Tbilisi, Georgia Part 2

Part 2 of Tbilisi, Georgia Trip

Oops!  It seems that I forgot to mention our trip to the Georgian National Museum.  Part of that is because, well, it was not very impressive.  The museum also prohibits taking pictures, so I didn't have any to remind me we were there either. While they have a no photos policy, it does not seem to be enforced as I saw many people taking pictures without employees seeming to care.  I would have taken a few too if my children weren't there.  Don't want to set a bad example.  We ended up at the museum after we picked up some croissants at a French bakery.  I had planned on us eating them in the park, but evidently the park didn't open until 10:00.  Silly me.  I don't think I would bother going back to the museum again.  It is inexpensive though and right on Rustaveli Ave so it might be a good rest stop and bathroom break if it is hot outside.

Back to part two now. After lunch we were all ready for a break so we went back to the hotel, put our leftovers in the fridge, and had a little down time.  Justin, of course, read.  Poor boy kept having to DO things and walk so he was happy for a break.


Reading break!

After our break we were able to get the kids out again by saying we would look for a playground.  They can walk to playgrounds.

Random building on a side street.

The playgrounds we saw were quite small, but the boys are easily entertained.  A couple of Georgian (?) children came while we were there and the boys enjoyed playing tag/chase as that doesn't require speaking the same language to enjoy.

As exciting as the playground was, Rob and I decided that we should do something else before heading back to the hotel for the evening.  We doubted dinner would be of interest to anyone after our huge lunch, so we opted for the zoo.

I had very low expectations of the zoo.  It was, indeed, a very sad zoo.  Justin was already in a bad mood that he had to do something else that wasn't a playground and that didn't help.  Ryan was upbeat and cheerful, except when he would fall.

They did have lemurs!  That was probably the highlight.

 The zoo had a small ferris wheel that Ryan wanted to go on.  Too bad there wasn't much to see.  The animals looked just as pathetic as they did from ground level.  Okay, the zebras didn't look too bad, but everything else was just very dingy and depressing.

Who knows what Justin is looking at.

Ah, such a lovely view from up high.

Bleak apartments, at least from the outside.

The highlight of the zoo trip had to be the signs.  They cracked me up.  I guess they get the message across and were much more entertaining than the sad animals they had there.

Justin shares his feeling about being forced to the zoo.

While we weren't really hungry because of our huge lunch, we figured we would want something before going to bed.  We had a taxi drop us at McDonald's and got a few things to eat back in our room.  With the metro so convenient to our hotel, it made for one segment of the trip that Justin didn't complain about.  I think that the boys enjoyed the escalators too.  They are the loooooooooong kind where there are times you can see neither the top nor the bottom.  Puts the long Washington DC escalators at places like Rosslyn station to shame.  Goes at a faster clip too.  A ride within itself!

We had been unable to find anyone who knew where the Chronicle of Georgia was.  In fact, even with a picture of it, people questioned whether it was really in Georgia or we were mistaken.  We ran into some missionaries from our church on the metro and asked them if they knew what we were talking about.  They were able to give us some helpful hints on getting there.  When I got back to the hotel, I had an email from a friend with some suggestions and was able to find a blog post with information.  I swear only foreigners go to it and it is so interesting.  That will be the start of part 3.