The Creepers Come Out

Amy and Yuliya left for Turkey early on Tuesday Morning. This meant that I had a day to explore Georgia on my own. So, I decided to head to the village of Gori, Stalin's Birthplace.

I decided to be adventurous and take the Tbilisi Metro to the Didube Bus Station where I would eventually catch the rutiera to Gori. This was more complicated than I expected. I had to put a 2 lari deposit on a Metro Card and then put money for my fare on the card. After an awkward exchange, I basically ended up hold out a handful of coins to the station attendant, who took what she needed and in return gave me a Metro Card. The next challenge occurred when I had to decide which train I needed to get on. Luckily, I found a rare Georgian, English speaker who informed of the correct train and that I should get off after four stops. I finally arrived at Didube Station!! Now, I had to find the rutiera to Gori. I wandered around about four different rutiera yards trying to match the Georgian letters in travel book that supposedly spell Gori to the Georgian letters on the rutieras. Eventually, I came across a man who was yelling "Gori! Gori!" and I got on his rutiera. After an hour and a half ride, I arrived in Gori.

Gori is not big, but it is not as small as I would have liked. My one goal was to find the Stalin Museum. But first, I came across a restaurant, "Sport Cafe," that had an English Menu; so, I went in for some lunch. After about another half hour of wandering, I came across creeper #1, Grigore. Grigore stopped me on the side walk and attempted to ascertain from me what I was doing in his village. This conversation occurred in a mixture of Russian, Georgian, English and Romanian, as well as gestures. He seemed nice enough, so I asked him where the museum was. And when I say I asked, what I really said was "Museum! Stalin!" So, Grigore took me to the Stalin Museum. However, before we arrived there I had to defend myself from his several attempts to hold my hand and put his arm around me. I was relieved when we arrived at the museum, a mere three minutes later. I said good bye to Grigore and headed inside.

Now, the Stalin Museum was not all that English-speaker friendly, as was indicated by Lonely Planet, but I did get the impression that it was more of a tribute to Stalin than an accurate portrayal of his life. The one room that stuck out was the one that held nothing but Stalin's Death Mask. It was pretty creepy!!! I guess that makes Stain creeper #2 in this blog post.

After, exiting the museum I headed to the Gori Fortress. On my way there, my good friend Grigore tracked me down. This led to a change in my plans. I decided to walk briefly by the fortress (instead of surveying it in more detail) and then back to the bus station, in order to be rid of Grigore as soon as possible. I parted with Grigore about a block from the bus station, but not before he gave me a thumbs up and said "Georgia, Good?" to which I replied "Yes!"