The Long Goodbye Part 8 - Back to the village and to Gori

Saturday 23rd June 2012

We ran for the 7.30 train from Kaspi to Kareli which was no mean feat with two dodgy suitcases and a hangover.  As is often the way in Georgia we were told the wrong time and it didn't turn up till nearer 8 so we were safe.  The train is slow, slow, slow but the views are magnificent and the seats comfy.  One of our unfulfilled plans was to travel in both directions on the "Electro" train to see where it took us as it seemed to be one of life mysteries.  Anyway to tempt your appetite here is the view from the train, somewhere in Georgia.  If there were station signs at one time then they have faded into oblivion - even the locals don't know where they are.

The view on the way to Kvemo Kvedureti

 We called into the village school but it was quiet and subdued and uneventful.  Katie was on an excursion and the year 11s were doing exams and there were a few students in the playground but that was it.  We had packed all our winter clothes into a suitcase and anything else we didn't think we could take with us due to the 20kg weight allowance and we left this at Juliet's house.  We called into Manana's to say our final goodbyes and they immediately started to prepare a feast  - make khachapuri and to grab and kill a chicken.  We were adamant that we had to catch the next marshutka and that we had just come to say "Gamajoba Nakvamdis" (Hello Goodbye).  We were already feeling the effects of our late night and early start and we still had loads to do.  Juliet had told us that Eka was expecting a baby and so as we left I touched her belly and said "Good luck!" She burst into a fit of giggles as even though she didn't understand the actual words she was very good at intuiting what was meant in all our "conversations".

Onward to Gori to hand in our phones and MacMillan Books and to collect our Letters of Recommendation from the Educational Resource Centre (ERC)  Khatuna has been a great support during our time here and it will seem funny not to have her around anymore.  Even though I had emailed and texted our arrival date and time, the letters had not appeared and so I was allowed to keep my phone and to hand it in at the Ministry of education in Tbilisi where we could collect the documents.  Sigh!!! but it at least meant that we could contact people for a little longer.

Good bye Khatuna! (TLG Co-ordinator)

 We really felt like we were on holiday after we'd handed in our books and so went to a restaurant, sat outside and drank beer and ate Khingali, kebab, khachapuri and salad.  It was wonderful.  Gori looked a whole lot different to what it did usually!  We simply sat and enjoyed.

The latest fashions in Gori

Couldn't resist taking a picture of this shop front.  Now the summer is here, young Georgian women are abandoning black and jeans and donning all kinds of things!  Which era would you say this was?  Very 80's? late 70's? 90's?   You decide.

Now we had to get back to Kaspi and pack up for real, plus clean the apartment.  We got back at 3 at were hoping to catch the 5 o'clock marshutka but we couldn't do it!  We made it for the 5.30 but couldn't be as thorough in the cleaning department!  Avery hot marshutka ride then we had to drage the suitcases, rucksacks and laptop backs through the market to the metro underpass to weigh the luggage and see how much we were over.  There is a woman who stands there all day calling out "come and weigh yourself only 10 tetris!" Or something like that anyway! Coming here at Christmas we paid £315 excess and we just couldn't do it this time.  We had to lose about 15kg.  We got a taxi to Dani's and we were SO EXHAUSTED by then.  We showered and went to bed basically and were asleep before our heads touched the pillow.

The next morning Dani made us a great breakfast - an english fry-up!  What a treat for our last day in Georgia!

Real Bacon - Dani cooks English for breakfast

"Wot No Tea?!" Champagne is the best thing to drink first thing.

Everyone got bored with waiting for me to keep my eyes
open for a picture so we used superglue.

We had a nice last day.  It was 42 degrees!  We met up with Paula for a last chat and a felafal (yum), got our yellow fever jabs and bought lots of drugs as they are so cheap.  We now have 8 months of malaria tablets.  Went to the Ministry of Education and handed the phone and received our letters of recommendation and martin collected his completion certificate.  Back to Dani's to be ruthless with the luggage and went to bed for a short sleep and before we knew it, we were off to the airport.

We will miss Dani - she is a character and a half and we always had a good time with her.

We only had a 20kg allowance as it turns out not he 23kg that was on the website and so we rearranged our luggage so that my coat and our rucksacks weighed a ton - well an extra 6kg - but our checked luggage was acceptably over.

Our time in Georgia over, we boarded our Aerosvit plane for Kiev then Gatwick, excited and exhausted.