In the Kudablin project, we send completely different people on traveling at our expense! Alexey and Maria Glazunovs visited Georgia: they visited little -known and breathtaking places, felt the Caucasian hospitality and dispelled all the stereotypes about this country. Read more – in their report!
Georgian people
Previously, we never spoke especially closely with Georgians, and the stereotype lived in our heads that these people are quite quick -tempered, hot and aggressive. In fact, after this trip, we had an impression that is almost the opposite that Georgians are quite calm, leisurely, relaxed and incredibly good -natured people.
Their relaxation was especially noticeable on the example of taxi drivers. When we left for Gudauri, we arrived at the bus station in Tbilisi and began to find out how to get there. Of course, we were occupied by taxi drivers and offered to go by taxi – in principle, the price suited us if they could find two more passengers in the car.
The driver walked was looking for fellow travelers, and his friend calmly and somehow humanly told us why he could not be lucky for two of us for the same amount. That he has a family, and our amount will hardly cover the cost of gasoline, etc., but at the same time, all this happened positively, without an attempt to put pressure on pity and without aggression.
No one tried to call us the price 3 times higher, did not grab us by the hands, as it happens, for example, in India, did not shout curses after, when we decided not to wait and go on a minibus. In general, continuous positive and constructive.
Another example is a hitchhiking. There is no public transport in Gudauri, and we had to drive along the highway several kilometers. We went out onto the road, raised our hand and stopped literally the third car, despite the fact that in the first two there were simply no places, and the drivers sparkled their hands with regrets – they say we would take it, but there was nowhere to.
Those people we faced in public places, on the streets, in transport, as a rule, were smiling, open, happy to help us and tell us, tourists. We talked with several locals more tightly and again – we got only pleasure from this.
At the same time, we never met a negative address to us – there were those who criticized the Russian government and the president, but at the same time they all said that their attitude does not concern ordinary people, and Russians and Georgians were fraternal peoples.
Caucasian hospitality
In general, the impression of communicating with Georgians we left very positive, everything went wonderful, but the trip was coming to an end, and with our task-to evaluate precisely hospitality, we somehow did not work out. We already thought that after all, this is another stereotype, but at the very end there was a small adventure.
Let me remind you that the task sounded as follows: “To visit a local family and evaluate the Caucasian hospitality.” In general, initially, when you voted for this option, the task seemed to us quite simple. Previously, we very actively used on our travels by rubbering and we had the opportunity to visit many families around the world.
But this time in Georgia, we did not have much time, so specially we did not write off and did not agree with anyone in advance, but it was not possible to get to know someone in place very closely. So until the last moment we thought about how to be with the task and almost resigned to the fact that we would not be able to fulfill it.
We flew back to St. Petersburg with a long, almost a day, stopping in Baku (specially took such tickets). We somehow did not prepare for a trip to Baku at all, so we spontaneously spoke with a man of Caucasian appearance, who was sitting on a neighboring chair in an airplane to find out something useful about the city. They asked whether he was local and whether he could advise any place in the center where they are fed tasty and not too expensive.
He said that he knows and can advise only those places where they feed very well and very expensive. We talked, we chatted a little while flying, and before saying goodbye he said-write down my number, call when you are going to dinner, and I will tell you something or come and show you. And added – just be sure to call, do not have lunch without me!
We walked for a couple of hours in the city center, then they called Elchin, agreed on the meeting, and after half an hour we came the Black Mercedes.
Our new acquaintance said that we were his guests and took him to a restaurant to his cousin, where a gastronomic madness awaited us!
For 3 hours we sat at the table and during this time we ate so much that there would probably be enough lunch for three. They tried Azerbaijani soup, and snacks, and salads, and of course, meat, and in several types: pork kebabs, barbar kebabs, ribbons, kebab and something else seems to be lost from the score (Lesha was especially delighted),
So it’s hard to say how many dishes were there.
After a super-tight dinner, Elchin rolled us around the city for another 2 hours, showed interesting places in Baku, talked about the city and about himself. It turned out that he is a businessman, is engaged in the sale of clothes that he makes in China and supplies to his wholesale warehouses in Moscow, Baku and Tbilisi. In general, a very serious comrade, but I found the time and desire to communicate with us, show the city, and even treat it.
After we said goodbye to him, we could not recover for a long time and understand what it was at all. As a completely unfamiliar fellow traveler on the plane could be so welcoming, open and hospitable and what motives prompted him to do so. But in any case, we were very touched by such an attitude and are glad to know this random acquaintance.
Honestly, it is difficult to imagine that the Russian businessman treated travelers from Georgia.
See the second part of the report here.
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The authors of the text and photo: Alexey and Maria Glazunovs
Photo for Preverty: Unsplash.com