Tbilisi

I was hoping to go on little trips to the mountains to see beautiful scenery and maybe hear a wolf or two howling…

 

I have no idea where I got those ideas from, some misleading photos and an inability to do proper research. 

 

Tbilisi has a population of 1.2 million and the old part of the city, which does have cobbled streets, is touristed up to the max, and let’s face it, what capital city looks like a market garden town? 

 

…I took against Tbilisi in my disappointment over its high rise flats, skyscraper sky line and love of six lane highways full of cars driving a bit too fast.

 

I guess our introduction to this gateway city wasn’t great – what with the torrential rain, massive thunderstorm, asking at the hands of some of Tbilisi kindest residents (still not over it!) …and then being charged double for the hot takeaway food we bought as we stood sodden and clearly distressed at the end of our hideous journey …but, to be fair it tasted great, the food here is good  🙂 …and there is an incredible tolerance of different nationalities in Georgia. With almost no-one requiring a visa to get in to the country, in our hostel alone there were Armenian, Polish, Russian, Australian, German, Kazakh, Colombian, Jamaican and Turkmenistani people staying…quite the melting pot of cultural and social opportunities 🙂

 

But I am left with some up close and personal generalised stereotypes 🙂

 

 

All that said we have been here a few days now and there have bern two stand out things about our time in Tbilisi – the befriending of a little cat Rosa named Mangy – who isn’t quite as mangy as when we first arrived – and sharing a room with Olga and her seven year old daughter Alona. 

 

When we first arrived Rosa and I were put in the female dormitory by a lovely man whose name means ‘happiness’ (and for those that remember Ilie Năstase – the tennis player – he looks a bit like him) 

 

Anyway, after dripping all over the floor of their room we made a little home of sorts and started to make friends.

 

Olga is from Russia and she was in Tbilisi to see Imagine Dragons in concert. She needed to bring her youngest daughter with her as Alona has diabetes and she couldn’t leave her behind. She was trusting that someone in the hostel would be willing to take care of her, and I was instantly up for it…so many people have helped us already on this journey, it was a delight to be able to offer something back.  

 

Olga had a gentle grace and a great way of making sure she understood what I was asking or saying and I loved the way she explained things – I am constantly humbled by the ability of everyone in this hostel to speak English whilst I trudge on with my twenty seven words of Mandarin on day 197 of my Duolingo streak! 

 

Olga checked in with me quite early on about how I felt towards Russia and I think she was a little surprised by my warmth towards her, when she asked me what I thought of her country, I told her the truth – I would so love to be able to spend time there, in the vastness of the nature, with the rich culture and the strength of the people…I would never want to be judged as an English person by the politics of my elected leaders and I don’t intend to do the same to any citizen of any other country.

 

One early morning I asked her what she loved most about Russia? …’the nature’ she said, and  I could see it in her eyes and smile. Walking around the city she would pick little berries and seeds off bushes to plant back home.

 

I loved watching her relationship with her daughter as well – lots of patience,  and a certainty in her daughters resilience and her taking charge of things in her life…I have had the chance to be close to a child with diabetes recently and it was so lovely to be close again and be reminded how ordinary something like that can become – if she wanted to eat sweet food she had to check herself and give herself insulin…simple equation there!

 

We wandered all over Tbilisi, our two families, finding the beauty and feeding many, many cats 🙂 

 

It has not been what I expected but my heart has been touched…I went with Olga and Alona to the bus station today so Theo, Rosa and I wouldn’t have the same hideous experience leaving as we did arriving, and there was a lump in my throat as I said goodbye – it is very unlikely that we will ever see each other again but my life is richer for having walked beside them for a while…