rolaroid

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tuesday night was our good-bye party. we karaoke'd, and i packed, and the next morning chris and i took an 8.30am marshrutka off to tbilisi. we arrived around 2, took another marshrutka to the hostel, got lost on the way (of course!) but ended up in a lovely hostel with very friendly people. it was extremely, full, too. i met two 50-year-old french men from valence, one of them was armenian. this was their last night, they had spent the past three months biking down from france to armenia passing along all the neighbouring countries. chris and i had mcdonald's with them... yes i had a big mac. and it was satisfying, i am embarassed to admit! i was also told that a shaman was looking for me when i got to the hospital. he found me the next day and asked me to get an official invitation from canada for a georgian guy he barely knows. obviously the answer is no. but before he found me at least three people gave me this message....


tbilisi is nice. the people are much more laid-back, it's quite busy, and the architecture is beautiful. we did a lot of walking around, and we went to a bath house and had a sulphur bath - it made my skin so smooth! we didn't do any museums, but we saw interesting architecture and walked through old town, which was nice.


we took a night train to batumi, and our hostel was a nice and quiet one, a little further than the other hostels but close enough to the beach. the first day i spent quite some time looking for money... but also walked around quite a bit as well. come to think of it on this entire trip we slept a LOT. anyway yesterday we went for a swim, then south of batumi by marshrutka, past gonio (where there is a fortress!) and on to sarpi, where the beach is not as busy. we jumped off giant rocks and in the water i met thijs, from holland. chris and i parted ways, and thijs, his friend ruben and i spent the day together. we swam quite a bit, floated around... then went for drinks, i got back to the hostel at 2 am, and had to get up at 5 for our 6 o'clock marshrutka back to yerevan.


batumi is quite small. the buildings are run down, but they are beautiful pastel colours, pink green and blue, very marie-antoinette's cakes. there aren't too many people, not much to do either. there is a boring ferris wheel, you can rent bicycles but it's expensive and that's it. besides the sea, nothing much. the sea is beautiful, though. it's a very deep dark green, no waves but a strong enough current, and there is no sand. it's just rocks, but they are big enough and round and smooth, so it's unsteady to walk on but not uncomfortable. getting to swim in the ocean did me a lot of good. i just never wanted to get out, and the water was warm.


i guess that's it...


i came back today, set up camp at joe's, and now i'm out with the AGBU crowd for our last night all together in yerevan. thijs and ruben invited me over to amsterdam and anette is going as well, so i will go with her, and do some cities in the south of france, no more spain i don't think. i know it must get annoying to hear me change my plans all the time... but i'm enjoying myself :) i think i might not even do the south of france at all, just hang out with marie-eve in paris all the time and a few days in amsterdam.


upon my return i will have a giant picture-showing party or two :)