05/07/2009

Linda: Borjomi, here we come!

Today is a good day for going to Borjomi we decided.
Everyone was leaving- Marta and me to Borjomi, Gabriele, Flavio and Niklas- to Kazbegi, James had already left the previous night. At the Didube busstation/ marketplace said goodbye to our small family and boarded marshrutka to Borjomi driven by a bad-mooded driver complaining about everything (including the weight of my backpack and us not being sure where we should get out in Borjomi) and quarelling with the passengers.
Marta was very much entertained by trying to have a conversation with a Georgian lad sitting next to her with the help of her German- Georgian phrase book and actually managed to agree on renting a room from him for a good price in Borjomi, regardless of the fact that we already have a room at the same price at our manager's house. I was greatly amused by this spectacle.
Borjomi- Kharagauli national park Visitor Centre manager and our host Natia met us at the bus stop with her 1-year old daughter Salome and led us to our new home for next three months- a small room upstairs styled in perfect 80s Soviet design and a bathroom downstairs next to chicken house. Found a magazine in Latvian and books about Latvia intact- as left by the volunteers from previous year when they evacuated hastily.
Paid our first visit to Borjomi tourist information centre and acquainted ourselves with Artur the manager of the centre, at that point having no idea that he would play an important role later in our stay in Borjomi.
Amid a thunderstorm had an "arrival dinner" at a restaurant suggested by Artur.

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