August 15 - Goodbye, Caucasus!
The last full day of my vacation broke - I woke up quite early and did an early morning ride in the city was waking up, visiting the huge Holy Trinity church, followed by buying of an oven-fresh puri, the local bread. This did not stop me from having a full breakfast back at the hotel, I was hardly able to move, but I had no option but to. The main task was finding a bike shop that would pack my bike - the challange being that these were quite far away from the center of the city. So I decided on one direction, discovering more of this very elegant city - makin a mental pledge to return and spend more time there.
Holy Trinity Church at 7 am
Another view
...and one more
Proud city
Have to return one day
I ended up finding the shop, where a grumpy mechanic and an even grumpier shop owner grumpily agreed to pack my bike for a decent amount - it turned out after my arrival that they did a terrible job. Now, with my bike being packed, I went for a walk, where I ran into a very friendly person, Irakli, who became my personal guide and friend for the last few hours in the city. He showed me a nice park, where he invited me for a coffee, then he got me some delicious hachapuri for the trip, he helped ordering a taxi to the airport - which he even paid - such is the hospitality of the Georgian people.
A pretty park
I got to the airport a few hours before the departure, but did need the time, as shipping a bike can be a bit tricky. After paying some monies to Turkish Airlines, I was soon at the spacy departure area of the airport - where, funny enough, I met an Ukrainian couple from the ferry - on their way home back to Odessa, small world. Turkish Airlines brought me safely to Istanbul, the highlight was getting some ayran (the yoghurt drink) on the plane - the food otherwise was quite good.
A ship in the Bosporus canal
Now in Istanbul I had nine (9!) hours to waste, my flight to Vienna leaving at around 4:30 am the next morning. First I walked through the entire length of the Istanbul airport, it's huge, seeing ladies in burka and then some in tank tops and miniskirts - well, this after all, is the venture point between Europe and Asia. I then found a lounge which took me in for an acceptable amount of Eur 25, where I again filled my belly with some Turkish delights, then pulled a couple of chairs together, got out my sleeping bag - and that was it.
The flight back to Vienna was in a very elegant plane, I wished I had been on business class, there was a chef dressed in white serving delicious breakfast for the privileged ones. Well, even in coach we had a good service, with hot oblate, some more ayran - it's no coincidence that Turkish is one of the best airlines in Europe...
...but then what is Europe after all? I do think, I did feel I was in Europe during my trip to Caucasus, despite the cows in the middle of the road, the hectic of traffic, it was an amazing holiday I had spent there, meeting very friendly and hospitable folks, seeing some scenery of the Alps and that of majestic barren mountains, the age-old monasteries - but one thing is for sure, I felt very much welcome and never like in an alien part of the world. I am already thinking of a time to return - I got a glimpse of the Caucasus, now it's time to really discover it. I am already looking forward to writing about that journey...