I had a wonderful vacation with Neal from June 16-28th. Once again, we veered sharply from the beaten tourist path. We visited the Republic of Georgia, which is nowhere near Florida. ;-)
The country is full of hospitable people, great history, and awesome mountains in the north! This will be a multi-part post so that you can see more pictures. My niece, Bonnie, visited Georgia last year and raved about it, and now I am going to carry on the "rave about it" tradition. If you think of the Georgia of the 1990's, you would not go, but they have changed. It's safe - you can check the
US government pages. Past president Mikheil Saakasvili made a huge difference. He reformed the police (read, fired the old ones) so that you can trust them now. He paved the roads, so that the trip from Zugdidi north to Mestia takes 3 hours instead of the 6-1/2 hours that my 2011 Lonely Planet guide says. They are really encouraging the tourist trade.
The capital - Tbilisi! We met there on Monday night, after Neal had another airport adventure. He was at the airport when I arrived, instead of 8 hours beforehand! We stayed at
Maia's Guesthouse. We had the whole airy apartment to ourselves. It was filled with antiques and books, and a fully equipped kitchen. Maia and her husband David talked our taxi driver to the right place on the phone, and met us there. Here's Neal in his bedroom door.
The reason for travelling - food! We started with
khinkali, pockets of beef and pork and cilantro and other spices.
Next was khachapuri, basically Georgian pizza, served everywhere. It's a cheese pie with variations. The other cool food is walnuts surrounded by grape candy, hanging on strings. At first, we thought they were candles, but why were they all over? That one pictured was delicious.
We started with the walking tour from the Lonely Planet guide. After all the battles in the 90's, there are abandoned, crumbling buildings, but almost everything is shiny and spruced up. The Public Service Building is the most amazing place ever! The roof looks like white mushroom caps. Planner Neal wishes there were such a setup anywhere he's worked.
We climbed up to Narikala Fortress, which gave us fabulous views! While up top, we walked past the giant aluminum Mother Georgia. She has a sword in one hand, while offering a bowl of wine with the other. Don't get on her wrong side!
We missed the botanical gardens, but found this HUGE house, with gates, guards, and security cameras. Tony Stark could live there. A local told us it belongs to a Russian oligarch. An oligarchy is government by the few. A very rich and powerful few...
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| The huge house from where you can see the whole thing. Can you see a road goes under the whole complex? |
In the evening, we went for a two hour river tour, which totally reminded me of Neal's and my river tour from years ago in Budapest. They light up the cliffs, bridges and buildings, so it's so beautiful. We had three guys playing music on this one. They had a main guide who spoke Russian to the port side of the boat, and our English-speaking guide would paraphrase it for us. Neal has studied Russian a little, so when the first guide asked a quiz question, Neal jumped in with the answer while our guide was still asking. I got one, too! Our language practice with everyone we met came in handy. :-)
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| The TV tower sparkled and flashed |
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| The Peace Bridge |
Big first day, huh?
The 18th, we went out to the open-air Museum of Ethnography. There are houses from all the regions of Georgia. The Khakheti house from eastern Georgia was newly built and full of furnishings. The other cool house was from western Georgia, a rich family's farmhouse. The kitchen was in a separate building, with no chimneys or windows. Perhaps the better for smoking food?
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| I love the weaving to make walls and fences |
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| Here's the western Georgia kitchen |
On the way back to town on the bus, Neal proved what a great travelling companion he is. He had downloaded a map to his phone, and used it to find a restaurant. They even served us at 4:30, which is quite a treat in Europe, where everyone eats late. We had a pleasant evening. We sat in front of Vinomania with a glass of (rotgut) wine and listened to a saxophonist. The first wine we had in Georgia was good, but darker colored than usual. This one was also colored like grape juice, but not so good. On the last dinner we had in Georgia, we had a white wine, which is unusual. I liked it so much that we went back to Vinomania and bought a bottle. Marani Tsinandali 2011.
The 19th of June - the day that everyone at WesternGeco got the news that they are planning to shut down our factory. The work group there is so closely knit that it is tearing everyone's heart out. The official information will come in Mid-August. Production of the high runners moves to Penang. Slow runners and engineering prototype product move to Oslo. This seems to be the story of my life. I love manufacturing, but I am in highly paid countries, and manufacturing is moving out of them. I am still working out what happens next, but I hope to stay right here in my cozy apartment.
Next post starts the morning with the sulfur baths!
The country is full of hospitable people, great history, and awesome mountains in the north! This will be a multi-part post so that you can see more pictures. My niece, Bonnie, visited Georgia last year and raved about it, and now I am going to carry on the "rave about it" tradition. If you think of the Georgia of the 1990's, you would not go, but they have changed. It's safe - you can check the US government pages. Past president Mikheil Saakasvili made a huge difference. He reformed the police (read, fired the old ones) so that you can trust them now. He paved the roads, so that the trip from Zugdidi north to Mestia takes 3 hours instead of the 6-1/2 hours that my 2011 Lonely Planet guide says. They are really encouraging the tourist trade.
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