Abbiamo preso una marshrutka (pulmino) da Akhaltsikhe alle 10 del mattino e siamo arrivati ad Adigeni alle 10:50. A prima vista, la stazione degli autobus sembrava abbastanza abbandonata ma poi abbiamo notato che c'erano dei negozietti, alcuni taxi e dei cani randagi.
We entered the shop/ticket office/deposit and were somehow told that the marshrutka to Khulo was at 2:30pm…well, not in a hurry 😅 so we decided to take a taxi (10 lari) to the very close monastero di Zarzma (gratis) ed è stata un'ottima idea! Una volta attraversata la porticina d'ingresso (che sembra chiusa, ma basta spingerla e si apre) si accende ad un altro mondo fatto di fiori e silenzio. La chiesa è piena di affreschi ben preservati; terrete il naso all'insù per un po'! Molto belli sono anche il giardino e la vista sulla valle.. vale decisamente una visita!
On our way back to Adigeni, our taxi broke down in the middle of nowhere.. just fields and cows around us. We looked at each other and started laughing, we got out of the car and waited for..we didn’t know what for.. just the car to work again probably 😅 after a few minutes another taxi arrived and stopped to help us. It was carrying the only other tourist in the area, Philip. He was looking for his trainers as he forgot them in another car. We joined him on the taxi and went back to Adigeni. And there we were, in our lovely bus station waiting to be 2:30pm 😄 we had some food, we wrote down something for this website and chatted with Philip, who told us he was paragliding in the region and who had his shoes back, eventually! At 2:30pm the marshrutka arrived super punctual, it stopped by along the road and we jumped in, ready for 3-hour driving on a bumpy road!!
La strada era veramente messa male ma il viaggio è stato bellissimo! La vista delle montagne era incredibile e il paesaggio è passato da boschi a prati come siamo arrivati a 2000 metri. Questa zona sembra essere famosa per sciare e infatti ad un certo punto abbiamo visto degli alberghi in costruzione e una funivia ultra moderna… ci siamo subito chiesti come pensano di attrarre turisti fin lassù avendo delle strade sterrate messe così male… comunque, alla fine siamo arrivati a Khulo sani e salvi!
Vista dalla marshrutka 
Su a 2000mt 
La moderna funivia 
Sulla marshrutka
We didn’t know where to sleep so we asked the girl at the tourist info point and then brainstormed a bit. Eventually, maps.me pointed out a hostel and we decided to go there. Helped by a policeman, we reached Hostel 13, which looked closed. The policeman called the owner and we were told to just get in and get a bed; the price per person would have been 15 lari. There were two doors and we entered the open one, went up the stairs and there we were..in the house of a stranger😂 well, we understood it was the other door with the name of the hostel on top of it (indeed) so we got in and it was actually a pretty cool hostel.
We were tired but Guido and I really wanted to take the cable car to go to Tago, on the other side of the valley, so we had a beer with Philip and then went out. It was 7pm already and the last run was at 8pm so our time on the other side was pretty short but intense! First of all, the Soviet cable car looked abandoned and totally unsafe 😅 anyway, we asked the owner of the minimarket and we didn’t know how someone showed up to run the little faded-red box. Well, he has apparently done since the cable car was built in the eighties and felt totally safe to open the door of the cable car when we were half way, right in the middle of nowhere, suspended at a height of 280 meters above the valley (he might do it with all the tourists, though) After 1,7 km ride (that’s the length of the hanging-with-no-support cable), we got to Tago with it’s cloudy and misty weather. The man who welcomed us was also the owner of the only cafe; we were offered a cucumber from his garden and grab a tea. Unfortunately, we had no time to walk to the viewpoint (well, it was foggy anyway) and then up to the monastery.. next time! Back in Khulo we chilled and had dinner with our friend; then, we gave us a good rest to be ready for another journey the day after.
Il giorno dopo abbiamo lasciato l'ostello verso le 10:30 e ci siamo diretti verso la strada principale per prendere una marshrutka per Batumi (5GEL). Siamo stati fortunati perché una stava per partire; le strade sono migliori andando da quella parte, ma comunque abbastanza dissestate. Affollata e caotica, la città di Batumi ci ha accolto verso mezzogiorno, dopo circa due ore di viaggio. Ci siamo diretti alla nostra guesthouse, Eka Guesthouse, e poi in spiaggia. Andando verso il mare si può vedere chiaramente il contrasto che caratterizza la città: edifici abbastanza vecchi e decadenti lasciano spazio a palazzi eleganti nella piazza principale e poi a grattacieli proprio di fronte al parco e al lungomare in stile Miami Beach.
Il Mar Nero è molto agitato e abbastanza sporco, ma abbiamo fatto comunque il bagno e ci siamo riposati un po' in spiaggia. Tornando a casa, siamo riusciti a intrufolarci in uno dei palazzoni in vetro della città. A quanto ci è sembrato, si tratterebbe di un condominio di lusso, abbiamo infatti seguito un ragazzo cinese che entrava con della spesa. A ogni modo, siamo saliti al 42esimo piano e ci siamo goduti la vista.
The following day, we got up early and walked to the bus station to catch a minibus to Mestia! Our four-day trek was getting closer 😎
