Let the countdown begin! 3 days from here, we’ll be struggling to zip up filled up suitcases and then speeding to catch the plane that will take us as far as Georgian Kutaisi! From there, we plan to go exploring both Georgia that we fell in love during the long May weekend last year and nearby Armenia that we don’t know yet and hope to change this situation soon! We’re already looking forward to it, we pack the equipment and in the limited free time – go through the guides and dream about monasteries, cities carved in rock and delicious food! 🙂
Maks is also getting ready for the trip and shouts “hurray!” from time to time. The boy really misses the flights! Last time he flew in the beginning of December and that was too long ago for him! Since then, we flew to South Tirol, Great Britain and Lofoten while Maks stayed at his grandparents. Now he keeps making sure:
Maks: “Are we going to go by car or plane to these two countries?”
We: “By plane little Maks!”
Maks: “Hurray, I love planes!!!”
that’s how Maks tasted Georgia a year ago – aged almost 2
Kilka słów o przygotowaniu do podróży do Gruzji i Armenii:
WHERE TO LOOK FOR FLIGHTS?
When it comes to Georgia you got two options. It’s either LOT or Wizzair. The advantage of LOT: you fly directly to gorgeous Tbilisi. Wizzair is obviously cheaper (sometimes you can find tickets as cheap as PLN 150!), but it flies to Kutaisi. You can fly there from Warsaw or Katowice. The flight takes about 3 hours which is quite alright! Kutaisi does not have a lot to offer, but the city is a great starting point and a good place to meet Georgia and its delicious cuisine. It’s where we started the trip last year and where we are going to start it now! If you ever get there, be sure to visit Mirzaani brewery for khinkali pouch-like dumplings and khachapuri pastries with cheese! We spent our first evening there, delighting ourselves with local flavours and delicious wine!
You can stay in Kutaisi for the night and then leave for Tbilisi, Batumi or Mestia. There’s not a lot of accommodation possibilities to choose from but you’ll surely find something, even if it’s a cold hostel with a nosy owner and a dirty bathroom 🙂 (that’s how our first night last year looked!).
a date with khinkali – love at first sight
HOW TO DO IT – THE FORMALITIES…
If you’re afraid of planning vacation on your own because of the formalities, the amount of work or because “you prefer somebody else do it for you”, I have good news for you: a trip to Georgia does not require any formalities! You don’t need a visa. What’s more, you only need your personal ID to travel. There’s no health preparation necessary. No syringes or preventive measures like in exotic countries. We learned about the no visa policy after our last year’s experiences! This time we were even happier. It turned out that Armenia also dropped visas on 1st January 2013. You can pay a 180-day visit without a visa. I guess we can try to squeeze to make it in such period 🙂 No syringes are necessary. Reportedly the medical care isn’t the best, but we’re not planning on getting ill (hopefully!).
We suggest renting a car both in Georgia and Armenia. Last year we got one from Naniko car rental. Nothing special and when we wanted to return the car, they did not want to give us our deposit back because – DRUMROLL! – we did not wash the car! We rented cars in many different countries but never had to wash the car before returning it. It was even worse, as we remembered about it only a few hours before our flight during some kind of Georgian holiday when all car washes were closed. This time we’re not going to rent a car in Kutaisi – the prices are higher than in Tbilisi and much higher than in Armenia. We’re going to take the GeorgianBus to Tbilisi. It should take us there approx. 3-4 hours. We’ll spend one quiet day there and then take a train to Yerevan, where we’ll get a car to see Armenia. We’re concerned about one thing from Armenia’s description found on Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs website – “be prepared for frequent police inspections and often unjustified and doubtful fines.” Well, does it mean we have to prepare a bag of gold for extra-money-hungry police officers? We’ll see about that! With all due respect for the Ministry: I always read their information about countries I’m planning to visit, but some parts of it do not always reflect the reality. Hopefully this one if one of them! 🙂 You won’t know it unless you try it yourself, right?
Z uwagi natomiast na skomplikowane formalności wizowe i dość wysokie koszty, zrezygnowaliśmy z trzeciego kraju, który również planowaliśmy odwiedzić podczas tej podróży, czyli z Azerbejdżanu. Ilość dokumentów i papierków, które należy dostarczyć, by uzyskać wizę przeraża, a ceny za załatwienie wiz dla naszej trójki u pośredników przyprawiają o zawrót głowy. Pół żartem, pół serio: po co pchać się tam, gdzie nas nie chcą, jeśli tyle jeszcze nieodkrytych terenów w Gruzji?:) A tak całkiem na poważnie: nie przepadamy za krajami, które trzeba na klęczkach błagać o prawo pobytu na tydzień czy dwa. Pewnie dlatego nigdy nie byłam w Stanach, choć moja bliska rodzina mieszka tam od 1991 roku! Wiem – szok! Jak widać mam jakieś antywizowe skrzywienie…
magical Svaneti – Georgia 2013
OUR PLAN
What are we going to do in Caucasian countries? We don’t have a precise plan yet. So far our plan is mainly based on the guide published by Bezdroża publishing house called Gruzja i Armenia oraz Azerbejdżan. Magiczne Zakaukazie. Last year it worked great and this time we’re counting on it too! :)In Georgia we will surely visit Vardzia town carved in rock, we want to see Kazbegi and one of the most Georgian views, the Gergeti Trinity Church. We’ll surely get back to Kakheti since it’s a region known for its wine and we’ll try the famous water from Borjomi.
Yerevan is going to be our starting point in Armenia (I can’t wait to see the amazing Mount Ararat views!). From there, we will go and see nearby monasteries and Lake Sevan. That’s a few basics, probably we’ll do 1000 other things on location! Between sightseeing, we’re going to try local food and encourage you to follow in our footsteps with pictures that will make you drool! Hopefully we’ll manage to stay online – fingers crossed!
LAST BUT NOT LEAST…
I have to tell you something. The trip to Georgia and Armenia is the first Tasteaway trip that’s sponsored! And it’s not just any sponsor but VARTA! 🙂 Therefore we’re going to Caucasus with VARTA and the gadgets they gave us, that will make our trip easier. Soon, you will know what kind of gadgets and how they work! I’ll only tell you that I’m really happy for PowerPack portable energy banks since there’s nothing more irritating than a dead cell phone! I know that I may sound like a slave to the online, but that’s how the life of a blogger and entrepreneur looks like. I’m never offline and that’s why I love this solution! Looking from the marketing specialist’s perspective I’m happy that there are still companies who want to do something more than pay the blogger to take a few pictures and put a random review on their blog. Companies that want to plan the campaign together with the blogger and are open to suggestions. Thanks to such approach everybody wins – we do, the brand does and you do. After this 2 weeks you will have a ready-to-go guide to Georgia and Armenia and VARTA products will be tested in real-life situations instead of being photographed on the grass or on the table 😉 Our Caucasian entries will also include information about the contest organised with VARTA with some great prizes. Stay tuned!
Anyway… I hope that you will join us on this trip and with our eyes see the magical monasteries, breathtaking wilderness, rocky Vardzia town, Lake Sevan monastery in Armenia and get to know with Georgian and Armenian cooking (I have the feeling that the latter is also tasty!)! 🙂 Fingers crossed – on Friday we’re leaving for the sun and 25-30 degrees heat!! 🙂
we can’t wait to see this views again!:)
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