Reset search
Euro Year
  • Darcy B

Euro Year

Spencer and darcy on another whirlwind adventure Read more
+14
FollowInsightsCalendarShareShareBucket list
Newest first
  • Trip start
    May 8, 2023
    Darcy BEuro YearTraveler

    Getting to tbilisi

    May 8, 2023 in Georgia ⋅ ☁️ 20 °C

    Very stressful arrival (crazy airport taxi people & couldn't find my apartment) had to ask my neighbours for some help. Set up then went for a walk n got a beer + cheesy bread (bit yucky)!!
    Spent the night calling and texting everyoneRead more

  • Darcy BEuro YearTraveler

    1st full day pt 1 (castle)

    May 9, 2023 in Georgia ⋅ ☁️ 14 °C

    Took the train for the first time. The escalator is super steep and very long (steeper than the ones mum can't do at H&M karrinyup but they must go for about 300 metres). I got off the train at liberty square (golden horse photos), lovely looking cbd area. Walked across the peace bridge and then all the way up a big hill to check out the castle at the top (more of a brick wall than a castle hence no photos I guess ahaha)Read more

  • Darcy BEuro YearTraveler

    1st full day pt 2 (botanical gardens)

    May 9, 2023 in Georgia ⋅ ☀️ 19 °C

    I didn't know what to do once I was at the castle so I was just roaming around and every now and then i would look at Google maps to see if I was close to anything cool. I saw that there was a rock climbing wall at the end of the georgian botanical gardens so I walked along the castle hilltop road until I looked about in line with it and then jumped the fence and slid down the hill to try and find it (bad idea because the vegetation was so dense and there was a big patch of small cacti half way down the hill so I got a bit cut up). Once I got the the bottom of the hill I got in trouble by some guy because I was in a restricted area so I had to climb back up :(. Once I was back on the hilltop road I had a chance to reflect on how stupid that was and have decided to stick to paths from now on!! Walked back and did the botanical gardens properly, was very tranquil but busy. I had a tasteless bean pastie for lunch (0/2 with food so far argghh) and went home exhausted.Read more

  • Darcy BEuro YearTraveler
    2

    Pt1 - top gear market & skate park

    May 10, 2023 in Georgia ⋅ ⛅ 19 °C

    Last night I went to some food places really close to my house instead of walking to the nicer places. I think I discovered that the scarier the outside of a Cafe looks here, the better the food. I found a bakery and had the most amazing caramel apple cake I've ever had for about 60cents (finally ate something I liked!!!!). Also bought a pear, walnut and cottage cheese salad bowl from directly across the road which I think I'll have most nights to stay healthy:). This morning I woke up and had a sweet bread from the same place and then headed to liberty square again. I found the local skate park which was suuuper sick. I'm considering buying a board for while I'm here coz I really wanna try it out. I had a pizza there for lunch (that id brought from a shop near mine again). I then went to the markets the guys from top gear went to when they were in tbilisi and it was exactly how it looked on TV. They had some wicked stuff, mostly old soviet war gear, retro cameras and silverware. I wanted to get everyone presents from there but then remembered that I'd have to carry the stuff around for like a year so decided nah lol (lmk if u see something in the pics u really want and I'll get it tho!). Then I went to a funny looking, precariously propped up, cartoony clock thing on my way to the sulfur baths.Read more

  • Darcy BEuro YearTraveler

    Pt 2 - sulfur baths

    May 10, 2023 in Georgia

    Every tbilisi article I've read has mentioned the sulfur baths and tbh I thought it sounded pretty gross so I wasn't too keen but Christie said I might as well do it while I'm here so I decided I'd get it over with this arvo. My neck and shoulders were sore from carrying my bags on the plane and my legs were sore from yesterday so i felt like I could use some ancient healing. Most of the baths have dome brick roofs but as I was already pretty sceptical I opted for the nicest option which had a lovely mosaic entrance (and some guy shooting a music video lol). I booked and then grabbed a quick beer where a nice dog came and sat next to me (wanted to give it a pat but it didn't seem keen and I didn't want rabies so didnt). The dog kept barking at some stray cat which was really killing the vibe for everyone else but it reminded me of Millie so I thought it was cute ahahaha. First impressions of the sulfur bath was that it was like athletes foot if it was a room: damp, steamy, wet floor and smelt like rotten eggs. The shortest time they give you is an hour and I definitely didn't think I'd stay the whole time but I managed to relax once I got in. The water was really really hot which meant i had to constantly hop out to take a cold showers. I paid for the scrub too, so about half way through some fat georgian dude came in with his shirt off and started rubbing me with an exfoliating mit (disposable thank god). At that point I'd really started to come around to liking the bath and his massage was super nice!! After the bath I felt amazing so i grabbed another beer and then went home (where I then soaked my feet in alcohol gel :) ).Read more

  • Darcy BEuro YearTraveler

    Went looking for a skateboard

    May 11, 2023 in Georgia ⋅ ☁️ 18 °C

    Today my only goal was to find a cheap skateboard and then go to the skatepark. I found two shops nearby, the first one tried to sell me a crappy starwars board for $300 and the second one never opened (I went there twice!!). I'll try some malls another day but I'm not that bothered anymore, maybe it's the universe trying to stop me from breaking my wrist again ahaha. One of the skate shops was at the main hostel in tbilisi so I got to check that out for a little while. It was very modern, like a Perth cbd beer garden with graffiti pop murals on all the walls. Georgian places love targeting young people by making their places "forward thinking and rebellious" (there were people smoking weed and taking graffiti classes ect...). After that i went to a wine bar for lunch, It was a cosy underground cellar and I finally got my cheesy egg bread!! I was surprised to learn the yellow stuff that I thought was egg yolk in the pictures is actually melted butter. I ordered wine with lunch but they only served it in 1L plastic bottles, all good though because it was absolutely delicious and I got to take the rest of the bottle home :). I'll definitely be going to more restaurants like that one I really liked it. The cheese bread was $6 and the wine was $4 (didn't even go for the cheapest that's just what it costs over here!!). Spent the rest of the afternoon doing some music stuff and enjoying more wine.Read more

  • Darcy BEuro YearTraveler

    Got a sim but mixed up the club dates

    May 13, 2023 in Georgia ⋅ 🌧 15 °C

    Woke up and went to the sim shop again except this time they were open so hell yeah! It was raining but I was already half way so I walked to bassiani so I knew where it was for later. It was going off and looked full of people at 1030. I wanted to go to the deserter bazaar on the way home coz it has a thrift store that looks cool but I had maps around the wrong way so ended up just cruising through the vege markets across the street ahaha. Unfortunately this would set the trend for the rest of the day as it turned out id also mixed up the dates for bassiani. The normal club day is Fridays and the exclusive gay events are on Saturdays, I could go tonight and see if they kick me out but it opens at 12 (early people get there at 1 apparantly) and I'm already tired at 9 so I doubt it. In the end it was a bit of a lay day at the apartment again. Went to the same cellar looking restaurant again and had a thin cheesy pie that was way better than the cheese bowl bread from the other day (Walked into some other places that had no free tables so i want to try get into those at some point maybe earlier in the day). Stopped by the hostel for a while but not much was really happening so I came home. Tonight was my first proper nightime outing and felt very safe :))Read more

  • Darcy BEuro YearTraveler

    Holy trinity church

    May 14, 2023 in Georgia ⋅ 🌬 16 °C

    Today I managed to sleep in until 830!!! Which is huge because it meant I only had to wait 1.5 hours until I could have breakfast (10am in georgia is like 6am in Perth, everything opens late but then stays open until at least 11pm). I went for a cheesy bread bowl for breakfast, which had an egg on it this time! They seemed very unprepared when I got there and they were going around setting up all the tables while I ate, I think they thought it was really weird I was there at 1130 ahaha. Called mum and dad for mothers day and then decided I'd visit the main cathedral in tbilisi. Its called the holy trinity cathedral and its the 3rd tallest orthodox cathedral in the world. I learned today that georgia was one of the first places the disciples went after jesus died so there have been Christians here since the 1st century (this cathedral only started getting built in 1995 tho). The church area and gardens were immaculate but I forgot to charge my phone before I went so couldnt take many photos (the one of inside the church is from Google ahaha). Inside the church there were a bunch of old looking paintings and golden carved tablets, it felt strange being in a building that had such a high roof. A nice lady showed me around some lower levels of the church which were a lot less busy. There was a male choir singing religious chants somewhere down there and it was echoing really loudly all through the areas we walked through which was pretty eerie but I toughed it out because I didn't want to bail on the lady. At the end she said she needed money "for the orphans", I only partly believed her but she was nice so I gave her 10 lari anyway :)). Went home and had a pear salad from across the road for dinner.Read more

  • Darcy BEuro YearTraveler

    Dezerters bazaar

    May 16, 2023 in Georgia ⋅ ☀️ 20 °C

    Walked back to the dezerters bazaar today. There's a cool thrift store place there and I picked up some pants to replace my ones that're falling apart. I tried a bunch of other stuff too but nothing else fitted well enough. They had a bunch of crazy 80s Neon stuff that I was tempted to buy but ultimately decided I should sleep on it coz it was very vibrant. I've been seeing these wax dipped looking things all over the place and finally bought some today, it's a sugar wax covered rope with dried fruit and nuts. Very yummy!! (Even though I'm not the biggest fan of dried fruit). I had lunch again at my favourite spot, didn't get the cheesy pizza pie thing that I loved from the other night because the waitress misunderstood so I had another cheesy bread bowl instead. I got some jam to dip my yummy bread into for dinner :).
    I saw a lady pouring some antiseptic on a dog that had a cut foot today which was cool to see. Apparently the people really care about the street dogs here, they all feed and look after them like they're communal pets.    Read more

  • Darcy BEuro YearTraveler

    Got a book and tried georgian dumplings

    May 17, 2023 in Georgia ⋅ ☀️ 22 °C

    Christie has been adamant that travelling is better when you have a book so today I went to try find one. I ended up in a lovely little English bookstore called prosperos. I pretty much read the back of every single book in the shop but eventually found one i liked called Tuesdays with Morrie. I bought it and then sat outside in the courtyard and read for a while. I must admit it was kinda nice reading in a nice spot so from now on I'll be on the lookout for more nice spots to take my book :). Everywhere I go i've been seeing people eat dumpling looking things and I've been meaning to try them, so I looked up a spot that apparently has the best ones and went there for dinner. They're ok, just potato or melted cheese wrapped in dough, definitely not as good as the cheesy bread stuff I've been having so probs won't order again. On the way I saw a dog and cat hissing at each other and took a video but I missed it again argh. Saw the city at sunset for the first time which was great and also saw people boating in the river which I hadn't seen before. I figured the river runs a bit too fast to be comfortable but I guess maybe not!
    Caught the train at night for the first time and felt very safe :)).    Read more

  • Darcy BEuro YearTraveler

    Chill day

    May 18, 2023 in Georgia ⋅ ☁️ 17 °C

    Spent most of the day just chilling in the apartment doing music stuff. For a break I went to a park and read for a while. I'm almost 1/4 through my book!! Had lunch at a new place and got more cheesy bread stuff. I think ive overdone it with the cheese and bread because today I didn't enjoy it much at all. I've been to a fair few restaurants at this point and haven't found much vegetarian stuff other than salads and cheese so this is a little concerning. Hopefully I can find something before I'm driven to eat too much meat!Read more

  • Darcy BEuro YearTraveler

    Bassiani and the best sandwich

    May 20, 2023 in Georgia ⋅ ☁️ 16 °C

    I found the best sandwich shop right next door to the bakery I go to for breakfast every morning. They make an egg sandwich that is out of this world, I had two yesterday and one for breakfast today :)) I have a catastrophically bad headache so today is pretty much a write off I think. Went to bassiani last night and it was great! Finally found people that spoke English, I spent most of the night with a georgian couple who were very nice. The clubs pretty big, there're a bunch of rooms and two huge areas where the DJs are. Barely any lights so none of my pictures came out any good. Entry was $40 and surprisingly even though youre allowed to smoke inside it wasn't super gross smelling. My clothes reek today tho so maybe it did and I just didn't realise. Attached pictures of my go-to bakery, the sandwich shop and the place i buy my bread :)).Read more

  • Darcy BEuro YearTraveler
    42

    Walked to the ferris wheel

    May 21, 2023 in Georgia ⋅ ☁️ 18 °C

    Walked up a very steep path to the top of the other end of the main mountain. It was pretty tiring but an amazing view, I'll almost definitely go again (but in vans next time coz the cons ruined my feet). The start of my ascent was a little precarious because I didn't see the proper path to go up, I only saw the entrance for a little side trail and just assumed that was it. My path was very steep and loose and at one point I almost slipped off (very alarming), I didn't tho and managed to find the actual track eventually which was much better. Not the best day for a sunset but at least that meant it wasn't too hot :)Read more

  • Darcy BEuro YearTraveler
    1

    Saw the sickest cat today

    May 24, 2023 in Georgia ⋅ ⛅ 30 °C

    Woke up today, got breakfast, and then went for a walk in a direction I hadn't really gone before. I came across a nice, quiet park so i sat there to eat. Pretty much straight away this cat came up to me and started purring. I threw it some food which it didn't eat and then it climbed up onto the seat with me and we hung out for almost an entire hour! It was very interested in a group of pigeons that were pecking the ground 10m away from us. The cat would walk off and attempt to catch one and then come back to get a quick pat :). For lunch I had fish which tasted like mud. Ew.Read more

  • Darcy BEuro YearTraveler
    2131

    Sighnaghi pt 1

    May 27, 2023 in Georgia ⋅ ☀️ 28 °C

    Singhaghi was fantastic!!! I caught the earliest bus there at 9 which only took 1.5 hours. On the drive the geography was very hilly and green, the bus had 18 people in it and I had to squeeze my legs sideways because the spaces between the seats were so small but it was actually quite enjoyable and I even slept for a little bit. I arrived and walked through most of the streets and then had porridge and beer for breakfast :). The view from the restaurant was probably one of the best I've seen, it went on for miles. It took me ages to realise but there was a mountain range spanning the entire horizon and it had snow on the top!!! After breakfast I went to a winery called pheasants tears, tried 4 wines and a chachi, they were all quite savory tasting but super delicious. I liked the light orange wine the best because the flavour was strong enough to power through the food but it didn't dry out my mouth like the stronger stuff did (I ranked them in the pictures).
    Then I went back to the place I went for breakfast because I needed some more time to contemplate the view. Stayed for almost 3 hours which was just enough time to have another couple beers. Decided to bail on the hostel because the lady was about 90 and spoke 0 English and the beds all sucked. That's fine tho coz I've done everything in sighnaghi I think :). As of writing im just about to head back to the bus stop and am worried about being too drunk on the bus lmao, hopefully it's not completely full this time.    Read more

  • Darcy BEuro YearTraveler

    Sighnaghi pt 2

    May 27, 2023 in Georgia ⋅ ☀️ 28 °C

    Just more photos

  • Darcy BEuro YearTraveler

    Went to a cool park and uni

    May 29, 2023 in Georgia ⋅ ☁️ 27 °C

    Yesterday I was inspired by the porridge I had in sighnaghi so I decided I was going to start making some of my meals at home. I have oats and peanut butter now :).

    Today I went for a walk to fill in more of the map and ended up coming across a very well presented street which was lined with nice tall trees . Turns out the street was so nice because I had accidentally stumped upon the main road of vake (the rich area where all the expats live). The buildings in vake are much nicer than everywhere else here but my favourite was the university (the white one in the pictures), architecturally, it was the same as most of the buildings here but instead of grey weathered concrete it had a nice fresh paint job. The uni showed me how much potential tbilisi has as a city because it really wouldn't take much for almost all the buildings here to look like that. Hopefully someday. Next, I walked through a long park and found another skatepark! Sadly it was raining so there was nobody to watch, so I had to sit under a bridge and read for a while instead. Can't wait to see the second half of vake when I go to turtle lake :)).Read more

  • Darcy BEuro YearTraveler

    Filled in the map so good today

    May 31, 2023 in Georgia ⋅ ☁️ 24 °C

    Today I took the train 3/4 of the way to the chronicles coz there looked to be a nice park up there. I found another skatepark which had no one on it again, saw two people get into an argument about their dogs being off the lead and also finished my book!! The park was super nice and was littered with Christmas trees. I hung out near a dog training course for a while hoping someone would do it but no one did smh. Came home and had a banana :)) It was v good.Read more

  • Darcy BEuro YearTraveler
    21

    Sunset view

    June 2, 2023 in Georgia ⋅ 🌧 22 °C

    I went back to the Ferris wheel hill today!It's been cloudy most evenings, so up until now I haven't really gotten a chance to see a good tbilisi sunset. I only went halfway up but the view was still awesome and someone was playing the violin in the city below. The scene reminded me of emperor Nero a little bit!. This area is so mountainous, its a really really cool view. Probably the most I've been impressed by tbilisi this whole trip :))Read more

  • Darcy BEuro YearTraveler

    Went to the chronicles

    June 6, 2023 in Georgia ⋅ 🌩️ 25 °C

    Two days ago there was a cool looking lineup at a rave club called khidi. I was pretty keen to go because it should've been all the best parts of bassiani but with music that was a little less repetitive. I was determined to get there as late as possible so I would actually see the headliners this time (they start at 4am and 6am) so I drank a red bull and I think I managed to wait up all the way until 1 before accidentally falling asleep :(((. So Sunday was a little sad coz I still had a hangover but on top of that I was also very disappointed in myself for not even making it past my little by myself pres.

    Monday I made a huge pot of carbonara and found out that there are actually more supermarkets here than I thought. I just couldn't see them on maps coz I was searching up supermarket this whole time but apparently they're called " hypermarkets" here (supermarket = deli in georgian I guess). Which is dumb but now I know.
    At any rate the carbonara was superb (not as good as mums tho) and I ended the day feeling very full and happy.

    Today I went to the chronicles, which are a bunch of huge(30m) copper poles on top of a hill. They're covered in lots of historical christian and georgian carvings. I thought the chronicles were ancient and I was walking around in awe until a found that a couple of the poles had little unfinished sections with no copper and instead it was just concrete. I looked it up and turns out they only started building the chronicles in the 80s ahaha, they did it for 20 years and then didn't quite finish but gave up after 2003. I also thought that they were huge pieces of solid copper, but its actually mostly concrete with a thin copper layer stuck to the outside.
    I will say a lot of the majesty was gone after I knew all that but the view was still great and aesthetically the chronicles do look really cool (just not that structurally impressive lol). The best part of today was the tbilisi sea! The water was crystal clear and absolutely stunning! It's been so long since I've been for a swim. I hung around for ages just swimming and then sitting around getting warm enough to go swimming again. The water was that temperature where it stings a little when you hop in so I had to Wim Hof it a bit but I always felt amazing afterwards. First experience with rocks instead of sand.    Read more

  • Darcy BEuro YearTraveler

    Chronicles pt 2

    June 6, 2023 in Georgia ⋅ 🌩️ 25 °C

    Few more pics here

    There was this crazy lady at the chronicles that was trying to coax her dog into jumping onto the edge of a wall that had a huge drop on the other side!

    There was the sickest Labrador at the beach that swam for about an hour. It was so cute playing with its owner. Reminded me of Toby :))

    And the people in the buildings here hang their clothes to dry out the window. Not sure if that's normal in Europe or not but I feel like they would constantly be losing stuff from gusts of wind?? Also I couldn't see any evidence of that huge apartment block having an elevator which is pretty insane ahaha.    Read more

  • Darcy BEuro YearTraveler
    1

    Turtle lake is very hard to get to

    June 7, 2023 in Georgia ⋅ ☁️ 21 °C

    Today I explored the rest of vake. Very nice area, lots of trees and great mix of classic georgian architrcture with more modern buildings. The reason I went back to vake was to see turtle lake but unfortunately I only made it half way up the hill before giving up ahaha. The road was too windy and the hill was super steep so I decided I'd just sit and look at some pictures of it on google instead :)). Ended up spending a fair bit of time exploring Vake Park, which was right below. It was wonderful! Super soft grass, lots of bushes, trees and cafes. It was pretty much as good as kings park. Had a rest there and then walked back home.

    Also attached a vid of my neighbours cool winch which he uses to get stuff from people without walking down the stairs ahahaha. Never seen the guy with a shirt on lol.    Read more

  • Darcy BEuro YearTraveler

    Kazbegi pt1

    June 8, 2023 in Georgia ⋅ 🌙 1 °C

    Today was fabulous! I took a tour to go see kazbegi which is the 3rd highest mountain in georgia. The tour took all day and we stopped at a bunch of different spots.
    Firstly we went to the dam that provides all of tbilisi with its drinking water, it was surrounded by huge hills and the water was a beautiful vibrant blue colour. The guide was super informative and talked the whole way, she said that the Russians built the dam and there're a bunch of towns underwater now that you can still see if you dive down because the Russians flooded them.
    Next we stopped at a church that overlooked the same dam, i took some cool pics and then went down to feel the water which was much warmer than I was expecting. The road for the entire trip had huge steep green hills on either side and apparently wolves, deer and wild pig live there! I was hoping there mightve been tigers!!
    We then had lunch which was great because everyone on the tour spoke English, we all had a lovely time complaining about how sick of bread and cheese we were and compared stories of getting ripped off with the airport taxis. Made me feel a lot better about that coz 60 lari turned out to be normal :)). I had another cheesy pie pizza and it made me feel sick for the rest of the day but whatever.
    Next we stopped at the friendship monument which is located at the highest point of the military road 2350m above sea level. I noticed the air was a little thinner and harder to breathe. The monument was made by Georgians because Russia forced them to build it to show how great friends they are ahahaha. The tour guide showed us a bunch of small artistic details the Georgians changed on it to spite Russia, the main ones being they made all the mother figures have brown hair and all the kids have blonde hair to represent that georgia is the more mature motherly country looking over and protecting Russia. Best views I've ever seen it was truly breathtaking.
    Lastly we went to kazbegi, amazing views again, I was gobsmacked. At that point of the trip I was only 4kms away from Russia!!! It was just over the other side of the mountain.
    I definitely want to come back here and stay at kazbegi, there's a great hotel called Rooms Hotel. You can hike up the mountain in summer too!! Its taller than 5000m and the Alps.    Read more

  • 2025© FindPenguins
  • Home
  • About us
  • Group Tracking
  • Press
  • Terms
  • Privacy Policy & Cookies
  • Help Center
  • Legal notice