Love at First Sight

I now believe in love at first sight. You see, I love Moscow. It will forever be one of my favorite cities. But I did not love it at first sight. I loved it at second sight. And third. And fourth. Tbilisi, however, is another story. I step off the plane after a decent flight. I met some great people, one of whom has lived in Georgia for the past nine years and was extremely helpful and full of useful information (He even let me use his address for my lost bag which is…somewhere.)

I meet up with the Embassy representative, get in the car, and off we go. I’m messing with my bag and my phone, etc. for a bit and then…then I look up. I have seen few things as beautiful as that first glimpse of Tbilisi. The city sits along a river and has multiple levels from where the water has worn away at the rocks. At the highest level is this old ruin and one of the oldest cathedrals in the world (Apparently it’s the oldest Orthodox one, or something.) We travel along the road – the river on one side, trees and old buildings on the other leading into Old Tbilisi. Which is old. Seriously.

It’s not perfect. Interspersed between the beautiful old buildings are random, worn-down, graffiti-laden Soviet building. Sidewalks are heaped with bits of brick and road so every step is a little leap of faith. But that’s what makes the city (what very, very little part of it I have seen) so fun. It has character. But it is beautiful enough that people don’t go running at first sight, as is often the case in, say, Moscow.

So we pull up to our hotel, and Caroline and Chase (the other Fulbrighters) are looking down at us from their balcony. I get my room and walk in to find a three room suite with a fireplace, Jacuzzi, and massive balcony. Not exactly some Soviet barracks. I drop my stuff off and we head to dinner. Along the way, we pass this beautiful cathedral where they just happen to be singing. We have a delicious dinner (Georgia’s version of “European” food) and then walk around the city for a bit. I took some pictures, which I will post. Be warned: it was dark and raining so they didn’t turn out all that well.

We then walked around for a while and, get this, people are Nice. Spooky, no? We went into a wine shop where they proceeded to let us taste every wine they had (yes, I exaggerate) and absolutely fawn over us because we can count to ten in Georgian. I’m not used to having people like me because I speak their language atrociously. I’m used to getting yelled at for not speaking it well enough. Oh! And we apparently went into this no trespassing area (they are building a crystal bridge – a la Moscow?) and got stopped by policemen. Who were nice! Cue scary music.

And now, we are back in my hotel room, drinking our fabulous Kakheti wine and listening to some people sing out on the street. I think I’m going to call it a night (36 hours awake, woohoo!) and see what tomorrow brings!