Blog

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.

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.

Dateline: Poti, Georgia—12 Mar. 2017

These reports are much easier to write earlier in the day. This one is being written at 11:30 p.m. because I took a nap for most of the early evening.

Today was the first day in a week where the weather cleared up. It was bright sun and blue skies over Poti. The wind even let up for a better part of the day. This got me out exploring.

Dateline: Poti, Georgia—11 Mar. 2017

Last night I started my packing to prepare for moving day. After five days my stuff had spread out, but with only one bag there’s just not that much stuff. I saved loading the pack for this morning, but everything except for my bed clothes was ready to go. The packing cubes have really made this trip easier.

Dateline: Kutaisi, Georgia—10 Mar. 2017

I woke up to wind and finally decided to check a different weather site for some wind speed info. I had been using DarkSky, but it seemed to underreporting what I was seeing out my window.

On AccuWeather I found what looked like more accurate info.

For my non-metric speaking readers, that basically means a steady 25 mph wind with gusts up to around 50 mph. That might even be on the low side, since it’s hard to get good data in this part of the world.

Dateline: Kutaisi, Georgia—09 Mar. 2017

The walking and stair climbing yesterday took a toll that I had to pay today.

When I first woke up, my feet felt pretty good. I was able to walk in slippers with only a slight twinge from the blister on my left big toe. I thought that might be a good sign so I had a normal morning with the Russian grandparents. Most everyone else in the house took a trip to the coast, and it’s been relatively quiet.

Dateline: Kutaisi, Georgia—08 Mar. 2017

Feet be damned, I was going to get out and about today. Because there's no point in traveling halfway around the world to sit inside.

I did spend the morning looking over the city map to get a good idea of where I could go, and what was in walking range. Kutaisi isn't a large town, but on foot it feels bigger than it is.

Dateline: Kutaisi, Georgia—07 Mar. 2017

I woke up this morning and pretty much decided that today would be a lazy day. The blisters had healed some, but today wasn’t the day to put them to the test.

I was awake by 8:30 a.m. and stayed under the covers a bit to enjoy the benefit of a duvet heavy enough to cause a foot cramp if I pointed my toes at the ceiling. I cautiously extended an arm and realized the first hand benefits of having both double-paned windows and a radiator in the same room.

Dateline: Kutaisi, Georgia—06 Mar. 2017

Last night was the first night where I’ve kept normal hours. I made plans for the morning, and I was in bed by 9:30 PM and asleep not long after. It’s nice to finally be caught up with the time zone I’m in.

As for the morning, my goal was to make it to the Kutaisi train on time.

Dateline: Tbilisi, Georgia—05 Mar. 2017

I've gotten into a habit of going to sleep in the afternoon and waking up around 2:00 AM or so. Part it was jet lag, another part of me was just diving into a warm bed to avoid the weather. Once awake I would start to write the previous day's trip report. I've also found that the large packing cube makes a better-than-average desk for bed writing.