Tbilisi

I love it here.

This whole city has such a good feeling to it. It's full of little alleyways with bars and restaurants, and everyone is drinking, or eating, or both, usually with groups of people.

There've been a few times when not knowing Georgian (or Russian) have been annoying, but so far those are really the only language barriers. Everyone else either speaks English, or you can mime out stuff enough for them to get the jist of what you're saying. Except for cabbies. You're sort of fucked if they don't speak English, nor you Georgian/Russian. Also, they're insane.

Let me preface this by first saying that no matter how many moments I imagined fiery, awful car crashes, I have yet to see a single accident here. This caveat is mainly for my mom, who I am sure will just puke if she thinks of me being in a cab here after reading this.

Cabbies. Are. Nuts. Well, this entire city actually seems legitimately mental once you put them behind a wheel. Everyone kind of just goes willy nilly where they want, and people apply their conversational personal space boundaries (i.e. none) to other cars. This actually works out pretty well, because it really forces the driver to pay the fuck attention. Or so I tell myself. In reality, I think they're mostly just lucky. But almost every vehicle I've been in, be it a taxi or a marshrutka or the normal metro busses in Tbilisi, has Orthodox icons on the dashboard, so maybe that's also part of it. I find it a little disconcerting that on more than one occasion I've seen drivers do a quick cross before a light changes. And they always know when the light will change because there's a little countdown clock on the side so you know exactly how long you have to wait. That's besides the point, though - we're talking about how bonkers cab drivers are.

You know that scene in Fifth Element, where Bruce Willis is driving his floating taxi trying to run away from the cops right after Leelu falls through the roof of his car? That's Georgia, only add ridiculous eurotrash techno music to it, since that is what is on every single radio. The lines on the road are more suggestions that people don't tend to really agree with. Most of the time, cars will just drive right down the center of two lanes, and sort of move over if another car wants to pass them; although if the car is passing them on the left then that car will just go into oncoming traffic a bit if the other doesn't move over fast enough (hint, you can never move over fast enough). It's really understandable why TLG doesn't want us driving here - I'm pretty sure the insurance costs alone would run the program into the red in about a week.

 All of this being said, I have to admit that cab rides are some of the most fun I have ever had. Even if they are mildly terrifying. But hey, if you're not a little scared, what's the point, eh?