AWOL

OK, so I haven't posted much lately - to say I have been super-busy might be a slight overstatement, but I have definately been caught up in all kind of stuff that comes with settling in a weird place like this. Moving to another apartment. Getting paperwork done with the bank. Getting driving lessons. Going to the gym. Yea, all lame excuses, but anyway.

Just for continuity's sake, I'm posting two pictures. The first is the charming building I live in. And, as it's holiday season, one of the christmas decorations on Tavisuplebis Moedani (Freedom Square).

My building; my flat is on the 4th floor (3rd floor European counting) right underneath the brown DIY balcony-extention.

Turning the St. George statue into something vaguely resembling a christmas tree on Tavisupleba.

Greenback fun

Last Wednesday I signed the contract for my new house. As I was paying the first and last month rent at the time of signing, I took out 1100 dollars and played around with the notes before handing them to my landlady.

Signing the contract!

Now if this ain't gangsta I dunno what is

Charming innit? 

Wartime Khachapuri

On the Batumi harbor, right in the middle of the two main quays is a nice restaurant. It makes an excellent Acharuli xachapuri.

The quay seen from the restaurant

The view is really nice, the xachapuri heavy and fat (the way it should be) and the Kazbegi is cold. Meanwhile, about 50 km North, the Russian troops are setting up checkpoints in Poti, blowing up stuff in the harbor and looting the warehouses and the recently opened free-trade zone. We ordered another Kazbegi.

Batumi was busy as ever, just without a functioning mobile phone network and ATM's empty

One of the waitresses got a txt and told us the Russians had taken Zugdidi, a quite major town for its region, and were advancing in both the central and the Western part of the country.

The harbor view of the restaurant

The night before, four jets flew over and dropped some bombs, probably on the tarmac of Batumi Airport (I wasn't sure exactly were the bombs fell as the airport looked fine driving past it, but later there was an article on Rustavi2 about the reopening of the place).

Some jellyfish moved slowly through the water making the silence even more weird

There were some coast guard ships out front but it seemed really tranquille. There wasn't any boat traffic, even though it was the only functioning major port in Georgia at the time. I ordered my xachapuri without the lump of butter in order not to OD on the fat, so I actually got to finishing it.

Georgian coast guard

When the xachapuris were finished we decided to leave, as we were in what could be considered a prime candidate for bombing. Unfortunately I didn't get another xachapuri that time.

The beach of Kobuleti, North of Batumi at the time of picture about 30 km away from Russian troops

A room with a view

If you're ever going to end up in Tbilisi, Georgia - make sure to take the walk up Narikala, a hill overlooking Dzveli Tbilisi (Zveli Tbilisi - Old Tbilisi). On top is an old fortress (or the remnants of it) as it offers a some nice views over the city. On a bright day you can see the peaks of the Greater Caucasus, which are even snow-capped in summer.

Old Tbilisi on the left, the left bank on the right with the Presidential Palace (still) under construction (the Reichstag-like structure with the dome)



The new centre in the background and Old Tbilisi up front.



The TV-tower up on Mtatsminda, through the crenels of Narikala Fortress



Below left some of the little domes of the Sulphur Baths

Banana Republic

About five weeks ago I was in Batumi, Georgia. I hadn't been there for two years, so it was nice to be back.

The semi-Carribean banana republic athmosphere was as always present in the streets of Batumi, complete with palm-trees and other (sub)tropical plants. Bright-coloured colonial houses mixed with run-down, though brightly painted Soviet tenement blocks.


Just replace the second-hand German cars with 1950's oldtimers and you would have Havana on the Black Sea.

Minas Morgul

This is the parliament building of Georgia, on Rustaveli Ave. in Tbilisi. It as built during the 50's, and clearly this is a result of Stalinst architecture that spread over the Soviet Union in the 30's.

At night it looks like a fortress, or some palace of evil from a movie. It's truly impressive. The building actually has a square courtyard in the centre, and as it is built up against a hill, it really seems to rise up from the low point (Rustaveli street level).

The building was constructed for the bigger part using forced labour from German POW's. It took them approximately 9 years to build this structure. Whoever survived the construction was allowed to go back to Germany.

The Dude in the Kitchen

Back in May '07, I visited a friend of mine who moved from Holland to Georgia 5 months earlier. At the time he was living in a not-so-chique typical run-down Soviet style apartment on Tamarashvili, a busy street in Saburtalo (a district of Tbilisi). There were more needles than people on the street there. But as usual in the Georgian capital, it was a rather relaxed scene and the junkies didn't pop out until after nightfall.

In that crappy apartment, in a run-down and patched-up Georgian kitchen stood an Orsk. A What? An Orsk. An old Soviet brand of refrigerators. My friend told me when he first moved in, it creeped him out as the thing seemed to come alive at night. The thing in that kitchen must have been at least 30 years old. But it worked.



In fact, it did more than that. The thing seemed to be alive. It made noises, it moved around a bit and it experienced mood swings (especially after a power cut). Sitting outside on the balcony, you would hear some sort of grunting sound coming from the kitchen. Checking up the thing seemed to have moved a few centimetres.

Orsk was also an insomniac. In the middle of the night, he could make a little jump up in the air and shake. The shaking movement was felt throughout the apartment, transported by the Soviet-quality wooden floors.

In any case, the darn thing was quickly named "the dude in the kitchen".

Czars & Soviets

These pictures were taken in the city of Batumi, the seaside resort of the tiny Caucasian republic of Georgia. It's a cool place. As everywhere in Georgia, they like to put certain buildings in the spotlight, but never manage to do it exactly right. There's always something hasty and not well thought through about it. But, it does give you sweet effects after dark and in this case it shines light on two structures representing two opposites in history.

This is Batumi city hall. A Russian building. Fake-French, so to speak. It sits right on the boulevard, which is slow and lazy during the day and bustling with life (and booze) at night. The fountain also has lights in it - looking very classical there. If you would turn 90 degrees from where I was standing, you would see the ferris wheel, and some very bad-taste plastic and neon palm trees on a square that's just a little too large.

Not far from the city hall, is this odd-looking fellow. The parliament building of the autonomous republic of Achara. I really don't know what to think of this building. During the day it looks like a failed Soviet attempt at building a modern office building. At night it's freaky... like it has "Big Brother is watching you" written all over it. But I might miss the point completely. In any case, if you pass it after a night on the piss it makes for a good laugh.