Georgia Part 5: Things I Saw

See pictures from around Batumi, Tbilisi, and a couple from Moscow here.

In addition to the aquarium and the zoo, Rezi and I made our way around to the other attractions Batumi has to offer. On December 24 we went to a fortress that was built by the Romans in the first century, but it was kind of dark by the time we got there, so I couldn’t see very well. I’d like to go back when it’s light sometime. On the way there Rezi proudly pointed out that his father and brother had built the road we were on and the bridge we drove over. We also had to brake quickly for a cow in the middle of the road, which sort of cracked me up. We had a fantastic guide – Emzari, Temuka’s friend and an archeology professor at the university here (I’m pretty sure it’s also only through his influence that they opened the fortress to visitors at all in the winter). The fortress was used by the Romans, the Byzantines, and the Turks, and Emzari explained about what historical and archeological evidence they had of activity at the fortress in various centuries. I love being in a part of the world with such a rich and long history. He invited us to visit the archeology museum, which we ended up doing without calling ahead, so our tour was in Georgian (Rezi translated bits and pieces as well as he could, but mostly I relied on the English and Russian summaries on each of the display cases). I got a big cultural lesson on that tour as well – we paid for our tickets to the museum, but when our guides later found out that we knew Emzari, they were very embarrassed that we’d paid – EVERYTHING in Georgia is done based on relationships, and they would not have let us pay had they known Emzari invited us.

Emzari’s 4-year-old daughter, Lizi, came with us on our excursion, and was the cutest thing I’ve ever seen. I wish I could have talked to her – she doesn’t speak Russian. But after being shy for a little while, she decided that she really liked me and gave me a lemon she picked herself from the trees in the fortress. At dinner, she refilled my juice glass for me – such a good hostess! She also recited for us the poem she’d memorized in Georgian for the New Year’s concert at kindergarten. And when her dad took her home, apparently on the way she asked if Rezi and I were an item. What a cutie!

Rezi and I also visited the other two museums in Batumi, which were admittedly less impressive. We were the first visitors at the natural and ethnographic history museum literally in months, and its sad offerings explained why. I was amazed that all the museum employees still showed up every day – what a boring job with no visitors! The art gallery was somewhat better – though Rezi found only one painting that appealed to him, I found several of the pieces quite engaging. Interestingly, I was initially not very impressed with the picture that Rezi liked – all in greys, with a hooded figure huddled under a bare tree in front of an old, ruined church. “Why do you like it so much?” I asked Rezi. “Because it is like the real Georgia,” he explained. “See how the church has been destroyed by war? And there is the sea.” While I didn’t particularly like the painting any more after Rezi’s explanation, I did appreciate hearing his point of view.

After New Year we also managed to see a pretty impressive waterfall, which was located about a 50 minute drive into the mountains. We went to the waterfall at Rezi’s father’s suggestion, and Rezi ended up being a little annoyed that we spent so much time getting there and back, as it was pretty chilly by the falling water and we only stayed about 5 minutes, and he thought it would have been more impressive had we saved the waterfall for summer. But I was glad we went – not only was the waterfall breathtaking, but I caught a glimpse of country life in Georgia, and our route, which followed a river wending lazily between two mountains, was beautiful. Georgia is fairly bursting with fresh, delicious, clear mountain spring water – on our way to the waterfall, we saw no less than a dozen mini-waterfalls coming right out of the side of the hills next to the road. You can even drink the tap water – and not only will it not make you terminally ill (like in Piter), it’s also tasty!