Hitchhiking in Abkhazia. Day 1 by @fourapril

Finally, I can write to Steemit about our hitchhiking (together with @kurokikuro). I will post reports in the form of a travel diary.

Attention: There are a lot of mistakes in the text, because I do not know English well. I'm sorry =)

Abkhazia officially the Republic of Abkhazia, is a de-facto and partially recognized republic on the eastern coast of the Black Sea, south of the Greater Caucasus mountains, in northwestern Georgia. It covers 8,660 square kilometres (3,340 sq mi) and has a population of around 240,000. Its capital is Sukhumi. The separatist Abkhazian polity, formally the Republic of Abkhazia, is recognised as a state by Russia, Venezuela, Nicaragua, Nauru, and Syria. While Georgia lacks control over Abkhazia, the Georgian government and most United Nations member states legally consider Abkhazia part of Georgia, whose constitution designates the area as the Autonomous Republic of Abkhazia.

1 day. Start.

As usual, we left for 2 hours later than originally planned, but for this fate awarded us a direct car to Samara (it is somewhere 250 km).
Somewhere in 70 km we picked up another hitch-hiker, he was driving from Khabarovsk (!)

But then this guy turned out to be a very fascinating story. A few facts about him:

But then this guy turned out to be a very fascinating story. A few facts about him:

• travels 6-7 years in the country, even in winter.
• the first trip was to Khabarovsk
• worked in Kamchatka
• lived several months in the caves of Crimea
• 4 years of silence, because he took a vow of silence

In Samara, we drank coffee together and dispersed on different sides of the road, for to him to Nizhny Novgorod, to us to Abkhazia.

We stand on the sidelines, eat cutlets from chickpeas, show people a thumbs-up (and it's not like). Brakes trucker with Turkish numbers. Azat brought natural leather from Mongolia to Turkey, it turns out to be more profitable than on an airplane. He spoke bad Russian, but it was enough to understand.
He got out of a typical stereotype about the Turks, for example, he did not eat at roadside cafes, but cooked from products brought with him from Turkey, read Gorky and Dostaevsky (although I was more surprised by the books themselves in Turkish :)), talked about gender equality and underdevelopment their fellow citizens.

A little later we stopped at the parking lot to cook. Pasta with spicy pepper paste sauce (something like tomato paste, but from hot pepper and salt), fried chilli and garlic peppers; even more salted water from cucumbers, cabbage and hot pepper; salad from yogurt with finely chopped cucumber and grass, similar to marjoram.

And then there was a long road on the terrible roads of the Saratov region, where it's physically impossible to go faster than 40. And somewhere in 12, we pitched a tent somewhere in the field behind the stalk of Balakovo.

In advance I apologize for the mistakes, it is very unusual to make posts from the phone.

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