In 4 stages we made it to Tbilisi,
Georgia's capital. Our impression of the country is one of rather
much poverty. Compared to Turkey it is obvious that the Turks have
done much better in recent times: roads are better there, cars newer,
houses better. It's easy to imagine that the geographic location of
Georgia, it's rather isolated site, it's small size, it's communist
past and still the continuous threat of Russia in the north are
factors that cause the current situation. Don't forget that Russia is
still occupying part of Georgia, a comparison with what is happening
now in Ukraine is easily made.
In the mean time we have learned to get
along with the Georgians very well. We are now staying in a small
agreeable hotel in a quarter of small streets, with a bit of a
scruffy market and lots of little shops. A huge room, ensuite
actually. Staff is friendly and service fine. Yesterday they did
their very best to help me get our bus trip to Batumi organized and
when all of that was finished we were presented a one liter pitcher
of home made wine.(Every Georgian makes his own wine it seems).
In some parts of this city you feel
like in a European city. In “Old town” there are some little
streets with only restaurants, terraces and bars. Very touristic, but
nice. Prices are twice the prices we had to pay elsewhere in the
country. Some main streets even have 'grandeur'. But as soon as you
look into a side street you will see unpaved roads, disrepair, dirt,
dust, ramshackle houses. The majority of cars is very old, obviously
used cars from all parts of the world are imported, a striking number
of them has the steering wheel on the right hand side. There are a
huge number of those very small shops, on the pavement you will
stumble over people selling all kind of small things and there is a
great number of beggars. Most repulsive is the mothers who are
sitting on the pavement and who have trained their little toddlers to
beg agressively, clinging to passers-by and even hitting them if they
don't get something. Seeing that I feel like hitting the mother in
the face and holding them responsible for ruining their children this
way.
But this all belongs to cities like
this one. For countries like Georgia there is still a long way to go
economically, politically and culturally and my hope is that it will
be given the opportunity to do so. You learn a lot from travelling.
Here and now I realize again how lucky we are to be citizens of a West-European country. Wish at home more people would be aware of
that.
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