Final Hours in Georgia

Monday, Sept. 15, 2008--Telavi (Continued)

The dinner was so nice. Fortunately, there was a Hungarian couple there, too, so that I was not alone with the American man. We had a nice conversation except when he cut in with his strange comments that were always self-centered. What a bore! Anyway, the meal consisted of tomato-onion salad, borscht, a vegetable dish that I cannot identify, roasted potatoes, bread, and wine. I was careful with the wine, but it didn't bother me to drink it.

Tuesday, Sept. 16, 2008--Telavi to Tbilisi

Breakfast was the same as yesterday, but there was cheese inside the pastry today instead of beans. Fortunately, the nice couple from Hungary shared the table again.

I arrived at the bus station just before 10:00 and caught a marshruta leaving at 10:00 for Tbilisi. Most of the trip involved backtracking over the routes I had already traveled. Fortunately, the van was not full, so I had plenty of room to relax. The trip was rather slow and uneventful except for occasional bumps that sent me up out of my seat unexpectedly.

Getting to the apartment was interesting today. It happens to be on a street that leads to the rear of the building which houses the offices of the President of Georgia. Therefore, there are often policemen making cars move to keep the street clear. Today, however, the street was lined with standing policemen every few meters. NATO has been having a two-day meeting here to discuss the status of Georgia and the problems with Russia. The delegates are all in a hotel just behind our apartment and apparently there is lots of movement between there and the President's Office. Anyway, no cars were allowed to be parked on the street and the standing cops were watching everything carefully.

When I arrived at the apartment, the relatives from the U.S. (Ohio) were there. It is the sister of the father of my family here and her granddaughter who happens to be the same age as the son of my family here. They are both nice people. Tomorrow is the grandmother's birthday, so she has invited the family and me out to dinner tonight to celebrate.

We turned on the TV and watched the news after getting a call from relatives in the U.S. telling that there was a financial crisis there. I already knew about the failure of Lehman Brothers and about the buyout of Merryl Lynch by Bank of America to avoid a failure by them. We heard the reports about the large drop in the stock market and the continuing concerns about AIG. I was relieved to find that the mess was not quite as bad as the telephone call had made it seem. I am still happy, however, that I have a pension rather than investments only (as many people do) as my retirement income.

Eduard, the father, remembered that I wanted to buy a couple of items to take to Denmark, so he offered to take me shopping. We walked several blocks and found what I wanted. Then we stopped at a flower shop on the way back to the apartment for me to buy a bouquet of gladiola for the lady who has invited me to celebrate her birthday tonight.

We all dressed as best we could. I wore my best travel pants after they were ironed by Irene. Eduard and Andro both wore new khaki pants that I guess the relatives had brought from America. We all wore casual shirts. The grandmother wore a very elegant black dress with a top that was see-through black and sparkled. Irene wore a black dress with a lacy top. We went to what my guidebook calls "one of the best restaurants in Georgia." It is called the "Old House," because it is actually in a nice old home on the edge of the river here. The building has nice woodwork, lots of copper implements in niches in the walls, carpets hanging over railings, etc. There was a live band with 3 singers playing a variety of music including traditional Georgian songs. Eduard, in consultation with his sister, ordered for us. We had 15-20 small dishes (like having tapas in Portugal) of various vegetables, cheeses, etc. We also had two plates of shishkebab--one pork and one mutton. We had a pitcher of red wine and several bottles of sparkling water and sparkling fruit-flavored drinks. It was a traditional Georgian celebration. We all shared from all the dishes. Every little bit, Eduard would make a toast. The toasts were long ones where he would say something like this: "Now we will toast to those who are no longer with us. To members of our families and our friends who have passed on but who are remembered in our hearts and still loved. May we remember them and hope to be with them again someday in the future." Other toasts like that were to members of our families, to those of us from America, to his family, etc. Fortunately, they do not believe in emptying the glass with toasts, so we could just sip after each one and continue eating. Everyone felt fine and no one was drunk at the end of the evening.

Wednesday, Sept. 17, 2008--Tbilisi

Well, this is my last day in Georgia. I will miss the family I have been staying with. They have become friends. Eduard, the father, is my age and seems to enjoy having me around. We have made outings together just to talk and be out of the apartment. Irene, the mother, is so sweet. She, like most women in Georgia, works so hard from early morning to late at night, yet she maintains a sweet spirit and continues smiling. She resists any effort to keep her from carrying so much of a workload. Androu, the son, is such a sweet young man. He is 21, yet he is so mature and so nice to his family. We have had some great conversations during my visit as if there were no age difference between us.

We had a huge breakfast together with the guests from America this morning--scrambled eggs with cheese, meatballs, a cauliflower dish with a white sauce over it, tomatoes, bread, tea, jams, etc. I kept having things and telling everyone it was because it was my last chance. Best of all, as usual, were the fig preserves. UMMMM!

I have spent the day walking about town. I went back to an area I had explored before and just enjoyed it again. I stopped at a book store and bought a classic book to read tonight at the airport, then I stopped at a nice neighborhood park and started reading it then. I took a cable gondola to the top of one of the mountains and walked around a lake there where people go for outings from the city. It has beaches around it and small restaurants selling snacks, drinks, and meals. I am not at the cyber cafe and will take the bus to the airport in about 2 hours. Before then, I will go eat a sandwich for dinner, then I will exchange my leftover Georgian currency except for enough to pay for the bus to get me to the airport. Finally, I will stop by the apartment to pick up my luggage and say goodbye to the family.

My flight isn't until after midnight tonight. But I will try to sleep some in the lobby of the airport until the airline opens up for us to check in around 1:00. There is no easy way to handle these nights when the flight is too early to try to sleep and get up early to go to the airport and too late to try to sleep before going to the airport. Tomorrow will not be an easy day, and there will be a dinner in Copenhagen. I will have to nap in the afternoon while Grethe prepares the food for the dinner.