An American in Georgia(the country)

the mile high chapel
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that was my destination a couple months back, we drove most of the way in Nugo's "Lada - Neva" then parked near the
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radio & satellite towers near the chapel, from there it was a short walk
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to it, the first thing I noticed was that the cross on top had been
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hacked off, you see this at a lot of religious sites here, but I suppose it is to be expected in a country that suffered under Soviet domination for more than 70 years
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next was the view down, which was pretty far, that was as far as I planned on going, but then
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Nino and her cousin walked around the edge of the chapel(and the cliff it is situated on), I walked around too and planned on walking back the way I had come, but then they made it clear to me that I was not supposed to go from left to right, only right to left, and you are supposed to do this 3 times before entering the chapel, so I did that.
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Once inside, it was pretty small, I took a picture of the small altar, but it was blurry for some reason so this one &
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this one of the curtain in front of it will have to do, maybe its for the best, I don't think Nugo wanted me taking pictures in there anyways.

ps: 2 more posts coming up of an ancient(early medieval) church I went to that was "restored" a couple of hundred years ago...
 
a real old church(part 1)
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We were driving by real fast when I saw it, but I took this photo and Nugo decided to take me to it, once there I saw
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An Orthodox priest, I did not want to get to close to him though because all Georgians kiss priests hands and have him bless them, so if I went up to him and did not do this then it might seem like I was insulting him.
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I was unsure how much I could go onto the grounds of the place so at first I just had Nugo take a picture of me in front of it. Then I examined the doorway closer
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Finding more signs of (likely) Soviet era defacement. I should note that this is really nothing compared to what happened to most religious buildings here in Georgia, thousands were totally destroyed and many "re-purposed".
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This pic is of a window with the shape of the distinctive "Georgian" cross in the window, this is the one of the things that marks it as being a very old building, the usage of such crosses died out by the time of the late medevial period. Next I took a pic into a darkened, but opened doorway
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It was only by looking at the photo that I could see that there seemed to be a table with literature inside and a donation box, but before going inside I wanted a pic of the
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bell tower, I actually took several of it from a variety of angles and when I was done I almost stumbled over
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this lamb, it was kind of spooky how just seemed to come out of nowhere and creep up next to me
 
(part 2) next, I went
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inside, after making a small donation, I went
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down the dark corridor until reaching another
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archway, with this picture carved and painted into the wall above it, from the very dim light ahead I could tell a large room was up ahead
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I entered the main chapel area and snapped a bunch of photos so I could actually see where I was, the only other light came from the 2 small windows
(1 pictured above) &
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another on the other side of the room, after this I snapped a bunch of pics of the ceiling here are
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two more of them, it was really weird being in there, in the dark silence, snapping photos and then looking at them in the camera so I got out of there pretty quick
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seeing the sheep again before I left..
 
I had more pics to post, but its difficult for me to do that here, and since no one appears to be reading this thread anymore, I guess there is no point really :straightface:
 
Please, do post more if you can. Never been to Georgia, but a few years ago I used to follow a blogger from Sukhumi (Abkhazia), just to stare at the fascinating pics from his collection. Now I see he continues to post - here's a few old pictures from Tiflis (old Tbilisi), just to persuade you to go on:
http://cyxymu.livejournal.com/1152815.html
 
Please, do post more if you can. Never been to Georgia, but a few years ago I used to follow a blogger from Sukhumi (Abkhazia), just to stare at the fascinating pics from his collection. Now I see he continues to post - here's a few old pictures from Tiflis (old Tbilisi), just to persuade you to go on:
http://cyxymu.livejournal.com/1152815.html
OK :)
and I liked the photos on there, I have seen a bunch of them at an exhibit in Tbilisi shortly after getting here in December :guitar:
 
a couple of weeks ago I went to
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Batumi, I arrived at night, took in some of the sites, like
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the opera house(pic taken out because it put this post over the stupid 8 pic limit) and its
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many statues, this one is of "Poseidon", which makes sense since the city does lay on the Black sea and was originally colonized by the ancient Greeks thousands of years ago. My friend
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Darrel did not want to sight see though, so we headed to a club/bar/strip joint? The first of many, I brought my camera, but when I snapped a photo
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people there did not like that so I did not do so at anymore places after that, sorry, just imagine places that are sort of a cross between those found in "Las Vegas" and the sets of "Deadwood", oh yeah, and colder, it was still cold when I got there, hovering at around 30 degrees F that first night.
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one of our other stops was place where people actually spoke English, I hated that there was really bad and loud band singing covers of American songs, and Darrel did not think there was any you know, uhh, "easy women" there, also, the drinks were expensive. So after a stop at a uhh, "sauna", where we uh, well, I best not go into what happened there, by that point I was pretty drunk. I did take a photo of the bathroom at the place though
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so yeah, I think you get the idea. Soon after that I was completely "spent" and headed back to the hotel to awake to the next afternoon to
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snow! everywhere, yuck, yuck, I had come here to get away from the snow, but it followed from frakkin "V-town"
 
That picture of the wall is.... funny.

Georgia is a very interesting world.

I agree, and uhh, whatever was keeping me from posting seems to have been fixed, so I should go find "part 2 of Batumi" on my blog
oh yeah and here are some statues that did not make the cut
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(I took pics of even more but have not uploaded them)
 
Batumi (part 2)
that Saturday night was fun though, we met some
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other TLG teachers, the one on the right was even Scottish! he loved my fake Scottish accent, some other stuff happened that night, good stuff, no photos though, my camera died
I think not being a "shutter bug" helped me later in the night and going out with someone I met at "Vinyl" to see more of uhh "Batumi" really made the weekend for me
but the next day I was back
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snapping away, lighthouses have a special meaning for me, someone I use to know, use to cross stitch them and I still feel compelled to approach them or at least photgraph them
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I had gone to this ship/club/restaurant the night before with the person I met at "Vinyl", lets just call her A. Seeing it in the light of day was less impressive that all lit up at night, but I wanted to remember going there with her. Its a real ship by they, 18th century, a former "40 gunner" the bottom has just been shorn off it to make it level.
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no diving allowed
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except for her coloring(& wings) this statue is a very good approximation of what many young Georgian women look like, many are so thin its a bit ridiculous, but yeah, beautiful too
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one of the "tourist trap" buildings, a restuarant, I took a photos of all of them, one was like a Greek temple, another like the Moulin Rouge building, another like a some structure out of China, others too, I just thought I would post this one to take the place of all of the others since there is an 8 photo limit per post. Lastly, here is the newly completed
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"alphabet tower" so named because
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thats the Georgian alphabet that is running around it, its really pretty at night, my camera was dead by then though
(I am learning that camera go dead quicker here because of the cold, especially at night)
 
That creepy dark church with the random lamb is incredible. Run fast, lamb.
 
Darrel did not think there was any you know, uhh, "easy women" there, also, the drinks were expensive. So after a stop at a uhh, "sauna", where we uh, well, I best not go into what happened there, by that point I was pretty drunk. "
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I am sure I have no idea what you mean ;)
& I don't think I have mentioned it before but your usage of gifs rather than words is the best thing about coming here its like you have become "post-post modern" or something :thumb:

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sad news to report :( on Saturday, April 14th, they killed Loma :tears:
after he bit is 4th person, and this time it was Gio(Nugo's son)
I saved him from being shot after he had bit his third person, but they just decided that enough was enough
when he bit Gio(I think Gio was asking for it though, he liked to taunt Loma, not that I wanted Gio bit or anything)
they have brought a new dog, but its not the same, I know Loma was a crazed animal to most people here, but he liked me and was my friend
I hate them all a little now for killing him, I can't help it...
 
sad news to report :( on Saturday, April 14th, they killed Loma :tears:
after he bit is 4th person, and this time it was Gio(Nugo's son)
I saved him from being shot after he had bit his third person, but they just decided that enough was enough
when he bit Gio(I think Gio was asking for it though, he liked to taunt Loma, not that I wanted Gio bit or anything)
they have brought a new dog, but its not the same, I know Loma was a crazed animal to most people here, but he liked me and was my friend
I hate them all a little now for killing him, I can't help it...

Robby, please get the f*** out of that hellhole. kthx.
 
well, um, signed a contract that does not expire til late December, so yeah, thats not gonna happen
however, I will be in Cali from July 5th to Sep 5th, so I hope to make it down to HelLa at least once, mmmkay?

Is the new dog chained to the tiny chain out in the snow stepping in his own feces and neglected? Are they repeating their mistake and CREATING another dog that'll bite because of neglect and fear?
 
Is the new dog chained to the tiny chain out in the snow stepping in his own feces and neglected? Are they repeating their mistake and CREATING another dog that'll bite because of neglect and fear?

no, the new dog is about a year old and quite timid, I let him my room and have taken over care of him from the moment he was here
I am getting Nino to spend some time with him as well, for when I am gone
I'd post pics, but I have not uploaded any of him yet...
 
no, the new dog is about a year old and quite timid, I let him my room and have taken over care of him from the moment he was here
I am getting Nino to spend some time with him as well, for when I am gone
I'd post pics, but I have not uploaded any of him yet...

Do you suspect this family will let him in the house after you leave and treat him kindly like you have? Or is his job just to be chained to the doghouse and bark at anything that passes?
 
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