The Georgia trip is pretty much over. Rei actually already left tonight, and I'm flying out tomorrow morning at 11:20. Veronica had to work today, but we did manage to spend most of the day hanging out with Marc, at least, and we visited Veronica for lunch.
Unfortunately we had pretty shitty weather for our last day, but Marc still took us to a couple of viewpoints today. Our first stop this morning was at this Stonehenge type place on top of a mountain on the outskirts of Tbilisi. I say it's Stonehenge-like purely because of the shape, but it's actually a pretty new construction that was purposefully put on top of this hill to become a place people would visit. It's large metal pillars, and they're covered with carvings that we guess are showing bible stories or people that were famous in Georgian Orthodoxy. Actually we're not 100% sure, all we know is it's super Christian and there's also a church. But it is also quite impressive and has some nice views of the city and the Tbilisi Sea, which is the local reservoir.
We also stopped at the US Embassy to have lunch with Veronica. It was actually my first time properly inside a US Embassy. I've been into consular sections or US Citizen Services before, but this time we went into the offices and got a tour and everything. It's pretty impressive. The scale is, anyway. I actually did not expect Georgia to have such a large mission, but it's massive. Otherwise it's just like a secure office that is somehow reminiscent of a hospital. What is also impressive is the amount of services and stuff they provide to embassy staff. They have a salon, a doctor, a commissary, a gym, a playground... all kinds of stuff all on campus just to make your life easier. Apparently this isn't the standard at all embassies, Marc and Veronica say Hanoi (their last placement) was not this good, didn't even have a cafeteria, but I was pretty impressed by the safety net they set up.
Other than that, we did a bit of souvenir shopping while wandering around old town again. Tbilisi is a very cute city. The old town isn't large, but it's really nice. In fact, the city isn't that large. It's really long, spread along the river valley, but it's not sprawling or anything. It really does feel small. And very European. More Eastern European I'd say, after all it is a former Soviet Bloc state (or if you ask the Russians, still part of Russia). There are things about it that remind me of lots of totally unrelated places, like Slovenia or Nepal, but it's also a very unique city. You don't need much time to explore and get a feel for it, we really only had 2 days actually in the city and exploring the city, but I think I got a pretty good feel for it. While I do think it feels pretty first-world and European, there are definitely elements of the Wild West to it, like the traffic and apparently the healthcare facilities, but it seems like a place I could live comfortably if I had to (though I'd probably be a bit bored). All in all, I'd say my take away from Georgia is that it's a very nice country, but not overly exciting. I may try to come and visit again since Marc and Veronica are 1 year into a 4 year mission and I want to see them, but I'm pretty happy with what I came and did and saw. Maybe next time will be a visit to Tbilisi with a side trip to Armenia or Azerbaijan or something. Or maybe Israel, it's been years since I was there.
While not having listened to too much new music this week, I did actually manage to listen to some new tracks and pick out a few interesting artists. The problem is, most of them had a track that caught my attention and so I put them into a playlist I have on Spotify of artists I want to hear more of, but I have not yet identified whether or not I like the artist, or whether or not they have a song worth sharing. But in the interest of sharing new music, today's song will be one of the better ones I found: Avalanche by Boogarins. It's the only song I've heard by these guys, but it's interesting and Brazilian and fun, which hopefully the rest of their music is, too.
Unfortunately we had pretty shitty weather for our last day, but Marc still took us to a couple of viewpoints today. Our first stop this morning was at this Stonehenge type place on top of a mountain on the outskirts of Tbilisi. I say it's Stonehenge-like purely because of the shape, but it's actually a pretty new construction that was purposefully put on top of this hill to become a place people would visit. It's large metal pillars, and they're covered with carvings that we guess are showing bible stories or people that were famous in Georgian Orthodoxy. Actually we're not 100% sure, all we know is it's super Christian and there's also a church. But it is also quite impressive and has some nice views of the city and the Tbilisi Sea, which is the local reservoir.
We also stopped at the US Embassy to have lunch with Veronica. It was actually my first time properly inside a US Embassy. I've been into consular sections or US Citizen Services before, but this time we went into the offices and got a tour and everything. It's pretty impressive. The scale is, anyway. I actually did not expect Georgia to have such a large mission, but it's massive. Otherwise it's just like a secure office that is somehow reminiscent of a hospital. What is also impressive is the amount of services and stuff they provide to embassy staff. They have a salon, a doctor, a commissary, a gym, a playground... all kinds of stuff all on campus just to make your life easier. Apparently this isn't the standard at all embassies, Marc and Veronica say Hanoi (their last placement) was not this good, didn't even have a cafeteria, but I was pretty impressed by the safety net they set up.
Other than that, we did a bit of souvenir shopping while wandering around old town again. Tbilisi is a very cute city. The old town isn't large, but it's really nice. In fact, the city isn't that large. It's really long, spread along the river valley, but it's not sprawling or anything. It really does feel small. And very European. More Eastern European I'd say, after all it is a former Soviet Bloc state (or if you ask the Russians, still part of Russia). There are things about it that remind me of lots of totally unrelated places, like Slovenia or Nepal, but it's also a very unique city. You don't need much time to explore and get a feel for it, we really only had 2 days actually in the city and exploring the city, but I think I got a pretty good feel for it. While I do think it feels pretty first-world and European, there are definitely elements of the Wild West to it, like the traffic and apparently the healthcare facilities, but it seems like a place I could live comfortably if I had to (though I'd probably be a bit bored). All in all, I'd say my take away from Georgia is that it's a very nice country, but not overly exciting. I may try to come and visit again since Marc and Veronica are 1 year into a 4 year mission and I want to see them, but I'm pretty happy with what I came and did and saw. Maybe next time will be a visit to Tbilisi with a side trip to Armenia or Azerbaijan or something. Or maybe Israel, it's been years since I was there.
While not having listened to too much new music this week, I did actually manage to listen to some new tracks and pick out a few interesting artists. The problem is, most of them had a track that caught my attention and so I put them into a playlist I have on Spotify of artists I want to hear more of, but I have not yet identified whether or not I like the artist, or whether or not they have a song worth sharing. But in the interest of sharing new music, today's song will be one of the better ones I found: Avalanche by Boogarins. It's the only song I've heard by these guys, but it's interesting and Brazilian and fun, which hopefully the rest of their music is, too.
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