20 May journal, Tbilisi

Today was a quieter day, I left to go to a museum (we forgot it was Monday, so they were closed) but instead went to a flea market. I saw some coins from different European countries that were reasonably priced for the contents and got them, and looked at some bookstores (small wooden cabinets next to the river) that were opening. I saw some books and didn't know how much they were worth so I didn't buy any, but checking now it appears that their prices were the same as on the internet. I went walking down the street and got a milkshake. In America at our local American food drive in near where I live the milk gets flavoring into it, which gives a large amount of options to choose. The restaurant I ate at put ice cream in the cup and then put milk in it and mixed it up. It was quite delicious (based on an Italian cake).

We then took the bus to where his grandmother was and he went off to school. His grandmother and I went to a gigantic church on the east side of the river (Tbilisi runs roughly north to south around downtown and the Mtkvari river defines and divides it into east and west) which was built three years ago funded by their Prime Minister. The first thing I noticed was they were selling candles (I immediately remembered Mark 11 but didn't say anything.) which were put in front of your favorite saints. We got five and I got two. I put them in front of Jesus since he was amazing. It has pictures around the church on walls which were very beautiful and in a medieval style. I found the pictures of different hard to distinguish who was who, since they were simply the saints with a halo standing up holding crosses or other things, but that was just my impression, which reminds me of old medieval paintings from across Europe. Anyways, it was a magnificent church with wonderful architecture which is quite impressive. It has generated a lot of controversy lately over here, because it took millions to build three years ago as refugees from across Abkhazia and South Ossetia looked on in poverty. The Prime Minister has been building housing apparently and given how he is reported to give millions to charity I find this very believable. Long story short, if you are in Tbilisi, it is free and quite impressive.

It started to hail just as we left, we grabbed a taxi and went home, had dinner, and then I spent the rest of my day educating myself about Georgian politics (I found http://www.econpolicyfact.ge/en the most informative on the differences between the parties) and reading other things online.