The concert was okay, we got near the front, and despite being on an odd angle overlooked by a sniper we got a decent view. some assholes kept chatting and grabbing my friends ass so we decided to take off.
Getting out of the festival was tough. We decided it was getting late, plus some people kept talking over the concert. We headed off towards what seemed to be the exit, then we got to a fork in the road and against my better judgement we went down the wrong path. We eventually got directions and then double backed and found an empty marshutka to take us back.
Back in Tbilisi it was again back to McDonalds; I don't know why we kept flocking to this place, it's probably worse than the ones back home, but I guess it reminds us of home and we know what we're ordering.
We went back to wear Jason was staying and I gathered my stuff in some plastic bags, it was nice ditching it for the day, but my bag was in my hostel and half of my stuff was there; the trip home seemed to portray me as homeless, which I could only tell as gypsies ignored me; people stare at me regardless. I took the metro and promptly got lost walking round at night in a shady part of town isn't too comforting. Without my phrase book or Jason and his superior language skills I was forced to ask questions of people who didn't look dodgy. Fortunatly I remembered the word for metro, being "metro" which even then they had a hard time understanding. That's another thing I don't get about this place, the people struggle with even the slighest variance on a word. Jason was telling me the cab driver didn't understand McDonalds when he first got to Georgia, he went back in to the bank and asked them, they didn't know, he makes gestures of eating says hamburgers and restaurant and eventually they go "Ohh Mac Donalds" even logic is hard to put past them. I was trying to explain I to my host grandmother that my friend was coming with me before I left and I was trying to ask which town was next to ours as I always forget it. I go "Keda Khulo" she nods. I try "Erti Keda, Ori , Sami Khulo" again nothing. I get we're meant to interact with these people, but it's usally things like that or me being quite so they can watch and scream at TV game shows, or each other.
But I digress, I eventually made it to the hostel (I'd missed the last turn) and said my hellos to the people hanging about, apart from the older black guy and his daughter (he lives near me and does the TLG thing) the rest were your stereotypical hostel crowd. I had a shower knowing full well I'd have another in the morning. Warm showers are few and far between here. We have the ability to heat the water but they seem to do it at my house in secret. It's been 9 days and counting since I've had a hot shower in Merisi. I've started having cold ones in the middle of the day so I dont freeze and in the mornings I use baby wipes. The next morning I wrote the previous post and then met up with Jason again at McDonalds. The place is also a good central land mark as it's on a hill in the middle of town above a metro. The rest of my trip seems to be a haze of looking for my adaptor and looking for a Georgian banjo (think it's called a pandoni) for Jason. That and getting wet a lot. We got directions that took us to all parts of town and I eventually found one for 90 Lari. I decided against it as I knew that was too pricey I then texted my Georigan friend from New Zealand's friend. He rang and told me he'd find one in the city and it wouldn't be a problem. I felt stupid for not contacting him earlier. We left, met up with some Peace Corps and other TLg people from other groups then had Thai food, not McDonalds I know :) We left got a beer from a bar as some of the group waited for some Peace Corps people who were running late. The girls from TLG had gotten a place to stay with some firemen they met on a marshutka; if that doesn't scream stranger I don't know what will. They wanted to stay with the Peace Corps guy who was with us but needed to go grab their stuff. We decided to do it before it was too late and took the metro out of town then took a taxi to their place. It's one of those old soviet era apartment buildings where everybody never seems to live on the lower floors. Seven unlit floors later we got to their door and they let us in. It was pretty Spartan and they'd obviously gone out of their way and probably beyond their means to accomadate these girls who just wanted to leave straight away. I sort of hinted we should stay and hour and Ang, the Peace Corps guy agreed so the girls became compelled to stay. I figured the least we could do is appreciate the effort they'd gone to for the girls. They pulled out the table and the next thing I know I have a small buffet of food and a bottle of vodka (another good thing about cities: less home brew) and theyd even got orange juice. I feel like I can drink vodka easier now. I've always struggled with shots, but that night I did okay. It was a small bottle so it was about 5 shots each. After that we were on our way and so on. The rest of the night was uneventful, it's not like I don't remember it, it's just a lot of typing; I might just shorten it as this post is too long and has little content. we left the bar and then walked along the road, some guys saw us with girls and then we had to distract them, they gave us beer in a cup, I hope it was clean.
The taxi ride was a disaster as our well trained Georgian speaker was slurring his speech, and I ended up relaying what he's trying to say to the cab driver. We get there and I crash on the floor and eventually sleep.
The next morning as everyone have their nice warm showers and go on about how lovely it was the last two, myself included, get cold ones. Never let girls shower first. I'm guilty of the long shower, but there's a time and a place. Georgia is not the place, unless it's a hotel or a hostel, then go nuts.
We go to the Peace Corps place to meet up with the rest of the people. I set off metal detectors, nobody flinches or bothers to check my ID or anything, all I need to do is sign in as a guest. I guess it's a good thing there's no conflict here or nobody hates Americans.
We leave and get a burrito. This makes the several trips to McDonalds seem foolish, but then again I wanted milkshakes; this country just doesn't do milk.
I meet up with the Georgian guy afterwards and he has a charger for my laptop, but the end is funny. I ask him how much and he tells me not to worry about it, saying "it's the price of my friendship". I'd argue, but to do so would be a slap in the face. We go to change the end and after scouring the city looking for a place that stocks it it turns out to be on the opposite corner of McDonalds. It hurts, but I had to laugh. We got directions from the tourism office, other stores etc.
I'm taken for a ride around the city and shown the sights from up high. When I take the pictures off my camera I'll put some up.
The rest of the day passes and Jason and I get train tickets then make it home. We meet some different TLG people on the train and I use a toilet that smells like Death threw up on itself.
In Batumi I basically killed time drinking coffee and using as much of the internet as I could. It's good there and drinking coffee pretty much makes as cheap as a internet cafe. Even though I don't drink coffee, sitting there enjoying non village life made it an okay birthday - except for the sneezing so hard my nose started bleeding there.
Think that'll do.
