Tbilisi: Day Two

(First off, sorry for the typos. I don’t have my contacts on.)

Well, another day in Tbilisi. I woke up at noon, so I didn’t get out as early as I wanted, but am finally recovered. Met with some of the other Fulbrighters and Fellows for breakfast and got to know some of the new arrivals. Now everyone is here, and it seems to be a great group. Met Corrie, the English Fellow going to Gori with me, and she is a blast. Very sweet and a lot of fun. So yay!

After breakfast, a few of us took off to see the city. We walked down Rustavali, the major street in Tbilisi, Got to see some of the sights and went to a small market. The mix of beautiful, dilapidated old buildings and structures (And I mean old) and newer, also kind of dilapidated buildings is actually quite charming. Everything’s very beautiful and elegant. I wish I had more time here!

We met another person from the embassy and went shopping for phones. We took a bus around the city and got to see a lot of things we haven’t made it to. There is a beautiful massive market in a park along the river, a massive memorial to soldiers killed in the wars, and an amusement park – completely with a smaller replica of the London Eye – up on top of the city near the old castle-thing.

We then met up with some other people from the embassy and went out for a traditional Georgian meal. We had the Georgian version of pelmini, pickled vegetables (including pickled burning nettles, which I hadn’t had before), khachipuri, a mixture of salads, and kebabs. Everything was Delicious We ate too much, of course, and then decided we should eat more. We went back to Old Town and ate gelato, running into quite a few embassy workers, all of whom were very nice. Then we ended the night with a night-cap at this chic little café at the end of Old Town. Overall, a really enjoyable day.

Now, we are headed off to the embassy for orientation and a reception. My bag is roaming the world somewhere and I am pretty much left with pajamas, so this is going to be interesting… Tomorrow, we head of too our respective cities and begin a new adventure!