MC Kisulya Shares Georgia Trip Experience

Georgia is one of the most popular tourist destinations among Russians, but as recently as last month it began to be actively discussed on social media and in the news in a negative light. The reason was a fight in a hotel involving a Russian woman: a local resident burst into a hotel room and struck the woman in the face. After that incident, many tourists abandoned travel to the country.

Rapper and blogger from Yekaterinburg Yulia Dunayeva, also known by her stage name MC Kisulya (you can read her story here), went on a ten-day holiday to Georgia right after the conflict. She told E1.RU whether she encountered Russophobia and whether locals discuss the incident.

Yulia had dreamed of visiting Georgia for three years to see relatives. It was her first trip abroad. She and her husband bought tickets to Tbilisi with a 15-hour layover in Baku. It cost less, and they also got the chance to see another country.

“When we arrived in Baku, there were two signs at the airport: one toward baggage claim and one toward transit. It was our first time flying abroad, so we looked at the signs, didn’t see an exit, and followed everyone else (and everyone was heading to the transit zone). We passed security and passport control and ended up in the departure area on the third floor — and then we realized we were stuck. Sitting in an airport for fifteen hours, even one as beautiful as Baku’s, was not part of our plans at all. We went around the counters asking what to do. Some people said that was it, but in the end an airport specialist led us outside through some back ways,” the blogger added.

In Tbilisi, the Yekaterinburg couple stayed at a hotel for a couple of days, and then with their relatives, so the accommodation issue was solved right away. In ten days, Yulia managed to visit every district of the city:

“Lots of walking up staircases, hills and cobblestones. We went out of town for a barbecue (shashlik), where Georgian companies and families were sitting around in gazebos. It was interesting to watch real local gatherings. We also climbed an old fortress, getting to the nearest village on an ordinary scheduled bus. We rode all the cable cars in the city, visiting different observation decks. I especially remember a complex of buildings where bridges have been built between them on the 14th floor so that residents of the upper high-rise on the slope can get home comfortably.”

Initially Yulia thought Georgia was about nature, private houses and a small flow of tourists. Although these ideas collided with reality, she remained delighted.

“I remember the abundance of foreign tourists and the large choice of entertainment. There are both modern districts with wealthy high-rises and an old town whose streets you can wander endlessly. And also those very gray panel buildings where people built extensions to their apartments with their own hands. You look at an ordinary nine-story building — and there is a row of additional balconies from the first to the last floor that people built themselves,” Yulia shared.

For the most part, Yulia and her husband spoke Russian. According to her, older people understand Russian, while young people — not so much. Every time they entered a place, they didn’t know in which language they should start the conversation.

“You have to switch quickly, because you might be understood, or you might not. At first we were embarrassed to say “gamarjoba” (“hello” in Georgian — Editor’s note) in shops and taxis, then we got used to it. When we returned to Yekaterinburg, it was even unusual to say “hello” to a driver. We didn’t notice any negative reaction to Russian; you’re simply given to understand that you need to switch to another language. And there you are, recalling your university English course and trying to explain what you need,” the artist added.

The tourists did not encounter conflict situations during their holiday and did not feel like “white crows” (odd ones out). Yulia Dunayeva was even able to hold a fan meeting in Tbilisi with her admirers:

“We gathered a hundred people in a park. And that was exactly what I was worried about: I was afraid of running into provocations, or negativity, or police officers. But they just walked around and watched. Everything went calmly.”

According to Yulia, locals were not eager to discuss international scandals with them. If an exchange of opinions did happen, it was not negative.

“We had only one conversation with a male waiter in one of the cafés that indirectly touched on the political agenda. He simply shared his opinion, we listened, and overall — that was it. Perhaps we didn’t get close enough to locals to have such conversations,” the Yekaterinburg resident explained.

Yulia also shared that they were a bit unlucky with the return journey. She and her husband decided not to buy tickets right away in order to save money, but everything went off plan:

“We saw that the closer the date of departure from Tbilisi to Yekaterinburg, the lower the prices became. Every day we tracked prices and waited for them to drop on our day too. But it turned out that starting exactly from our day, a expensive period began, and the tickets stopped getting cheaper. That is, because of a difference of literally one day, the price differed by as much as 15 thousand rubles (about $190 at current rates). If we had known about this earlier, we could have saved money.”

Earlier, a Yekaterinburg resident told how much she spent in the most Russian city in China. Read about what is worth flying there for. And another traveler decided to reach the Kazakh-Chinese border in his own car and shared his experience with E1.RU readers.

We wrote that prices for tours abroad collapsed in Yekaterinburg. Before your vacation, be sure to study how scammers trick tourists when buying package holidays.