Thursday, May 23 - Day 3

I woke up really early for Georgian time and felt so energized that at 6 am, I went for a 3-hour morning jog, well, I did not plan it to be so long, but then I took a few turns that lead me the "other", longer, way. It was a beautiful, crisp morning, the city was completely asleep.

My first encounter was with a stray dog, that did something I would say was the equivalent of giving a hug in dog language. It ran to me, tail wagging, put its front feet on my thighs, and was "smiling" at me. A man, who was at in his home, smoking a cigarette on his balcony, asked in somewhat broken English, "do you knows tihs dog?", I told him I did not knows this dog. It was a very cute scene.

There was another funicular along which I jogged, well, it was quite steep uphill, with lots of stairs, as I am not planning of being "Rocky", I just walked the steps up at a brisk speed. The views of the town and the surrounding mountains were quite amazing.

Another funny scene was when I spotted my father´s car, it was the exact same color, same model - and pondered whether he had driven all the way to Georgia to meet me (nooo, of course not). Standing a few feet away was then my car, exact same color, same model - quite a coincidence...

At the top of the hill, where some stray dogs that barked at me quite aggressively, I was a bit apprehensive, but luckily there was no encounter with them. On the way down, I took a long road veering around the side of the mountain. By now, I had gotten quite hungry, when I spotted a van with freshly baked bread, I think the driver had stopped just to take a quick rest. I asked him if he would sell me a loaf, first he refused, I told him I would pay; rather grumpily, he passed a loaf to me, without taking the money. I ate one half, sharing the other with two street dogs, who caught the pieces I threw to them in the air. You guys are real acrobats!

At 9 am, I was close to my place and got a nice cake and a coffee at a small coffee brewery - here, everyone spoke English, even better than mine!

After the jog, I took a long rest, was in no hurry and booked the room for one more night, with Florian scheduled to arrive in the evening.

I was now on a very lazy schedule, did some more sightseeing of the old town, then found an art market, followed by a flea market - in the latter, one could find everything from chinaware, to Soviet military gear, to old Hungarian Forint notes.

I went up the hill where the presidential palace stands and was told by a soldier who spoke quite good English that it is no longer what I thought it was, as the president decided to move somewhere else. Pity, as the view from there was incredible, but then I am not the president of Georgia, neither do I think I will ever be. On the way, I saw some romantic houses, modern new apartment buildings and then mansions that were falling apart - all within a few minutes of walk from each other.

I entered a small alley, where young children were playing soccer. I started playing with them, they went along and played with me.

This was just behind the huge Holy Trinity Church, the one I had visited just before leaving the country some 8 years previously. It was nice, but not as romantic as the church in Kutaisi.

The bells started tolling at 6 pm and I started descending to town. This time, I took a very small alley, I was looking for an ice-cream place I had read about, took a wrong turn, saw a small pedestrian pathway leading down and continued on it. What followed was quite a funny story.

On the way down this small path, I saw a fence, behind which a half-naked old man working. I wanted to take a photo of his garden, when he saw this, he opened the gate and made me go inside. Soon I found myself in a sort of a shed, with all kinds of music instruments and tools and chinaware and God knows what else - all scattered together. It tuned out he was a musician and started playing his instruments, first some sort of wind instrument, then a string one.

I wanted to leave, but then he treated me the food he had already prepared, probably for himself, It was some sort of spinach, with some onions. From what I understood, it was all from his garden. At first, I was reluctant to try it, but when I did, it was delicious. He also had a huge flat-brad lying on the table, he tore off pieces, took a dip from the pan, then gave it to me - not all too hygienic, but it was tasyt. Everything in that hut was far from hygienic.

Georgian definitely drink a lot of alcohol and this gentleman was no exception. Soon a bottle of chacha (Schnaps in German, house liquor in English) showed up and he showed the way to drink it. You take a big gulp, "ex" the glass then pour the remaining drops on your head and rub it in. I went along the game, and was in quite a good mood after about 5 or 6 glasses. I did have an exit strategy, though, told him I was meeting a friend, which was true, but only hours later.

I was now quite "wasted" and that happens to me - luckily - rather seldomly. On the way back home, I was singing out loudly, though no one seemed to mind it,as Georgia is a rather laid-back place. The alcohol needed a bit of a time to evaporate, by that time, I was at Freedom Square. Good that it had evaporated, as the place was full of soldiers. I thought this was due to the protests, but it turned out it was due to the upcoming national day celebrations - they were rehearsing for it. I tried to keep a low profile in front of all these soldiers.

Florian arrived quite late in he evening, like at 11 pm – we chatted for a while, then we both retied for the night