Part 5: Midnight Plane to Georgia

First a few days in the Capital -- Tbilisi

In an effort to be both informative and entertaining, below is a Motown Classic video worthy of a listen. Gladys effortlessly takes us through a truly marvelous performance of this rhythmic masterpiece. It helps that I'm a HUGE Motown fan - so much so that when my kids Jake and Stevie were young, I made them learn Motown background singer routines for after dinner dance party. I doubt they enjoyed - but I appreciated the backup! Also this piece works well with the tittle of my blog. WAIT a minute. ...or did Gladys say train?

I'll share with you not one -- but two rookie travel mistakes that ended up having me on the midnight plane to Georgia rather than the noon plane to Georgia as planned. Always a good idea to make sure 12:00 is not 24:00. I did not do this.  And in turn this did allow me to arrive at 3am into a very quiet Tbilisi rather than traveling with my good friend Barry on the noon plane. Second and even more concerning, was that I return to a second - yes second Turkey airport that was 65kms from the one I needed to catch my connecting flight back to Nairobi. Dumb ass! 

 

 

 

 

 

 Tbilisi was a complete surprise for me. I didn't expect such a beautiful modern and friendly city. I managed to get a bus from the airport to town (after a 4 hour less than pleasant snooze on the floor of the airport) arriving at freedom square. Naturally there was nothing open, but it was an excellent opportunity to walk around and see the downtown without a bunch of people jockeying for space. The city is a beautiful marriage of old and new with the Kura river running through the center on it's way to the Caspian sea. On one side of the city, a hillside or maybe cliff, was pockmarked with old brick buildings and paths. The stairways reminded me of the game snakes and ladders. One of these pathways lead me near the top with a park bench in the sun. Time for another snooze!!  I awoke to 2 people who had also discovered the park bench, and with a drool garnished face wished them a pleasant good morning. They were cool folks and once I got the drool off my face, had a nice chat with then. He turned out to be a famous Rugby player - and by his own admission  - quite famous.  I was glad to make such a good first impression.

 

 

 

 

The view from my Park bench

 

 

 

 

 

Mother of Georgians, on the hilltop watched over me while I napped & drooled

 

 

 

Trouble at Freedom Square

 

 

 

 

 

 

 With my early arrival I had noticed a lot of police on the street corners looking a bit uptight. And no wonder, Barry and I had arrived at a fairly intense and conflicted political point in time. My sense, having chatted with local people I met, was that Russian interference in Georgian politics had reached a breaking point and a GenZ type protest was underway. The parliament buildings pictured above saw an encampment and graffiti like that on the left left little doubt regarding Georgian sentiment. Freedom square was ground zero for the protest, which is where Barry and I decided we would have dinner. 

 

The food was great though the