Tbilisi Part 4

Last Part
After lunch at Wendy's, we decided to walk to the funicular because it was just over a kilometer away.  We walked and we walked and we walked.  We had the funicular located on our map and kept walking and our little dot moved closer and closer to the spot on the map.

Random nothing on our walk

One of many homes we passed on our walk.

Justin half dead on our walk.

We somehow ended up at the mid point funicular station.  There is a bottom, a halfway point, and the top. We arrived at the halfway point, wondering WHY they have a stop there, but so glad that they did.  We had a card for it, but didn't know how much money was on it because the friends who gave it to us hadn't known.  The kids were free, I got through, but there was not enough left on it for Rob.  Yes, they have a cashier there.  No, it wasn't open.  The employee took pity on us and told us to pay the extra at the top.

There was a group of three people there waiting for the funicular already.  They seemed to have been at the middle stop on purpose though.  Heaven knows why.  A couple arrived at the stop and evidently they had been trying to find the bottom station as well.  They had no card at all.  The group already there swiped the card for them.  Guess we weren't the only idiots that day.  Seriously though, we followed the map AND signs that said funicular.  You would think that if they are going to put signs up for tourists they would try to get them right!

At the top, we tried to pay and the cashier said she couldn't do that.  Okay.  On we went then to the amusement park.  Evidently Mtatsminda Park (also known as Bombora) was the third most visited park in the USSR back in the Soviet days.  I think that is just so sad.  It is a pretty bleak park.  It makes me think of the kind of place you would pick for a creepy movie set.  My kids don't know any different though, so they were happy.

Haunted House

Coming out of the Haunted House.

 Rob went into the haunted house with the boys.  They loved it and even wanted to go again.  I asked Rob if it was scary and he said no, but that it was highly inappropriate.  Nice.  Oh well.  I am happy to report that they did not have any nightmares.

Many of the rides were closed.  Much of the park was just strange.

What exactly is this and what is it holding?

See what I mean?  What is it and why?

Decorative or scary?

So this is cool because...

 Justin got to go on this swing ride, but they said Ryan was too short.  Too bad because he really likes this ride.  He was a good sport about it though.

One of the nicer looking rides.

Oh look!  My family in a weird sculpture.

 Ryan had to go to the bathroom while we were there.  We found one that was really well marked.  We went in and Ryan was horrified to discover the toilet was squashed.  I told him it wasn't squashed, it was a squatter.  Why a boy who can pee outside has so much trouble with a squatter is beyond me.  He had the worst time and wanted to know where to stand, how to aim, etc.  I should have just had him go in the bushes.

The entrance (which is at the opposite end from where the funicular pulls up) has a funky structure that is fun to climb on.  What a cool tree house.

There they are!

 The regular bumper cars were not a choice for my kids, but the junior ones were a go.  They were fortunate that they were the only two in there at the time because they were not the most coordinated people you have ever seen in your life.  Oh my.  They had fun though.

Junior bumpers were the perfect size and speed for them.

Down we went once we were done.  We rode from the top to the bottom this time rather than walking halfway. :) Nice view of the city from the top and as we went down.

From the bottom we caught a cab because we were tired!  We got some ice cream and then slowly walked back to our hotel.  I had the best pistachio ice cream I have had in a long time.

Ryan is trying to make a cute face.

Random pic by the ice cream place

Restaurant where we had our huge meal the day before.

 We doubted that we would be hungry for dinner.  The boys were up for a little cotton candy though.  We picked up bananas and a few other odds and ends to snack on later.

 The next day we started home.  Here is a fairly decent stretch of the road.  There are no potholes as big as our car nor are there cows in the road.  If only the roads were this nice the whole way.  Oh, and love the bus in front of us.  We passed as soon as we could see around it or we would probably still be driving.

Home again with laundry to do and bags to unpack.  Sigh.  The part of the vacation I don't enjoy.

September 22, 2013

This week was another fairly routine week.  Justin started after school activities on Monday and Wednesday.  On Mondays he will learn and play a variety of playground games and on Wednesdays he has soccer.  Otherwise, school was pretty normal for both boys.

This week Louisa started working for us.  She works 4 hours a week and does things like ironing. :)  I can't believe how much she can get done in the few hours she is here.  I certainly don't mind giving up some of the other chores, especially ironing!  I guess in all honesty I can't say I gave up ironing since I just didn't iron.

Thursday I went to a PTA meeting.  I'm not the kind of person who wants to be in charge of anything, but I certainly don't mind helping.  The first event we are going to have is a Fall Festival on November 1st.  Justin's school is an international one so they don't do Halloween.  This will be a nice substitute.  While I was there, Rob and the boys went across the street to help out the neighbors with their internet.  The boys met Skylar, a 13 year old girl who they think is totally awesome.  They can hardly wait for her to babysit them sometime.  Justin thinks Rob and I should go away for a few days.

Friday after school I had a meeting with Justin's teacher.  We are trying to come up with some ways to enrich the curriculum for him so that he isn't bored in school.  She is a great teacher and has a lot of ideas.  It is wonderful to have a teacher who seems to really "get" my child.  He spends so much of his day there so it is important to me that it not be a miserable experience for him.

After we got back from Justin's school, we got ready for the Embassy Hail and Farewell BBQ.  The boys were thrilled that Skylar was going to come over and then ride to the Embassy with us in our cab.  She played wii with them a bit and got to have them talk and cuddle with her all the way to the Embassy.

We were hailed even though we have been here awhile because we got here after the last Hail and Farewell.  The boys had fun on the playground and I always love getting out of cooking something for dinner.

J's teacher has the students doing raz-kids online and both Justin and Ryan are addicted to it.  They love to get online and read and take the quizzes so that they can earn points.  In fact, Saturday that is the first thing they wanted to do.

So into his quiz that he didn't even know I came in to take his pic.

Ryan is having fun reading a nursery rhyme.

Saturday was Armenian Independence Day and the country celebrated 22 years of independence from the former Soviet Union.  We went to Haghtanak Zbosaygi, which is also known as Victory Park.  Ryan got an Armenian flag painted on his face and an American flag on his hand.  Justin passed on the face painting though.

The park isn't too horribly attractive in my opinion.  There just isn't a lot of green.  There are a lot of statues and monuments to see.  There is a lot of open space and a great view of the city.  Somehow this isn't enough for me and it seems bleak.

Entrance to the park.

So tired of walking.  This was BEFORE he saw the rides.

Isn't Armenian writing interesting?

Mother Armenia statue

Once the boys saw that there was a section of the park with rides, their energy increased.  Justin was just about to die from all of our walking, but he made a miraculous recovery.  The boys went on the swings, the storm, and the baby ferris wheel.  They liked them so much that they decided to go on them all again rather than choose a new ride.

This is what I called the baby ferris wheel.  I didn't realize that in addition to going around
like a ferris wheel it also spun around the other way.  It was far from a baby ride and we weren't
sure Justin was enjoying it at first.

The ticket system for the rides seems a bit complex.  The rides cost between 50 cents and $1.25.  You have to buy a ticket for the rides rather than pay cash.  How you explain what ride you want is beyond me.  Perhaps you ask for tickets of various denominations, but I didn't see how that was marked on any of the tickets.  We really lucked out because most of the rides were free until 2:00 pm for children under 15.  For us the money wasn't a big deal, but it was great not to have to figure out how to pay.

At 2:00 we bought tickets for our family to go on the ferris wheel.  I found a ticket booth near the ferris wheel and pointed to the ferris wheel and our family.  I gave her some money and took the tickets and my change.  Seemed to work.  The boys were unimpressed with the ferris wheel.  It moved slow enough that you could get on and off without it having to be stopped.  Of course I wouldn't want to step off just anywhere so we waited until we were at the bottom. :)  We followed up our ferris wheel ride with ice cream and cotton candy.

Hopefully they were part of some sort of performance.

 

The boys didn't dare complain too much about our stop to Yerevan City to pick up a few items.  It was pretty crazy in the parking lot, but we managed to get there, buy our things, and return home with Justin only needing to remind Rob once not to use bad words.

 

Justin had a quick break at home before heading off to a party.  Ryan stayed here and enjoyed some extra time playing on the iPad.  It was a long day and unfortunately I got too much sun and I had to pay for it on Sunday. :(