A day in Tbilisi

I got into Tblisi around 3am last night. My passport was stamped without and questions, and there was 0 customs control after picking up my bags. John saw me to my room at the VIP Hotel- the very important people that stay here must not have super fancy tastes! The alarm woke me from the light sleep and strange dreams that followed after my sleep had been broken for the first time by the cries of children outside the hotel window. I want to adjust to the time change quickly, so I was determined not to sleep all day. I got dressed and wandered out into the cobbled streets of the old section of the city. Every second doorway seemed to have an elderly woman with piles of produce: cherries, tomatillos, potatoes, eggplant and more. I withdrew some Lari (GEL) from an ATM (1 USD buys 1.64 GEL) and somehow I was able to convince a hairdresser to give me a haircut, even though she spoke absolutely no English, and my Georgian doesn’t extend much beyond yes (deeak), no (ara), and sorry (bodishit)!

I wandered through the streets lined with old buildings of chipped stucco and crumbling brick. But the moldings on windows and doors give everything a kind of grand feeling. I passed many chapels and saw women young and old crossing themselves as they went by. A modern bridge spans the muddy river that flows through the capital. I climbed up onto a rise where a giant metal woman looks over the city. She has a bowl of wine in one hand to great friends, and sword in the other to meet enemies. All along the walk young couples looked out across the houses in each other’s arms. A couple geocaches gave direction to my wandering. It was exciting to cross busy, well-paved streets, and then the next minute, find myself in tiny alleys that looked like they belonged to a tiny village.

I wanted to get a converter for my computer plug. I found an electronics store. A couple of old men were tinkering around with circuit boards surrounded by old dusty TV’s. None of them spoke English. I showed one of them the plug and we went through a number of possibilities in mime. Finally he found a converter in a pile of components after I had declined his gestured offer to cut the cord and replace the end with the Georgian 220V ending!

I had a crepe with caviar and a cup of gazpacho at a nearby restaurant, and after and evening stroll by the river I found it was already getting late- the Monastery tour begins tomorrow, so I should probably get some sleep.

En Route

On my layover in Istanbul, with my laptop battery running low, I threw some thoughts down in a notebook- I've transcribed them here:

This has been a good while coming. I was already thinking about travelling to Georgia around Christmas. It went from plans of a ten-day Monastery tour, to plans spanning 6-months to a year. I received confirmation that I had a teaching position more than a month ago now, and there was a good deal to keep me busy in the days that followed. There was convocation to mark the end of my McGill chapter, a couple of weeks sweating in the kitchen at the Adirondack Pub and Brewery, a Virginia excursion with Robin down to the beautiful hills Floyd county, and finally I found myself with just a night or two home in PA before it was time to take to the skies.

Turkish Airlines flight 12 was huge. I stood at the back of the line as the families with flocks of children boarded first. I made my way to seat 38A and for the next nine hours I was to be crammed into that little window seat, sealed in my a large Turkish woman (she needed one of those seat belt extendors to accommodate her girth!). She spoke no English. Drinks were free and the dinner of chicken with celeriac puree and spinach was surprisingly tasty for airplane fare. After about 2 movies, I was out pretty hard- not surprising as the flight only left JFK at 11pm.

It was a bizarre experience to wake up shortly before landing- a time warp. When we touched down in Istanbul we had gained 7 hours, so it was already 2pm. We came down right onto the tarmac and crowded into shuttle buses. Despite my long layover, I decided against purchasing a visa to go explore the city for a couple hours, and instead caught up on some electronic correspondence and bought a painfully over-priced meal. Now as I'm yawning over my scrawled words I think it's time for some Turk Kahvesi (Turkish coffee), as it's still a good while before I hop on over to Tbilisi. It's great to finally be here though. The wheels are turning and the adventure is advancing!

Taking off tomorrow!

Plane leaves from JFK at 11pm Monday June 20th- let the adventure begin!