Recovery!

 Thursday, August 4, 2022

A light day after last night!  I manage to have some clothes on when breakfast appears at our door andd it's a little different today, with some magnificent cheese and six ripe plums along with the bread and eggs and cukes and tomatoes.

Eventually we head out for caffeine in the form of espresso and latte and sit up on the second-floor terrace at Dunkin' and talk.  We stop by the Budget Georgia office to chat with Anna and pay for tomorrow's tour; but she has today off and we get to know her stand-in. Ammar is feeling lucky (stop that - at gambline!) and she give us directions to a casino;  but it turns out to be Las Vegas, not Eurobet which she (and I) had seen on Google maps.  We come back to the office to ask for a taxi to The Crystal which someone had recommended to Ammar.  I go across the street to take pictures and when I return Ammar has a driver in tow.

Door fetish!

Such lovely buildings, all from the same vantage point!

We go for a drive outside of town and come to the place;  but it is only open for three hours and now isn't one of them!  We drive back into Kutaisi and Ammar promises to call the driver tonight about a tour tomorrow.  I think that's how come he was willing to go so far outside of town.  But he did get paid, after all!

The cathedral is visible from all over town.

This is the only black skin I've seen in two weeks!

He drops us off at the center of town for some shopping and it turns out that I made a good choice with our location.  We're only a few blocks from home, so after looking for some things for Ammar's girls we stop for pistachio ice-cream cones (and an espressso) and went our way back to our apartment.  A little nap time/blog time and we'll head out to dinner at the girls' restaurant.  Tomorrow morning we'll be downstairs with our suitcases and head for Borjomi, the Rabiti Castle, and Vardzia.  We'll spend the night in Borjomi and return to Tbilisi the next day.

Back to blogging! We headed out to the Hoegaarden and sat outside; but no one came so we went in and ordered.  It's hot outside but cold inside, and noisy, so we go back outside and it is cooling off, so it will be fine.  Ammar showed me a video from Jordan of someone frying an egg with just the heat on the balcony!  It's not quite that hot here.  We've been so lucky with the weather that we shouldn't complain that it is catching up with us!

Our young waiter makes some suggestions and soon dinner begins to appear.  I start with the local brew named for the restaurant.  It is really light with orange notes.  Next comes a delicious chicken soup called chikhirtma.  Then Ammar's Caesar salad with shrimp that accompanied by spicy crisps. That's followed by ojakhuri (home-style veal with vegetables) and finally khinkali with mushrooms, which is delicious but surprisingly spicy! If you're thinking that a lot of food, you are absolutely right! But we got to taste so many different things!

While we're waiting a lady passes with her cat in a harness perched on her shoulder! I wasn't quick enough to get a picture! The people watching here on the sidewalk is great!

Okay, now it really is time to finish packing and get to bed.  I've messaged the landlord that we will be leaving early in the morning and won't need breakfast and that we'll leave the key in the room.