Georgia...Day 3!

Saturday morning was our final morning in Georgia. We had a leisurely breakfast and spent some time in our room reading and just relaxing. We didn't have a lot of time before we had to head to the airport to get into too much and after such a busy day the previous day, we relaxed a bit that morning.

We headed out around eleven and walked a few blocks to find a flea market that is held on a daily basis. We walked across the street (well, underneath the street in the pedestrian walkways built under the roads) and found ourselves in a sprawling city park behind an old stone church. We walked through the park, little Bahrain-living hearts happy to be in a green (even in the winter) park and cold air.

We crossed a bridge and came upon a Christmas market we just had to investigate... and were quickly disappointed in. Not all the stalls were open yet but what was open was mainly food or just kitschy random stuff, nothing that stuck out as really special. There were gorgeous decorations and people dressed up like elves on stilts and dancing gifts, so there was that...lol!

We walked across the street to the flea market. It wasn't any sort of formal market space, just random people with their wares laid out in front of them on old sheets or the occaisional card table. There was a myriad of stuff... everything from costume jewelry to cold war era stuff, gas masks, old money and pins, knives and junk. Again, nothing really popped out at either one of us, but it was neat to look around. I'll never say no to any type of market.. you never know what you might find!

Below the street level market was another little park area that was over taken by artists and art vendors. There were paintings and other little stalls galore with handmade treasures. We normally buy a piece of art from our travels, but there was so much I just couldn't decide what I wanted. And now I'm looking back through my pictures and kicking myself for not deciding on something!

I did find Stella a little wooden string toy, so that was her souvenir from the trip (her daddy got a bottle of Chacha).

We meandered through the art park and made our way back to the hotel. We went into the restaurant for a cup of tea and to wait on our airport transport to show up. And show up he did... this taxi driver was a young guy who was, in a word, crazy. Michelle and I both could hardly keep a straight face through the insanity that was our drive to the airport. He sped and cut corners, passed cars so flipping close it wasn't funny, and just overall made poor driving decisions. I would say he was the worst taxi driver I've ever experienced...lol!

We finally made it to the airport in one piece and started the whole checking in process. We got to the security gate and passport control and there was a big hoopla going on and it was one of those times where I really regretted not speaking the language. Some crazy lady was yelling and screaming at the security officers, just losing her mind on them. The lady checking passports and boarding passes was just standing there flabbergasted and holding the line to make sure nothing worse was going to happen. After a minute she sent Michelle through and then she was holding my passport when this crazy dude came up from behind us, shoved through the guard and myself and ran through the metal detectors (setting it off, of course), and meeting up with the crazy, yelling lady. More guards rushed in, there was a ton of yelling and screaming, and again... I had NO clue what was going on and the curiosity was killing me!

After all that nonsense (and still having no clue what happened), we finally made it through security and passport control and headed to the duty free to stock up on a couple of bottles of Georgian wine before we stopped in a little restaurant for a bite to eat before our flight. Gulf air might have plenty of leg room and be the airline for Bahrain, but good food it does NOT have. So any opportunity to eat before a flight, I'm taking it!

So, we stopped at this little cafe and ordered another Khachipuri (though, sadly, not the amazing egg one) and I ordered a tarragon lemonade and Michelle ordered a pear lemonade. It was boiling hot in the airport and we were carrying heavy backpacks so lemonade sounded cool and refreshing... which, actual lemonade would have been cool and refreshing. What we got was in no way actual lemonade....

Yes, that's neon green... like the Wonderful Wizard's Magical Green Elixir green...
The first sip was...intriguing, the second sip was interesting and the third sip was not good. And thats about all I had of it. It was sticky sweet and sort of licorice-like, but not at the same time.  Michelle's pear "lemonade" tasted like liquid circus peanuts. It was also odd and not appetizing at all.

We finished our mediocre airport snacks and headed to our gate to be greeted with the thickest fog ever. It was insane! We wondered if we were going to even be able to take off. After only being delayed a few minutes we boarded the plane and headed back to Bahrain!

This was directly over the wing after we'd boarded... it was crazy! 

It was a bit of a whirlwind few days but I'm so glad I took a chance and went! Getting out of your comfort zone can be uncomfortable, but so worth it!