The Winter In Georgia
The snow covered Pine Mountains. The cities resemble that of in Hollywood films. Streets covered with lights. Varieties of wines, tasty food, and affordable prices…no words are enough to describe Georgia. We planned to visit the place after hearing a lot about it from our friends. The Indians does not need visa and this information gave us encouragement to visit this Eurasian country.
The Travel
The months of November and December are much colder and it is the off season there. Even though this is the apt season for those who wish to see snow covered hills. The fight charges will also less during these months. Me along with three friends started getting ready for the trip. The Georgians doesn’t know the English language. So it is must to seek the help of a guide. The destinations are much distant and so the vehicles are needed. We booked for a good tour package before the journey through some of our friends.
We took the cheap tickets of Fly Dubai airlines. The connection flight from Dubai will take us to Georgia in three hours. We reached at the capital city of Georgia named Tibilisi. The climate was below 2 degree and we already put on the sweaters and jackets. Our guide was waiting there. He happened to be very punctual and honest as like other Georgians. They were also very kind and good hearted people especially towards the tourists.
The Victora was the hotel we chose and it took only 15 minutes from airport to reach there. Lari is the currency of Georgia. It is better to take Dollar with us and exchange it from there. It costs 2.9 Lari for one Dollar. The rates are much low. No other currencies will be accepted anywhere in Georgia.
Main Attractions
After taking rest for few hours, we got ready to visit the places by nine in the morning. The first journey was to Gudauri which is about 125 km away from Tibilisi. The guide reached with the vehicle at correct time. It was a four wheel drive cruiser jeep which is much better for travelling over the snow covered hills. I noticed the clean and tidy cities which have lot of trees but no leaves were visible on the roads. The buildings reflected the Georgian culture.
The cold becomes more intense with the journey. I felt like the heater of vehicle is not working properly. Georgia is a heavenly place of wines. 562 varieties of wines are made here. The wine bottles got from hotel were finished soon.
The yellow hills were visible on either side of the roads. It was the views which were seen only in films. The snow fell on the glasses got scattered. Gadauri is the place where the temperature is minus 6 degrees. It is a fascinating journey to the snow covered mountains through the hairpin curves. The limbs freeze on reaching the upper hills. I felt much difficult to click the camera buttons with the fingers. The legs got immersed in the ice. After enjoying for few hours we returned from there. We saw the Ananuri Castle during the journey. It is a beautiful ancient fort.
The City of Tbilisi
We reached at Tbilisi by evening and had tasty Georgian food from a hotel. The non-veg foods are most common and wines are used more than water. The rates are much affordable. At ten we went to see the city. It was a fantasy world with beautiful lightings during the night. The city is much active during the night and there are many bars, pubs and clubs. There were people from around the world wandering in the city. The music and happiness was everywhere. The city was decorated with lights to welcome the Christmas. We returned to the hotel at 3 in the night.
Next day at 9 we headed to Bakuriani. It is 180 km away from Tbilisi. The rain was shattering. I saw the beauty of pine forest during this journey. We saw some waterfalls and rivers on the way. Bakuriani is a popular sky resort. Ice racing and cable cars are available there. There were frames everywhere. Even in such an intense cold weather I enjoyed the beautiful views. We drove very slowly. The temperature dial of the vehicle viewed minus 8 degree. It was 11 in the night when we reached Tibilisi. The guide took us to see some of the ancient places. The journey ended at 2 in the midnight.
The Return
In the morning, we check out from the hotel as we need to return next day afternoon. We planned the Tbilisi City tour . We visited the main places in the city including the Jvari Monastery which is very ancient and beautiful.
Sadly we headed to the airport as there were little time. We had only seen 30% of Georgia in those three days. The travel to some of the places was out of order due to heavy precipitation of snow so we said good bye to Georgia and the guide Sergiyo with a lot of snow covered memories.