Day Two...

[Christina] The next day, Wednesday, after eating a gigantic breakfast (again) me, Jibladze, Jacob, Allison, Giorgi, Dali, and Sergo (plus our driver, Zaza) went to an outdoor mall, where the stores were all squares on a grid. The place was completely packed full of people (Georgians, by the way, are the epitome of style; they should duke it out with the French) buying anything from clothing, pirated DVDs, shoes, ties, jewelry, XBoxes, Nintendos, and stuffed animals to table lamps. It was paved in cobblestones. Dali, Mr. Jibladze's mother, wanted him to buy a dress shirt for a fancy restaurant we'd be going to later (ie, wanted to mollycoddle him =P) so all of the rest of us were packed off to wander carefully. Giorgi was there to ostensibly protect us from pickpockets, but instead he tried on wigs and was hilarious.

[More later-sleep. She calls. *snore*]

Our First Day

[Christina] After breakfast, Jibladze, Jacob, Allison, and I went to a nearby cemetery to leave some flowers at his Father's tomb. The cemetery itself was very interesting- lots of six-inch walls and very little foot space. After that, we went to the ethnographic museum, which was outdoors (cool). It was basically some replications of old Georgian houses (18th century onwards, I think), which were interesting and really different from what I'd expected. There was a huge difference in architecture between the Eastern and Western Georgians, with the Western Georgians building almost entirely in wood and the Eastern Georgians almost entirely in stone (though will very elaborate chimneys). Our guide was a tiny old woman swathed in a black shawl who spoke excellent English in a really endearing accent. One of the wooden houses was also home to about twenty cats, who apparently wandered all over the place. They were adorable and very friendly.

[Allison] As I look back on all of this, I realize how McKay-esque my mindset was ;D (for all you geeks out there). Yes, there were many, many cats. Many. And one dog. But no matter how much I may absolutely love our fellow felines and canines, all that was going through my head was, "GAH! MITES! BREATHE!" O_o (Okay, I've had a couple of run-ins with stray cats in my lifetime, all ending rather badly) ;D So I let the other two pamper the ones they could catch when I looked on joyfully and laughing, perfectly content and happy to watch their's and the cats' antics with my hands firmly planted in my pocket. The houses and the architecture were absolutely stunning, though. One of the last homes we went to had the most amazing roof. It was like looking up into a tightly compacted jenga funnel. I cast a bright ring of light in the middle of the floor and I could just see the shaoli fight scene play out in my mind; the warriors stepping from the shadows of the room into the white circle of light as the particles filtered through the air like a mysterious fog. So cool!

[Christina] After that, we went with Valeri (Jibladze's uncle) and Valeri's daughter Eka (also Jibladze's goddaughter) to eat soup-dumplings, which were the best. Eka, despite being all of seven, ordered a massive glass of beer and drank most of it. Then we decided to go see a newly built church in a different part of town. It's apparently the tallest cruciform church in the world, and it lived up to that title. It was very tall. And the grounds were impressive, and so were the steps and the view. We took some goofy pictures. When we got back to the apartment, we were absolutely exhausted and fell asleep on the couch(es). We woke up and had dinner, where there was lots and lots of wine, which was pressed on us with cries of "Drink, drink! You are in Georgia now, you must drink!" Mr. Jibladze tried to be repressive but failed utterly since we ignored him. At dinner, we met Sergo and Giorgi. Sergo was a very impassive police captain and Giorgi was a friendly, goofy giant.

Why Austria No Longer Exists In Our Minds...

[Christina] Once we went to board, though, Laura was told that her passport was invalid by some new laws- that we had NEVER heard of, despite checking before we left- that said that her passport needed to be valid for ninety days AFTER the end date of our trip. If it weren't, theoretically she wouldn't be able to get a visa in Georgia (not the case at all, according to Mr. Jibladze.) We were all pretty upset/ticked off, but even after some angry wrangling, Laura and Mr. Flowers had to stay behind for two days until Laura could get a new passport expedited. =(

We crashed on the five-hour flight to Tbilisi. We got there around 4 AM local time, and the city was lit up with blue and green neon. The lights weren't really affixed to anything in particular- as they would be here, to advertise bars or whatever- but were just sort of hanging around on apartment buildings and street corners. It was pretty cool. We got picked up by some of Mr. Jibladze's family, then went back to his mother's apartment downtown where we had a massive traditional Georgian breakfast.

[Allison] Eating was about the last thing on my mind as we were herded through a narrow hallway and crowded around a small table. Everything was in a plane-induced haze and shined a little too bright for my befuddled eyes, and just as my head began to snap from my chest like a metronome...the food came.

[Christina] Quickly, Georgian meals generally comprised of delicious flat bread, a few types of cured meat, two cheeses (one kind of like an earthy, looser mozzarella, and the other a hyper salty and sharp cheese), cheese bread (yum), various pickled greens, kebabs (pork and beef, usually), and lots of white wine. These things- kebabs excepted- appeared at almost every meal. At a few occasions we had "soup dumplings" (my favorite thing ever: cilantro-flavored beef broth and beef inside of a noodle-y casing shaped like a chef's toque. You cover it with black pepper, suck out the broth, and then eat the dumpling/meat), grits with melted cheese, and fresh vegetables (tomatoes, cucumber, cilantro, etc.)

[Allison] Although cilantro is usually foul-tasting to me, Tina and I had held together a promise that we would both do our best to try everything at least once. The yogurt soup, which looked like miso soup with a touch of oil, was the first dish to be set forth in front of our groggy selves. For tasting like cilantro, it wasn't half-bad. I finished it all, but turned down a second helping in favor of trying all the other assortments of food that was heaped onto the tabletop.

Trials and Tribulations of Vienna...

[Christina] Poor Mr. Jibladze had to stay in the terminal the whole time because the customs women denied him a visa for reasons unknown. Our English-speaking intermediary said "normally they would give you one, yes? But today they are feeling a little bit 'Desperate Housewives,'" which was hilarious. We left him with a laptop and some DVDs.

[Allison] Once we had left the weak behind on our conquest of Austria, our first plan was to scope out the city of Vienna. The train. That's all I have to say. Absolutely awesome! Sleek and stylized, the double leveled rocket was bright green with an artistic dash of yellow. I was quite impressed. And it ran so smoothly. My first impression as the train broke from the airport tunnel in to the blinding light was that Austria looked a lot like Massechussetes, only with more wide open spaces.

[Christina] We wandered around, slightly dazed, in the crisp Viennese sunlight and cold air. We saw two churches- the names of which I can't recall- that were really cool. The first one was massive and very Gothic, with lots of ornamentation and pointed-arch windows. It was undergoing construction, and the spindly scaffolding blended in kind of confusingly with the stonework. Inside were catacombs- there was a tour, but we didn't take it- and a BUNCH of Japanese tourists.

After that, we trailed behind Mr. Flowers to another church. The previous one was comparatively austere, since it was mostly a giant hunk of cold (but very nicely chiseled) stone. This one exploded with beautiful paintings and gilt and cute marble staircases and a nice organ. After that we staggered off to have lunch in a pub-type-thing, where my very, very broken German was somewhat useful. The food was good, the service weirdly surly. Behind us was, again, a gigantic group of Japanese tourists.

Then- even more exhausted and trying to stay awake- we wandered around, went through the Leopold museum, and went to an art museum. The art museum was pretty cool, though we were a little too groggy to appreciate it fully. i tried to find a German-English dictionary so that my German could become less broken, but they didn't have one, and neither did the folks downstairs at the other gift store. Finally, we got back to the airport in time to sit around for another four-ish hours and waited for our plane.

[Allison] More on that tomorrow.

How It All Began...

[Christina]

We left Sunday morning.
We had a flight at noon, so we all agreed to meet
around 10:30. I had packed the night before (of course) but I was all ready to
go anyway, though more sleepy than excited. Mom dropped me off at the airport
and I found Allison, Jacob, Laura and their parents. Mr. Flowers and Mr. Jibladzewere both running late. We had a nice laugh at their expense. ; )

From D.C., our route continued on through Vienna, where we had a 14 hour layover (eep). The flight was about nine hours long. We were flying Austrian Airlines, and the stewardesses were incredibly stylish European bastions of formidability. They told you to put down your tray so that they could serve dinner, and you did. They asked you to place your mug on the portable tray they carried so that they could pour the coffee, and you put your mug down exactly where they asked you to. And then they adjusted it, because your puny efforts failed to be sufficient. Also, if you attempted to utilize your minimal German skills, those also were considered too plebian to respond to in kind. =P

Anyway, the flight wasn't too bad, and, I admit, I love airplane food. I don't care if it's terrible (okay, I care a bit) but something about the super-efficient packaging and placement makes my heart go pit-a-pat. I just love it. We got into Vienna around ten A.M local time, and since none of us really managed to sleep on the flight, we were already exhausted.

This was the coolest thing ever! They bake the bread by slapping on the side of this huge kiln-like wall. The bread comes out crunchy on the outside, but pleasantly chewy on the inside *yum*

We have returned! *yay*

Because of spotty, dial-up internet access, we have been unable to post up most of our trip until now. So, over the next week, I'll be cutting and pasting all the entries we wrote up as well as pictures from our travels.

I don't think that our magnificent four will be at school on Tuesday...but Flowers and Jibladze have to be *ha ha ha* >D [insert very evil laugh here]

So stay tuned as there will probably be a new chapter of our trip up every day!

And We're Still Going...and going...and going.

We are in Vienna now and the time is 6:30pm. We arrived after our eight hour flight around 9am and probably only got an hour of sleep on the plane ride. Our plan was to tour Vienna for the day, and we, minus a certain Georgian who was denied a visa by a "surly immigration official described as a Desperate Housewife by the staff", enjoyed our jaunt throughly. Of course, that meant trekking all over the city with barely any sleep, barely surviving between coffee breaks.

Lunch was eventful as no one could think straight and the fact that the wait staff could
only speak German was a bit of a setback. We relied mostly on Christina's broken German to make it through the meal plus a lot of pointing and blank cow-like stares from the rest of us.

Finally, we killed an hour at "that museum" (The Leopold Museum) where Jacob fell asleep in the gift shop. We were able to catch our second wind when the four of us had a very amusing conversation with a couple of British people in the elevator up to the exhibits. We spent the remainder of the hour sitting on the bench, leaning up against each other as we discussed how color played a key part in certain paintings, etc. Yeah, Magnet students to the core. We may be dropping like flies but heaven forbid that we return to the airport and not go visit a couple of art museums!

We finally made it back to the airport around 5:20-ishpm, cleaned up a bit and settled back down for the three hour wait until our next flight to Georgia (at last)! We plan to get there around 4:50 am and hit the ground running. I don't think any of us will have trouble sleeping on the way over there ^^;

[allison] special message for my da: Chip!

We are in Wahshington! *yay*

After eating a hearty meal at Subway, Mr. Jibladze thought to enlighten us with a quote from the book he's pretending to read:
"'I'm not flying Aeroflot,' I told my friend, 'I don't want to die just yet. We'll take Austrian Airlines through Vienna.'"

Our flight leaves at 7:15pm; then we're off to Vienna. *huzzah*
The flight to Washington D.C. was uneventful, but Jibladze's hidden aggression towards the people who dress up at Disneyland in those big character suits was revealed. He's hoping that our next flight across the puddle is as uneventful as well.
Ta.

And they're off!

Hello, all! We leave tomorrow at noon. From Austin, we'll be heading over to Washington D.C. and then to Vienna...and then to Tiblisi!!! *yay*

FWI to everyone:

Be at the airport no later than 10:15am.

I'm bringing some Girl Scout cookies as well...because I can! ;D

See you all at 10am.

TWO MORE DAYS!!!

Meeting on Sat. @ Flightpath Coffeehouse:

2 pm