Road trip!

Vaho is a serious churchella conisseur.

Road trips in America generally involve fast-food restaurants and rest areas. And while Tbilisi is looking more like an American strip mall, once you hit the countryside, you're in another world.

With my host family anyway, every road trip includes stopping for churchella, which Georgians call their version of Snickers. Admittedly, it's not appetizing to look at. It kinda resembles a turd on a string, but it's actually a pretty delicious snack made from walnuts or other nuts strung up and dipped in thick, sweet grape juice, then dried to a waxy texture.  

 For lunch, we stopped in a little woodsy area, where we ate the same stuff we always eat: khatchapuri (cheese bread), salad (with stealth japalenos!) and lemonade, which is the Georgian term for any fizzy fruit drink. I've never actually seen lemon-flavored lemonade, ironically. In this case, we got pear and tarragon, which is bright green and tastes a bit like mouthwash. (Not my favorite.)

And forget outlet malls: Georgian roadside shopping means stopping along the highway to peruse stalls of baskets or hammocks or any other local specialty. Fun!