The fifth day of the tour (for me) involved food food food and, welp, yes, more food...
I'm not even going to talk about the wine...
Friday - Kutaisi
Rain. We walked through Kutaisi to some local markets where most of the Americans bought many of the spices and spice mixes we'd been eating for the last few days. The markets were so much fresh food and spices, and dozens of vendors selling the same things over and over. That said, most of the women bought from the vendor right in front of the entryway where the guide stopped to talk to us about the spices.
I felt kinda sorry for all the others who weren't at the entrance, and they seemed rather grumpy when I didn't buy all that much. Mostly, my issue was that this was only the second week of what was going to be seven weeks of travel and I wasn't even sure that I'd be able to take the spices back into Australia with me - something that I only realised after I'd bought the spices.
I ended up foisting them on the stepbrother in the Netherlands, and on![[profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
alpha_flyer once I reached Canada. So it worked out okay!
Outside the markets was a square with a gorgeous sculpted mural that showed the history of Georgia, and I would have loved to learn about each section of the mural, but there wasn't time.
A few interesting architectural quirks:
Unfortunately, there wasn't time for us to do the planned visit to the cathedral in Kutaisi either - they hadn't calculated how long we'd take at the markets - so we ended up going straight to Martvili Canyon. Unfortunately the unseasonal summer rains in Georgia had turned a peaceful idyll into a thunderous rapids. Still amazing, but we had to quit the planned paddleboat tour in exchange for just wandering around the space.
My memory of this section of the trip is of crashing white water, dripping greenery everywhere, and metal walkways in and about the canyons, some of which were a little slippery!
Another family-run winery, this time with some in-ground qvervy, and an absolutely magnificient feast which - once again - we were hard-put to actually do justice to!
I was fascinated by the greenhouse and the vegetable gardens. And some very adorable animals!
Going back to our hotel in Kutaisi, we had a bit of time to wander the city. I explored a museum, walked through a sculpture park, spotted some sculptures that really worked for me, and observed a handful of protestors outside a government building.
Ah, Australians... (look closer at the sculpture: the graffiti in red... D: )
I have no idea what this sculpture represented, but it was fascinating.
The park had great walkways, arches, and plenty of people sitting around in it. Very civic.
A daisy-crossing!
And a sculpture that spoke to me: you had to be in the right place to see it, but when you did:
Dinner was amazing. Probably the best one of the trip, in a Kutaisi restaurant (run by women, as per usual for the tour). The cheese bread was spectacular and the worst part was that we had no space for it after lunch (and dinner the previous night, and lunch the previous day, and dinner the day before that and...)
Peach, basil, and (I think) fish salad. With the egg-bread in the background. Watermelon with cheese. Eggplant thingies and deep friend thingies and all I remember was that I tasted everything but had actual stomach space for NOTHING.
The problem with eating feast after feast after feast is that after a while, you can't in fact appreciate it any more. It's like, we needed an extra week's worth of time, with recovery days in between when they left us to eat, IDK, a little bit of cheese bread and water and some fresh fruit for the entire day just to let our stomachs settle...
I'm not even going to talk about the wine...
Friday - Kutaisi
Rain. We walked through Kutaisi to some local markets where most of the Americans bought many of the spices and spice mixes we'd been eating for the last few days. The markets were so much fresh food and spices, and dozens of vendors selling the same things over and over. That said, most of the women bought from the vendor right in front of the entryway where the guide stopped to talk to us about the spices.
I felt kinda sorry for all the others who weren't at the entrance, and they seemed rather grumpy when I didn't buy all that much. Mostly, my issue was that this was only the second week of what was going to be seven weeks of travel and I wasn't even sure that I'd be able to take the spices back into Australia with me - something that I only realised after I'd bought the spices.
I ended up foisting them on the stepbrother in the Netherlands, and on
alpha_flyer once I reached Canada. So it worked out okay!Outside the markets was a square with a gorgeous sculpted mural that showed the history of Georgia, and I would have loved to learn about each section of the mural, but there wasn't time.
A few interesting architectural quirks:
Unfortunately, there wasn't time for us to do the planned visit to the cathedral in Kutaisi either - they hadn't calculated how long we'd take at the markets - so we ended up going straight to Martvili Canyon. Unfortunately the unseasonal summer rains in Georgia had turned a peaceful idyll into a thunderous rapids. Still amazing, but we had to quit the planned paddleboat tour in exchange for just wandering around the space.
My memory of this section of the trip is of crashing white water, dripping greenery everywhere, and metal walkways in and about the canyons, some of which were a little slippery!
Another family-run winery, this time with some in-ground qvervy, and an absolutely magnificient feast which - once again - we were hard-put to actually do justice to!
I was fascinated by the greenhouse and the vegetable gardens. And some very adorable animals!
Going back to our hotel in Kutaisi, we had a bit of time to wander the city. I explored a museum, walked through a sculpture park, spotted some sculptures that really worked for me, and observed a handful of protestors outside a government building.
Ah, Australians... (look closer at the sculpture: the graffiti in red... D: )
I have no idea what this sculpture represented, but it was fascinating.
The park had great walkways, arches, and plenty of people sitting around in it. Very civic.
A daisy-crossing!
And a sculpture that spoke to me: you had to be in the right place to see it, but when you did:
Dinner was amazing. Probably the best one of the trip, in a Kutaisi restaurant (run by women, as per usual for the tour). The cheese bread was spectacular and the worst part was that we had no space for it after lunch (and dinner the previous night, and lunch the previous day, and dinner the day before that and...)
Peach, basil, and (I think) fish salad. With the egg-bread in the background. Watermelon with cheese. Eggplant thingies and deep friend thingies and all I remember was that I tasted everything but had actual stomach space for NOTHING.
The problem with eating feast after feast after feast is that after a while, you can't in fact appreciate it any more. It's like, we needed an extra week's worth of time, with recovery days in between when they left us to eat, IDK, a little bit of cheese bread and water and some fresh fruit for the entire day just to let our stomachs settle...
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