Tag Archives: Georgia
leaving the corner
Gonio means “corner” in Georgian. And what a strange little corner it is. The sun shines bright in Gonio. The clouds rain heavily in Gonio. The dogs are friendly in Gonio. Everyone is very relaxed in Gonio. Having spent a month in the corner, tanning, swimming, reading, socializing, I felt that Gonio had taken some […]
ruin value
I spent the night in front of an abandoned house in the hills. An old man had suggested I go there to sleep, so I had no way of backing out. But I felt spooked. Some of the windows were busted in, and the doors had been locked and then blocked from the outside. As […]
listening to my breath
Words of friendship and a bottle of wine. “When you are feeling weak – drink a bit of this” says my inked friend, then he lifts one hand to the sky. May God protect me. I stay on the back road, and it is quiet and nice. Wearing light trail runners, I feel myself floating […]
chained up
At first I was afraid, I was petrified. Kept thinking I could never sleep on karaoke night. But then I left the window open and I listened to their songs, and I grew strong, and I learned to get along. And so I’m back, from outer space, and I’m resting in my hammock in this […]
the end of the world
I’m staying at a hotel two blocks from the beach. The owner, a man with big, inked arms and the face of a tough guy, gives me wine, laughs roaringly, and lives in order to distribute fist bumps. “But” he asks me, “have you heard of Jehova’s Witnesses? My friends and I are Jehova’s Witnesses. […]
no amusement
My first night at a camp ground is behind me. It felt like a caravanserai: campers herding their cars, motorcycles, and tents into little spaces, then hurrying off to use the restrooms or grab some food at a table in the center of the camp site. The road is as narrow as it is busy. […]
Hello, Black Sea!
I wake up with one of the shittiest songs ever stuck in my head. “Under My Thumb” by the Rolling Stones. It’s apparently about a dude who manages to romantically suppress a woman, so yay for a wholesome ear worm! Sometimes I wonder how boomers can pretend to be outraged at punk or hip hop […]
kicking the shit out of some dogs
I’m staying in this small hotel here: It’s got everything: rooms, food, a shop, restrooms, a shower, wifi, and non-stop dance music that is very loud. I am enjoying it. Doing some laundry, resting my feet. Oh, and yesterday I found myself kicking the shit out of some dogs. And I mean full-on football penalty […]
biting bread
I woke up a bunch of times. Sometimes it was people honking. Sometimes it was people yelling. One time it was a thunderstorm. Once, in a dream, I found myself at a shooting range for high-tech rubber bullet guns. I wanted to point the gun at my own leg to see how it felt, but […]
Madame Le Pig
Right off the bat, I run into two Germans. We are everywhere. I’m just surprised the Mars Rover hasn’t found any yet. “Ja, guten Tag, nice to meet you here! It is quite cold on this planet, isn’t it? Thank god we have the best outdoor coats and thermal underwear, haha, jaaa!” I give another […]
same yet different
Heavy rain woke me up in the middle of the night. When I went outside to check on the Caboose, I ran into the owner of the guesthouse. He mumbled that he was checking on something as well. It continued to rain until late in the morning, then it died down. Loading up the Caboose […]
it’s not just in my head
Packing. Waiting. Looking out of the window. Waiting. Eating. Exercising. Drinking tea. Waiting. Someone is playing dance music somewhere, possibly downstairs. I am not even sure if it’s music at all. The only thing I can hear is the beat rumbling through the concrete. It mirrors my heart. The taxi ride to Baghdati takes thirty […]
parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme
The city is as sleepy as a folk ballad. Maybe that is because of the heat. Or maybe it’s because Kutaisi isn’t the capital anymore. The last time it played that role was 900 years ago. There is a monastery called Gelati on a hill nearby. It was built during a time when Kutaisi was […]
the hills that I once walked through
Going from Tbilisi to Kutaisi by train takes four hours. It’s a modern train. There is a small tv screen in every carriage, but it’s not switched on. I sit across from two young men with soft, handsome faces and beard stubble. Both are wearing earphones, both are looking at their phones. Next to us, […]
splashdown
It’s not you: It’s the things that are floating around in the blood, clouding the soul. The anxiety. The fear. The darkness. To them I’d like to quote Gagarin: “The path of a cosmonaut is not an easy, triumphant march to glory. You have to get to know the meaning not just of joy but […]
Mayakovsky, hero and enemy
I took a walk through the village of Baghdati today. There was a special reason why I had come here, and it was this guy: Vladimir Mayakovsky. One of the most gifted poets of the early Soviet Union, he was initially a fervent believer in Socialism, but he later became disillusioned with the reality of […]
cows and pictures of the dead
I couldn’t hang out in circuses and swimming pools forever. So today I packed up my stuff and walked out of Zestafoni: Someone had apparently been trying to make the road a bit prettier by painting murals on some of the walls: This echoed some of the older murals that the Soviet Union had left […]
backstroke
The hotel I was staying at consisted of four rooms that were located on the top floor of a gym. I walked past the weight room and the exercise rooms every day, but I never went in. I didn’t want to lift any weights or do aerobics or take part in a karate class. Here’s […]
unhatable clown
Zestafoni is a quiet little town in the west of Georgia. They say it’s a place where not much ever seems to happen. Today was different, though. Today, the circus came to Zestafoni: “Are you planning on going?” the people at the hotel had asked me. I had said no. I generally didn’t like the […]
rain in the dark
I woke up, packed my stuff, sat down for some tea with Inga and Gela, and then I said goodbye: I knew the day wasn’t going to be short and easy. But I had no idea just how long and difficult it was going to be. The road kept following a river through the valley, […]