Tbilisi, Georgia- Day 1

So, about ten days ago Christopher messaged me while he was at work and asked if I'd be interested in going to Georgia for a few days this month. I assumed that he had a work thing so I didn't hesitate to say yes! He followed up my quick acceptance with a deeper explanation... a lady he works with had been planning to go and her travel partner backed out at the last minute and she still really wanted to go. He'd talked about how much I love to travel and she asked if I'd be interested. With a little hesitation, I said "why not?".

So, we started messaging on Facebook and talking about our trip. She had plane tickets and the hotel picked out and taken care of, so I didn't have to worry about that part of the logistics! I started reading a little about Tbilisi and Georgia in general since my knowledge of the country was limited... and by limited, I mean non-existent.

Some background on the country of Georgia-- it is the crossroads of Europe and Asia and its neighbors are Russia to the north, Turkey and Armenia to the south, Azerbaijan to the East, and the Black Sea to the West. There is a long history of violence and war and battle for control of the country of Georgia. The ottomans, Persians, and most recently, the Russians have all wanted Georgia under their rule. From 1801 to 1991 (with a brief period of three years in the early 21st century when they were independent and under British protection) Georgia was part of the Russian Empire and then Soviet Union. They broke free and regained their independence in 1991 but have continued to fight in four separate wars against Russia since then (most recently in 2008).

The flight from Bahrain was quick; only 3 hours or so, and we were transported from a mild Arabic "winter" to a chilly, eastern Europe legitimate winter. After spending so many months sweating, wearing light clothing and sandals all the time, it was odd but super awesome to wrap a scarf around my neck and shove my feet into my favorite boots.

Our arrival to the airport and through passport control was interesting. The passport control officer had a hard time discerning whether or not I matched up with my passport picture. Sure, it expires late this year so the picture is ten years old, but I really don't think I've changed THAT much!

For reference, old passport picture and new passport picture. Besides the giant grin and shorter hair, not a huge difference. 

Once we made it through passport control we headed out to meet our transport to the hotel and founnd that...womp womp womp, they forgot to send them. So after some emailing and figuring things out, they sent the driver and we waited a few minutes. First impressions of Georgia? They smoke.  A lot. And the men look exactly how I pictured older, eastern European men looking. That is to say they looked sort of weathered and gruff, perpetually cold, covered in a fog of cigarette smoke, wearing all black, and speaking with thick accents in a language I have no knowledge of. Oh, and it was cold-- like, I could see my breath cold, and Michelle and I celebrated that fact a little bit and waited as long as we could in the cold to put our jackets on, basking in the frigid winter air and happy that we weren't sweating in Bahrain.

Our driver arrived and whisked us off to the hotel. The entire city was decked out for Christmas since the Georgian's celebrate Orthodox Christmas which falls on January 7th, which was a nice surprise. No matter what a place looks like normally, it cant help but be beautiful when decked out in sparkling twinkle lights! The current government decided to go all out this year and really decorate so they flew in decorations from Milan and the whole city was lit up! It was so pretty!

We checked in and fell instantly in love with our little boutique hotel! It was quaint and inviting and adorable... and decked out for christmas as well!

We dropped our bags off and headed out into Tblisi to get our first look at the city. We had planned to walk down into old town Tbilisi, but made it about halfway when dusk hit and we decided to head back and not have to navigate a strange city in the dark. Along the way we stopped and watched some street performers (and I realized how much I've missed seeing random street performers that we used to see all the time in Europe), and then decided to snap some pictures with one of the Santa's that were lining the sidewalks. And thats where things got interesting...

So most of the Santa's weren't in traditional, what we think of as Santa, outfits. They were wearing more Eastern Europe style, heavy wool outfits, for obvious reasons. So we came upon this old guy with a real beard and decided to take pictures with him. Mistake number one. I was up first for photo op and I walked up and discovered that the big wool coat he had on smelled like B.O. and disappointment while Santa himself stank of old booze and stale cigarettes. He seemed jovial enough and I quickly discovered why... his whole photo op was to pick up his big, stinky wool coat and wrap it around the shoulders of the tourists, trapping them in there with him while he put his arm around said tourist and... tried to cop a feel. Yes, my friends, that's right, I was groped by Santa. Luckily he only managed side boob for me (ick!), but Michelle went next and he full on copped a feel.

We were pretty much done after that and headed back to the hotel for a quick dinner.
The hotel restaurant was super cute and on a recommendation from the receptionist at the front desk we ordered roast chicken with blackberry sauce and a khachapuri (Georgian Cheese bread), and a bottle of Georgian wine.

It took a bit for our food to arrive, but we were very happy with our delicious wine so the wait was tolerable.

The chicken was... mediocre at best and I was disappointed and still hungry. I don't like chicken anyway, so it was a leap for me to order it, but the receptionist made a very convincing case for this old Georgian traditional dish, so I took a chance. I was not instantly a chicken convert, so that was a hard no from me.

Finally the cheese bread arrived in all its melty, hot, cheesy, gooey, amazing glory. It did not disappoint. Georgians are known for their cheeses and this was well worth writing home about. Salty and tangy, malty and stretchy and just plain delicious, this cheese bread was awesome. The bread itself was flaky, almost like a croissant and the cheese was just scrummy. We totally forgot to snap a picture of it in its entirety, so heres the last piece... it doesn't do it justice. Just know that it was awesome!

We capped off our dinner with a gooey chocolate fondant and called it an early night, heads swimming from strong wine and bellies full of cheese and chocolate.