I'm on my Spring Break! 11 days to relax and do whatever I want! Okay, not exactly whatever, but you get the picture.
After all the planning and changing plans again and again... My plans are finally fairly definite. Here they are:
Right now, I'm in Trabzon, Turkey. Next is Vardzia, a beautiful city full of caves. I'm hoping to hit Gori, Stalin's birthplace. (I want to go see it, but Kas doesn't seem that excited.) A possible stop in T'bilisi (the capital) or to Borjomi to see the formal Romanov Summer Palace. Frankly, all this depends on time and money. Isn't that always how it goes. Everything comes back to money. Boo. It'll still be a great break!
Getting to Trabzon started the same as any other trip I've taken in Georgia so far. It began with the mission on finding the right Marshutka. My fellow traveler, Kas, and I decided to meet in T'bilisi Square at 9am and then head to the main Marshutka station from there. Actually, we had to meet in T'bilisi Square because I had no idea how to get to the main station. It wasn't that hard to find and I'm sure I could have figured it out. However, it was so much easier to get there together! Anyway, we decided to get there right away to get on the early Marshutka to maximize our time in Trabzon. We assumed that there would be one leaving around 9am. So we got to the station, found the Marshutka and sat in our seats. 2 hours later.... the Marshutka was full and we were on our way! So much for getting up early. You live and you learn. So we left Batumi, had to cross the Georgia/Turkey border where we saw some fellow TLG-ers on their way to Turkey as well. Of course, we were all headed to different cities but it was nice to see some familiar faces. Back on the Marshutka once we went through all the checkpoints, another 4 hours on the Marshutka we were in Trabzon!
Drama of the trip: We didn't exactly know where the hotel was but thankfully I had written down the address and phone number on a piece of paper to show to someone when we arrived in the city. On the Marshutka we made friends with a guy who spoke English to help us communicate with who we needed to. He helped us a lot once we arrived in Trabzon. Thank you David! He was helping us find a way to our hotel from wherever we would be getting dropped off. Well, right as he asked, we found out that we were passing the hotel. Whoops! Until like Georgia, the Marshutka just can't stop in the middle of wherever and drop us off. Lame! We were then dropped off close to the city center at a giant mall called "Forum Trabzon."David helped us talk to some taxi drivers via a security guard.
"How much to get to this address?" "30 lira" "Do you know of a bus we could take?" "No. There are no buses that go there. You need to take a taxi!"
Riiiiiiiiight. Buddy, we hopped on a Marshutka that took us right to the hotel for 3 lira. Thank you very much. The funny part was that we were ready to take the taxi and just bite the bullet. Luckily, we did some digging around first. I'm so glad that I didn't just hop into the cab. I used my brain instead! :)
First day in Trabzon was an overall success. We arrived safely, avoided the outrageous taxi prices, looped around the outlet mall by the hotel, lunch at Burger King in the mall, took amazing 30 minute showers (opposed to the normal 5 minute ones), walked on the beach... The usual things to do in Turkey :) Tomorrow the real exploring begins! I can't wait.
Until next time. Adventure is out there!
After all the planning and changing plans again and again... My plans are finally fairly definite. Here they are:
Right now, I'm in Trabzon, Turkey. Next is Vardzia, a beautiful city full of caves. I'm hoping to hit Gori, Stalin's birthplace. (I want to go see it, but Kas doesn't seem that excited.) A possible stop in T'bilisi (the capital) or to Borjomi to see the formal Romanov Summer Palace. Frankly, all this depends on time and money. Isn't that always how it goes. Everything comes back to money. Boo. It'll still be a great break!
Getting to Trabzon started the same as any other trip I've taken in Georgia so far. It began with the mission on finding the right Marshutka. My fellow traveler, Kas, and I decided to meet in T'bilisi Square at 9am and then head to the main Marshutka station from there. Actually, we had to meet in T'bilisi Square because I had no idea how to get to the main station. It wasn't that hard to find and I'm sure I could have figured it out. However, it was so much easier to get there together! Anyway, we decided to get there right away to get on the early Marshutka to maximize our time in Trabzon. We assumed that there would be one leaving around 9am. So we got to the station, found the Marshutka and sat in our seats. 2 hours later.... the Marshutka was full and we were on our way! So much for getting up early. You live and you learn. So we left Batumi, had to cross the Georgia/Turkey border where we saw some fellow TLG-ers on their way to Turkey as well. Of course, we were all headed to different cities but it was nice to see some familiar faces. Back on the Marshutka once we went through all the checkpoints, another 4 hours on the Marshutka we were in Trabzon!
Drama of the trip: We didn't exactly know where the hotel was but thankfully I had written down the address and phone number on a piece of paper to show to someone when we arrived in the city. On the Marshutka we made friends with a guy who spoke English to help us communicate with who we needed to. He helped us a lot once we arrived in Trabzon. Thank you David! He was helping us find a way to our hotel from wherever we would be getting dropped off. Well, right as he asked, we found out that we were passing the hotel. Whoops! Until like Georgia, the Marshutka just can't stop in the middle of wherever and drop us off. Lame! We were then dropped off close to the city center at a giant mall called "Forum Trabzon."David helped us talk to some taxi drivers via a security guard.
"How much to get to this address?" "30 lira" "Do you know of a bus we could take?" "No. There are no buses that go there. You need to take a taxi!"
Riiiiiiiiight. Buddy, we hopped on a Marshutka that took us right to the hotel for 3 lira. Thank you very much. The funny part was that we were ready to take the taxi and just bite the bullet. Luckily, we did some digging around first. I'm so glad that I didn't just hop into the cab. I used my brain instead! :)
First day in Trabzon was an overall success. We arrived safely, avoided the outrageous taxi prices, looped around the outlet mall by the hotel, lunch at Burger King in the mall, took amazing 30 minute showers (opposed to the normal 5 minute ones), walked on the beach... The usual things to do in Turkey :) Tomorrow the real exploring begins! I can't wait.
Until next time. Adventure is out there!
Really wonderful plans. You're a just perfect time.
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