Dateline: Poti, Georgia—14 Mar. 2017

Last night it rained. I heard the tapping on my hotel room window but didn't bother look out. Since there was nothing I could do about it, I wasn't getting out of my warm bed to investigate.

By morning it had stopped. After my usual morning routine of doing an hour of language study while still under the covers, the streets were mostly dry, and only puddles remained.

I started off by walking over to the train station to buy my ticket for tomorrow. The clerk didn't speak English, but the Georgian number practiced paid off, and I was able to give her tomorrow's date and we muddled through the rest. I wasn't given the option of ticket prices and it looks like she sold me the higher priced one. This means I'm riding in the nice train car with the individual seats this time. Not bad for 12 GEL.

My next task was to change up another Benjamin. The first place I tried didn't want any 100s, so I kept walking. The currency exchanges are easy to find. They all have digital signs out front advertising their rates. The second place was a more organized operation. By the looks of it, they also did basic finance and loans. The tellers even had individual booths behind the glass. The shop in Kutaisi was about the size of a large refrigerator and only had one teller working. Here it looked almost like a payday loan shop from back home.

I grabbed my daily dose of ორი банан. For those that have been following along at home, yes, that's a horrible pidgin of Georgian and Russian. I've learned numbers in Georgian and words in Russian. The language app I've been using started with the the Georgian numbers and that was as much progress as I made. The Russian lessons are more complete and include audio for the pronunciation. I started on it in Kutaisi because I was staying in a Russian speaking household. I've kept with it, as I'm more likely to find a Russian speaker at home to practice with. (Oh, that phrase means "two banana" as I'm not up my Russian plurals yet.)

I've been buying those two bananas every afternoon I've been in Poti. I eat one before bed, and the other when I wake up. The potassium helps prevent leg cramps.

Overall, I only did my early errands and then around 2 p.m. I went out for my kebab and beer at the little restaurant I found yesterday. They remembered me, and I think I'll miss that little shop. But that was all of the walking I could handle. On my trip to the shore the other day, I managed to raise another blister. This time it's on the ball of my left foot. It popped in my shoe while I was walking. Yesterday, it wasn't so bad. Today it has been angry.

Being out of shape hasn't helped. Neither has having tender feet. At home I rarely have to wear more than sandals. Jumping into boots and then putting on the kilometers has done a number on me. The left foot has taken the worst of the abuse. It's also forced me to consider my feet into my plans.

My next stay is the closest I could find to the Stalin Museum in Gori. I booked it specifically to minimize my walking around town. I did the same for the last four days of my trip in Tbilisi.

Having my feet tore up has definitely put a crimp in the amount of sightseeing I wanted to do. But I've never had problems like this before so it wasn't even on my radar when I left home. Live and learn.

What's next?

I'll be in Gori tomorrow afternoon. It's about an hour outside of Tbilisi. I'll be there for two nights.

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