More Tbilisi

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Yesterday was our 11th wedding anniversary so we had a fusion style meal at the Blue Fox....because they serve good wine and good food and have a great courtyard with a graceful olive tree,

Today we decided to spare our feet somewhat and travel by hop on hop off sightseeing bus from Freedom Square. That was a good decision because we saw a much wider area of Tbilisi than before, opening our eyes to the boulevards and bridges we had not seen on our walking paths.

We went the whole way round once, and then went on again to get off on a different area further along the East bank, an area with tree lined boulevards and roundabouts and architecture from late Victorian and turn of the 20 century times...some Art Nouveau mixed with oriental palanquins in stone and many ornate decorations and pilaster. Then we hopped on the bus again and hopped off at the huge flea market just south of April 9th park. What an array of curios, souvenir/s, arts and crafts and antiques. Well worth a browse. In the end I bought 2 felt mice for D & K and a felted hanging for us. Suddenly there was a full scale capoeira display in front of us.

Then we wandered along the river park and came to a Sportfest, a major celebration of sports of all sorts, with a big screen in front of a large cheering audience, showing a live rugger match between Georgia and Portugal. Who knew that those two countries were into rugger? Then there were skateboards and scooters, table tennis ( with 2 nets quartering the table) boules, yoga, gymnastic little girls all doing the splits together and men playing a bounce the football across sloping tables headball. All lighthearted but there were arrays of silver trophy cups standing on tables, waiting to be won. we did witness one wrestling match between two 12 year old boys over a scooter. Luckily big brothers came along and sorted it out.

Everywhere we go people speak Russian. So different from the last time we were here in 2016. There seems to have been a Russian invasion since the Ukraine war.

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