Finally, after weeks of waiting for the package from Germany, I got my first own pair of climbing shoes!
In the past, I always had felt that rock climbing would be something I’d love a lot. But apart from two or three times in a climbing and boulder gym, I had not been getting into it. I had been too much into trial biking and downhill biking and I did not like the necessity of making appointments with a friend to be able to climb. This dependency… Did not like it. And only bouldering I did not want to do as well.
But now the time had come! I was with Cindy, the best climbing partner one can think of and it was perfect. We parked Rosinante right next to a beach close to Batumi and went climbing a whole lot. The climbing sectors were pretty crazy because they were located right next to a fuel station and the main road between Georgia and Turkey, but it was super fun and exciting! The rock was pretty hard to climb as well: just very few bigger steps and handles. Cindy taught me a whole lot. Including self-belaying and belaying from the anchor point/ top.
When we were not climbing, we spent our time in the Black Sea or on the pebble beach. And of course Cindy became friends with all the stray dogs. Not only the small ones. Franz was one of them. A pretty impressive American Staffordshire with scars in the face. A fighter. Fearless as always Cindy played and danced with him. Once they had been playing enough, Franz went to the next group of people. They got afraid and their looks were begging for Cindy to come and take Franz away.
We went back near Batumi because the package from Germany was ready for pickup. We had sent it to a friend of Cindy and I was very thankful that he did invest his energy and time in this.
But the process of getting this package was crazy for me. I believe that basically humans are good and that experiences can make them behave not so well. So for me this is a state of confusion which is totally human and just part of us humans although we are basically good.
The friend of Cindy believes in mostly the opposite. That’s ok with me but still it was so demanding for me to get this package from the postal office and listen all the time to all the examples he had to somehow prove his view. And all the things that happened in the package retrieval process he saw as proofs of his beliefs. For him all the people we dealt with were bad and their only reason for existence seemed to be to make our lives harder. And about this he was sure even before we met the first of them.
So we started our odyssey and drove to the postal office. There we had to wait for half an hour. After that the people there started to ask questions about the contents of the package etc. Cindy’s friend was already pissed and had the people feel that. They were speaking Russian so I could not understand exactly what they said but that wasn’t necessary or even better that way. This procedure took about half an hour and I felt not good. Not good for Cindy’s friend, not good for the people in the postal office and not good for myself.
In the end we had to go to a Georgian Bank office to pay the import fees. I saw that coming because everything over 300 GEL (approximately 100 Euro) gets an import fee of about 18% in Georgia. For Cindy’s friend this fee was a proof of the evilness of the people in the postal office. At the bank we had to wait for a while and then paid. There was some discussion with the bank accountant about the fact that we only could pay in cash. Another sign of evilness.
We went back to the postal office. On the way I did tell Cindy’s friend about my perspective on the things happening and that it’s all ok. I did not want to convince him of my “Buddhist Zen-like” perspective but I could stay silent as well. I guess I just wanted to say something to calm myself or ensure myself that my beliefs were alright. And although I tried to accept that Cindy’s friend had just a different but not better or worse perspective than me, I could not remain neutral. And the fact that he believed that for example Trump would save humanity of evilness did not make it easier for me.
At the postal office the people told us that there has to be a mistake. The bank accountant did charge us three Lari too little. For me a mistake that can happen. For Cindy’s friend another proof of evilness.
So we went back to the bank. Cindy’s friend was pissed and had a big discussion with the accountant. I was smiling. In the end the accountant offered to pay the three Lari by her own. I liked the gesture. For Cindy’s friend she was making fun of us. We payed the three Lari.
After that we went back to the postal office and retrieved the package. I was happy that this was over. And I was still thankful that Cindy’s friend did go through this with me. Especially because this whole process was so full of evilness from his perspective.
I was super happy about the package full of mountaineering and climbing stuff and so we went to the nearest climbing area to try my first own climbing shoes. But I could not really climb. I was just not centered at all. Too busy in the head.
I guess this whole package mission just let me doubt about my whole perspective on the world. Maybe the perspective of Cindy’s friend was the right one and I was wrong? During the whole day, but especially at that point I felt that the “Zen perspective” really helped me to accept my perspective, his perspective and most importantly a part of the nature of human perspectives and beliefs: to have something that’s true, something we can rely on, something that gives us the feeling of having understood something about our own lives.
Finally we made it out of Turkey into Georgia! When I had started my journey in December 2021, Georgia had been the first country I really wanted to visit. Of course the other countries were all nice as well but Georgia was always special to me. It looked just awesome in the videos and photos. And for me it is the country between the West and the East.
I often thought: from Georgia eastwards the real adventure will start.
Immediately after crossing the border between Turkey and Georgia, we felt the difference: no singing/ chanting of Imams, alcohol everywhere, the people were dressed more revealingly, and although we met a lot of lovely people, some people seemed to be a bit grumpy.
After visiting old friends of Cindy near Batumi we continued to continue our traveling only with Rosinante and would pick up Thor some weeks later.
The weather got better and better and we decided to try the first climbing area in Katskhi. I did not have any climbing equipment at that point but we met again with Isarne who we knew from Cyprus and they borrowed me one pair of their climbing shoes.
Climbing was awesome and I loved how much it fits into the car and nature live. It was awesome to wake up, have some breakfast and just walk some hundred meters to the first climbing wall. And all of that together with very good friends.
Katskhi itself is an interesting spot for sightseeing as well: they have a chapel on a big stone pillar. Although it is not allowed to climb up there, it looks awesome.
And again we found some dog friends. Especially Humpelino was a nice companion. He got his name because he was limping and the German word for “limping” is “Humpeln”.
