Travels

I've covered a lot of ground since the last time I wrote. Just as I said I would, I took a train to St. Petersburg. It lasted three days and I made a lot of friends, including a couple little boys with whom I played cards for hours and hours and hours. One of the boys had a hard time saying my name and called me Helli. It was cute. Then I spent some time in St. Petersburg, which was ok, and then I spent some time in Moscow, which was nice. Then I flew to Georgia, where Max and I reunited in a Tbilisi apartment.

I've been in Georgia for about a week and it's proved to be just as wonderful as I always dreamed it would be. After spending several days walking all over Tbilisi, soaking in Pushkin's favorite sulphur baths, eating decadent meals and a little too much khachapuri, Max and I headed on to Sighnaghi, where my former Russian teacher Amanda is now living. Amanda drove us all over the Kakheti region, Georgia's wine country, to some ancient churches and fortresses and past many villages and wandering cows. We had to slow down for lots of ducks to cross the road. After passing watermelon filled truck after watermelon filled truck, we stopped and ate a big juicy watermelon right next to the watermelon field at a little picnic table at the side of the road.

The next day saw more feasting and a little lesson in the Georgian art of toasting, more beautiful scenery, as well as the ancient cave city of Uplistsikhe. We went to Gori, the birth place of Stalin, and visited the very bizarre Stalin Museum. It's located in a big mansion with stained-glass windows, and tells the story of a hero-revolutionary with an exceptional talent for escaping from Tsarist prisons. The displays wind around a thick red carpet to end in a dark round room with a tiny bronze cast of Stalin's dead face in the center and a painting of Stalin in his coffin on the wall. It was a strange place and a strange experience.

After the Stalin Museum, Amanda and her friend, the expert vintner Gala, drove us back to Tbilisi and dropped us off at Dodo's guest house, where we planned to stay the night.

This country is easy to fall in love with.

Tonight we are on to Baku, if all goes according to plan.