Location Migration

Left Tbilisi with a strange and almost tearful feeling in my stomach – I got very used to hanging around with Lisa, living in her life! It occurs to me only now that I don't think the two of us had ever spent so long in the same place before; even in all these years I've been in Germany, we've always lived in different cities, and for most of that time on opposite sides of the country. As always, her presence was good for me – we're such opposites, in some ways, but all the right ways. Note to future self: Make the effort to acquire a housemate, wherever I next live; it helps to keep me more balanced.

From Tbilisi, a five-hour bus ride through a dark, rainy night to Kutaisi, where the budget airline flies. Well, when I say five-hour ride, I mean four hours driving plus one hour to stop so the driver could hang out with folks he knows at a small restaurant somewhere along the road. Georgia!

On the ride to Kutaisi, linked back up with Tibor and Gabriella, two Hungarian travelers I'd met in the mountains in Kazbegi, in the far north of Georgia; we met and hiked together in Kazbegi, and quickly realized we were going to be on the same flight to Budapest a few days later! (I also ran into André and Lee, the other travelers I befriended in Kazbegi, again on the street in Tbilisi on my next-to-last day. I swear, Georgia's not actually that small!)

It was nice having friends to arrive at the airport with, stand in line to check in with, board the plane with. I'm so used to traveling alone, it actually feels strange and surprising to sit on an airplane next to someone I know.

Now I'm in Budapest, because it made for a convenient way station on the way back to Berlin, and in all these years in Europe, I'd never been. Yesterday: wandering parks and streets, enjoying the wonderful Cat Café (cats! everywhere!), then dinner and conversation with Tibor and Gabriella. About to go out again and keep checking out as much of the city as I can in my limited time.

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Cultural differences: I'm writing this while eating breakfast in the hostel kitchen. The kitchen's been mostly empty so far, but just now a guy wandered in, leaned in close to peer at my laptop screen and asked with friendly curiosity, "What are you doing?" And then seemed surprised that I was a bit taken aback by him peering at a stranger's computer without asking.

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Pictures from Kazbegi/Stepantsminda and my last days in Tbilisi coming soon!