Leaving Armenia was not easy. Actually it wasn’t too bad. Mike and I woke up the following morning, packed, walked to the supermarket to exchange money and get some food and then walked back to Jason’s. They were still sleeping so I ran in and jumped on Jason while he was sleeping to say goodbye. It was not hard, probably because I know I will see them later in life.
Khashi never made it to the bus station like he said he would. Later I found out that he was “too sleepy.” Most may wonder how I rave about him all the time and yet he didn’t get up to say goodbye to his friend. Well, let me tell you something about Khashi, this kid does not wake up. When I lived with him, I would literally have to shake him to get him to even open his eyes, every time wondering if he was dead. Once he opened his eyes, he would give whatever response was necessary to get you to go away, and then he would fall back asleep. Goodbyes are hard and they would have been awful had I gone through the formal ritual of giving a hug, saying we will keep in touch, etc. It was easier this way and I can remember Khashi in a more light and fun manner. I will surely miss him.
The weather was nice leaving Armenia. The border was pretty warm but not too bad overall. We got to Tbilisi by 2pm, or 1pm local time. (Georgia does not go by daylight savings time). As usual, as soon as we got off the bus, taxi drivers swarmed us, and as usual, Mike and I just got our bags and walked somewhere else before negotiating prices. Speaking in my broken Russian, I started negotiating with one guy. He wanted ten Lari to get to the center of town. I said six. He said nine. I walked away. As soon as I started turning around, another man yells out “five” which was the first time the seller outbid the buyer in a transaction which would result in the seller losing out on money. I wasn’t going to argue. His car looked like it would fall apart any moment, but it got us to where we needed to go. Nice guy too
Inside the Boombully hostel, we put down our bags and went to McDonald’s to eat lunch. I have already written about my sentiments of McDonald’s abroad so I will leave it at that. We came back and I passed out for two hours while Mike walked around.
Around six, my Georgian friend Avto came to the hostel to meet us. As we were walking around, we ran into Sarah and Robbie, other Armenian RPCVs (Returned Peace Corps Volunteers). So we went to a traditional Georgian restaurant and ate traditional Georgian food and drank Georgian wine. Since there were five of us and one bottle of wine, it was more of a wine sampling. We then walked around Tbilisi and saw all the sights Mike saw earlier but lit up by lighting from the slivers of light cast from the sun.
Tbilisi is an up-and-coming city. It is clean, well maintained, walkable, modern. Overall a nice place to go and visit. To anyone in this area, it is definitely worth your time to come.
After walking around the winding alleys resembling those of Italy, we went to a pub to listen to live music. (Most in the States would equate bar and pub as being the same, however here, bar is more social with soft music playing and mixed drinks whereas pubs are more traditional with a nice wooden bar, loud or live music and just ramblings.
It was great to catch up with Avto because we don’t keep in touch with each through email much but everytime I have come to Georgia, we pick up right where we left off. Interesting for a guy I have seen once every six months. I am convinced that this guys is going to be in politics or maybe become a future Georgian president. He a writer for a Georgian magazine, and works to establish orphanages and he is still an undergraduate student at the age of 21. He has done workshops with the UN and NATO and has traveled all over. Not only is this quite an accomplishment for just anyone, it really says something about his ambition to be Georgian and not be given the same opportunities as an American might have. He will be doing a six month study abroad in Germany starting in the next couple months. He is someone to keep your eye on.
We came back to the hostel and went to bed. I am writing the following morning because I had to get some work taken care of.
I will say that the empty feelings of leaving Armenia are starting to subside. It was nice being with other volunteers from my group who had just completed their service. We spent a lot of time in reflection at the pub telling different stories. Avto is going to come back to the hostel this morning and take us to the bus stop. His girlfriend booked our bus tickets for us and Avto is going to make sure that we leave with no problems. Avto said that when he called yesterday, the operator knew exactly who he was because he was the only one to have made a reservation, not to mention a reservation made several weeks in advance.
Whoever you are, if you are interested in helping or donating some money to the establishment of Georgian orphanages, leave a message on my blog with your email and I will be sure to put you in contact with Avto. Thank you.
Now we move onward to Trabzon, Turkey leaving at 10:30am local time and not getting there until 9:30pm local time. With the one-hour time difference, we are looking forward to our 12 hours in a bus…
I forgot my camera yesterday so once I get the pictures from Mike I will add picture posts of the places we have been to.
Until next time…
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