When I leave the hotel in Ardahan, against the weather forecast, the sun is shining. And that's a good thing, because the road to the border with Georgia is high. The highest point today is no less than 2,250 meters and that cannot be compared to a mountain pass in Austria, for example. Here it is as far as you can see, so high and flat and that remains a strange sensation for me.
The closer I get to the border, the more the altimeters drop and the landscape becomes greener. Well, it was green. In a few hours it has become autumn for me. Very nice, but it also makes me realize that I have to make progress south.
The border crossing with Georgia is a big dusty construction site. Fortunately, the Turkish customs officers are super nice; one of them tells me that he also rides a motorcycle, proudly shows me pictures of his motorcycle and immediately calls me 'my friend', which of course makes the whole process nice and loose. On the Georgian side it is all a bit more official, but there too it is done within a few minutes. The customs officer welcomes me and points out that I still have to buy insurance for the motorcycle a little further, because my Dutch insurance is not valid here either.
Bit of a strange state of affairs at that office, because you are absolutely not allowed to enter. I give my passport and registration certificate through a slot in the wall to a lady who returns the papers and the ATM through the slot 10 minutes later. Anyway, I drive insured a little later and I do enter Georgie.
It's heavily clouded and I think this influences my view of Georgie. I thought to find a country with more western influences, but the opposite is true. I drive through shabby villages and only encounter old and badly damaged cars and trucks. The nature and the roads, on the other hand, are beautiful and most resemble the Belgian Ardennes or the German Eifel.
The overnight address, which I found through Booking, confirms my observations today. A house in a poor neighborhood where I have an apartment on the ground floor. It's not much, but I can't expect that for 10 euros. It's only for 1 night and with the slippers on a hot shower is also nice and with my sleeping bag on the bed and my own pillow, it still feels like 'my' bed and I sleep wonderfully.
This entry was posted in Azie, Georgia
