Day 10 - Georgia

I appear to have booked into a pop-up Mumbai slum last night. I mean there's cheap and there's squalid and this wasn't even close to being squalid. Even the bed bugs had bed bugs. Still, what do you expect for $10 a night (it would have been $5 but I booked the private executive suite designed for two). My fellow guests appear to be four North Korean refugees, whose budgets didn't stretch to a private room, or meals out, so they had the free dinner (yes, you get dinner thrown in for your $5!).

When I asked if there was any hot water for a much needed shower, I got a slightly embarrassed shrug in return. Not that it would have mattered. Most of the water that made it to the hand held shower attachment poured down the outside of the hose and onto the floor. I managed to have a brisk wash with what remained but I fear it only dammed the aromatic tide temporarily rather than throwing it back to hades where it belongs. 

My trainers now pong so frightfully, they're making my eyes water. They have reached the point of no return and require urgent replacement. Surely not every spotty teenager on a gap year suffers the same? The hostel got great reviews! Maybe everyone who reviewed only had their stinking, floordrobed bedroom as their reference point. 

I'm on a train tonight (thanks Rhona, I'd already booked a first class ticket!). God save all who travel in her. If the place in Baku isn't a dramatic improvement on this, I'll have to book into the local Hilton. 

Had a perfectly lovely time in a bar last night. The first since crossing into Asia. Germans! In Tbilisi! A chilling proclamation surely? Just tourists on this occasion. Oh, to hear the guttural growl of an entire sentence spoken in a single word. It makes my heart sing. I was almost tempted to talk to them. But I didn't. I could make out some words but German was never really my thing at school. I stopped evesdropping. I was in danger of appearing creepy. Not a good look. 

It's funny how even the vaguely familiar can ring loudly in ones mind when everything is so alien. 

Aside from being in a rough part of town in a crappy hostel, I rather like Tbilisi. It has a sense of history but has wrapped its head around modernity, without quite enough money to do all that much about it.

I've come to to quite like Georgia in general actually. It's very pretty and despite some early reservations, most people I've come across have been extremely friendly and helpful. When in my homestay, Michael talked about the eight years of fighting up north and had some pretty clear views on the rights and wrongs of it all. I shall read a bit more about that and see if I can form my own view. 

Kitchen (don't laugh)

Bathroom/shower/toilet (again, don't laugh)