MY ARRIVAL IN TBILISI GEORGIA

We arrived in Tbilisi 6 hours later, it was 8:30 pm at night. Thankfully we had a hotel waiting for us and all we had to do was get our overloaded cargo to it. Yes, I am talking about the 3 suitcases of 50 pounds each, the box that weighed 50 pounds the 3 carry ons, the pet stroller, the dog and 2 cats, and now we had an extra that we managed to get along the way. LOL Entering Georgia was easy, we showed our passports and in we were, the airport was big and it defiantly was inviting. This is what I was talking about it represented Its own country and was inviting.

We put our luggage on the carts and made our way out towards the cabs, wondering if we would have the same issues here as we did in Canada. Yup, once again there was panic in the taxi drivers eyes. What was it that made them panic and freak out when they see luggage, after all we are at the airport? I just smiled and started loading 2 cabs automatically lol, it wasn’t worth the words. It cost 70 gel per cab to get to the air port, in Canadian that is $35 each. That is not a bad price considering the length of time it took to get there.

The hotel staff was waiting for us on the front step, he took the luggage in and since there was no lift he stored it in the back room. Then he made us a cup of coffee and showed us to our room. The room was small and quaint but was very tidy and clean. I was so tired, and was worried about the pets being stressed out but the staff treated the pets as if they were most welcome there. They even ordered to for us since we had no idea on how to do this in their language ourselves.

There was no check out time, it was whenever you got yourself out of bed I guess. We paid an extra 7 gel on top of the 35 gel to have it include breakfast, $3.50 for all 3 to eat not a bad deal if I say so. They served eggs with bread, honey and cheese and tons of coffee. It was good, nothing like what we ate at home. I had my iPad with us so I was able to translate to the staff about making arrangements to get to Batumi and when. I wasn’t aware that Georgia had its own time schedule and things never happened fast. So once we checked out all the resources for getting there we still had to wait a number of hours till they showed up ( which I was beginning to doubt was coming ).

4 pm came and the taxi finally showed up, yes we chose a taxi. It turns out the train didn’t allow big suitcases anymore, so that was out. The airlines charged double what a taxi did so I figured we would get to see the country side as we headed there. It cost 200 Canadian which id 400 gel to take a taxi there and for the airlines that saved us 400 Canadian (800 gels).

Long story short the taxi driver went through our stuff when we were not looking, gonna be a thief in every bunch I guess but we were smart and kept all valuables on us so nothing was taken. It took 6 hours to drive there and I took lots of pictures and videos. I will try to post the videos but today the pictures will be up for sure. 10 pm we pulled into Batumi and into the hotel.