The morning was dominated by time zone confusion, beginning with waking up. I have watches on different devices and the first I looked on said 5 o’clock and I had the feeling of sleeping longer. And so it was as the phone said 7.
In Burgas you only saw dogs on leashes and lots of cats straying, in Kutaisi were many street dogs.
I bought some food, including a huge something, a sweet covered with coconut crumble topping and roughly formed like a pear but 20cm high (sorry, on the way home I was to curious and greedy and ate the upper part). Inside was a mixture of creamy stuff and peanuts.
I did this and that and suddenly, my PC showed Tbilisi time would be 11:30 instead, as my phone showed 10:30! In a hurry I packed everything so, after meeting Tiko, I could leave soon, and went to her office. She saw me in the entrance and started talking but her boss told her to go back to work. I wondered why he would be so hard, regarding one or two minutes and then I saw that it was 11 not 12….
So my lost hour was given back and I came again at the real 12. We went to a restaurant, eating immediately Khinkali as Tiko had preordered to save time.
We talked and ate and soon her time was over, so we went back to the office, took a selfie and said good bye after 5 years for another undefined length of time. Strange as life is….
P
So, she continued her work and I started cycling. After leaving Kutaisi I could go through a pleasant forest for a while, then the route crossed a river and a (kind of?) highway and went up the hills. And the first already showed me my limits. It was 19% and I had to give up, as not even in standing position I could bring the heavy bike up. Also pushing it was so hard, but that was just the beginning. For nearly two hours there where steep up and down hills and I learned that 13% is the limit for me to climb for longer distances.
And then I came back to the same river! So, all elevation was lost again, and I was on the main road. I am not sure whether I could have gone on that road, too. However, now it was reduced to a normal road and I met again my Georgian car-killers. They deserve an extra post and will get it soon. On this road there are many water taps, and before, on the hillside, I even have had to buy water. The road followed the river and 2-3 times I thought that this or that could be a nice place o have a rest. But then I saw cows or dogs or people in different combinations. Before that I even had seen a nice hostel, but it was too early in daytime and kilometres. So, further I decided to go to the next bigger city but it was getting late and I was not sure if it would be big enough to have a hostel or guest house (and the next morning showed that there was not any). Then I saw the statue of a wine allegory and explored the place.
near Zestafoni sculpture: mother with 7 sons symbolizing agricultural labour “Imeretis baraka”
It looked good and I started preparing to stay there.
The first to come was a family but the daughter even wanted to have me on their photo. So, no problem. The next was a man coming out of the woods and we found each other equally unexpected. He asked for a cigarette and walked away on the street. And then came a guy who just wanted to pee and maybe he even did not see me. While all that happened I just pretended to have dinner at a nice sight although it was obvious that I had carried up my bike 15 stairsteps and my stuff was ready for camping.
Half an hour later I was in the tent, writing this having no idea how many more people were coming as the street was still noisy. But it was dark, and this makes it less attractive for people to come, except maybe young people to make party. So: Goodnight!