Finally in Tblisi. It did not go as planned but that is not the first time for me. I met some fantastic people and after too much vodka and a wedding i had some problems with my bicycle and it resulted in me taking the bus tha last 350 km to Tblisi, a bummer but that is how it goes.
I’m not sure what has happend to my back wheel, I have some suspicion that some kids like to use my bike as a sprint board to jump on. I founf it laying doan and it seems plausible. However, the rim was so crooked that the break had to be unhooked to coninue, I tred to straigthen it out but sfter some km it was even worse. I had then made it to a small village some 30km in from the coast. A man that was almost to helpful, nice and relaxed helped me find the bus to Tblisi. I loaded my kit on the roof and under the seats and six hours later I was dodging the cars on the dark streets of the Tblisi night.
More interesting was the wedding I was invited to. A small wedding according to sources but for me, the odd threehundred people was massive. The tables loaded with cured meat, kaviar, wine and cheap coke and fanta, local stuff that tastes of bad breath. I was invited by a family and I spent most of my time in the company of them in the large hall. I kept my wine drinking to a minimun, I still had fresh in my memory how I felt that very morning after half a liter of vodka. It was a strangemix of characters, some with teeth, most without, all smiling, dancing while downing milk glasses of wine of vodka.
After dark, people started to head home and then I realised that the family I stayed with, that so bravely had invited me from the street to stay with them in their little shackle were the drunkards of the town. Out on the street, while the wife of one of the five brothers of the family was trying to drag her husband an me to the car the other brother insited quite violently that we had to stay, we had to drink another shot and we had to meet the patron, the owner of the place. It was all quite messy but in a friendly way. I can’t say I’m loning for another wedding like this bu it was for sure an experience to remember, topped of with an insane drive hom, 7 people in a car with no headlights on a road full with holes and overtaking cars. This is Georgia and here I will stay for another four to five month to settle in and make my life before moving on!
Tags: adventure, around the world by bicycle, bicycle, erik ekedahl, expedition, Georgia, life, people, tblisi