Hello, Georgia!

We had an early start today and left our hotel at 8 a.m. to make the two hour drive to the Georgian border. Our leader briefed us well and prepared us for the unusual border crossing. Once we reached the border, we embarked from our minivan and took all of our belongings and luggage to the first checkpoint. We had our passports checked and started to walk along a tiled path with stairs😫 in the rain. It was not pretty. Especially since it was about 400 metres! We had yet another checkpoint where our luggage was scanned, our passports were stamped and our photos were taken. That was just to leave Azerbaijan.

We then continued on the path in the rain to the Georgian passport control. Done! We now boarded a new mini bus with a new Georgian driver. Our leader is actually from Georgia and we could sense his pride and excitement that we were now on his turf.

Onward from there to a vineyard lunch. Georgia is the cradle of wine and has an 8,000 year wine-making history. The traditional Georgian method of fermenting and aging wine in large, egg-shaped clay vessels called qvevris, which are buried underground, is the oldest known winemaking technique. We were in awe when we saw the vineyards’ qvevris.

Next up was visiting a church that was built around 1577. It sits on a hill and it’s quite spectacular.

We then made our way to our hotel in Telavi, a town of about 20,000, and had a bit of a rest. Refreshed, Brad and I went roaming. It’s a charming town and we were easily able to cover the highlights in just a couple of hours.Lue lisää