Saturday, December 10, 2011

It's Been Awhile


I had been in the habit of producing a new blog post at least once a week, so it’s unusual for me to go this long without having anything to say. Actually, I do have a lot to say, but there’s a problem…it’s cold, and my room has no heat. It is so cold in fact that I just can’t be bothered to type anything up. But, being the ever inventive person that I am, I have devised a plan to be able to type comfortably. It goes a little something like this:

Step 1: Add on more layers of clothing, despite the fact that you already are wearing two long sleeve shirts, a sweater, tights, and fleece pants.

Step 2: Although highly unfashionable, place a headband around your ears. Then, wrap a scarf around your head and silently wish that you had a ski mask.

Step 3: Place your fingers under the warm laptop at choice intervals of time to ensure that they do not become frostbitten.

So, there you have it. Instructions on how to type when your room is colder than the temperature outside.

I may be in another country, but nothing is going to stop me from celebrating America’s favorite autumn pagan fest: Halloween. The weekend started off with another cha-cha train ride to Tbilisi with Nathan. It’s become sort of a tradition to take the night train with Nathan to Tbilisi, where we arrive drunk, thanks to drinking substantial amounts of cha-cha. When we arrived at the train station, we ran into Simon, who just so happened to be traveling on the same train. We also ran into a few other TLG’ers, but they’re insignificant as far as this story goes. One point was clear, though: Tbilisi was going to be invaded with ex-pats partying the weekend away.

Greg scored this sick mask on the streets in Tbilisi


After we had eaten breakfast, Nathan accompanied Simon and me to Nest Hostel, where I thought I would be staying for the weekend. I placed my coat and my bags on a bed, and ventured off to the balcony to chat with Simon, who was preoccupied with a seemingly important phone conversation. When he got around to saying his goodbyes to the mystery person on the other end of the line, Simon turned to me and asked if I would like to stay in Hostel Georgia, because it was cheaper and our dear friends Jacob, Rob, Greg, Adam, Anna, Eric, Jen, and Martin would be staying there. It was an unfathomably easy decision: we would stay at Hostel Georgia. As we left to head to our new accommodations, we parted ways with Nathan, who was staying with his friend in Tbilisi, for free. Lucky kid. Halfway to the metro station, it dawned on me that I had left my coat at Nest, so I called my Australian friend Matt, who was staying at the hostel, and asked if he could put it in safekeeping for me.

As soon as we got to Hostel Georgia, I took a shower. I had set a new benchmark for myself---no shower in two weeks. This sounds disgusting, and it might be, but it’s so cold that I don’t actually smell. Honest to God. It’s too cold to sweat. Technically, I could take a shower at home if I wanted to, but it’s such an ordeal that it’s not worth it. To begin with, you have to light a fire to heat up the water. Then you wait. About an hour or so. This is fine with me, but it’s the shower itself that is absolute torture. The water doesn’t get hot, it gets lukewarm. The washing room is a large, square, concrete area, which is cold even in the summertime, and unbearably so in the winter. Taking a shower thus becomes some sort of sick masochistic cleaning ritual, as I shiver the entire time and my body blooms with goose bumps. In the grand scheme of things, it’s really not worth it, unless you have a wetsuit that allows soap to permeate through as well as water but still keeps you warm. The shower at the hostel was a mind-blowing, miraculous experience, and I gloated in cleanliness for the remainder of the day. I would have never thought that taking a shower could be such a rejoiceful event signifying some sort of triumph.

The night, Greg, Caitlin, Mark, Adam, Rob, Justina, Jacob, Martin, Jen, Simon, and I made our way to the underground of Tbilisi, prepared for what I thought would be a night ripe with drunken debauchery. We partied the night away sans Nathan, who I later learned was too busy getting smashed with his buddy and said buds host family. No worries-Jacobs girlfriend Jess graced us with her presence; she had flown in all the way from France to see her beloved Jake. When you have a friend who is as awesome as Jake, there are a lot of expectations for such a person’s other half. I am glad to report that Jess exceeded any and all expectations. If I had gotten to know her better, it’s possible that we could have become best friends forever. The bars that night were pretty uneventful. The real magic took flight when we headed back to the hostel. We caught a cab, which was not only cozy but had Frank Sinatra playing on the radio. We (myself, Adam, Jacob, and Jess) sang along, loudly and out of tune. Our taxi driver was relieved when he finally dropped us off. Before we headed in for the night, we did a run through of our animal noise talents. Notice the ‘we’ excludes Adam, who didn’t want anything to do with our wild creatures impersonation rehearsal. Jacob had been practicing penguin, as well as whaling, but he stuck with the penguin noises. Jess did a sick Dolphin, while I belted out my dead-on Kookaburra. When we completed our calls of the wild, we set foot in the hostel, and found the remainder of our group members sitting about drinking wine and cha-cha. Not ready to call it a night, we continued to drink. At one point, Rob found a guitar, and began to play familiar tunes. Once again, we sang along loudly, and out of tune. I don’t think anyone else in the hostel that night got any sleep.  


We awoke the next morning to a beautiful Sunday, and immediately set off to grab some breakfast. Our restaurant of choice: Prospero’s, the English bookstore, which also has a café and Wi-Fi. It’s like the Georgian version of Barnes and Noble. Breakfast was nice, minus the always sorrowful experience that is being departed with my beloved group #23members. As Mark, Caitlin, Rob, Eric, and Anna left, Jacob looked on the positive side of their absence by remarking, “now that the philistines are gone…” I spent the remainder of the day with Nathan, Jess, Greg, and Jacob. We explored Tbilisi, looking for trinkets and do-dads to buy for our family members back home. The non-stop walking left us with growling stomachs, so we stopped at an eatery, once again, to stuff our faces. The restaurant we chose was groovy, and we even had guardian animals to protect us: a turtle in the terrace and a cat, which stood silently and watched over us. I ordered several cokes, which was ridiculous to Jake, “what is it with you and coke Ren?” I don’t know Jake, I don’t know…but I like it, I like it a lot.


Mid way through our meal, we received a call from an exasperated Caitlin, who had missed her marshutka to Ozurgeti (AKA the most difficult city to get to in Georgia), and who was frantically trying to find the train station to buy a ticket back home. Against all odds, Caitlin found the train station, bought her ticket, and managed to find us at the restaurant. She arrived just in time, because upon her appearance Nathan busted out some Kalva (a kind of paste made from sunflower seeds) and placed it on the table to share, because he’s magnanimous like that. Caitlin’s face lit up with delight. She loves Kalva, but doesn’t get to eat much at home, because her family hides it from her. Jake couldn’t understand why her host family would be so cruel as to hide one of her favorite Georgian delicacies, so he politely asked if they were hiding it as some sort of game, ‘find the Kalva.’ 


Before we left Tbilisi that night to catch our night train, we had to do some shopping. Matt never found my coat at the hostel, and I’m fairly certain that someone pilfered it. I needed a coat. The only one I brought with me had been devoured by a Georgian black hole which sucks in warm winter clothes (I mysteriously lost a jacket earlier in the week and Caitlin lost her scarf on the train). There is always a silver lining, however, and I’ve learned a great many things about this country. Above all else, Georgia taketh, but Georgia giveth as well. With Nathans help, I came across a second hand store and began my search to regain warm outerwear. The shop assistant mush have been an angel, because she appeared before me and produced a coat that I immediately fell in love with. It fit perfectly, was warm, and I was able to purchase it for 25 Lari, after I bargained her down from 30 Lari. I may not be so great at haggling, but the coat was worth every Lari. My lost coat from the United States had been an expensive one, but this new, inexpensive, previously worn garment was warmer and infinitely more comfortable than the one that had I had packed in my suitcase months ago. I also left that weekend with a nice hiking backpack, something I had been yearning for and desperately needed. You see, I am a horrible packer with little foresight, and forgot to pack anything that could store weekend travel necessities with ease and comfort ability. All of my former travels throughout Georgia have been marred with the unpleasantness of carrying around my large and bulky laptop case. It was cumbersome, and would always leave my arms and back in agonizing aches and pains. But once again, Georgia giveth. There was a German traveler staying at our hostel, who just so happened to be selling almost everything he had on him. He sold me his backpack for 30 Lari, which was quite a steal when you account for the dearth of quality backpacks for sale in this country and consider the actual price of the bag-probably around $100 dollars, not Lari.


Be careful in your travels while in this country, but do not despair, for Georgia taketh, but Georgia also giveth.

The gang at Georgia hostel, and Toby-the guy who sold me the sweet backpack. From L to R: Toby, me, Jess, Jacob, Rob and Eric










No comments:

Post a Comment