Tbilisi Revisited

So again it is Tbilisi. It's been almost a year that I was here the last time and I arrived exactly one day after their elections in Georgia. Sakashvili claimed that he won and wouldn't give up his chair, on the other side Ivanishvili said his party the Georgian Dream was the winner of the elections..so business as usual..nothing new! When I spoke to people I noticed that most of them voted for a change. They were not happy anymore with how the things were running here. Despite the fact that Georgia is a safer place now than it used to be 9 years ago when Sakahsvili came to power, people think that many innocent people, oppositions, landed in jail during his regime. I don't know if that is true..but I do know that one of my friends had to do some jail time because of a tax issue. That was a bit harsh I think. But I have no idea how a Russian-backed billionaire will come up with a solution for these good people of Georgia. But I do know that some things have to change. Too many beggars on the streets, especially small kids that break my heart. Yeahh..I know I became a softy after becoming a father of a beautiful daugthter. But believe me, there were less beggars in Arbil than here.Which maybe isn't so unlogical but still..
I ended up at the hotel Sharden Villa, which is situated at the entrance of the Leselidze street that leads to the nice cafes and restaurants. Right next to the Freedom Square. It is a three star hotel but it was clean and nice. Breakfast was okay and staff was friendly. Price was maybe a bit expensive for its class. I paid 360 GEL for two nights, which is like 210 USD but everything else was sold out. So I didn't want to stay back at Betsy's like the last time.
I don't know what it is but I seem to attract the dumbest taxi drivers all around the world. In Arbil I had the pleasure to share a taxi with a dancing driver..where the music was so loud that you couldn't tell the guy where you were driving to. Here I was blessed with the dumb ones. I wanted to visit a customer at Tsereteli Ave. House number was 126. I gave the driver the address and he told me he knew where it was. No problem then. After we started our drive I told the driver that I wanted to visit first another customer who happened to be on the same street just a few blocks further at house number 140. When I told him this..I swear the god, the guy reacted liked I asked him the hardest math question and he pulled the car aside and started thinking...!!!! He looked around and started to ask people..dude..- it's just a few blocks further..I thought you knew the freaking address???? Are you tripping or what?
But other than that..it was nice here..the city is beautiful and they have nice restaurants and cool jazz cafes with amazing jazz musicians. But three days is enough and I need to get back home already.

Where is Betsy?

 

Airline: Turkish Airlines
Destination: Tbilisi, Georgia

Duration of stay: Three days.

It was a two hour flight from Istanbul to Tbilisi, without any remarkable interruptions. I took a taxi from the small airport of Tbilisi, which consists really of a one big hall with a dining area and some check-in counters. I had a reservation at Hotel Betsy’s which was up on the hills of Tbilisi. Nice small hotel with an outside swimming pool. Tbilisi is a nice city surrounded by mountains. My hotel was located at the top of a steep hill and I had to climb down to get to the town centre. I had to visit some clients in Georgia, which I did the first two days, so I could have the final day for myself to spend some time by the swimming pool.

My client took me to a restaurant where we ate some pizza. We were accompanied by his driver who didn’t speak any other language than Georgian. My client was fluent in Russian, English and Turkish. During our chat the driver sat silently not being able to join our conversation; whereupon my client explained me that he told various times to his driver that he needed to learn at least some English. The driver responded him with a joke, which the client translated it to me now:

A driver of a Georgian company was to pick up a client from the airport. His wife accompanied him to the airport since she needed to do some shopping at the mall that was close to the airport. The client, an educated Englishmen, arrived punctually and was welcomed by the driver and his wife, who was holding up a paper with the name of the client. Trying to be friendly the Englishmen tried to have a little chat with the couple. Not understanding a single word what the client said they would just look and said: we speak only Georgian; we don’t understand you. However, as educated as the client was he also was a persistent little fucker and bombarded them with the same question in various languages, hoping that they would speak at least some bits and pieces of any other language:

Do you speak English?

Sprechen Sie Deutsch?Parlez-vous français??
Hablas Español?
Parli Italiano?Você fala Português?

The couple just looked helpless and dropped their shoulders in embarrassment. Furious and embarrassed with her husband’s ignorance she started to complain about her husband: How many times have I told you to learn some foreign language, you lazy ass? Sitting all day in front of the TV, drinking your beer. Look, how the poor man is trying so hard to communicate with us! Such an educated man; speaking so many languages.

The driver looked at his wife and said:
Are you stupid, you cow? So what if he speaks 7-8 languages? He doesn’t speak MY language. He is still unable to communicate with us! So what’s the use of so many languages? At the moment he is as smart as I am!

I really laughed hard at this funny joke and enjoyed my delightful pizza, which was really good. Georgian people speak hardly any English so I relied on the most effective language of the world: sign language!
The next day I decided to take a taxi to do a little sightseeing and started to make some indescribable movements with my hands and fingers to the taxi driver explaining him my intentions; plus I spoke really slowly in English as if I was speaking to a moron. However, the taxi driver looked at me like I was the moron myself and said to me in decent English:

- What is wrong with you? Are you suffering some mental illness? 

- Maarrrrrrrrrriouttsss hhhhotelllll pleahseeeeee!

Embarrassed with my own stupidity, which I tried to hide by continuing with my little scam, I gave direction to take me to the Marriot’s hotel, where I would enjoy some good coffee and some decent meal.

There are nice buildings in Tbilisi and the people are rather friendly. However, I wouldn’t stay there longer than three days since there is not much to see. Yeah, yeah..I can hear them saying, what do you know moron..but then again, this is just my humble opinion.

Soundtrack of this trip: This is gonna hurt – Sixx AM.