Chapter 4: In which these guns won’t show themselves

As you may or may not know, I am a fan of jokes involving biceps.  In common vernacular these are known as “gun show jokes.”  My personal favorite is administered here by this man: Sick snakes.  One of the great joys of traveling is exposing my new friends to the fascinating world of gun show jokes.  Below are some assorted pictures of my neighborhood as I make my first attempts to spread the gospel.  After all, these guns aren’t going to show themselves.

Let’s start with my first tentative steps out into my new Georgian home:

View from my apartment doorToward my neighbor and the billiards table

I live below street level on the side of a hill.  To the right is another apartment currently occupied by the mother of the actual tenant.  [commentary redacted].  If you walk up the stairs you see in the back corner, you arrive at my landlords residence.  Turning left out my door, you arrive at a gate which leads out into a courtyard.  Up some more steps and you arrive at the apartments of my friends, Michaela, Nic and Sora.  They have a balcony off of which I take almost daily photos.  Here are the best shots:

Balcony view 1: Narikala Fortress

Balcony view 2: Narikala Fortress and the television tower

Balcony view 3

Balcony view 4: Night shot (getting better with the camera)

The area of Tbilisi in which I live is called “Old Town” and was at one time the very heart of the city.  The central market once lined the street leading up to Narikala. If you look over the top of the peach (?) and green building in both view 2 and 3 you can see a gold blob.  That blob is the statue of St. George in the center of freedom square.

An interesting story was posted by the Economist detailing the renewal of the city: Rebuilding Old Tbilisi.  Here are some pictures I took that show this policy in action:

Rebuilding 1

Rebuilding 2

Decay 1: It would appear that three walls were deemed sufficient here.

Decay 2: View of the statue of Mother Georgia through the ruins of a church. The church was destroyed in the earthquake mentioned in the Economist article.

It’s hard to say how well the efforts to revitalize Old Town are succeeding, but work continues at (Georgian) fever pace.  I need to take more pictures around where I live and will post those in the coming days and weeks.  I know that I am behind on my posts and will do my best over the next couple days to catch up.

By the way, do you have a needle and thread?

 

Because I'm ripped.