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Thursday, May 22, 2025

21/5 WED met Marcus et al

Coffee @ met bearded muso 
Walked & collected pants. 
Walked to Fabrika 
   Met Marcus & Sophie
   James & Henry
   Various friends of M&S from Sydney 
With J & H walked to Funicular. 
Funicular to top. 
Looked at view. 
Funicular to bottom. 
Ice cream. 
Taxi to J & H hotel.
Dinner at Nina's Garden.
Dessert 
Walked home

===//===
We began by walking to our usual coffee shop - "Krab".
 
 FABRIKA

 Met Marcus & Sophie and friends.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
WALKING
An engineering oops.  They support the pavers on these plastic things but I think the pavers are not strong enough.

Brisbane is addicted to foot bridges but we cant make them with the pizazz of the Georgians.

 
 
 


 
 
FUNICULAR
 







 
 

 
DINNER
We had dinner at "Ninia's Garden" (No photos) Then bought desert from a shop on the way back to J & H's hotel
 
 

 
 
 

 

 
 
 





Tuesday, May 20, 2025

20/5 Shopping Claustrophobia

Walked to the pants adjuster.
Walked to the market at the central railway station. 
Lost in the shopping maze.
Taxi home. 
Wine on the balcony 
 
 
 WALKED TO THE PANTS ADJUSTER
I had bought a suit in Turkiye and I was very glad I had because suit shops seem essentially non existent in Tbilisi.  However I had not had the pants set to the right length and I had not found a white shirt that fitted.  It appears I need 4XL and 3XL is the most I could find in Turkiye.  Now with the derth of suit shops in Tbilisi, I was getting a little concerned.  Anyway, we found a potential clothing alterator and began the treck.  The shop had three older men and some sewing machines.  The lead guy recruited a translator from a nearby shop and we were able to communicate requirements and the fellow convinced me to allow the waist to be take  in. - When collected the next day, all was good.  

They did not sell shirts and pointed us in the direction of the central railway station.  
Upon arrival, I was a bit concerned but gradually established that this was a huge market consisting of a wide variety of selling establishments from out door stalls to inside shops with doors and glass walls to a myrad of tiny indoor stalls.  Bought a white shirt and relaxed.  

Phoebe then went in search of shoes.

 
 
One of several huge rooms of gold trading.  It seemed like people would rent a space consisting of  glass topped draw and a chair.  Display their gold jewellery for sale and presumably offer to buy yours. 
I wonder how to determine what is real gold?

Video of the market. 
3 and a half minutes of gradually increasing claustrophobic shopping



 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Monday, May 19, 2025

19/5 FIRST IMAGES OF GEORGIA

FIRST IMAGES OF GEORGIA

Now one needs to remember that I'm making comment, ie expressing opinion about countries where my level of knowledge is very shallow. This is Facebook after all. 

Georgia is noticeably different to Turkiye. 

I understand that Georgia was essentially under soviet control until declaring independence On April 9, 1991.

Whereas Turkiye is predominantly and highly visible Muslim, in Georgia orthodox Christianity appears to have survived the soviet years. On the way in the other day, we saw some large illuminated crosses and today we visited a orthodox Christian church.

Beggars and a small number of people sleeping rough on the streets are visible whereas we did not see any in Turkiye. 

In Turkiye, one would see lots of cafes with groups of men talking and playing board games and drinking tea. It had a very connected feel. I have not seen anything like that here. I wonder if during the Soviet era, people kept to themselves. It feels very isolating.

All the western brands are here. We visited a mall with a big array of western clothing shops. 

Several E-scooters providers: "Scroll" & "bolt" and others. 

Coffee is much more in keeping with my pallet. So far just black coffee. Yet to try anything with milk in it.

The money is Lari. Divide by 2 to get AUD. Prices for coffee and western clothes seem to equate to Brisbane.

No cats. A reasonable number of dogs but not as many as in Turkiye.
 
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Went in search of a gull wing collar shirt for me. No success.  Not even close.  Did not find even a single formal suit shop.
 
 

 Bacon was on the menu along with Avo on toast. Pour over coffee
 

We went looking for a way to cross the road. Several lanes of traffic zipping along fast and furious. Found one and later another walkway under the road. I don't know if their intentions were that to keep people safe, just add shops so you don't have dark lonely places. 

 Self defence :)
 

 Dog in residence
 
We went to a fancy dress shop and Phoebe bought a Maroon skirt. 

 

 Kashveti St George Church.
 
 

 
 



 There is a old world reflective beauty in churches.
 
Bought a candle 2.50 Lari and inside, put it a sand tray and said a prayer.
 
There is something mesmorisingly beautiful about ballet.  Strength, femininity, gracefully flowing but hides the pain especially in their toes.

 We don't seem to have fountains in Brisbane anymore.
 

Saturday, May 17, 2025

17/5 Crossing the border

SATURDAY 17 Rize -> Tbilisi 
mini Bus- Rize to Hopa
Change mini lang@Hpa for Sapi. 
At immigration, 
long long walk.
Queue Queue queue.
discover we are in the queue for Turkish people. Too hard to change. 
Strange fellow with luggage in garbage bags encourages us to put our bags separately. Very concerned we'll look at the bags through a window but never be reunited. 
Phoebe is swept ahead in the slow motion human current for passport control. She befriends a man in uniform and the bags are moved past the barrier. We can all relax. 
Another long long walk. 
Another big big Queue. 
A tired kid sits on ground at his parents feet. 
I offer Phoebe's suitcase as a wheel chair. 
Phoebe makes friends. They turn out to be Russian's living in Georgia. 
Very handy as they speak the language. 
And importantly find a mini bus going to Tbilisi. we share coffee and a Georgian pizza.
On the mini bus and its an interesting trip. We stop along the way to pick up and drop off passengers. 
Along the way we observe:
   Wind power.
   Industrial solar.
   Stop as horses and cows at various times amble across the road. 
Arriving in Tbilisi and we are not sure where the bus is going. The driver speaks no English and, quite reasonably, does not want to look at my phone. 
We stop at what I think was a bus station and with a bit of hand waving and google translate we communicate to a taxi driver the address of our accommodation. And finally we are relaxing.
 
 









 
 
 
 
 
 

Friday, May 16, 2025

16/5 Rize

THE PLAN
TODAY FRIDAY 16
 Rize Fortress (Walk 900m)
Black sea (walk)
Locate bus station. 
Buy ticket to Sapi.


TOMORROW SATURDAY 17
Local bus to Sapi. 2hrs.
Go through immigration on foot
Get Georgian money. 
Mini bus to Batumi.  1hr
Bus or train to Tbilisi. 

==========================

FRIDAY
started walking up one floor to the restaurant for breakfast. Great views. The usual fresh cucumber and tomato (yum), scrambled egg, bun with heavy whipped cream and cherry jam. All good.  The only negative was bad coffee. 

Walked a couple of hundred meters to what looked like the bus station. Established that a mini bus leaves every half an hour from 6:30am 200? lira. Change at Hopa for the final leg 60 TL to Sapi.

Looked at suits. One shop had a 3 piece including shirt and bow tie for 10 000 TL. Unfortunately the pants had not enough bum and pulled on my thighs and the 3XL shirt was tight across my chest. Another shop had a 2 piece suit for 7 000 TL. Pants fitted well but no wast coat. Two extremely disappointed shop keepers.  About now I was needing a coffee. 

A nice walk in the sun and Phoebe spied a music shop. After much hands waving and visiting the fellows up stairs workshop, we bought a Karadeniz Kemence. 3 stringed instrument.  This necessitated a trip to the auto tellers for a wad of cash. 

More Wandering around town.  Coffee... finally. 

Revitalised and managed a visit to a jewellery shop and the purchase and presentation of a friendship ring. 

Lunch followed soon after with my favourite lentil soup and a sweet dish.  200TL = AU$10. Very refreshing. Next I'll look for a piece of fruit and an ice cream. 



I thought of buying one and ripping out the guts and replacing with a LED and a battery

Phoebe's battery pack dropped and the cover fell off.

revealed two 16650 (I think maybe 18650) batteries

Bought a friendship ring.
Friendship ring





All that glitters is gold.




This is the shop where phoebe bought her black with red trim vest