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Sorry it's taken so long - I've been keeping it in text files, waiting waiting waiting, trying to get my thoughts organised.
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Saturday - Tblisi
We drove directly to Tblisi the next morning, and since I hadn't really had the chance to see it last time the tour was there, I was just drinking it in. The murals were all over Tblisi - like Kutaisi, a very modern city with young people and plenty of modern shops. If not for having seen the countryside, I'd have considered Georgia very modern and new and up to date. But the outlying districts - the country towns, the farms, the villages - are what give away the state of the country: struggling in so many ways, reliant on tourism for their dollars, unable to fully provide the range of modern amenities for themselves in the country without them becoming unattainable luxuries.
With six months behind my belt, a petrodollar war, and the long prospect of harder times ahead, I wonder a little if that's where Australia is heading.
Saturday morning was spent almost entirely at a hammam - one of the Eastern-style baths. It was exquisitely tiled and set up, and we had two rooms exclusively to ourselves and could go completely nude. So I did. So did a couple of the other women - older and bolder. My body isn't what I would like it to be, but it's still does 90% of the things I want it to do, and most of them without an issue. I'll take it. And, too, there was a certain freedom in just not bothering with the swimsuit.
The baths were in a district that was traditional for these kinds of baths - built off a river, with ancient bridges and some gorgeous architecture.
The balconies and the tiling and the colours and the ironwork...
And inside was beautifully done up - hot soaking pools, cooler plunge pools, shower spaces, and two massage benches where everyone got a soap-and-body scrub (kisa massage).
We were there for at least four hours, ordered drinks (I think we were served a little food - maybe a very little), soaked our skin off, got body scrubs, and relaxed. Luckily (or perhaps deliberately) Florida Woman was in the other group.
Oh, and the murals! There were some magnificent murals all through the city.
I think lunch was at a restaurant where we set our hands to making the cheese-and-egg breads that are shaped a little like danishes. (I had to go look it up: acharuli khachapuri.) And once again, we couldn't do it justice. *sigh* If I could go back and try all the food again, but with an extra day in between each - just water and a bit of fruit, thanks. Maybe a boiled egg for some protein. And then we could feast!
We got dropped off at the hotel where we were staying for the night in Tblisi...well, was uphill of where the bus could drop us off, so we laboured to haul our things up the hill to the small and funky hotel. It was particularly bad for me, toiling up cobblestones with my 25kg luggage!
This hotel was very modern and slick, and we had a couple of hours of free time before dinner. I went searching for a laundromat because I needed to wash some clothing and I doubted there'd be time and space in my onward journey for some time.
So I didn't get to do any 'souvenir' shopping which wasn't a bad thing. This was only the second stop on my trip and I had another 5 places to be!
I did go wandering a little through a part of town that felt more quirky than touristy (although it was still touristy):
Anyway, we went to dinner at a restaurant which was apparently run by a Georgian TV personality and juror. We didn't see her, but there was a very impressive all-female singing ensemble, who performed a number of local polyphonic songs beautifully. And the food, of course, was beautiful, delicious, and way too much. *sigh*
We went back to the hotel, many farewells and goodbyes, because most of us would go to bed and wake up at some hour in the morning to catch our flights out. I got to sleep about 4 hours before I had to wake up again to leave, said goodbye to my South African roomie, and headed off to the airport which was absolutely bustling at 4am in the morning.
That's a new experience for me: Sydney's Kingsford Smith Airport (the only airport until later this year when one opens in Western Sydney) has a curfew - something like midnight to 6am no flights are allowed in bar emergencies. The new Western Sydney airport will, of course, run at all hours, because the kind of people who run and operate airports do not live in the flight corridors of Western Sydney.
Anyway, eventually my flight came in, heading off to Italy via Athens for the Amalfi Coast tour I was subsequently undertaking. And that was Georgia.
It was an amazing country - an amazing tour - and I'm so glad I went. The tour was expensive, yes, but also very educational and thoughtful, with a focus on female-led businesses and organisations. I've put a deposit down on Bali for a quick trip in October later this year, and I would like to do either their Caribbean trip early next year or their Ecuador/Galapagos Islands tour in May next year, but: a) finances, b) long haul travel, c) the Caribbean trip starts and ends in Puerto Rico and the question of visas, etc., weighs heavy on my mind.
--
Saturday - Tblisi
We drove directly to Tblisi the next morning, and since I hadn't really had the chance to see it last time the tour was there, I was just drinking it in. The murals were all over Tblisi - like Kutaisi, a very modern city with young people and plenty of modern shops. If not for having seen the countryside, I'd have considered Georgia very modern and new and up to date. But the outlying districts - the country towns, the farms, the villages - are what give away the state of the country: struggling in so many ways, reliant on tourism for their dollars, unable to fully provide the range of modern amenities for themselves in the country without them becoming unattainable luxuries.
With six months behind my belt, a petrodollar war, and the long prospect of harder times ahead, I wonder a little if that's where Australia is heading.
Saturday morning was spent almost entirely at a hammam - one of the Eastern-style baths. It was exquisitely tiled and set up, and we had two rooms exclusively to ourselves and could go completely nude. So I did. So did a couple of the other women - older and bolder. My body isn't what I would like it to be, but it's still does 90% of the things I want it to do, and most of them without an issue. I'll take it. And, too, there was a certain freedom in just not bothering with the swimsuit.
The baths were in a district that was traditional for these kinds of baths - built off a river, with ancient bridges and some gorgeous architecture.
The balconies and the tiling and the colours and the ironwork...
And inside was beautifully done up - hot soaking pools, cooler plunge pools, shower spaces, and two massage benches where everyone got a soap-and-body scrub (kisa massage).
We were there for at least four hours, ordered drinks (I think we were served a little food - maybe a very little), soaked our skin off, got body scrubs, and relaxed. Luckily (or perhaps deliberately) Florida Woman was in the other group.
Oh, and the murals! There were some magnificent murals all through the city.
I think lunch was at a restaurant where we set our hands to making the cheese-and-egg breads that are shaped a little like danishes. (I had to go look it up: acharuli khachapuri.) And once again, we couldn't do it justice. *sigh* If I could go back and try all the food again, but with an extra day in between each - just water and a bit of fruit, thanks. Maybe a boiled egg for some protein. And then we could feast!
We got dropped off at the hotel where we were staying for the night in Tblisi...well, was uphill of where the bus could drop us off, so we laboured to haul our things up the hill to the small and funky hotel. It was particularly bad for me, toiling up cobblestones with my 25kg luggage!
This hotel was very modern and slick, and we had a couple of hours of free time before dinner. I went searching for a laundromat because I needed to wash some clothing and I doubted there'd be time and space in my onward journey for some time.
So I didn't get to do any 'souvenir' shopping which wasn't a bad thing. This was only the second stop on my trip and I had another 5 places to be!
I did go wandering a little through a part of town that felt more quirky than touristy (although it was still touristy):
Anyway, we went to dinner at a restaurant which was apparently run by a Georgian TV personality and juror. We didn't see her, but there was a very impressive all-female singing ensemble, who performed a number of local polyphonic songs beautifully. And the food, of course, was beautiful, delicious, and way too much. *sigh*
We went back to the hotel, many farewells and goodbyes, because most of us would go to bed and wake up at some hour in the morning to catch our flights out. I got to sleep about 4 hours before I had to wake up again to leave, said goodbye to my South African roomie, and headed off to the airport which was absolutely bustling at 4am in the morning.
That's a new experience for me: Sydney's Kingsford Smith Airport (the only airport until later this year when one opens in Western Sydney) has a curfew - something like midnight to 6am no flights are allowed in bar emergencies. The new Western Sydney airport will, of course, run at all hours, because the kind of people who run and operate airports do not live in the flight corridors of Western Sydney.
Anyway, eventually my flight came in, heading off to Italy via Athens for the Amalfi Coast tour I was subsequently undertaking. And that was Georgia.
It was an amazing country - an amazing tour - and I'm so glad I went. The tour was expensive, yes, but also very educational and thoughtful, with a focus on female-led businesses and organisations. I've put a deposit down on Bali for a quick trip in October later this year, and I would like to do either their Caribbean trip early next year or their Ecuador/Galapagos Islands tour in May next year, but: a) finances, b) long haul travel, c) the Caribbean trip starts and ends in Puerto Rico and the question of visas, etc., weighs heavy on my mind.
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