Our First Snowfall in Georgia

This is our first blog on travel. Our visit to Georgia was very memorable and one of its kind. We had planned this trip during our stay in Dubai. While planning this trip, Mrs. wanted to do a tour to some place warm and Mr. was all in for snowfall along with a place that offers something unique, mysterious, and unusual.

Suchak: chilled weather, snowfall, architecture, natural springs, sulphur baths seem like an awesome place :)

Priyanka: Arrghh, No, No snowfall or cold place please. Meri toh Kulfi Jam Jayegi…

Suchak: but why? you know right, I love cold environment and this place has a lot to offer apart from just snow.

Priyanka: What about me? you know I cannot bare cold. I cannot enjoy the weather, what am I going to do there.

Well, this is how it all started. You must have understood that I personally love cold weather and Priyanka do not. So, with all the convincing power vested in me by the almighty, I somehow convinced Mrs. for our next trip to Georgia – a small little country in Europe.

This country offers stunning scenery amid Caucasian mountains, striking elegance of waterfalls, gentle alleys and rushing waters making this region a natural paradise for visitors.

As soon as we came out of Tblisi International Airport, we had a guide and a car booked for our journey. Our guide Evetta a beautiful lady with very good sense of humour welcomed us and took us to our hotel. It was nothing fancy but clean and cozy place. After all check-in formalities, the first thing I asked Evetta to take us to a good restaurant to relish Georgian delicacies. She looked at me strangely but calmly said yes. Probably she was taken aback when I said, we want to try some local food. Anyways, we went to this small cafe kind of setup, all wooden, cozy place with lot of locals drinking their special local red wine.

We settled down and told Evetta to order some local delicacies for us which she again hesitantly did. After few minutes, here comes a big round bread with at least an inch-thick homemade cheese and local red wine. Trust me guys, I am not at all exaggerating when I say one inch thick.

It was "Khachapuri" - the delicious Georgian cheese bread - like a sauceless cheesy pizza bread.

Also, Georgia is famous for wine making with the tools dating back to 4100 BC.

Chicken Kebab

Chicken Fry loaded with local cheese & Garlic

After our lunch, we headed for our onward journey. Overall, it was a cold and cloudy weather outside and I remember we stopped at a gas station on our way to Borjomi Mineral Water Park. I got out of the car to enjoy the weather. In a few minutes i saw Priyanka was trying to set her foot outside. I was kind of enjoying the scene from little far. I think after couple of tries, she finally gave up. That worried me as it was not even snowing and the cold was bearable. We filled up the tank and started our journey again. Being a gentleman that I am, I let the ladies relax at the back seat while I managed at the front. After about 20 minutes of driving from the gas station, I thought something started falling on the windshield and I was taken aback (Remember we never saw the snowflakes until then). However after a few seconds and a careful look, I actually jumped off the seat saying "hey, it is snowing". The joy of seeing snow for the first time really mesmerized us. I remember throughout our journey I was so excited that I was behaving like a kid.

Finally, we reached our destination and discovered that the park was empty. It was just three of us taking a walk and we both were amazed to find woolly white duvet and a landscape frosted with sweet whiteness.To my surprise, Priyanka was even enjoying the snow and nature completely. Nature works in mysterious ways so does Priyanka.

Everything was covered in white flakes and It was truly magical. If it was possible, I would have never left that place at all.

After enjoying the snow, we were very hungry and craving for some spicy food which is difficult to find in Georgia. We settled to a small Chinese place, hoping to get some spicy and hot food (I know Chinese is not spicy but anything else in Georgia is bland for us) . Well the food looked delicious however it did not meet our expectation on the spice at all .

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Chinese Momos & Fried Rice

Another interesting thing in Georgia is that it is more women driven. Even Georgia’s national character is “Mother of Georgia” statue. Women are predominantly the bread winner here whereas in our part of the world its otherwise. During our trip, whenever I was trying to strike a conversation with ladies as they were more in numbers everywhere, the response was given to Priyanka while I was completely ignored. (I am not gender biased but just mentioning what I experienced)

Similar incident happened in the Chinese restaurant as well. The waitress came and handed over the menu to Priyanka and made sure she was only looking at her while taking our order. It was odd. I finally asked Evetta and she helped me understand this. As per Evetta, "Georgian woman do not like men as Georgian men are lethargic, lazy and prefer staying home. It is woman who wear the pants so to say in Georgia" and that kind of made sense for the behavior I have been experiencing.

Well, I do not want to bore you with lot of writing hence keeping it brief while mentioning about few unique experiences which you should not miss during your Georgia trip and then leaving the photos to do the magic.

Major Attractions in no order:

Sulphur Bath - 'Tblisi' meaning 'warm' in Georgian and the capital city was named after the natural hot sprins that run through this area. It is said that the hot springs are an imporatnt part of Georgian culture and the springs have health benefits too.We booked ourselves for a soad and scrub with massage under the traditional doomed roofs.

Doomed shaped traditional Sulphur Bath

Natural Sulphur water flowing

Borjomi mineral water park - Major Tourist attraction which leads you to natural warm pool with healing properties and rejuvenating to the body and mind. You can also taste the natural Borjomi mineral water. There is also a cable car to enjoy the view from the top, but it was closed due to heavy snowfall.

You can drink the natural mineral water from the tap which you see in the photo.

With Hulk in the park

Mr. taking care of Mrs. by getting her suited and by the way the bag is still full of warm clothes only for her.

When Mrs. enjoys the weather and troubles Mr. with snowballs

Natural spring water - Natural spring water is nothing but a mineral rich water oozing out from mother earth which can be consumed directly. People say it also has medicinal properties which at least I am unsure about. There are lot of epic natural spring in Georgia which you can enjoy.