More changes - Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday

On Tuesday we continued our day by having a lunch at Entree on Rustaveli where not only do you get wonderful pastries and breads, but can get salads and sandwiches for a very reasonable price.  Just to make your mouths water check out the photos!  There are lovely lamps mounted on the exterior walls of many buildings (see photo) and mix the general street atmosphere with the scattered seller of flowers and you have our main avenue.

Pasteries

Full view of one side of the counter

Our Treat to ourselves!  Very yummy

We love these lamps and the wonderful brackets that hold them up.  Very fitting for Georgia!

One of the other changes we spotted were bus information signs.  Yep!  These are really pretty slick as they are in both Georgian and English.  When you are standing at a major bus stop downtown there will be one of these units and you can see when the next bus is coming and what route it will be taking!  This certainly makes the  city more tourist friendly.

We also walked to the Old Town and down Leselidze and along the way encountered two younger Polish tourists who were taking photos of the fruit vendor and were quite amazed at what he was selling. 

Soon we came to the same lady we photographed last year who sits on a step with her kittens and sometimes dogs.  She feeds these animals and takes a collection for their food. This year's litter contains about six kittens about 7-8 weeks old who stick close to her.  We are amazed at how the kittens stick close to her without her making any effort to keep them out of the street and away from danger.

Turkish coffee at Tonka Cafe near the Sioni Cathedral.  Here David waits for our first cup of Turkish coffee since arriving on this side of the pond!  We discovered that many smaller restaurants in Turkey didn't make the coffee.  We figured that it was too time consuming!

After this quick break we walked down to where there had been only a handful of restaurants before, it now seems that there is nothing but restaurants all with outside seating!  It is sometimes difficult to tell where one restaurant ends and the next one begins!  Lastly we walked into Gorgasali Square which several years ago was comprised of crumbling buildings and has now been renovated and reconstructed and looks quite nice.  

Tossed in for your viewing pleasure are some old doors, a crumbling cathedral, and "sidewalk" parking.  We have often wondered if we just shouldn't photograph every set of doors we see in this older part of the city because as urban renewal moves along, even slowly, some of these architectual artifacts are at risk of vanishing.

If you cannot park on the street, this is what you do.  It is a problem of walkers because often the sidewalk is completely blocked!

Yesterday being Wednesday, Marty attended the IWA coffee and while talking with old friends the subject of all the city's reconstruction and renovation come up.  It seems that most agree that although it is nice, it appears to be primarily street side cosmetic stuff and with maybe a few exceptions, the interiors are not being renewed nor strengthened.  So what we have is somewhat movie set in feeling.  It looks like "new old" if that makes any sense, newly construction old buildings.

Today is Thursday and we find David doing his things while Marty is off meeting girlfriends.  Time to play some catching-up with others lives.

We have begun to plan a trip to Mestia with the help of our friend Marika.  We are leaving on Sunday and will return on Wednesday.  We'll see both Mestia and Ushguli and are so excited as this is a place we have wanted to visit since 2000 when we arrived in this country!