Road rules? What rules?!

by Sheila on 08 Aug, 2014 - 3 comments

I never had a good image in my mind of what Georgia is like. In recent history, Georgia’s only impact came with the Russian conflict precisely 6 years ago. My first impression of Tbilisi itself came when then President Saakashvili kept airing live statements beseeching President Bush to send Georgia more military aid. In the background, the city of Tbilisi was sparingly lit and empty. For entirely illogical reasons, entering Georgia myself for the first time, I steeled myself to meet a Georgia tense with anticipation of another Russian invasion.

Thankfully, this was not the case. Duh.

Checking out from our white supremacist hotel in Ardahan, we travelled with team Two Guys & an X to the Turkey-Georgia border outside Posof. Compared to all the other roads we drove on in Turkey, this last portion involved some of the most gruelling driving yet. We’re talking high altitude (over 2500m) gravel roads at 8% grade up AND down. A drive that should have taken around an hour was doubled.

Again, with further divine intervention, the Polo emerged with tires intact and no engine parts punctured despite many unfortunate impacts underneath the car. Our divine favours may finally be running low though, as it was during this drive that Mom noticed the brakes becoming VERY soft. Not the most comforting thing to realize when going down a steep gravel hill.

Despite the drama and exhausting drive, we made it to the border!

Entering Georgia was drama-free and quick. After getting the necessary stamps in our passports and a cursory check of our boot, we entered and pulled aside at a nearby gas station to wait for Two Guys & an X to complete their border crossing.

As we filled up our tank, our car attracted a lot of attention from employees and customers alike! The man filling our gas inquired about our trip and, seeing how hot we were, guided us to buy ice creams and Coke to cool off. He and other customers started hovering around the car, making cursory checks of the tires, pointing at the license plate and saying, “Ooh, Deutschland!!”, or just shaking their heads. One customer was checking out the bullet hole stickers on either side of the car. He looked at Mom as he pointed to one and said, “You have hole.”

After the border, we were quickly introduced to the Georgian rules of the road: 1. One lane is sufficient for two cars to drive side-by-side. 2. If you drive in the middle of a lane, expect honking and a car to come alongside you anyway. 3. The speed limit for windy, pothole-ridden country roads isn’t 50, it’s secretly 110. Failure to comply will result in excessive honking and a dangerous overtake.

Through honking, overtakes, and being cut off more times than we could count, we managed to make it to Tbilisi before sunset! We pulled up at a hostel in the centre of the city with a great view from the rooftop:

Unfortunately, the hostel where we stayed only had air conditioning in the common area, so Mom rested there while I and the guys from Two Guys & an X gorged on a massive feast of delicious traditional Georgian dishes. We ordered so much food that the waitress begged us to stop! To our benefit, we inhaled nearly everything set in front of us, and the rest went to Mom back at the hostel who polished it off. Georgian cuisine is essentially the same as Russian, but oh so much better.

Due to the heat and our desire to be in Azerbaijan on August 5th to meet up with Mom’s cousin, we didn’t truly explore Tbilisi before we left. The city was a pleasant surprise, and provided Georgia doesn’t pester Russia anytime soon, will continue to be a recommended destination in the Caucasus by me.