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1997
Route in China (GEORGIA)
Bec2004-09-20 10:10:56
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Tbilisi
Tamar Regina bridge over the peaceful Kura River in Tbilisi.
I felt some apprehension when planing to visit Georgia because of the recent civil war and continuing regional strife and more particularly because of reports of a high degree of common crime due to the present difficult economic conditions. I was therefore doubly delighted when Merab Abdaladze I had met on the internet invited me to share his apartment during my stay there. It made me feel safe.
View north from Mtatsminda mountain over Tbilisi's Sioni Cathedral by the Kura River.
The bus from Baku dropped me off in the middle of the night on a vast empty square. I didn't know where I was and it was pitch black but for some dim lights of what turned out to be the Adzharia Hotel on ploshchad Constitutsii on the north west edge of town. The night watchman let me enter and sleep in a chair until daylight. I waited until 8:00 AM and called Merab who came for me and brought me to his apartment in the old city in the south east part of town.
Conditions in post soviet and post civil war Georgia are very difficult indeed. The country's gross national product had fallen to one fifth of what it was in 1990 when it just stabilized in 1996. Merab is a research scientist who has had to go into business to survive as have several of his colleagues.
Merab could not have received me in a more princely manner. He took time off to show me around and to meet his colleagues at the university, his mother and some of his friends in town. Here, Merab and I are looking over the city from Narikala Fort. When he had to work I was happy to stay home to use his computer to write down my impressions of the trip and to keep in touch with home and with friends elsewhere on the internet.
City Hall on ploshchad Lenina near Merab's home. Merab decided I should see the Caucasus close-up so on Saturday Merab, his nephew Giga and I
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See photographs from:
Georgia Gallery
lela from georgia, 2006-12-17 09:49:16