The last weekend

It is inevitable that visits come to a close and that there is a last weekend.  This past weekend was that and now we rush into a social calendar that has at least one event every day (except for Monday evening) until we leave.

Friday evening we had a wonderful time with friends Maia and Larry Good eating some great food that Maia had prepared (with a Brazilian twist of course) and watching videos that their son, Kevin had made.  [For those interested, check out YouTube and KevinBGood and you'll see some neat videos many of which you will find educational if you are a photographter.]  Saturday we headed to a Christmas Bazaar at the Caravanserai (the old museum near Sioni church in Old Town).  The museum is gone but the building remains and now the lower floor is in use as very upscale arts and crafts shops...and wine shops too!  We visited with our friend Nino (La Maison Bleue) in her gallery and managed to acquire a very wonderful new table cloth with traditional Georgian designs.  You'll all see it sooner or later.  It is totally fab!

Now, unlike any crafts fair we've ever attended in the US, these folks had wine to be sampled and not just in little glasses!  Plus a huge platter of dried fruits and nuts.  Yum.

As we were preparing to leave, David called Marty over to "check this out."  And "this" was the Schuchmann Wine Bar & Restaurant; an amazing wine bar/cafe in the corner of the basement of the 300 year-old caravanserai building.  The wine bar opened six months ago and (naturally) features wines from the Schuchmann winery, an upscale operation that also sells their wines in the US at Potomac Wines & Spirits in Georgetown.  The wine bar ambiance is wonderful; as you would expect, being in the bowels of such an ancient building.  We had lunch there and the food was excellent.  We'll probably go back (if our busy social schedule permits), and certainly recommend it to all of our friends.

David waiting for our wine to be served at Schuchmann's

Amazing cucumber/tomato/onion/walnut salad with roasted sunflower seed oil, and mchadi with cheese (chvishtari)

We should perhaps explain what a caravanserai is/was.  In olden times in the middle-east, it was a roadside inn where travelers could rest and recover from their journey.  We've seen them also in Central Asia along the ancient Silk Road.  There, travelers came by camel, so the caravanserai accommodated the beasts as well as the travelers.  It wouldn't surprise us to learn that a camel or two came in the past through the Tbilisi caravanserai.

Sunday, Marty had an engagement with her friend, Nino.  Nino is a cardiologist she met while working out at several different spas around the city.  They have maintained their friendship and try to get together whenever Marty is in Tbilisi.  Nino would like to practice medicine in a non spa setting or volunteer in a clinic.  She recently was offered a job in an ER as a cardiologist and her job would be 60 hours a week and she would be paid 1000 GEL (thats less than $550/week...or $9+/hour).  Anyway, she turned them down.  Anyway, when Marty and Nino agreed to meet, Nino suggested "Vendis" near the Smart market in Vake.  Okay...got the picture.  Except...Vendis made no sense until Dato pulled into the Smart/Wendy's parking lot!  Oh well.  Now, Vendis will be our inside joke about Marty not thinking about transliteration.

Sunday afternoon we also started looking for good walnuts from Racha.  We discovered that there is a woman whose family is from Racha who sells them near the flower market.  The walnuts are amazing!  (yes, those of you who always get some, will get some again this year).  She also had roasted sunflower seed oil which one cannot even begin to describe to someone who has never had it.  It is the secret ingredient in the the most amazing versions of cucumber/tomato/walnut salads we have had on this trip.  We will make saveral more trips to see Tsitso for things like walnuts, oil, and home made cha cha.

Tsitso at her stall

We also had a great visit with two of Nia's sisters late in the day.  Unfortunately, children were sick, so we didn't get to see the entire family this time around.

Desserts at a local branch of Entree Cafe

On Monday we had two parts to our day.  One with David and Dato running an errand (you'll read a separate post on that) and Marty doing some banking business.  Then we went for lunch at Entree where the yummies above are sold (we skipped them today, but they are soooo good).

The sign says it all.

And we had one shot at getting a photo of one of our favorite signs here in the city.