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.