Yusufeli

 Yusufeli is a little village some 9 Km from the main road between Kars and Artvin. From Kars the original plan was to go to Artvin to see some more Georgian churches. I was scared of the transportation problem of how to get to Yusufeli from the main road and that was why it was not on my initial itinerary. A chance meeting with the local guide mentioned in Lonely Planet persuaded us to go to Yusufeli. I thought when we get dropped off by the bus we can hitch our way to Yusufeli. So onward to Yusufeli for a night's stay. We fell in love with Yusufeli and ended up staying 2 nights and forgot about Artvin. No sooner has we arrived that we heard the roar of the river. People come here to go river rafting. The place is rugged and quite inhospitable except by the river banks the locals planted a veritable garden of Eden and Yusufeli is so laid back and pleasant that one could easily stay forever. This was the river beside our hostel. The roar of the river is constant from our room which is right above it.

 Across from our hostel and on the other side of the river is this restaurant. This picture is taken from our room. This hostel is so laid back, they didn't bother to take our information down.

 Our room is above this restaurant and the food is so good. I love Yusufeli, its cheap to stay too.

When we got dropped off, 3 other French people were with us. I asked one of them as to how to get to Yusufeli. he said, 'hitch'. Just then some local guy in a van said, ' Yusufeli 5TL'. Some guy is operating a shuttle service between the gas station and Yusufeli for 5 TL per person. We didn't have to hitch or walk after all. As we drew closer to Yusufeli we saw how beautiful it was, fruit trees everywhere, we decided we're staying another day.