Sir Isaac Newton promised that a body at rest remains at rest. Me on the sofa is a good example. But being that the sofa is thousands of miles from home, part 2 of the law where a body in motion remains in motion is important too. Well, its a good thing Sir Newton never rode with me. The law of physics would be way different.
As rough around the edges as Tbilisi is, I liked it. It felt like randomness could break out at any minute. I met some nice people that have a totally different life experiences that brought (or kept) them to this remote corner of the world. My time, though, was done and it was time to start the slow roll back home.
The first step was to catch the train to Batumi on the Turkish border. Up before dawn and off to the train station in a cold rain.
I successfully maneuvered the piles of wet slippery dog turds to make it to the ticket counter with plenty of time to spare. PLENTY OF TIME, it turned out. For some reason the daily train doesn’t run on Wednesday. Due to the lack of common language. I still don’t know if it was all Wednesdays, this Wednesday or only the Wednesdays that I show up. Didnt matter. I was on the wrong end of the track.
There are 10 seater sprinter bus services that run a similar route but take an hour longer. They run from the parking lot adjacent to the train station. Just a parking lot, No ticket agent, waiting room and a lot of destination signs in the windshields. Its especially tough because the windshield destination signs written in Georgian and drivers who don’t speak English.
Luckily, my next destination, Batumi, was spelled with good vowel placement and I could pronounce it closely enough that people understood where I was trying to get. One of the drivers told me to wait til 8 o’clock. At least that’s the number of fingers he held up.
Cooled my jets back in the train station for an hour. Nothing was open so no food.
I went back out and another driver said 9 o’clock. So I took my seat and waited again. Went back after another hour and asked another driver. He said some stuff. Waived his hands around and pointed me back to the station. With a heavy sigh. I walked back thinking I should look for a room for the night.
Then a man walked up, grabbed me by arm and walked me through the station and out the front door. Then across a totally different parking lot to a bus that was just waiting to fill the remaining seats of his Sprinter van. Didn’t seem like it would a long wait since half the seats were filled with cargo.
The driver puffed down one more cigarette and we were off into Tblisi’s morning traffic crawl. Even after traffic thinned out, we weren’t zipping along. I quit counting but I would low ball estimate that the bus driver made four or five more stops for additional cargo to pile in. Each a meandering effort through a mid sized Georgian city. It never turned into a chicken bus (central America thing) but the boxes of fresh bakery were annoying on my empty stomach.We finally arrived about an hour late and I still had to find a room.
I had a Georgian SIM card that did come in handy for Google map access but it was in my really old (2019) phone. Because it is also my sacrificial mugging phone, I dont have any any apps set up. Too old and too weak to handle the load anyway.
I found a hotel via Expedia’s internet site (not the app) that was crazy cheap and quickly hit reserve. Because I didn’t have my particulars set up, I just put in my name and checked the pay at the hotel box. When I got to the hotel, 30 seconds later, the desk clerk hadn’t received it yet. I waited a few minutes but still nothing. Turns out it didnt even go through because I missed a field somewhere on the tiny screen, half taken up by the keyboard. I told her that I would just redo it but wanted to wait a couple of minutes just in case it was slow to go through.
In the past, I have asked the desk to match the Expedia rate and save themselves the fee. They have always said it couldn’t be done and I dont know why yet. Anyway, I made the mistake of telling her the rate on Expedia. A look of dismay and disbelief washed over her face. She excused herself and almost sprinted across the lobby to, I assume, a back office. I got back on the website to rebook it but the price had shot up $20. I guess Expedia glitches out every once in a while and errors on the low side. So always wait for comfirmation before showing up at the front desk. It was getting dark so I just took the new rate.
Batumi is good. I had a good time walking around. It was beautiful weather the 3 days I was there which I hear is rare. Supposedly it can be quite rainy and the beach is pretty rocky. Its more of a place to watch the Black Sea while strolling along the boardwalk waiting for the nightlife to heat up.
The folks in the Tbilisi English bar said I should check out the Batumi Irish Bar so I did. Was an interesting mix of English speakers. A blonde puffy lipped Russian woman started up a conversation and was soon introduced to her Russian boyfriend from Baltimore. His plan to move back to Russia was ill-timed and he was now hiding out in Batumi supporting his Sochi base girlfriend from afar who by his own admission (with her right next to him) doesn’t do anything but look pretty. He said there were plenty just like her waiting for a man like me. Which I am well aware of as I get emails from them nearly everyday.
Somehow they faded into the crowd and another couple invited me over as they were very entertained listening to the conversation. He was from England and she was from Russia. I would have never guessed it from her accent, or lack of. They are remote working, bouncing around extended stay AirBnB’s. Their travel limited by Visa restrictions and hoops based on their separate nationalities. It was a good night and I was surprised when last call was announced.
I had one last authentic Shuarma for the walk home and slept well.
Batumi Photos are HERE
I spent a few hours talking to bus travel agents including a diffcult conversation with two very old ladies in a closet of a dim gray office with no computers or phones. They said (I think) that they could get me on a bus tomorrow. Just give them approximately $60. I didn’t have that kind of cash so I went in search of an ATM. Along the way I came across a bright and shiny travel agent office and went in to get a second opinion. They didn’t do bus trips but sent me down the road to the bus company’s equally bright and shiny office.
At the next place, a couple young ladies with pretty good English skills were happy to help, I think. I don’t think they quite understood what I was trying to do. Or maybe they did and knew better, but couldnt explain it. They did end up selling me a ticket on the next day’s overnight bus to Ankara Turkey.
One of the benefits of Bus and train travel is the stations are usually in town and easy to get too compared to airports. I think Batumi wanted to alleviate bus traffic through town by putting their station a couple of miles out so I had to use a taxi hailing app to get there. Bolt. I don’t know if they are the same as the discount bus company in the US but it worked out pretty well even on my old phone. I definitely could have walked it but with my luggage, I am glad I didn’t. Especially since the station is just a great big hall with a small poorly rated Cafe at one end. I ended up heading out to get lunch because I knew the next 20 hours were going to be truckstop sandwich bars. The station is pretty much in the middle of nowhere so I easily walked 2 miles with my luggage looking for something to eat. All I found was shop lit only by the light coming through the window. I bought a dusty package of stale cookies.
Departure time was approaching so I went to the bus office. Showed the driver my ticket and he pointed me to the bus. Showing is a pretty loose description of what happened. He was happy I just had the envelope it came in. I found my seat next to a man with an annoying wet cough.
It was a big Greyhound sized bus without the WiFi advertized as a selling feature. it soon filled up and departed. Through the traffic packed Batumi streets that I thought a remote bus station could avoid. It took about an hour to get through town and pick up speed.
A nice sunset drive down the black sea coast. Then the border with Turkey halted the roll. Everyone piled out and grabbed their luggage. Except me because I had no idea that I was supposed to grab my luggage.
This is the only border crossing for miles and it can get crowded and rambunctious. A vendor on the promenade in Batumi showed me a YouTube video of an unruly mob trying to get through the gates when I told him I didnt have time for his boat tour because I was catching a bus for turkey in a couple hours. I was dubious thinking it was just a marketing ploy to get people to take the boat ride. But sure enough, the border entry area was packed with people and their babies, strollers, cargo and luggage. Except me because my luggage was still on the bus. Until the bus lady looked at me with anger and disappointment since she didnt speak English but somehow I figured out the error of my ways. I had to push back through the tightening masses growing behind me, find the bus, grab my luggage and get back in line far behind my bus mates. Wondering how long they would wait.
Now with my luggage I rejoined the swell of people. I am getting a little perturbed cause lines are not a thing. Everyone was just elbowing their way to the a closer spot to the sliding glass doors that would open for a few seconds as the previous group cleared out of the first passport stations. As the doors open people pushed through and continued to push through as the hapless guards tried to close them again. The people that didn’t make the cutoff, continued to jostle for position for a good chance at making it through next opportunity.
I finally made it to the first Georgia passport line breezed through that after 20 minutes. Then waited another 20 minutes at the Turkey passport counter before sprinting down a long hall to the Turkey parking area. It was dark now and all the white tour busses look alike and none looked like mine. I walked up and down the road looking for my bus but saw nothing. I was starting to think that hand carrying all your luggage across the border allowed the bus to leave people behind without too much guilt.
It was dark now and a guy grabbed my arm. I thought. “Now what”? But it was my phlegmy seatmate. I hadn’t gotten left behind after all. While I was frantically trying to get to the Turkish side bus parking. Everyone else was loading up on duty free.
About 3 hours after we arrived at the border we were off again. Next stop a gas station Cafe and gift shop. It was a chaffing dish cafeteria and the offerings looked well chaffed. I opted for another roll of cookies.
Around 11, the bus lady came through to see where every one was getting out. She looked at me. Gave me a look and was going to just pass by but I spoke up and said Ankara. She stopped, looked at me incredulously. I showed her my ticket and incredulous gave way to cestfallen. I didn’t know that someone who grew up at the foot of the Caucasus mountains could get much whiter but she did. A guy across the aisle was able to say that this bus was going to Istanbul, nowhere near Ankara. It’s nowhere near, by hundreds of miles. probably a black mark on the bus lady’s permamant record to let unticketed riders on the bus. At the very least she was in for an annoying meeting with HR and some poorly acted training videos.
By this time the whole bus was a twitter about the idiot in their midst. The poor bus lady was running back and forth to talk to the driver and figure out what to do with me. And after much disbelief, huffing and puffing, she went and made a call. I didn’t really care so i was not to worried. I didnt have anywhere reserved for just this reason. It was really just another $10 bus ride and a day trip to get it resolved. The rest of the bus was pretty excited though. Highlight of their trip I think. My seat mate looked at my ticket and noticed it was for the following day. Kind of my fault for not checking the travel agent’s work but the bus lady too for not checking.
A couple of hours later, the bus pulled over to the side of the road and I was told to get off. Assuming the best. I grabbed my bag out of the storage compartment and another guy grabs my arm. It was an attendant for a bus that just pulled up. I got on and took my exact same seat. They made me pay another $14 for some reason. I didn’t have Turkish money yet due to the scramble at the border. They converted my emergency 20 Euro note I had stored away. I am not sure why I had to pay again since I paid full fare to Istanbul. A lot further bus ride than to Ankara. But a cheap price to pay compared to sitting on the side of the road.
The rest of the trip was pretty uneventful. I bought a ticket for the next bus going to Cappadocia and watched a whole lot of nothing out the window for the next 5 hours.
Cappadocia was well worth all this hassle. It’s mostly Muslim so being there on Christmas didn’t raise the holiday spirit but they did have things decorated a bit for the tourists. There is plenty to do in the very surreal landscape.
Cappadocia pictures are here
After a few days, I took a 5 hour bus ride back to Ankara to catch a flight out of Turkey. A very boring 5 hours. It’s much like driving through Eastern Montana. I was glad to see the sprawl of
Ankara come over the horizon. I have never really heard of a reason to hang around Ankara so I didn’t include anytime there before my flight out. I grabbed a seat on the next airport bus and settled in for the hour long drive to the other side of town. I didn’t see anything interesting pass by so I think I made a good decision. Reminded me of Houston.
I had a domestic flight scheduled so I just rolled up, got my boarding pass with plenty of time. On the other hand, the airline’s website sold me tickets that only allowed me 1.5 hours at Istanbul to make my next flight. Including passport control.
I trusted them. Istanbul has a new airport and it’s big. Something I learned as I emerged from passport control and saw all the flights listed on the departure board. I had to scan for a couple of minutes as it flipped through the flights in Turkish and English. Of course, my flight was notated with “Final Call”. Not only did I learn how big an airport it was by the number of departures but how out of shape I was in as I ran to the gate with my luggage. There were stairs and tunnels and long halls ending up at a packed runway bus to take me the last 1/4 mile. But I made it. Climbed the stairs and found my middle seat between 2 hulking Turkish guys. They laughed and even took our picture with me squashed in between them. It was only an hour and a half flight but very uncomfortable sitting there with my elbows almost touching.
I landed at the Tirana Airport and got through passport control by 10pm. The hotel I wanted was an hour away and stopped checkins at midnight. I could still make it but didn’t reserve the room cause I just wasn’t sure about my timing. I wanted to get a local SIM card so I could stay in touch incase the cab got bogged down on the way. I hate rolling into Mom and Pop hotels late because you know you’re waking them up.
I went to the mobile store and decided on the options I needed and pulled out my card. To which. She said she couldn’t take cards because her card reader had no receipt paper. I would have to go to an ATM for cash. I couldn’t find a working ATM or better said, I was too tired to care to look for a working ATM and it was getting dangerously close to midnight. I hopped back on Expedia and was now seeing all the rooms in town coming up as sold out. It was beginning to look like I was going to be sleeping in an airport corner. Instead I took a chance and walked to a nearby airport hotel. Contrary to what Expedia was saying, they had plenty of rooms, budget busting of course, but I tossed the budget for the night and took a room.
Had a good sleep, dug deep into the breakfast buffet and caught a bus into tirana.
PS……
I am running slow on getting new posts up. My tablet and phone keyboards are cumbersome. Been moving a lot so at the mercy of public transportation internet. Very slow if it is even available. I have been able to get pics up to Google drive and put in albums as I go. The links are on the IG-ish page.
