And Now it Officially Begins!

October 2, 2021

Yoga and breakfast and back to the room to consider the day.  It's overcast but not raining and since the forecast won't change much for the next few days, we may as well see what we can see!  The important thing is to make memories and we're already proven that we're pretty good at that!

My new best friend!  There are lots of street dogs, mostly with these ear tags.  And there are some cats as well;  but they aren't as insistent on attention.

Taxis are really cheap here.  The ten minute trip into the Old City was only ten GEL which is a little over three dollars!  There is so much to see!!  Eventually I'll try to identify some of these really cool buildings and statues;  but for now, just enjoy the pretty pictures!

Never seen a vehicle with all glass doors and body!

I believe these are left over from the Communist days.  And there are LOTS of them.

The red brick domes over the ancient sulfur baths that caused Tbilisi to become the capital!

He's called "The Toaster"!

So many, many churches!

And statues!

This is called "Berikaoba" and celebrates an old Pagan festival.

Poor dragon!  St. George gets him every time!

Lots of street art

Gotta have a cat photo!

Mother Georgia

Look how cheap!  The apple-flavored water is less than forty cents!

That's actually a hot-air balloon!  The the Mtkvari River runs through the center of town.

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After walking over four miles we decide it's time for food and Ammar is craving Turkish.  That works really well for me!  We stop a couple of taxis but they don't speak English and "Turkish restaurant" elicitsjust a shake of the head.  Third time's the charm!  This man is happy to take us to a restaurant, although when we get there he double checks with a friend in the street to make sure he's right.

He is and we can make our selections from the meat case and go outside to a table to await our skewered chicken, kabob, steak, salad and yummy hummus.  It's all delicious and there is too much of it!  But we make a sizeble dent and finish off with delicious hot Turkish tea.  The weather has cooled off during the day and the tea is perfect. 

We are definitely not walking home and Ammar hails a cab.  The driver wants twenty-five GEL (or Lari) and Ammar asks why!  Something about the time of day?? No, thank you!  The next cabbie only wants fifteen and we hop in.  In a few minutes he realizes that he can't find our hotel in his GPS.  I've got the name and address in my Bookings.com app and Ammar types it into the cabbie's phone and we are off and running.

Back in our room Ammar makes us coffee.  His is Arabic and mine is Turkish (I really love this stuff!  i don't even put milk in it!!) Ammar has brought me one of his special watches.  It's the perfect shade of purple and we spend quite a while convincing my iPhone to recognize and pair with it! Nothing is ever simple!  I give up and work on the blog and he takes a nap. We're in for the evening and he'll be up in a little while, so I need to get this finished!  And tomorrow will take care of itself.  We've both agreed that our tired and sore bodies need a massage, so that will probably be our first order of business after breakfast.