Saturday, August 2, 2014

Friday night visit

Larissa took me to see her friend Tamunia so I could buy some of her little felted thingies for gifts. Of course, the visit was A Visit, so it had to begin with trying to cram the guest full of enough snacks to put me into a coma.
 Tamunia lives with her family in one of Tbilisi's many sad-looking Soviet-era apartment blocks, way up on the 15th floor, accessible by a dark, clattering elevator that costs 10 tetri (but only to go up; down is free). Inside, you find (slightly cracked) 10-foot ceilings, a chandelier dripping with crystals hanging from what looks like bare wires, and dozens of paintings by artists who were friends of Tamunia's grandfather; he painted the scene below, the view out the apartment window, soon after moving in nearly 40 years ago.
Aside from some new hotels, a Ferris wheel up on the hill, and no more identical Soviet cars on the bridge, it looks remarkably the same.

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