Friday Dec 19 2009

After our language class that ended at 2:30 we went shopping for a light fixture for hanging over the dining table. We tried a different shop and didn’t see anything we liked. Choices are limited here and of what is available many are butt ugly! So we went back to the shop we went to last Friday and discovered our light fixture was on sale plus we got to use the dip card so we got a 40% markdown between the two. We came home and hung out for awhile then went out to eat at a new restaurant we had heard about. We took a taxi to Vong, an Asian fusion restaurant. It was a very sophisticated décor, very subtle and understated. We were THRILLED to discover they had a no smoking section! A first here for us. We ordered a Thai chicken soup. I had salmon as my entrée and Ron had a balsamic steak with spinach sautéed with fresh ginger. I thought I had died and gone to heaven. It was every bit as good as anything we have had at the good restaurants in Portland. I was so excited to have such a fine meal, I suggested we split a dessert: fried bananas with caramel sauce and vanilla ice cream. YUM! Afterwards we walked around the neighborhood to see what was there and discovered several more restaurants that looked good (Mexican, French and Italian). Vong was very expensive for Georgia and about the same as a good restaurant in the US. But it was worth every penney! We will definitely return.

We finally got our tickets for our trip back to the US in March. It turns out we will not be able to go to the east coast to see our kids due to a travel restriction with the feds. Bummer. Treasury bought Ron’s ticket and we got online immediately for my ticket. My ticket cost $1500 and his costs almost twice as much. His has all the options to change and cancel with no penalty plus his cost more because it is handled by a travel agency that has a contract with the Feds. Lucky me is all I can say to get the ticket for $1500. I am going to Paris in January and my ticket cost $660. Paris is three hours away. When you compare that to what I am paying to go to the US it is an outrageous amount but guess what ? It is the cheapest ticket available and it will take me 15 hrs to get to Paris. If I took a shorter flight without the 8 hour layover in Minsk, the price jumps to $1200 and goes up to $2400 for the three hour flight.

Saturday

We had planned to go to the flea market. We spent the morning around the house. Ron is baking his wonderful rye/raisin/walnut bread for Christmas gifts. By the time he was finished, it had started raining so we built a fire and studied for our language class. The sun came out around 3:00 so we walked to the grocery store and then to the stationery store and came home a new way, discovering another good grocery store but because it isn’t a chain., we doubt that they would take the dip card which saves us 18% VAT (value added tax). It would be a good choice if we only need a few items. We watched a DVD of an Israeli film in the evening.

Sunday

Today we went on a three hour walking tour of Tbilisi. A woman named Marika lead the tour and lucky for us we were the only people on the tour. The weather was spectacular, sunny and almost warm. We started at Freedom Square and worked our way through old town, seeing the remnants of the original city wall. There was a statue along the way (there are statues all over Tbilisi) and there were two older women sitting next to the statue. We asked if we could take their photos and they agreed if we would send them a copy. We agreed to bring them a copy as we learned they are there every Sunday. They were delightful. One was resistant as she didn’t think she was dressed well enough.

We learned about the civil war in the early 1990’s which lasted two weeks in Tbilisi only. It started the last week of December and ended two weeks later so they say the war was in 1991-92. There was an opposition to the first president (Georgia gained independence from the Soviet Union in 1991) and the war was a result of the opposition wanting the president to resign. Apparently much of Tbilisi was damaged or destroyed in that two week period. The current Marriot was riddled with bullet holes at the time. This is when the Betsy Hotel came into being as there was no place for visiting dignitaries to stay in the downtown area. She owned a large house and offered to have people stay there. The current Betsy Hotel is in a different building and Betsy no longer owns it although she can be seen there frequently.

We visited the National Museum which is under renovation but there were two exhibitions. One was embroidered icons done by a man. There were exquisite. They take 3-7 months to make depending on the size. The colors were so vivid and the detail was incredible. I would love to own one but doubt that I could even approach affording one. We met the artist and asked our guide to tell him how much we enjoyed seeing his work. The other exhibit was archeological finds from Tbilisi. There were some wonderful pieces from the 3rd century B.C. We went to the oldest cathedral in Tbilisi, 6th century. During the Soviet era, all the frescos were plastered over and they turned this cathedral into a museum of atheism! What the hell would that look like? We are one strange species. We also went to a mosque and Marika said during the Soviet times they turned one of the mosques into living quarters and her relatives lived in one. She said, ‘Imagine having ceilings seven meters high’. We also passed two synagogues. She said there has never been a problem with the different religions here. I told her the rest of the world has much to learn about tolerance and perhaps Georgians could teach lessons. We ended up at the mineral baths. The Georgian word for warm is tbili which is where Tbilisi gets its name. The story of the discovery of Tbilisi is that the king was hunting and shot a pheasant and when he found the pheasant it had fallen into a warm spring and was fully cooked when the king arrived. Sounds like an urban myth to us.

After our tour, we grabbed a bite at Entrée, a French eatery along Rustavili Blvd.  There is a lot of street art along this road.. My feet were way tired and I needed to sit for a while. Well after a light bite, I thought we should indulge since we were in this wonderful bakery with all those yummy French pastries so we split a chocolate tart/cake like thing that was too good to be true. On the way home, we saw a good view of the Caucus Mountains covered with snow.  We took the subway back to home and I have been resting ever since. Ron is downstairs baking more bread for Christmas gifts. He will now have four in the freezer and have four more to go. Since Christmas isn’t until January 7th, I think he will make it.