6 September
After trying in vain to keep myself asleep until a normal waking hour, I gave up and went out to explore the city. Old town is a snarl of little streets and alley lines with restaurants and shops and in the early morning, inhabited only by cats.
Every direction you look there is a church rising out of the hillside. For women wearing less than modest clothing (pants) there are wrap around skirts and head scarves in a basket by the front doors. Most of the churches are not extremely old since poor Tbilisi kept getting sacked every hundred years. However inside all of the churches are beautiful fresco's covering the walls with gilded saints. The archways are decorated with painted flow¿ers and vines and the ceilings midnight blue with golden stars.
Back at my hotel hours later for breakfast at 9, I was treated to slabs of cheesy salty flatbed and coffee so thick I could have painted with it. I spent the rest of the day assembling my bicycle, finding fuel canisters for my camping stove, drinking minty lemonade, and trying to walk off some of the hearty generous portions that make up Georgian cuisine.
Throughout the day the air was scented with sweet hukka smoke, baking bread, and juniper that covered the hillsides. People watching was fantastic with mini skirts walking side by side with fully robbed clergy. Gypsy's holding out their palms letting their insistent "please" turn into a hiss as people reused to give them money. My favorite were the classy older women, so carefully dressed from their perfectly styled hair to their giant handbags swinging at their sides. they would pass me with a no nonsense stride, high heels clicking steadily against the uneven cobblestones.
Every direction you look there is a church rising out of the hillside. For women wearing less than modest clothing (pants) there are wrap around skirts and head scarves in a basket by the front doors. Most of the churches are not extremely old since poor Tbilisi kept getting sacked every hundred years. However inside all of the churches are beautiful fresco's covering the walls with gilded saints. The archways are decorated with painted flow¿ers and vines and the ceilings midnight blue with golden stars.
Back at my hotel hours later for breakfast at 9, I was treated to slabs of cheesy salty flatbed and coffee so thick I could have painted with it. I spent the rest of the day assembling my bicycle, finding fuel canisters for my camping stove, drinking minty lemonade, and trying to walk off some of the hearty generous portions that make up Georgian cuisine.
Love you writing, adventures, everything!
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