the Karakorum Highway. They gave us a lot of useful advice and some tins with Hungarian food.

They accompanied us on part of the way.

We bathed on the beach in Ureki, Zita buried herself in the magnetic sand.

About 15 km far from the border we arrived to Batumi and were already dark, so the big question was where will we sleep? We got help from Khivcha who gave us a room after diner and some graze lessons.In the opposite of the bed was a big bear carpet on the wall. I had to turn a bit because Zita couldn’t sleep.Next day we went to see the city together with Khivcha and Vazha. We saw a church on top with blue cupola was beautiful, inside everything was blue. Batumi was incredible!On front of the national theatre we found the symbol of Georgia, the gold lion without nose.We had bath in the see.Had a walk in a park and tried the kadzhapuri.This is a georgian food: roundel with cheese became soon our favourite.The Lonely Planet mentions from Graze: the invention of wine, Stalin, the graze dance, the big hospitality, the mountains and kadzhapuri.

From these we got the hospitality, kachapuri and dance from Khvicha”s family and Vazha for which we are very thanks full and hope that one day we can give it back to them maybe here in Budapest.