Tbilisi Calling

We arrived at 4 in the morning, crashed for a few hours, woke up at about 10 and realized that we had no water or food in the apartment. Ani said we could drink the water, but the few websites we've seen mentioned words like giardia, so we are going to stick with the bottled stuff. We wandered down the street, hit an ATM and exchanged some Euros, and found a nice little bistro that had lattes and pan au chocolate. People have been very friendly. We've either used English or Russian with them- depends a bit upon the age of the individual we are dealing with (older means Russian, younger means English). The street we are on is in a "posh" neighborhood, and I've got to say, based upon our wanderings up and down the street, the shopping is quite nice and the... wait for it... shoes look, dare I say, normal?! Rare is the platform heel that plies the streets of Tbilisi- Hoorah! We went to a grocery store, a park built in a ravine, and a hole in the wall fruit and veggie stand (got apples, bananas, and some kind of round, soft, white cheese in a bag). Here are a few photos of the day, so far, but Ani is coming over this evening to walk us around the ancient downtown area, so we will have more tomorrow...

Park in the ravine- full of statues. There was a children's festival of some kind going on.

Children's art on display 

Jason gets behind the Georgian Red Cross

...the cupcakes might've been an influence

street signs on the corner-- got that? 

Posters and graffiti on the street

Tbilisi State U Building

Church by the University

Fountains of holy water? or just fresh water bubbling up? we saw people in the park drinking from them. Remember- the city is built on springs.

Another shot of Jason at the University with the mountains behind him