Dateline: Poti, Georgia—13 Mar. 2017

For my two-week anniversary of being in Georgia, I took the day off. Well, I did my my lodging arrangements for the rest of the trip. I have one more night here in Poti, then two nights in Gori, and I’ll finish out the trip back where I started in Tbilisi.

When I woke up this morning, I realized I overdid the walking yesterday. My legs said, “stay in bed.” So I stayed. I made good use of the time to do some language lessons and leg stretches. Around noon I finally crawled out from under the covers when my bladder couldn’t take anymore laying around.

Once up I ate some fruit for brunch, and did the travel planning. I also decided to take the train to Gori. It might take a bit longer than a minibus, but the station is so close I’d be silly to not use it. Besides I saw some of the minibuses leaving towards Tbilisi. They were packed in like sardines. With my bags, it just might be a little too tight. I’ll get my ticket in the morning for the next day, so I’ll have one less thing to worry about. Plus I won’t have to get a ride as it’s only a short walk across the bridge.

My major accomplishment for the day was finding a local restaurant for an early dinner. I followed part of the path I walked yesterday, down one of the larger avenues, and followed my nose into a kebab shop. One excellent wrap and a beer later I was on my way, fat, dumb, and happy. I’m going back to that place tomorrow.

I stopped off at the village market on the way back to get some more bananas. I continue to be amazed at the amount of food that shows up at that market. This time I happened to walk around the back side of the main building, and found the fish monger stand along with some old ladies selling live chickens and ducks. It’s sort of like a nineteenth century Walmart. There’s a little something of everything.

Back in the hotel room, my next order of business was to use up all the hot water for a very indulgent shower. This pretty much put me down for the count and I crawled back in bed for more language study. I may have napped a little, too.

So that was my lazy day by the Black Sea. Overall, I needed it. Going from my sedentary writer/computer jockey lifestyle to backpacking around Eastern Europe has been a massive shock to my system. Just the change in diet and the walking I’ve been doing is melting the belly fat off. I’ve already down two belt holes, and the third isn’t too far away.

Equipment update

So far, I couldn’t ask for a better traveling companion than the iPad Mini. It’s just the right size to fit in anything from my camera bag to a cargo pocket. I also don’t need anything other than a plug adapter for the power supply to work. But the real star has been the folding keyboard. I charged it before I left, and it’s at 96% charged right now. It’ll be the only thing I won’t need to top off for the whole trip.

What's next?

Other than going back to the little restaurant, I have no other plans than changing some money and buying my train ticket. Depending on how my feet feel, I may go back down the water. Maybe.

Use the MVW Travel tag to see all the posts in this series.