Monday, October 1, 2012

Loving Every Minute!

Well, another great week has flown by!! School is still just as adventerous as ever! Still have no concrete schedule, but this does allow me to get off earlier than expected some days!
Started out the week meeting up with a couple of friends in Akhmeta for coffee, it sure is great to see everyone again!! The rest of the week was pretty relaxed, I went grape picking with the fam and managed to hurt my back (shocking, I know.) which led to no school for this gal on Wednesday, but it thankfully didn't last long :)

Friday afternoon I headed to Tbilisi to (what I was hoping) catch a train to Batumi. I have never been so absolutely terrified in a vehicle in my entire life! I got it and looked out my window to see there was no rear-view mirror on the passenger side. When we finally left Telavi, I went to put my seatbelt on only to find out it didn't work. The cabbie just grabbed it and wrapped the belt around the e-brake (yah like thats going to save me). We were only abou 5 minutes out of Telavi when he started motioning to the dash that something was wrong. I glanced over and noticed that the car was over-heating. Fantastic. We pulled over and he dumped in a bottle of water and we continued on our journey. We get up to the top of the winding rode in the mountains and he is constantly shutting the car off because it was still over-heating. Keep in mind we are driving about 100 km/h on a freaking mountain!!! I did plan on taking a little cat-nap but needless to say it wasn't going to happen.
I got to Tbilisi, met up with Neema, went out for supper and at 10:30 headed to the train station. (We found out earlier that the train was sold out so we would have to take a bus. When Neema went to purchase the tickets they said that she couldn't right then but to come back at 11 and get it then) So anyways, we get to the train station and go to buy tickets, only to be told that there were no more seats on either the bus or the marshutka heading to Batumi, and the next train didn't leave until 6 am the next morning. After a lot of begging, we were granted "seats". We get on the bus only to find out our "seats" were legit on the floor of the bus! It was a very long and comfy bus ride to Batumi, but it was well worth it!! The black sea is GEORGOUS. I saw and held my first jelly fish :) When I went in the water, I noticed something floating and thought it was a plastic bag, I was quite discusted until in moved in a very jelly fish like manner. I have never exited water so fast in my entire life!! The thing was HUGE!!! Then some Georgians just went in and took it out like it was a fuzzy little kitten. I dont know about you guys, but getting stung then having to get Neema to pee on me wasn't really an ideal situation!! We spent the next two days lounging on the beach and exploring Batumi. We had one of the best meals I have had here at a Lebanese restaurant on Saturday night, then went and caught our train back to Tbilisi (which was a much more comfortable ride!!).

I cannot wait to explore more of this beautiful country, horseback riding is next on the to-do list!!

Until next time!!
Love and miss you all :)