Last Day in Georgia

September 29, 2009:  The 10:00 marshrutka from Borjomi to Tbilisi left almost empty, and I snagged my preferred seat behind the driver. On the way he bought three crates of tomatoes from a roadside stall, leaving the empty crates that had been stashed in the back of the van. It took three tries before he found a price he liked.

The taxi touts at the Tbilisi bus station were totally baffled by the hotel card I showed for the Villa Mtiebi, and even the guy who finally agreed to drive me didn’t get too close because of construction – I walked the last block. My room turned out to have dim lights and feeble towels and no sink stopper (always travel with a universal sink stopper!) but the bed was comfortable.

I spent my last day in Georgia eating, drinking, and failing to figure out how to efficiently upload photos to smugmug using my n800. Lunch consisted of tough chicken in a nicely spicy sauce. No doubt a free range chicken, it had joints I didn’t recognize – and Caucasian chickens don’t have those over-developed breasts you get on American birds. Then I settled in at a coffee shop, Encore, on Rustaveli that offered not only good coffee and pastries, but seats by the windows that provided great indoor people-watching.

I had a little trouble with dinner: Sans Souci had closed, the old town branch of Shemoikhede Genatsvale was full, and I wound up back on the main tourist street, eating mushroom risotto and chicken livers at Nineteen. But the food and wine were good.