Kakheti, Georgia - More Adventure Than I Wanted Part 1

In September I went on an amazing* trip to Georgia with my friend KMac and somehow totally forgot to write about it!

We arrived in Tbilisi separately, and quite late; me at around midnight and KMac at about 3 AM. Just as the flight attendants were giving everyone the death glare to turn off their phones on my flight I received a message from KMac saying "Don't take a cab! You'll be met at the airport!". And sure enough, after waiting what felt like an hour for my bag I entered the arrivals terminal where I was greeted by a Georgian Orthodox priest.

That was definitely a first for me.

We would see a lot of Father N. during this trip but for the time being I was grateful for the lift.

After a good sleep in, KMac and I stretched our legs on Rustaveli Avenue on our way to meet the team behind Exotic Wine Travels. We'd connected through social media and it turned out we were going to be in Tbilisi at the same time; me just starting to learn about Georgian wines and them promoting their fantastic book, Uncorking the Caucasus.

We met them at Vino Underground, a great wine bar owned by a group of Georgia's leading natural wine makers where we proceeded to enjoy three, or was it four? amazing bottles of Georgian wine. Unfortunately between then and catching our ride with Father N to Sighnaghi, neither KMac nor I had time to eat. Combine that with major car sickness from the windy mountainous drive and I wanted to die. I don't think I've been that car sick since the drive from Sarajevo to Belgrade.

It was late when we finally made it to our guesthouse and we were ready to sleep. I had booked us rooms at the most highly rated guesthouse (the most common type of accommodation outside Tbilisi) in Sighnaghi-David Zandrashvili's Guesthouse. We knew we weren't in for five start treatment but we were a little shocked by what we found. To start, apparently there was a 10 PM curfew that wasn't listed in the house rules online. That curfew would explain why the guesthouse, at capacity, was practically shaking with the loud music, singing, and stomp-dancing of other guests. I settled into room while KMac was shown to hers: downstairs, through the common room, through the dining room, through the kitchen, then outside again, down some unlit stairs that had no handrail, and into another building.

Sighnaghi

Streets of Sighnaghi

Five minutes later I got a message from KMac: "There's a huge spider in my room! I tried to kill it but it got away!" Not a fan of spiders myself I told her that if she wanted, she was welcome in my (assumingly) spider-free room. No, no, she assured me; but several minutes later I got another message: "Now there's another, completely different spider. I'm on my way!" Between the noise of other guests, paper thin walls, and the loud, creaky bed it was hours before we were able to get to sleep.

We were up early the next morning with two missions: attend orthodox liturgy since there are no Catholic churches in Sighnaghi, and find a new hotel. Luckily we were successful in both endeavors and in the afternoon dragged our suitcases up the hill to the posh, and pricey hotel spa where we stayed three years ago. What a difference.

Sighnaghi city walls

View of Sighnaghi from our hotel

Happily ensconced in our new hotel, and after a brief rest to make up for all the sleep we missed the night before, we headed out to find two of the most important things you could ever want in Georgia: food and wine. For dinner we headed to a restaurant called Wine World. You call a restaurant 'Wine World' and there are certain assumptions, right? As in, lots of wine. No. There were three house wines: red, white, and green. We went with the green which wasn't too bad as long as we thought of it as ice tea instead of wine. The food was killer though. We had mtsvade (grilled pork and onions), lobiani (bread stuffed with slow cooked beans), eggplant with walnut garlic paste, and sulguni cheese stuffed mushrooms baked in a clay dish. So don't go to Wine World for the wine but it's worth it for the food.
 

We bought a bottle of wine to take back to our hotel and drank it on the hotel sky terrace playing with the astrology star app on KMac's phone. Then it was time for bed to rest up for our tour of Kakheti the next day-a tour that included us accidentally climbing a mountain!



*All trips to Georgia would be amazing but traveling with KMac comes with extra experiences; but more on that later!

First Bulgaria Disinfected Me then Infused Me with Wine

I almost don't even know where to begin with this. E and I set off on what was to be a relaxing weekend break at a winery spa in Bulgaria-it turned out to be something rather different.

We left early so we could pick up our rental car at the airport and get the four-hour drive out of the way; unfortunately the travel troubles began right away. Enterprise's system was down ("system problem" are words we often hear in Turkey) so despite arriving at their service counter before 9AM it wasn't until 11 that we were finally on the road. With no traffic barring our way the drive through Turkey went smoothly and the border was upon us long before we even thought to expect it. Three check points later we were out of Turkey and entering the no man's land between it and Bulgaria.

That's where the trouble really began.

The 'green card' "office"

Approaching the first check point our car was unexpectedly sprayed with very chlorinated smelling water. I laughed and asked if we'd just been disinfected. Surely not, said E...but true enough there was a little booth just ahead labeled "disinfection fee collection point" where we were charged the cost of 3 Euros for apparently having Turkey cleaned off our car. Really thank goodness for that because it set a tone of ludicrousness without which we may have committed murder over the next two hours. After paying for our disinfection we pulled into a scrum of vehicles all attempting to cross the border into Bulgaria. In a space of maybe a square half mile were packed so many cars we couldn't even attempt to count them. Tempers were high, horns honked on an off, cars didn't inch forward...they centimetered forward. Suddenly we had so much time on our hands so we turned to Google to discover why everything was at a stand still. Apparently the Turkey-Bulgaria crossing is the second busiest land crossing in the world! That would have been good information to have before we left.

Todoroff complex

Two hours later, TWO HOURS LATER it was finally our turn. We handed over our passports, the car insurance, and the car rental contract but were absolutely flummoxed when asked for the "green card". Apparently saying words louder and more slowly is not just something English speakers do to foreigners because apparently shouting and over enunciating GREEN CARD at us was going to make us understand the Bulgarian border guard. Eventually someone with some English came over and instructed us to drive through the check point (while they held onto our passports) to "the last car and my colleague will help". Okay then. We drove through and parked by the final check point and asked everyone we saw "green card"? until we were directed to a small shack sitting just outside the border crossing area, where a woman sold us Bulgarian car insurance for 50 Euros. The green card.

We drove back to the original check point (no cars at all on this side of things!), parked, and walked to the booth where our passports were being held hostage. Being in the thick of things as we were it was easy to see why it was taking so long for each car to cross the border. After passport (and green card) inspection, the one customs officer shared by two lanes would poke through a car's trunk, rummage through luggage, and then pop the hood for a mechanical inspection. Every. Single. Car. We were spared this process after finally being able to provide the much-desired green card, given back our passports, and sent on our way.

Wine-infused jacuzzi!

Finally free to go we drove through the final final check point, slightly afraid we were going to be stopped and asked for another color card, we drove into Bulgaria-where there was no traffic. None. All those cars that got across the border before us were nowhere to be seen; it was very odd. About 100 kilometers in we stopped for gas. We probably could have got all the way to the spa without filling up but after 2.5 hours of running the AC while sitting in the hot afternoon sun we needed to fill up. Then began the next adventure of actually finding the spa. I don't know about other countries, but Bulgaria doesn't mark streets that have names like 'route 8602'. My Russian might be crap now but thank goodness I can still read Cyrillic because I was able to recognize the name of our destination village (Brestovitsa) and guide E to the correct street. Of course actually finding the spa in Brestovitsa was a whole different story. We had to stop and ask three or four different people being slightly hindered by neither of us being able to speak Bulgarian and me trying to speak to Bulgarians in Turkish.

Finally we arrived at Todoroff Winery and Spa. Sadly it was too late to take advantage of the spa or even join their tour/wine tasting. We were both so exhausted though-it had been 10 hours since we left home that morning-that we were happy to just have dinner and a bottle of wine and sleep early.

The next morning after breakfast we booked spa treatments for the next two days and while we waited for our appointment we sat outside in the cool Bulgarian country air playing with the sweetest kitten. From there E and I luxuriated for about an hour in Todoroff's Barrique Tub-a jacuzzi infused with bath salts and wine, actual wine, while also enjoying glasses of wine. We felt kind of bad because no matter how hard we tried to prevent it, the jacuzzi bubbled away so enthusiastically that the water ended up all over the floor. After pickling in the wine we each had body scrubs with grapes seeds/must (Cabernet Sauvignon!) and massages.

Processing the grapes

Bottling room

Fully relaxed, we lazed away the afternoon with spa treatments and naps until our tour of the Todoroff winery. The original winery was established in 1945 but nationalized in 1947. It was returned to the original family in the late 90s and bought and modernized by Ivan Todoroff in 2001. The winery produces wines made mostly from the same ubiquitous grapes everyone grows but they do also produce some very nice wine from the native Bulgarian grape, Mavrud.

Unfortunately it seems that many of the native Bulgarian grapes have been lost so Todoroff specializes in Mavrud, Cabernet Sauvignon, and the dreaded Merlot. Our guide told us that there are many traditional songs in Bulgaria about red wine and only one about white-which includes a line that goes something like: "Oh white wine, why aren't you red?" Love it.

In addition to making wine, Mr. Todoroff is also dedicated to supporting local artists and for several years has been running art competitions. Winners' works are displayed in the Todoroff tasting room and used for the wines' labels. The hotel itself is something of an art gallery with each floor also displaying the work of local artists, all of which are available for purchase.

We tasted five wines during the tasting: 2015 Boutique Rainbow Silver, 2015 Boutique Mavrud, 2013 Gallery Merlot, 2013 Gallery Cabernet Sauvignon, and the 2013 Teres Merlot.

The Todoroff Boutique line is not oaked which made me very happy as the 2015 Boutique Rainbow Silver is a Chardonnay blend: Chardonnay, Viognier, and Sauvignon Blanc. In the glass it's nearly colorless, clear, and brilliant. The nose is tropical with melon, green apples, and floral notes. In the mouth it's soft with good acid and lots of that green apple. For such a light white wine I was surprised by how well it paired with a strong, salty cheese. It was really quite nice.

The 2015 Boutique Mavrud was by far my favorite of what we tasted. Brestovitsa, where Todoroff is, is located in the Plovdiv region of Bulgaria's Thracian region. Mavrud is native to this area and while it's one of the few native grapes left it accounts for only 1.5% of grapes grown. Which to me is very sad because this was very much my favorite. Also aged in stainless steel, it was a bright purple-red color with a light-medium body. On the nose it was blueberry, floral, candy and the palate was very light tannins, well-balanced acid and more berry, candy, and honey flavors.

Up next was the 2013 Gallery Merlot (the line of Todoroff wines that feature the art competition winners). The Gallery-line wines spend four to six months in oak depending on the age of the barrel and there were definitely some light oak features in the wine with some smoke and vanilla in the nose. In the glass it was a brick red with medium clarity (sediment). The palate was very jammy with dried fruits especially prunes, smoke, vanilla, and oak with some light tannins and a medium finish.

The 2013 Gallery Cabernet Sauvignon was similarly treated with four to six months of oak. Todoroff uses their barrels (French, American, and Bulgarian oak) for only three years, a surprisingly short amount of time, before the barrels are sold off. The Gallery Cabernet is a dark, ruby-red in the glass with dark fruits and black olives in the nose. On the palate it's a medium body with nice, round tannins, integrated acid, and a medium finish with flavors reflecting the nose. It was nice...but there are Turkish Cabernets that are way better.

The last wine we tasted was the 2013 Teres Merlot which Todoroff is no longer selling. They have only a few bottles of their last Teres vintage left and they're saved for tastings. Although after the tasting E sweetly asked if it weren't possible for us to finish the bottle they opened for the tasting (it was!).  E really liked this one, me not so much. The Teres line wines spend eight to 10 months in the barrels which for the Merlot resulted in a deep brownish-brick red, medium body wine. The nose was very heavy dried fruits: raisins and prunes, along with smoke, vanilla, and baking spices. So-like a fruitcake that has spent some time in a smokehouse. It was quite similar to the Gallery Merlot in that the flavors were very jammy and while unquestionably a dry wine it had some very viscous, sweet flavors.

Roman amphitheater

Old city

Our last morning at Todoroff I had my last spa treatment: the Wine Mascarpone. After getting exfoliated again with grape seeds, I was slathered with a mask made out of wine and powdered milk, wrapped up in plastic and heavy blankets, and then the bed I was on turned into some sort of hot waterbed that filled up around me wrapping me in a waterbed burrito. It was pretty fantastic.

Old city-traditional painted Bulgarian building

Roman theatre-still used for events!

After my last spa treatment we packed up the rental car and headed into Plovdiv-Bulgaria's second largest city and one of the oldest, continuously inhabited cities in the world. Plovdiv is lovely and well worth the visit. The modern city, old city, and ancient ruins are all well integrated and, throwing in bright street art, make for a charming city. The Roman theatre is still used for concerts and events and the amphitheater has been cleverly built around to incorporate it into the pedestrian area of the city.

Plovdiv is full of museums and art galleries so E was in heaven. I was in heaven because the food was amazing. We had lunch at Pavaj, a trendy, hip little restaurant that served up killer barbeque pork ribs.

Getting back to Turkey was not as complicated as getting out, but we had a few bumps. Getting out of Plovdiv was one of them! A few wrong turns though and we found the rounds we needed. As long as we were going the opposite direction of Sophia we were fine and eventually we came upon signs directing us to Istanbul.

Not only we were worried about another two-hour delay but we realized that we were driving into Turkey with 11 bottles of wine. Why we didn't think to take them out of the winery boxes and put them in our bags I don't know; because we both knew better than to try this. Sure enough, while the crossing out of Bulgaria took no time at all, we were stopped at the Turkish border. The customs officer said we were only allowed one liter per person (which can't be right-you're allowed so much more flying in!). However a little stumbling Turkish about how we were on a girls' weekend; isn't there a fee/tax we can pay (the to you implied); and a little flirting later and we, and our 11 bottles, were allowed to cross. Sometimes it's good to be female in Turkey!

While our spa weekend getaway turned out to be a little more adventurous than I had planned it was a great trip! We were disinfected, infused with wine, got to try Bulgarian wine, ate pork, looked at art, and flirted contraband into the country. All in all it was a pretty great trip!

The Camel Wrestling Festival That Wasn't

I've been curious about camel wrestling for ages. What is it? What does it involve? What's the appeal? What does camel meat taste like? After booking a trip to Selçuk over a month ago with E&M I was all set to find out.

People seem very split over both the merits of the sport and treatment of the animals. The camels don't seem to harm each other, just push and shove a bit. There are rumors that they're starved in advance of the fight but I've found no evidence of that. This would have been one of my questions to ask at the festival.

But the festival never happened.

All Saturday I was feeling tired and about the only thing to hold any appeal was the idea to cancel my trip. But no, I had to go because camel wrestling! This is how I find myself now in an impossibly narrow seat on a Turkish Airlines flight I had to pay extra for. Ayıptır, Türk Havayolları.

We arrived in İzmir late Saturday night, too late for a shuttle to Selçuk but at least there were four of us to split the 180 TL cab ride. We arrived at the Paris Hotel at about midnight, exhausted (especially our friend visiting from the States who had been traveling for 32 hrs) and just fell into bed.

E&M are far more budget conscious than I and M chose the hotel, but I don't think he expected stained and dirty sheets, plumbing problems, and wet bathroom floors. Tired as I was I had a difficult time falling asleep, convinced there were bed bugs (happily no). Also not helping me sleep was the screaming wind. I knew we were expecting rain despite all my crossed fingers and toes. But the wind...that was a portent of more than just a little rain.

We got up early the next morning hopeful of both clear weather and beating 10-20,000 other people to a good seat. I was down in the lobby earlier and spent my time having a rousing conversation about politics and animal rights. In Turkish, thank you very much.

Sadly that was the only successful part of the weekend. Shortly after E&M came down so did the word; cancelled. The only happens one day a year camel wrestling festival was cancelled. Sadly a poster was the closest I was getting to camels today.

After walking around in the rain trying to find a cafe open on a Sunday where we could get a coffee I called it quits and got the mini bus back to the airport. My return flight was at 10:30 pm and I was hoping I could get something earlier.

Getting to the airport was its own adventure. The mini bus between Selçuk and İzmir stops in a few places, including the airport, but not really the airport. The exit off the highway to the airport. Normally not a problem, I've walked it before and at night no less but never in rain so heavy I could barely see. Luckily there was a taxi waiting in the medium and another gentleman and I made the dash across the highway in the pouring rain to get the cab the rest of the way.

Unfortunately Turkish Airlines, which I usually enjoy, failed me today. After standing in a Turkish line for a while it was finally my turn. The very nice girl behind the counter told me I could go on a stand-by list for the 6:00 pm flight but everything else was full. Full how I asked showing her on my phone all the not full flights on Turkish Airlines' website. She just shrugged at me.

In the end I booked a brand new one-way flight for 300 TL. Annoying but money well spent as it saved me 7 hours of waiting. My flight was a little delayed, of course, but after 2 hours of sitting in one of the narrowest plane seats ever made I arrived back to more pouring rain in İstanbul.

And the worst part of the whole thing? Was not missing the festival, although yes that totally sucked, it was missing my favorite priest's last mass at my church. :(