It's a two-man job to bring us breakfast .... Oh my lord!
That's like a cheese monster heaven that is!
We're off to Georgia!
So apparently we're trying to find x-ray but we're now going against all the lorries!
There's no arrows!
And they don't tell you where to go, they just go on the right somewhere.
we're Chris and Marianne and we've been traveling full-time for the past three years!
We did it!
We're currently attempting to drive Trudy our home on wheels all the way around the world!
Good morning!
We've got furry friends already!
So carrying on from yesterday, we got good news
that our PCR tests are negative!
And that means that today we are heading to Georgia
with a dog!
Yes as usual we always put food and water out for the dogs and the cats and we've always got a few little furry friends!
Look at this guy good morning!
Okay so the plan is i think before we go to Georgia,
it might be a long day you know what these border crossings are like sometimes.
But i think we're going to go and get a little bit of food ...
a last Turkish breakfast before we head off into Georgia.
So during our time in Trabzon,
we're staying in a nearby town of Akcabaat, which is famous for its kofte which we tried last time we were here, yeah!
And there's a lovely little cafe here called Marenda cafe,
and we're going to go and have a little breakfast here,
and it's a nice meeting point we've got some lovely friends here around Trabzon area,
so it's nice for us to be here and then everyone comes around to meet us and catch up,
which is lovely!
Yeah it's been a perfect spot,
there's a little beach here which gets quite busy in the evening,
and then this little car park here where Trudy's parked,
surrounded by dogs they keep us safe all night!
The bad thing is that if anybody comes past,
they bark!
Even if it's a cat or a pigeon! They protect us from the pigeons!
They do and there's a pack of about seven or eight of them.
That's really nice sitting up here because the restaurant gets a really good breeze,
and it's been so warm and humid the last week.
So you may recognise this restaurant from last year,
and we've come they've only literally just opened so there's nobody else here at the moment.
But i love this sign,
isn't this just a lovely wall?
But Elif the owner here is so good at designing it just is cool!
I feel cool being here, it's all cool!
look at the decor it's so homely.
Oh you have to show the cactus man! He is my favourite!
Oh this is Marianne favourite! We sat here and had dinner last night,
and this is Marianne's favourite bit .....
does that not look like a cactus man?
That is definitely the coolest cactus i've seen!
And this morning we have Ezra looking after us....
Everybody's just incredibly welcoming in fact,
we were here last year as we said before and when we pulled up this year,
they didn't know we were coming,
Ezra spotted us across the car park and came running over to say "welcome"!
Which is incredible!
In fact the staff here were on the intro from last year ... Saying "Welcome to Turkey"
The most important part of a Turkish breakfast ....
Turkish tea!
Breakfast for two ..... it's a two-man job to bring us breakfast!
That's slightly worrying ..... oh my lord!
Look at that cheese!
and what do you call this one is kuymak and it's made with cheese and flour,
and this is traditional from the Black Sea coast right? from here, Yes.
Look at that!
Oh my lord that's like a cheese monster heaven that is!
We've done lots of videos on Turkish breakfast,
but every time i get one i'm just impressed!
I just love it sausage, honey it's just amazing, olives,
cheese, eggs, some pepper, tomatoes, some gozleme, salad, bread, even chips, olives
and included in the breakfast here in the Black Sea region they have honeycomb,
now it's very traditional to have honeycomb with your Turkish breakfast,
but this is a specific honeycomb from the Black Sea region.
Oh it looks amazing hold on i've got to try it.
Oh that is so good.
In fact we bought some yesterday, and we have a secret stash in the van!
We're buying a little bit of honey and we love it and the Black Sea region is famous for honeycomb!
and a little bit of the runny stuff on the top!
Look at that!
In fact this is a perfect opportunity
to thank 'Buy in Turkey' for sponsoring today's video!
In fact they haven't just sponsored today's video,
they've kindly said that they will donate 10% of all sales to our sea turtle rescue fund!
Thanks 'Buy in Turkey'
In fact if you haven't heard of BuyinTurkey.com they sell and ship internationally a wide variety of high-end Turkish products.
And talking of honey, Buy in Turkey have a seriously good range of honey for sale on their site.
Like their organic chestnut honey,
which is actually from this region of Turkey,
what makes it special is the worker bees only collect the nectar from the chestnut trees,
giving it a unique flavour and properties.
And sticking with the sweet tooth,
if you love kunafe or if you want to try their beautiful baklava, like the one they sent us a couple of months ago.
But they don't just sell food products they sell lots of other Turkish products,
so if you want to experience a bit of Turkey wherever you are in the world.
Then to get started click the link in the description below and by using the code tread the globe,
you'll know that you'll be donating 10% of all sales to our amazing sea turtle rescue fund!
Thank you very much!
Time to eat!
Okay Marianne's getting her cheese fix!
How is that?
This is not my first fork full!
It is delicious ...... as a cheese connoisseur and monster!
I can tell you this is lush!
And i have to say that while i was busy filming the advert,
Marianne was sneakily eating that in the background!
So after that amazing breakfast, and eating far too much! We're off to Georgia!
The drive today to Batumi is about three and a half hours,
and it's about two and a half hours to the border with Georgia.
How exciting ! We're crossing a new border in Trudy!
So we just stopped off for fuel,
getting the windscreen cleaned up
just to make sure the videos are looking good for you guys!
Just passed all the nuts, all the hazelnuts drying on the side of the road!
Because this is the nut region of Turkey!
i literally just love
how they pile them up on the side of the road!
Thousands and thousands of hazelnuts
So we spent a lot of time here last summer.
We did this region around Rize and Trabzon
and wonderful mountains, and we did a couple of trips up into the mountains.
In fact if you missed the video on the tea road going up to see the tea in the mountains?
You should definitely check it out,
possibly some of the scariest roads we've been on since we've been in Turkey,
and would you do it again? No! Go check the video!
So we're just stopping off because we just spotted some water by the side of the road.
What's really cool is it's actually got cups on chains and i said can i have some water? and he was like yes!
Okay let's fill up, we're going to have to pass it through the window i think,
because we're very close to the main road and the cars are coming a bit close.
Good water pressure?
Okay i'll go get some more!
I'm just putting the cushions back, i'm not really sure what's happened to Chris?
He just said hold on a minute ....
And he went off with the man,
i don't know what he's done?!
What they doing?
He got me picking some fruit arrh!
I thought he wanted me to pick them for him off the high branches,
but he gave them to me ..
He said they were for us!
i picked loads because i thought they were for him!
Oh yep!
Some people have messaged to say Turkish people can't be that nice?
They really are! They really are!
This region of Turkey is the tea growing region,
and are these bushes by the side of the road are tea!
So we're just going through the city of Rize,
on the way to Georgia this morning!
it's funny isn't it it's just that yeah we're just going to drive to Georgia today!
It doesn't sound right does it?
Our life is crazy !
It's been a while since we drove Trudy over
a border outside of the Europe, in fact this will be the first border outside of Europe,
other than Turkey!
It's true, exciting!
What's funny is when we came down this road last year.
We should have been carrying on and going to Russia and carrying on ...
and it feels funny to think that we just you know we're so close to carrying on but we're not yet!
It's kind of like teasing us ...
When we popped into Georgia for the driving license stamp a month or so ago,
many of our Turkish followers said
"oh no you're leaving Turkey" and you sent us so many messages,
so just for clarification we're going into Georgia for about three weeks,
and then we'll be back into Turkey and we will carry on putting the Turkish subtitles on the videos we make in Georgia for you.
So don't worry!
This coastline is getting more and more picturesque as we go North,
see all the buildings with the mountains and the clouds in the background and lots of green
trees and tea in the distance!
I did say to Chris that some people will look at all the colourful buildings,
and think it's just a bunch of concrete blocks in front of some green trees!
But that's why i love Chris, because he sees all the beauty!
And it's nature, and trees...... but you don't get views like this back home so for me it's amazing!
one of the bits of advice we got from a fellow overlander was,
get the insurance for your vehicle to Georgia before you actually arrive on the border,
because if you buy it on the border it's very expensive!
So we actually processed our insurance online last night and we did it for a month!
and it was a hundred euros,
Thank you very much Toot o Boo
Looking online to go into Georgia during these covid times,
we've got two vaccinations and we've had a negative PCR test,
which means that we should be able to go in without any problem,
if you haven't had the two vaccinations, then you need to register online before you arrive at the border or at the airport.
And you have to have another PCR test i think three days after you arrive in Georgia.
So hopefully today's border crossing is smooth ....?
So looking at all these lorries i reckon we must be pretty close to the border?
I wouldn't want to be queuing in a lorry with all those, there is mile after mile of lorries!
The roads cleared up again, so i'm not sure i think they must have been going into some sort of checks
or customs check before the border?
I think they're all there because you can't slow down here but over there there was actually a road they got a rest stop maybe before and a weigh station?
and there was a weighing checkpoint station.
So we're still not at the border we're just coming into a another town here and the queue of lorries has started again.
I think we got about four miles to the border.
We're just arriving at the border.
Okay so we've just cleared Turkish passport control and we're just going through customs now.
Okay so we just got to the barrier and he said computer car go!
so i'm not sure what that means....
but i think it means we have to come
back here for something?
But i don't know so we've just come back, it's always very confusing isn't it?
So Marianne's just going .... that's a duty-free shop.
So it must be a little bit further down.
Down there i'm not sure.
It's x-ray ..... where's x-ray? Over there.
Oh he didn't say that !
He said over there! I love it!
So apparently we're trying to find x-ray?
But we're now going against all the lorries!
I love border crossing that don't make any sense!
Actually we haven't had one smooth crossing yet i don't think?
Is that x-ray?
I think so!
I think that must be x-ray? Let's go and have a look?
Okay it's not here?
So he says it's in the next building.
But we can't get out that way because there's a truck.
So we're going to try and reverse over the hole.
Do you need me to see you back or are you good?
I think i'm okay ....
There are no direction arrows .... of follow the blue line, yellow line or signage !
And they don't tell you where to go?
They just go on the right somewhere so now we're going round
to the next building ....
Is that the entrance or the exit?
Okay we found the x-ray building!
It does actually have a big sign saying x-ray on it!
Are you being secretive?
We're in the x-ray machine!
There's a big hanger with a massive x-ray over us.
If there's anybody from customs listening ...
if you make it simple and do a green line,
a red line,
a blue line and a yellow line ....
it will be a lot easier,
then just tell the crazy tourists to follow whichever colour line you want them to go to.
It makes it much simpler and all the arrows will go in one direction.
Okay x-ray done, they did make us get out of the vehicle,
for our own safety and ask us whether we had any pets.
So all good okay back to Turkish customs!
Okay so this is becoming slightly comical,
we've come back to customs and they've got computer problems now so they're sending us
back to where we came from.
Number one wherever number one is?
He is getting the traffic to reverse,
because there's cars behind us.
Okay maybe they just don't ever want us to leave!
They love us so much!
Okay ten minutes later what happened?
So he sent me to number one ....
there isn't number one!
Really?
So i went up to the guy, and a group of people and said problem problem caravan problem!
And so they were like oh!
So then they the guy who helped me originally came to get me ....
So anyway he's done something with my paperwork for Trudy ..... Trudy was the problem!
But she's not now!
So i'm going to go and say to him - No problem !!
They were all laughing at me!
Okay we've officially left Turkey and now we're going into Georgia!
We were under the impression looking at the Georgian government website if you've had two vaccines you don't need to register online...
but in fact you do!
So we've just done that and now we're queuing up, to get into Georgia.
Okay after about
half an hour later,
we've arrived in Georgia !
We hope you've enjoyed this episode.
If you have please give us a thumbs up and click the subscribe button below.
And make sure you join us on the next episode as we arrive in the Georgian city of Batumi.