Tamara Tbilisi

... br>
Tbilisi is a run-or-the-mill Eastern Block capital; it has its fare share of old town, churches, monuments, squares and castle-on-the-hilltop, but none of them outstanding. Two of them, the new cathedral and the new presidential palace, draw my attention just because they are fleshy buildings located in one of the oldest part of town full of decaying houses housing (seemingly ...

... revolted against one President (Eduarde Shevadnardze in 2003) the country looks set to try and overthrow another. But this one is a less docile character and after fixed votes and an assemblage of troops, it looks like things will get violent before any resolution is acheived. For now the protests are peaceful and seem more like a party than a demonstration of public outrage. So it was with a big smile and friendly grin that I stood in one of the make shift ...

... pulled out the video of the Russians his group had killed. That upset me a good bit. I know it's a war, and people die. That's what happens. But nobody deserves to have their son show up on some barhound's cellphone. I was just teaching the kind of kids who end up fighting- the ones who won't go to university or have the money to pay their way out of conscription. And I just kept thinking of one of my kids being on someone's cellphone.

... we stopped in a Georgian restaurant [name 2do] for some khinkali (meat dumplings) and beer. I had to be learnt how to eat it: one holds it on the stem and eats it out so that the sauce inside doesn't spill which would happen by just cutting it. Then a stroll to one of the churches around Tavisuplebis square, through the smallish old town, to the botanical gardens above it and in the night to the ruins of Narikala Fortress built on a hill towering above Tbilisi and offering nice views of ...

... die Stadt heisst George W. Bush Street... Und es gibt hier erstaunlich wenig Geschwindigkeitskontrollen, die Autos koennen hier Stoff geben:-) Benzin ist allerdings auch recht teuer, mit 1 Euro fuer den Liter (und die Tankstellen haben unterschiedliche Preise, in Azerbaidjan und Turkmenistan gab es Einheitspreise). Gruss Ralf

... the khachapuri leftover, but left the rest. In the small town, we have run into 5 of the 9 foreign tourists in town in unlikely places. Back in the bus, proceed to Telavi on narrow roads lined with farmhouses on either side, fields and vineyards behind. Lots of fruit for sale on the roadside, looks colourful, but unable to get a good photo. Finally stop to buy some, but all strawberries, don't really need a 30 Lari bucket of ...

... of Mtskheta is seen from there. It took us a second to be impressed from the view, but we watched it for a long time. We could see far away until the mountains in the west, and of course the whole town. Mtskheta was once a big and important city with first and foremost significance in Georgia and its surroundings - but in the last half-century it's a small average town, fallen from grace. However, the beauty seen from up there is uncontestible, and we cannot take it from ...

... as no public transport reached it: "Seventy lari," one said (about forty-two dollars; the trip was about 60 kilometers). "No, no, ten lari. Not far," I laughed in reply. Another driver laughed at that and took out a pen and wrote fifty lari: "petrol, mountains," he waved his hands as if the mountains were big. "No, they're small," I replied in Russian and with my hands, asking for twenty lari. Finally, we agreed on 35 lari, all laughing at a good bargaining ...

... s Uganda. Remember the Italian experience, well the Ugandans were equally conquered and analysed. Muni found that his name, Munyoro, means 'the great one - or someone of reverence' in Bunyoro, a tribe in Uganda, and thus proceeded to lord it over those he considered his subjects. Being a dowager I soon put paid to any illusions he might have had about subjugating his mother - that is my ...

... and frantic note (as all good adventures should). After arriving at the Armenia/Georgian frontier at 2pm with my dad flying at 2am (plenty of time) we were told that we Australians weren't able to get visas at this particular border. It was only later that we learned of the hidden costs (bribes) of cross border traffic in this part of the world. So as we saw our minibus speed of into the Georgian countryside, we ...