Borjomi

Arrived at 4:45am to Tbilisi and - likely due to sleep deprivation - made the decision to book a 14 hour tour to go see the cave city. (At this point that’s all I knew - there was an incredible place and I should go there).
It really was amazing.
Started out with my little mini van group - two Slovenians living in Portugal, and
Italian and Ukrainian living in Poland, a
Russian girl with English boyfriend a Malaysian and me lol. Honestly a great fun gang.
We drove initially to a 9th century castle / fort / mosque place which was interesting but not amazing (after Sintra it’s tough to be impressed lol).
Then I had my first Georgian meal - so of course I ordered 4 things. My first taste of what would become a favourite - eggplant with a walnut sauce and pomegranate on top. And my first khachapuri! Sooo yum.
Headed from there to what was honestly one of the coolest historical places I have been. 11th century Queen Tamar had it built to defend from all the attackers by carving the city into the mountain. It’s wild. It’s also high up and I am out of shape so it kicked my butt lol. So many fascinating bits but was struck by the “holy water” (the fresh water spring inside the mountain) which was used by them over a thousand years ago through ceramic pipes they built throughout the mountain. Just crazy. We filled up our water bottles with it! There is still a monastery with monks living there today.
Then we left there and headed to Borjomi. some of you will recognize the name / bottle because James would often bring back homemade liquors from friends in Moldova / Kazakhstan etc in these bottles. It was our “jet lagged / hungover” cure as the water truly is unique - it tastes salty almost. Definitely an acquired taste but miraculous.
So we went there and again had my water bottle filled up direct from the source.
Headed back to my Vinotel where I proceeded to have a wine tasting. Yep. I figured if I only have a few days in the country I have to pack it all in… and my train the next day was at 8:20am.Read more