We stayed in a guesthouse that was recommended by a friend. The house contained 3 rooms...2 contained about 5 or 6 beds. Our had just 2. It was just your basics....minus A/C, plus a few flies and mosquitoes.
We headed out to explore the city our first day....the 4th of July. We went to the Old City in hopes of following a walking tour that was in our guide book. We started off OK, but then got somewhat lost. Our book has the street names in English, but the actual street signs were written in cyrillic. Not helpful. We finally made our way uphill to an ancient fortress that overlooks the city. The views were great. The city is very hilly with a river running through the middle of it. Georgia is also a Christian country and you could see tons of church steeples poking up here and there. Really a cool sight.
Next to the fortress is the huge, silver statue of Mother Georgia. She holds a cup of wine in her left hand to symbolize Georgia's generosity, and a sword in her right to remind everyone that Georgia will fight if crossed.
After we made our way back down, we saw a few more churches and other sights around town. We were pretty exhausted and ready to eat dinner and head home. My aunt and some other people told us that we needed to eat at this restaurant called The Hangar while we were there. It is owned by an American and we figured they might be doing something special for the 4th of July. We finally found the restaurant, and with it American flags and waitresses with patriotic hats. We were early and not too many people were there. We actually got to talk to the owner, who later invited us over to her table with some friends. A local news channel was there and they wanted to ask us what the 4th of July meant to us. After a couple of us talked, they asked us to sing a national song. So, we sang the Star Spangled Banner (not the prettiest version you've ever heard).
It was a fun night full of hot dogs, hamburgers and good conversations with English-speaking people. They even did fireworks....however, we were too exhausted to stay that late. Maybe my first 4th with no fireworks!
We got up Saturday morning and headed to see the Sameba Cathedral a.k.a. The New Church. It was yet another little hike to reach it, but the church was pretty impressive and worth it.
This huge church was just built in 2004. The inside walls were white and seemed to reach forever upward. Again, great views of the city were all around.
Now, to my favorite part of the trip....the bath house. One of the oldest parts of Tbilisi is called the bath house district, where these ancient bath houses are still in use. In the past, women would spend all day hanging out at these bath houses with friends. Men also used to gather there for maybe something like a guys' night out. So what's inside? Well, basically it is like a sauna with a hot tub, showers to rinse off, and a marble bed that you can get massages on. I think most people do the public baths (they are pretty cheap), but I guess we are a little too modest and opted for a private cabin. We both got massages...yes, completely naked....a little weird, but OK. The massages consisted of sloughing off dead skin (amazing really), “bathing” us, and giving us the roughest massages we’ve ever had. It was great! I highly recommend it!
**NOTE: The following story is MUCH better told in person. Please ask us about it!
It was time to head back to Baku. We got 2nd class train tickets this time because they are cheaper. This means we were in a cabin with 2 other people (“bunk beds”). We got on the train to find no one in our cabin yet. We rode that way to the Georgian border where we stopped to go through customs. As they came around to check our passports, Mr. Customs informs us that our visas are expired and we will have to stay in Georgia til we get new ones. What?!?! Almost immediately, I start crying (I was ready to go home....what if we missed our flight back to the US...it was too much!). Finally, after a lot of confusion, worrying, crying and a phone call, it turns out that Mr. Customs read our visas wrong and we were OK. Close call.
By this time, the whole train is interested in our business and keeps assuring us that everything will be OK. One man in particular feels the need to be our friend....
Imagine a huge burly guy with his shirt unbuttoned to his big pot belly with chest hair hanging out. He has a towel around his neck to catch all his sweat, and he smells like alcohol and smoke. This is the man who makes himself at home in our cabin and tries to speak a little bit of English with us. He even brought a huge bottle of beer to share. Thoughtful. Of course, we didn't want the beer but it would've been very rude to refuse (actually, I got to refuse because I'm a girl, but Todd really couldn't be rude...this guy might have beaten him up!). So, after the guys had a couple drinks, (while Mr. Burly slings his sweat on the floor and spills the beer on my leg) we thought he would leave. He did, but returned often trying to get Todd to come down to his cabin to hang out. By this time, the 2 sweet older ladies, who we shared our cabin with, were on the train. With their help, we finally got Mr. Burly to go away...only after Todd promised to hang out the next day. We shut the door and locked it for the night.
Todd and I were still asleep on the top bunks at 7:30 the next morning. The ladies had opened our door and Mr. Burly comes and thumps Todd on his foot to wake him up. Seriously?!?! We finally get up and Mr. Burly just won't go away, so Todd gives in and goes down to his cabin. Come to find out, Mr. Burly has tons of food and beer and even a big bottle of vodka (or maybe moonshine?) in his cabin. After some broken English conversations, lots of toasting, and a cucumber and piece of sausage eaten, Todd finally returns.
Our last encounter with Mr. Burly happens the last 30 minutes of our ride. He comes in and nearly sits on me. We think he wanted to have tea with us when we got off the train, but we booked it out of there and he never caught up.
Long story (sorry so long)...but that was our trip to Georgia!
Pictures:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2025469&l=aabe4&id=61700300
1 comment:
Very well written. I still laugh about Mr. Burly-too bad you didn't take a picture of him. I have him visualized strong in my mind, though, with you description.
We miss you guys and the dogs doo too.
Love,
Brenda
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