Wednesday, August 12, 2009

T'bilisi

Highly recommended, T'bilisi has been one of our favourite cities so far: excellent local wine at 2 quid a bottle, new and interesting food, attractive buildings and streets, beautiful frescos in churches, hip bars and restaurants, and cheap local tavernas... Wonderful! (Although, to be honest, a city that has both ATMs and Diet Coke readily available gets top ratings regardless.)

It's great to try some new food. We do still love kebabs, but we were starting to risk turning into one. Our favourites amongst Georgian dishes are the cheese pies with an egg on top (T) and the mushroom dumplings (G). Our favourites amongst Georgian wines are the reds and the whites.

Wayne Rooney is the footballer of choice amongst Georgian men. As it was explained to me yesterday, "David Beckham looks like a girl, this is very bad. Rooney looks like a bull, this is very good."

We have really enjoyed it, except for the fact that Trevor has been suffering from an ear infection and I have a rotten cold (pretty much Swine flu, I reckon), which Trev now seems to have caught too.

[Happy, smiling, paranoid nutjob; Stalin Museum, Gori]

[Trev in Stalin's armchair, Stalin Museum, Gori]
Yesterday we took the bus to Gori (where Stalin was born and where today there is a pretty good, if somewhat one-sided, museum about him) and then on to Mtskheta, where Christianity was established in Georgia, which features a huge cathedral and a couple of pretty older churches, all being enthusiastically prayed in by Georgians in their Sunday best.

One the way back to T'bilisi we were amused by a road sign on the highway: a very modern LED type sign, about 5m high, featuring an illuminated picture of a Russian tank (easily identified by the flag on the gun barrel) with a No Entry symbol over it. Just in case they were thinking of trying!

Gems

1 comments:

mum and dad said...

Cher Trevor
Bonne anniversaire pour demain!

Sorry to read that you both appear to have the swine flu and that Trevor's ear is still infected.

At the moment, we appear to have escaped the swine flu, perhaps because we are in France where the disease is rarely mentioned in the press and no-one sems to have it - perhaps old 'Tea Cozy' has made it illegal!

Heather tried to discuss swine flu with our French friends and described it as 'le rhum de cochon' which Jim thought was quite a good way to try to translate it. There was much hilarity before we were told it is 'la maladie porcine'! But seriously, this is the only reference to it here in almost 3 weeks.

Earlier in your travels, you were wondering why France is relatively untouched - perhaps the low population density. Perhaps things are different in Paris - but nobody here cares 2 hoots about Paris and what goes on there!

We both enjoy reading about your travels and your avid kebab consumption.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, TREVOR & love to you both.

Heather & Jim.