Tbilisi from the travelers perspective

October 20 2011

For the past couple of days the weather has turned blustery with lots of wind and occasional rain and cold. We had to shut the window in our bathroom due to the cold but discovered nothing gets dry in there with no air circulation. We wash out our socks, underwear and handkerchiefs daily and have a small clothes line that we use for our hand washing when we travel. So today I climbed back on top of the tub edges to open the transom over the window so our items didn’t mildew. 

Today I met three friends: Nino, our former housekeeper, met me for coffee, Maia, our artist friend, met both of us for lunch at one of our favorite restaurants Pur Pur and I met Satvir, a young man from India whom we befriended through our favorite Indian restaurant. Pur Pur is owned by an artist (metal worker) and has a rather unusual yet creative décor and a great menu. We always meet with Maia there as it is close to her apartment. It was great to see each of our friends and find out how they were doing. 

Ron has been busy at work and that makes him happy. His last job here was boring by comparison. He will be training people in local government on a number of topics but this week his proposed schedule has change literally everyday. We hope to get a firm schedule by next week so we can plan accordingly. Ron will travel to at least one location outside of Tbilisi to do the training and hopefully I will be able to join him. 

Last night we went to Little India, our favorite Indian restaurant. After we came out we were waiting for a taxi and I watched three different people back up though a cross street. It was dark and a very stupid and dangerous move but so very Georgian. Needless to say I still find myself muttering under my breath about the bad driving here. When I got home I discovered we had heat from the radiators in our room. No more worry about getting our hand washing dry.

October 22, 2011

The weather has turned back to Indian summer here and it is delightful. Yesterday I got a manicure and went to the laundry on the metro to pick up our clothes. They weren’t ready so this will require another trip across town on the metro. I walked so much yesterday while on errands and meeting Ron for lunch that everything hurt: my feet, my back and my hips. Good lord, getting old is not for sissies!  I came back to the room and rested, took an ibuprofen and a very hot soaking bath. Later we went out to dinner but eating in restaurants is beginning to catch up with us so we had soup and a light green salad and bread at our fave Italian place. I loved going out to eat but three times a day gets old rather quickly. I am grateful that the food at our hotel is good. Many places that include breakfast serve a poor meal, high in carbs and low in quality. The Betsy has a great buffet with eggs to order any style. The fruit is fresh daily. All the bread products are fresh as well. They do not serve lunch although there is a small coffee shop run by another company within the hotel. They have a limited lunch menu and espresso drinks. Dinner here is good but expensive so we often go out for dinner. 

Today Ron is working (it is Saturday). He got his travel schedule. This week he will go to Batumi on the Black Sea coast for three days to do some training. I will check out of the Betsy and stay with Kirsten and her son (and Ron’s nose brother) Aquil, friends from the US embassy while Ron is gone. Then Ron will be in TBS doing more training for a week. Then we will go back to Batumi and stay there for two full weeks while he does more training. I will go with him then. There is little to do in Batumi so I decided to stay in TBS for the first trip but go with him for the longer trip as neither of us likes to be separated for long periods. After 26 years we are rather fond of one another! 

Yesterday I did a little shopping looking for bar soap and hand cream without perfume. Since 85% of the products in the grocery stores are imported from Russia, Turkey and Germany, I can’t read the labels. I asked a clerk who showed me what to buy. She got it half right. I have soap without perfume and hand cream with perfume. Yuck! 

Today when Ron is finished with his work we will walk down the hill and over to the dry bridge area where there is a daily flea market. We only bought one thing there in the time we lived here, a hammered copper pot. But we love to go look, seeking treasure. There is everything from war metals, old coins, used dishes, antiques and junk, particularly a glut of jewelry that looks like it is plastic imitating amber and the like. Some of the cut glass and china is lovely but ornate and not our style. 

October 24, 2011

Bidzina Ivanishvili is a Georgian billionaire (worth $5 billion ) who recently announced his intention to enter politics. He made his money in Russia when the USSR collapsed. He currently lives in Tbilisi. As soon as he announced his intentions strange coincidences occurred. First his citizenship was revoked because he also holds a Russian and French passport, i.e. citizenship. Georgia apparently doesn’t allow for dual citizenship. Funny that it just now became as issue as he has lived here for a while. Next the government seized a vehicle that was transferring large amounts of cash from a bank to his bank, claiming that money was being laundered. In fact it is a common practice for banks to transfer large amounts of cash back and forth. But they arrested the employees in the vehicle and seized the cash ($2 million dollars and 1 million EUROS). It is evident that the current administration is anxious about his intentions to seek the PM position which the current president is considering so he can run for president again. Gee this sounds vaguely familiar ala Putin. 

More news from Georgia. It was reported today that 11 out of 20 meat samples taken in supermarkets in Tbilisi and Kutaisi, the second largest city in GA were tainted with a bacteria. No wonder my friend Steph who lives here gets food poisoning frequently. We rarely cooked with meat when we lived here and normally we dined in finer restaurants so didn’t get sick. OY!