Tbilisi airport

Looks like Tbilisi airport is working now again, the flights are scheduled, but no more flights to and from Russia. The "Russian" flights were renewed this March after almost two years of stoppage. No idea when they will back now.

The airport is a modern building, not really large comparing to the biggest ones, but okay, clean and comfortable. I felt safe there even with my early morning flights.

Georgia, July

So it is near Gori. The view from the mountain where the so-called Cave city - a group of buildings made in the rocks - was created, and that was in the Bronze age.

The town Gori is actually famous because Joseph Stalin was born there. The town is not really large, but it was well taken care of during the Soviet times - big roads were built, and modern (for their time) buildings were constructed. Right now (in July) the town and the neighbourhood looked like a mixture of good roads (not typical for other towns) and old buildings needed to be reconstructed. The outskirts looked especially poor, but as a part of local authenticity - not so bad, just real.

As the Wikipedia tells right now - the town was invaded by Russian troops during 2008 South Ossetian War (this August). I have no idea how does it look right now, but I had a chance to see Georgia like this - sunny and peaceful.

So after returning...

I definitely meant to appear here after my Georgian trip... Which was absolutely great and fantastic, and made me to fall in love with this country and everything, but after all what happened after my flight back to Moscow... Which is so terrible I can`t find the words...

I spent the last week comparing Russian and western news, listening to some radio (as no TV where I live), reading BBC and others - web sites in Russian, English and French which made me feel quite terrified about the news and also about the difference in the news. But generally I was just thinking about those who stayed in Georgia - in Tbilisi, in Gori - as I have visited both of the towns and perhaps saw those people on the streets... Perhaps some others who were flying with me to Tbilisi but stayed there a bit longer - they can`t return to Moscow now as all flights (and boats) to Russia stopped... Tbilisi is quite an international town now, with people from all over the world (mostly from US and EU), sure there are a lot of Russians there as well... I am really quite far away from any politics, they are doing thier ugly things and my position was always - just don`t think about them. The implemented scenario made me being involved in the story, but right now - I really don`t have anything to tell yet, still getting pieces of information and thinking.

Am thinking about those who has become involuntary and innocent participants of all that.

Georgia was just great for me...