Farewell, Georgia!

Well, it’s been about four months in Georgia and I’ve really enjoyed my time here. This is the longest I’ve been in one spot (runners up: Malaysia with three months and Australia with two). Before I scoot, however, I have a couple more cities to mention, as I finally made it over to the Black Sea.

As you may have noticed from previous entries, I don’t like to spend a long time en route. With this in mind, I split my Tbilisi to Batumi trip in half with a stop in Kutaisi. We’ll tackle that first.

Georgia on my Mind

I'm not particularly creative. (Bonus - I have a podcast episode of the same name.)

Here's the real question - what's the point of this post? Detailing what I've done in Georgia, I suppose. Perhaps more categories? I've been here for about three months, so I owe you an update of any sort.

GENERAL

Museums immediately come to mind, though not for any specific reason. The National Museum of Georgia has some interesting exhibits - a whole ton of ancient coins, ancient artifacts, and traditional dress spring to mind. The art museum(s) hit me as standard art museum(s) - perhaps a bit too much to take in on any one day, as I was mentally tired after one floor. It was good to see local art though. I have yet to see the book museum, as it's part of the National Library and therefore guarded by very surly people.

Arriving in Georgia - An Overview

I arrived in Tbilisi, Georgia on 21 July 2019. That was a while ago (it's currently 12 October).

First things first: passport control. If you weren't aware, Georgia allows US citizens (and probably EU citizens & al.) a year-long visa exemption. They stamp your passport and you're good to go - no forms, no nothing. This definitely made things easy from the start.

I took the bus into the city and immediately felt at ease. I think I extended my stay at the hostel within twenty four hours of arriving, knowing I'd be in the city long term. As usual, I'm at a bit of a loss as to what to write, so let's break some things down into categories:

Phase III: Westward Bound

A few words before I get into Georgia, specifically, following on this post.

Where Phase I was well-planned and Phase II was go-with-the-flow, I still haven't figured out the characteristic of Phase III. I've obviously not ended up in the Middle East or Africa (yet) as originally planned, so that theme is out. Perhaps I should make Phase III the "final phase" (everyone likes a trilogy, right?) and call it the friendship phase - two friends have visited me in Tbilisi and I've made friends who I plan on meeting all across Europe and the Middle East.