When I was in Chala for Easter the flowers were blooming and I took some photos.

You can view more here.

Last month I wrote about how I went to Chala for Easter.  Well, now that I have a chance to breathe and think again, it is time to post some of the pictures.

First up, [...]]]> I have been working so much that I completely forgot that I had pictures to post.

Last month I wrote about how I went to Chala for Easter.  Well, now that I have a chance to breathe and think again, it is time to post some of the pictures.

First up, the family.  Malkhazi’s sister and her family came to stay at the house for a couple days.  Malkhazi’s other sister lives in the neighboring village and she came with her two daughters.  Overall, a very crowded, but fun house.

This is a typical grave at easter.  There is food and drinks on the table and a casket of wine close at hand so people can give toasts or prayers.  All that is missing is the family.

This is Malkhazi’s grandmother’s grave.  The food was just laid out and we are eating, drinking, and looking to see who else is at the cemetery.  Next up is visiting other people.

And this is what happens when you go visit other people.  You drink and you eat.  Sometimes just once, but in this case I think I had about 5-7 glasses of wine before I moved on.  For some reason that family just liked me, yet I have never met them before.

This is with the same family as the last picture.  This is Nana’s uncle and we just did a toast where you finish by kissing each other on the cheek three times.

I think you get the general idea of what Easter is like in Georgia.

View the complete slideshow.

The name of the park is Mziuri Park and it is a good size park.  I woke up early today, 630 on a Saturday morning – what the heck is up with that, so I headed down to the park to check [...]]]> I finally went to the park that is below my apartment building.

The name of the park is Mziuri Park and it is a good size park.  I woke up early today, 630 on a Saturday morning – what the heck is up with that, so I headed down to the park to check it out.  There were a few people walking or jogging through the park, but it was mostly empty.  It was weird walking to the park for I was pretty much the only person on the street except for a few occasional cars and the street cleaners.

This park is the only place in all of Georgia that I have actually seen a bike path on the street.  It is possible that this is the only place in all of Georgia.  Some of the trees started blooming with flowers this week so I was able to get a few good shots of the flowers in the park.  Below are some pictures and be sure to view the slide show to see all of the pictures.  I also updated my map so you can see where it is.

Looking up at my apartment building - the tall in the middle

It has been a while since I wrote.  Get over it.  I am busy, between settling into my new place, figuring out what I am doing at work, and just adapting to the city life.  Wow, never thought I would have to adapt to living in a [...]]]> Don’t get your panties in a twist.

It has been a while since I wrote.  Get over it.  I am busy, between settling into my new place, figuring out what I am doing at work, and just adapting to the city life.  Wow, never thought I would have to adapt to living in a city.

On Sunday night I moved into my new place, the one that I wrote about last time.  I almost did not get it for a lady looked at it the day before me and had dibs on it, but she turned it down.  And then there was some lost in translation moments between the owner’s mom, who does not speak English, and me and the owner, who lives in London and does speak English.  After the translation issue was brought to light and resolved all was good.  Thank goodness.

The flat is in a district called Vake.  I have updated my map to show you where the flat and my office are located.  The easiest way to find these on the map is to scroll down to the bottom of the list on the left side and look for the items labeled ‘My flat’ and ‘My office’.  Keep in mind that the online maps in Georgia are still a work in process and so the buildings for both my office and my flat are not there.

Living and dining room with kitchen in the right corner

The flat has two bedrooms (although the second one is locked with all of the owners stuff in it), bathroom, kitchen, dining room, living room, and a balcony.  It is completely furnished and is quit roomy.  I am on the 2nd floor, which is really the 3rd floor for they follow the silly British model and call the 1st floor the ground floor, 2nd floor the 1st floor, etc etc.  As you can see from the map, there is a park directly north of me.  This is the side that my balcony is on and I have some nice views of the park, the zoo, Hero square, and all the lovely old Soviet concrete apartment blocks on the other side of the park.  I will take pictures and share sometime soon.

My bedroom

As I said before, the owner’s live in London.  The husband’s parents live next door and are very nice.  The dad speaks English quit well and this makes everything much easier.  They came over a couple nights ago because I needed help figuring some stuff out, like how to turn the heater on and how to use the washing machine that is all in Russian.  They then invited me back to their place and fed me with cake, liquor, and tea.  They then gave me some of their homemade jam.  Yeah, I found a good place to live.

As for getting to work, I take the bus.  It is about a 10 minute walk to get to the bus stop, about 7 minutes on the bus, and about a 5 minute walk up to my office.  Not bad at all.

You can view all pictures of my flat in a full screen slideshow.

During the first week of December we got about two-three feet of snow.  Below are some pictures from this time.

It's a good day

Do you see the Abominable Snowman?

6th grade girls having snow fight with badminton rackets

Yellow flower in the snow

I [...]]]> Snow in Chala.

During the first week of December we got about two-three feet of snow.  Below are some pictures from this time.

It's a good day

Do you see the Abominable Snowman?

6th grade girls having snow fight with badminton rackets

Yellow flower in the snow

I found the above small flower patch at school hanging over a cement curb trying to escape the snow.  This is probably one of my favorite pictures that I have taken in Georgia.  For what it is worth, there is no post-editing on this photo – this is the way it came out.  One more reason why I like it so much.

You can view the rest of the Chala snow days slideshow here.

Alexa sent me a box (now 4 for 4 with USA2Georgia) of children books and new Flat Stanley’s of her three girls and Jason and Kim’s two boys.  This was perfect timing for we got our first snow fall this week.

Flat Stanley Snow Angel

Flat Stanley [...]]]> The Flat Stanley’s are back!

Alexa sent me a box (now 4 for 4 with USA2Georgia) of children books and new Flat Stanley’s of her three girls and Jason and Kim’s two boys.  This was perfect timing for we got our first snow fall this week.

Flat Stanley Snow Angel

Flat Stanley Bath Time

Look how deep the snow is!

Grandpa giving a helping hand with the rabbit pen

You can view the rest of the new Flat Stanley’s in Georgia here or all of the Flat Stanley’s over the past 5 years here.

My dad sent me his ‘old’ camera, which just happens to be the exact same as the one that died on me.  I now have four batteris and two battery chargers.  At first I thought that I did not need it, but then I realized [...]]]> I have a camera!

My dad sent me his ‘old’ camera, which just happens to be the exact same as the one that died on me.  I now have four batteris and two battery chargers.  At first I thought that I did not need it, but then I realized how cool it is to be able to charge two batteries at once and to have a large depository of batteries available for use.

Just as a side note, this means that USA2Georgia is 3 for 3 for delivering my packages.  Thank you!

On the way home from town, I was smashed into the front of the marshutka.  It was not a comfortable experience, but it did afford me the view of seeing the full moon rising over the mountains.  I got home, changed clothes, [...]]]> Tonight would have been a good time to have a working camera.

On the way home from town, I was smashed into the front of the marshutka.  It was not a comfortable experience, but it did afford me the view of seeing the full moon rising over the mountains.  I got home, changed clothes, and then headed out to watch more of the moon.

I ended up going down towards the river so I would have a nice open view of the moon.  This area is full of corn fields, which in the last week have all been chopped down.  The timing of my walk coincided with the sunset.  So on one side I had the full moon rising and on the other I had the pretty colors of the sunset.  I think it would have made a cool panorama.  Oh well.

On the plus side, thanks to my dad being a tech geek and buying the latest and greatest gadgets, I will be getting a hand-me-down camera in a week or so.  Yeah!

The marshutkas only leave at one time of the day – 0600.  Yippie!  We get up early, eat some breakfast and hop on the marshutka.  About 20 minutes later we stop before a bridge with three [...]]]> We flew to Mestia from Tbilisi but Beso, Teona, and I took the marshutka back to Chala.  

The marshutkas only leave at one time of the day – 0600.  Yippie!  We get up early, eat some breakfast and hop on the marshutka.  About 20 minutes later we stop before a bridge with three marshutkas stopped ahead of us.  Why have we stopped?

Teona translates that there is a mudslide ahead.  Really?  My eyes quickly wake up and sure enough, I see that the other side of the bridge is covered in gunck at least three feet deep.  Interesting.

It had been raining every night for the past three nights.  I remembered that the night before was a really good lightning and thunder storm.  Apparently there was also a lot of rain and this mudslide was created.  I wasn’t too shocked by this site for Georgia had been getting pounded by rain throughout the spring and early summer causing lots of flooding and landslides.  Just never thought that I would be stuck by one.

We got out of the car and walked across the bridge to see the size of the mudslide.  We saw that it traveled at least a couple hundred yards above the bridge and continued for about one hundred yards below the bridge.  Amazingly, it looked like no houses were caught in the path.

After about 30 minutes, a tractor showed up.  Sweet – this will be fun to watch.  I figured that it would scoop up the mud and dump it over the side of the bridge.  Instead, it slowly pushed its way through the mud, the force of which was causing the mud to slide down the hill below the bridge.  This went on for about 30 minutes before another tractor showed up.  This one had a bigger engine and tried to drive over the mudslide to get to the other side.  He made it about 15 feet past the progress that the first tractor made and started to get stuck.  He quickly reversed out of there and came back to the bridge.  The first tractor went back to work.

Eventually, the second tractor took over and soon a third tractor arrived on the other side of the mudslide.  The two worked together to create a one lane path and push the mud down the side of the hill.  Overall, it was interesting to watch, but it took three hours before we were under way.

Now the fun was just beginning.  It takes four hours to get out of the mountains and to a town called Zugdidi.  We had several more interesting experiences over these four hours.  Stopping at least two times due to rock slides of slate and waiting for them to be cleared out.  Well, waiting for the tractors to get out of the way so the marshutka driver can make a mad dash to get by, which is really fun when you are driving over a rock slide on the side of a steep cliff.  Wheee!

Another fun adventure occurred in places where they were paving the road.  I am so glad that they are, but it is a bit scary the way they were doing it.  They paved one side of the road with cement that was about a foot thick for a long ways and then go back and work on the other side.  Since they were working on one side, all traffic had to drive on the opposite side that was just paved, which is only one lane wide.  Do you see the problem here – two way traffic driving on a one lane road, in the mountains along the side of the hills.  Amazingly, we never encountered traffic coming at us on these parts of the road, but it was close a few times.

The rest of the time was spent holding onto the seat in front of me for support as we drove through all of the hills and curves.  I am so glad that I was wearing my back brace.

After we got to Zugdidi, we caught a ride to Kutaisi and from there caught a marshutka to Sachkhere.  Overall, 10 hours on the marshutka and another 4 hours of waiting.  If you can, I highly recommend flying!

View the mudslide slideshow.

Ushguli is about a 2.5 hour drive from Mestia over rough roads and through winding hills.  Along the way, our driver told use stories and folk-tales about the areas and it was a lot of fun.  The stories, not so much the ride thanks to a [...]]]> The highest, constantly inhabited, village in Europe.  Awe-some!

Ushguli is about a 2.5 hour drive from Mestia over rough roads and through winding hills.  Along the way, our driver told use stories and folk-tales about the areas and it was a lot of fun.  The stories, not so much the ride thanks to a bad back.

Drinking a beer at the highest village in Europe

After we got to Ushguli we stopped at a cafe so everyone could get some coffee.  This is actually the only cafe in Ushguli and they have drinks, food, and souvenirs.  I was actually quite surprised to see a sign on their bar that stated that the cafe was partially funded by USAID.  Really?  Interesting.

Since I am not a coffee drinker I wanted something else to drink.  Considering that it was almost noon, like in an hour or two, I decided to get a beer.  While drinking my beer I realized that I am having a beer in the highest village in Europe.  Sweet!  After the other guys saw me drinking beer they decided that they also needed a beer after finishing their coffee.

In front of Mt. Shkhara, the highest peak in Georgia

After finishing our drinks and partaking in the souvenir shop, we headed out to explore the village.  The north side of the village is dominated by Mt. Shkhara, the highest peak in Georgia.  That is where I wanted to go.  Well, not all the way to the mountain for that is a seven hour hike.  Instead, there was a nice hill on the edge of the village that overlooked the mountain and that is where we went.

Along the way through the village, we picked up a guide dog, well more like a dog follower.  The dog followed us all the way to the top of the hill and kept an eye on us.  At one point the dog saw a pack of dogs running on the mountain to our left and he ran to the edge of our hill and yelled at them.  I think he was telling him that this was his hill and that we were his.

Lower Ushguli Towers

After the hill we walked back through the village and ended up at the cafe again, this time to eat lunch.  Next, we headed south of the village towards the museum that lets you go up in a tower.  If you look in the photo above, the museum/tower is the short fat building on the far right.

The Wanderer

On the walk to the museum, was walked up a hill that gave a nice view of upper Ushguli.  On top of this hill is where my favorite photo was taken, as seen above.  When I got home and looked through my photos, this one reminded me of a painting that was on the cover of my humanities class in high school.  It was actually my favorite painting and I think it inspired me to hike, travel, and see the world.  I love it!

Wanderer above the Sea of Fog by Caspar David Friedrich

Overall, I love Ushguli.  I am going to go back next summer and hike to the glacier.  I would love to live there, but having snow from October to May is a bit of a downer for me.  If anyone is interested in purchasing or building a summer tower that I can live in for free, please let me know!

View the slideshow of Ushguli.