batumi
type: Note
content: I made it to Batumi. Which, as promised, is a super weird place. In a good way. But not before the bus company copped out at the border (Sarp) and said I was on my own. The border crossing itself was insane, super hot, crowded, people dragging carpets around, and even a small fight broke out. The Georgian side was more civilised, and after passport control is a helpful tourist information place, a toilet, and air conditioning. Outside the doors (you can't get back in again) is the beginning of the border town Sarpi, with an array of definitely poor-value money changers, and a chaos of busses. I hopped in a marshrutka which set off for Batumi when it was full (entirely of locals as far as I could tell). You pay the driver on the way out, and it was 1GEL, about 20 minutes. After checking into my hostel, I wandered around, tried to pick up a ferry ticket for in a couple of weeks (they told me to buy it online), picked up a SIM card, drank coffee, and went on a walking tour. And up the Alphabetic Tower, and ate lobiani in a small cafe. Discovered Sunday trains are sold out, and booked a bus to get to Tbilisi instead. Sooo close to getting a train, but alas. My fate is bus.
published: 2018-07-14T01:04:00+04:00
tag: georgia
tag: travel
tag: tourism

eggplant
type: Note
content: There's also an eggplant with walnut paste salad and I for some reason I ordered it and it was super delicious and today my walnut allergy (or whatever it is) - a very specific head pain - is manifesting in my left ear. Totally worth it though. Since 80% of veggie Georgian dishes contain walnuts, maybe I can use the next couple of weeks to desensitize myself.. if it works like that.. I hope it works like that??
published: 2018-07-14T16:35:00+04:00
tag: life
tag: georgia
tag: food
tag: nuts

georgian-dish
type: Note
content: There's this Georgian dish - ojakhuri, "family meal" - of potatoes slow cooked with mushrooms, and sometimes tomatoes, onions and slightly hot green peppers. I mean. They know what I like. (The mushroom version is the weirdo alternative to pork, obviously, but common everywhere.) On a related note I have extreme potato bloat right now.
published: 2018-07-14T16:15:00+04:00
tag: georgia
tag: vegan
tag: food
tag: travel

khinkali-2
type: Note
content: Me: I would like potato khinkali please. Waiter: :o but you're alone and the minimum order is five Me: My good sir, let me tell you about the time I ate ten khinkali. (in case you were wondering, I ate all the khinkali. And a salad. And then the waiter hit on me and I ran away. But the important part of this story is KHINKALI)
published: 2018-07-27T23:32:00+04:00
tag: travel
tag: food
tag: vegan
tag: georgia

lobiani
type: Note
content: I discover a new kind of lobiani every day.
published: 2018-07-26T09:35:00+04:00
tag: vegan
tag: travel
tag: food
tag: georgia

port
type: Note
content: Gooood morning from... still the port of Batumi. After a reasonable but short sleep, an announcement at 7am sent us down for passport control, where we got stamped out of Georgia (and they kept our passports). Two hours later.. at 8am Ukrainian time (this boat runs on Ukrainian time obviously) we were summoned for breakfast.. which was a small plate of some of the worst looking non-foods I have ever seen (plastic omelet, a distressing pink sausage..). I ate my single slice of tomato and cucumber, drank tea with lemon (there isn't even coffee) and couldn't even make myself eat the terrible white bread. Fortunately I massively overstocked on supplies so I actually won't starve. (There's no wifi but I still have 3G because.. we're still in Georgia. Still.)
published: 2018-07-29T09:36:00+04:00
tag: vegan
tag: food
tag: georgia
tag: ferry
tag: travel

pre-ferry
type: Note
content: I've had a fairly satisfactory 24 hours. Some things that needed wrapping up are wrapped up. This morning I went questing for supplies and got two giant shoti breads, burning hot straight from the tone (underground clay oven thing). Compared to Tbilisi, the ones in Batumi (when you eventually find them) are wide, the size of my chest - in Tbilisi they're narrow, more baguette-y. In both cases they have delicious crispy ends that never make it home. For 1 gel each, you could survive on one of these for a day if you needed to. I also got some market fruit and veg, and a little pot of what I hope is tkemali (sour plum sauce) but might be a hot chilli paste. We'll find out. I was a little worried about ending up at a port in Ukraine late at night next week with no language skills and no local money. This morning in the hostel kitchen I met a Ukrainian woman who taught me some useful words and exchanged some of her UAH with GEL for me. So now at least I have bus fare. I think I know what I'm working on next week, and am prepped to do it offline if necessary. That's also nice. And the issue of my brother being homeless in Edinburgh next month was resolved yesterday as well. Whew. So I think I'm all set to without guilt or worry get on a wifi-less ferry of potentially unknown duration across the Black Sea this evening. So if you don't hear from me for a few days, that's why.
published: 2018-07-28T14:14:14+04:00
tag: travel
tag: georgia
tag: food
tag: life

tales-from-the-black-sea
type: Article
content: Walking to the port from Batumi is not super easy. It's not far - about 20 minutes from the cable car - but not a pedestrian friendly route. Also the layout of the roads is different from what I could see on maps.me. If you think you can follow the road around, you can for a while until the pavement literally crumbles into nothing. I traipsed through smashed up concrete on the side of the road for a while, as I thought that was the only way, but eventually it was just fenced off, just as the road starts sloping up and curving around to the left. It's a big and busy highway, so I didn't fancy walking along the side of the road. I contemplated squeezing past the fence, but then wondered if I'd fare better on the other side of the road, presuming of course I'd be able to cross back again when I reached the actual port. By this point there was a large bollard in the middle of the road, so I backed up to where the pavement was whole again, and there was no bollard, and crossed. It became apparently on this side that the road forked; one sort of side road, which initially I thought was more of a layby for trucks, ran alongside the main highway. There was clearly no pavement on the other side of the highway either, so I walked along the layby road a little way.. and a little further. I'm not sure why some instinct told me to keep going, even though it was really not clear where it led, because this turned out to be right way. The layby turned into a real road which went under the curving highway and.. led to the port! There wasn't any real footpath here either, but it was much much less busy than the other road, and vehicles that did pass were going a lot slower. Under the bridge/highway there was a carpark of sorts; pass straight across that and over the next road, and the ferry waiting area appears. It was visible due to the huddle of other soggy passengers under a small shelter. I saw two friendly looking people with bikes, and confirmed they are waiting for the ferry. …
name: Tales from the Black Sea (aka the ferry from Batumi to Odesa)
published: 2018-07-31T15:32:00+03:00
tag: vegan
tag: ukraine
tag: georgia
tag: travel
tag: ferry
tag: transit
tag: life
tag: food

tbilisi
type: Note
content: I made it to Tbilisi a little late (it should be a 6.5 hour bus from Batumi), because the bus stopped for a few silly reasons. Little things like cows in the road.. roof is leaking rain.. side of the bus opened and suitcases flew out and had to be rescued from mountainside.. Then I accidentally didn't get out in the city center - because I didn't think the bus was stopping in the city center. And ended up at a bus station in the south I was entirely unprepared for. I found myself surrounded by taxi drivers, one of whom told me there is no metro connection here. He may have been biased, but it sure looked like a wasteland. My general desire not to get into a taxi had the effect of reducing taxi prices by 5 GEL every minute until I gave in and took a taxi to the old town. This was still not the right place, and I walked through the rain to the vegan cafe, to plan the rest of my night. (Current status: pizza coma.)
published: 2018-07-15T20:58:00+04:00
tag: vegan
tag: georgia
tag: travel
tag: bus

tomatoes
type: Note
content: Georgia's fresh tomato game is very strong, but pickling them whole is next level. (And they make a great midnight snack.)
published: 2018-07-26T00:08:00+04:00
tag: vegan
tag: food
tag: travel
tag: georgia

vegan-in-georgia
type: Article
content: "Shemomechama" is a Georgian phrase, translating roughly to the passive "it happened that I ate everything." I like to think of it as "I accidentally all the food." Which is very much what happened during my two weeks in Georgia. Traditional (or, some would argue, modern-tourist-adapted-traditional) Georgian food is actually vegan heaven. When you peer around the meat and cheese, you discover a whole world of beans, bread, potatoes and mushrooms. They do great things with veggies, particularly aubergine, and I've never had such spectacular and simple salads. My usual 'vegan in' posts are a list of places to eat, but in this case I'm going to do a list of dishes, most of which you can get in any random Georgian restaurant you find on the street. At the end I'll also list a few places across Tbilisi and Batumi that I thought were particularly good. Other things to note about Georgian cuisine is that it's generally served family-style.. that is, huge plates, ideal for sharing. If you're eating on your own, you really must resist ordering many dishes even if they look like sides because this is too much food. If you're with a group though - even a meat-eating group - it's ace. Because so many totally normal common side dishes and well-loved mains are vegan! On more than one occasion I sat back and let other people order a bunch of stuff, and there was always stuff I could eat. Fasting One of the reasons Georgian food is so vegan-friendly is because of the Orthodox fasting periods. Wednesdays, Fridays, and many many special occasions, many adopt essentially a pesca-vegan diet - they can't have any food from land animals. As a result, many restaurants have a 'fasting menu', or at least understand the concept of vegan if you ask if something is okay for fasting. And since Georiga is not the kind of country to add secret fish to things, ordering anything from a fasting menu that isn't explicitly fish is pretty safe. Lobio Lobio is bean stew. It comes in a clay pot, and is d…
name: Shemomechama (Vegan in Georgia)
published: 2018-07-29T01:46:00+04:00
tag: travel
tag: food
tag: vegan
tag: georgia

week-in-review-3
type: Article
content: Spent two days in Sofia, eating and cafe working. Met cool people around the hostel. Took a night bus to Istanbul. Drama around a guy being seated next to a woman and the driver had to come rearrange the whole bus. Took a day-and-night bus from Istanbul to Batumi. Drama was that it abandoned us at the border and I had to take a matrushka the rest of the way. Spent two days in super weird Batumi. Discovered Georgian food \o/ Also a nice hostel. Bussed from Batumi to Tbilisi. Drama was the luggage flying out on a mountain road lolol
name: Week in review: 9 - 15 July
published: 2018-07-15T23:49:00+04:00
tag: bus
tag: https://rhiaro.co.uk/tags/week+in+review
tag: travel
tag: georgia
tag: sofia

week-in-review-5
type: Article
content: Returned to Tbilisi from the Rachuli mountains. Ate much more food. Did a walking tour, went on the cable car, walked to the giant cathedral. Took a train from Tbilisi to Batumi. Holed up in a nice AirBnB apartment for a few days to work and chill. Went on the Batumi cable car too. Ferry delayed; one night in a hostel. Boarded the ferry to Ukraine, and lived on it in the port for 12 hours and counting..
name: Week in review: 23 - 29 July
published: 2018-07-29T10:10:10+04:00
tag: food
tag: georgia
tag: week+in+review
tag: travel
tag: vegan
tag: ferry

georgia
type: Collection
total items: 13

https://rhiaro.co.uk/tags/georgia
type: CollectionPage
items: tales-from-the-black-sea
items: week-in-review-5
items: port
items: vegan-in-georgia
items: pre-ferry
items: khinkali-2
items: lobiani
items: tomatoes
items: week-in-review-3
items: tbilisi
items: eggplant
items: georgian-dish
items: batumi
name: Georgia (the country)
part of: georgia