March 29, 2014
A weekend in Tbilisi: Cool people and chandeliers
Cristina, an American/Spanish girl who moved to Tbilisi to work for an NGO, was a really, really cool girl, and she lived in a really, really, really cool apartment with her German housemate Anja (who was really, really cool.) The apartment was through a courtyard and from the outside looked, erm, shall we say 'rustic' or perhaps, more accurately, 'dilapidated', no, no, lets go for 'rustic'. Inside, the rustic apartment was surprisingly large and came with amazing features such as a huge bookshelf filled with ancient dusty covers and, believe it or not, a chandelier. It was definitely one of the coolest places I had ever had the good fortune to stay in.
That evening we drank a few beers and then headed out to a local nightclub where I met a whole host of interesting characters. To go into all the details with you now would be thrilling but very time-consuming and so I'll just mention the Dutch spy and the man who looked like a clown in passing (that's it) and move on to tell you about a middle-aged German man who may or may not have been called Henning (I'm sorry I can't remember, I was a bit drunk.) This man who might have been called Henning, or something like it, was very interested in my journey and told me that he would really love to do the exact same thing. I told him to just do it, as he said he didn't have a family that would keep him from it. But he came up with a few tired excuses, the same old story. Henning, if you're reading this, what is your name? I mean, Henning, if you're reading this, please just do it! If you don't do it now, when are you going to do it? In your next life? Step up! And that goes for all the rest of you reading this too; you got a dream, you follow it, okay?
How I met Henning was interesting, it was when me and Cristina were playing an unusual game of asking everyone who walked through a door of the club what their favourite way to cook potato was. Well, for Cristina this was an unusual game, for me it was pretty normal, as its a question I like to put to everyone I meet. I feel you can learn a lot about a person by the way they like to cook potato (edit - no you can't) and as an added benefit I'm always learning new ways to cook potato. Anyway, in this particular instance it provided us with an entertaining way to meet new people, although only the foreigners gave good answers and joined in with the joke. The Georgians were too serious and didn't answer, which led Cristina to tell me that "I really like Georgia, I just don't like Georgians very much." If I'm honest it was an opinion I had come to share during my time in the country.
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The next day the weather forecast told me that it was due to rain a lot and so I sat in the apartment and watched out of the window, not daring to leave. Every time someone went outside I told them "Watch out, its going to rain" with a tone of smug certainty. Of course it never did rain and I wasted a whole day.
The day after that I braved freezing temperatures and ferocious winds to go in search of a bike shop. Despite the risks of being outside in such conditions, I felt it safer than being in the 'rustic' apartment where it did feel slightly like anything close to a gale blowing at the fragile window panes risked causing a disastrous cascade effect leading to bookshelves toppling and chandeliers falling. I walked to a bike shop called Velo+ (on Abuladze Street if you are ever yourself in the unusual position of looking for a bike shop in Tbilisi.) I found a very nice man running it who spoke excellent English to me and had a very interesting story of his own. He spent seven years living in Germany as a professional footballer and when he retired, with the club no longer helping him get a visa, he returned home to Georgia. With him he carried the German cycling culture and he moved to Tbilisi determined to promote cycling in the city. Even though that appeared to be about as easy as moving to Mecca to promote Christianity I couldn't help but love the guy for trying, and it worked out very well for me as I was able to obtain a new cassette and crankset to carry as spares and offer valuable back-up to my ailing drivetrain.
Unfortunately when I returned home I found that Simon had already left. It was such a shame - he had provided Anja, Cristina and myself with hours of entertainment by merely being himself, with an infectious enthusiasm and zest for life, he somehow constantly walked a fine metaphorical tightrope between playing the fool and yet at the same time obviously being an incredibly talented and intelligent young man. With his humour and his energy, not to mention his engineering skills, I had dearly hoped that we would be able to ride on together, He was, without any shadow of doubt, the ideal candidate to take on the role of my hapless sidekick. However, he had left to meet up with his friend, with whom he had actually already cycled from Belgium to Batumi (they had only gone their separate ways for a couple of weeks.) As much as I wanted Simon as my companion, I reluctantly had to accept that he was already someone else's hapless sidekick and my own search would have to go on.
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31/03/14 - 82km (58km in Georgia)
Today's ride: 58 km (36 miles)
Total: 15,575 km (9,672 miles)
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