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After this year's events, I think many people will be glad to see the back of it, though fearful of what comes next.
So i would like to wish you and your loved ones all the very best for 2009: good health, success in what you are doing, and no money worries. Prosperity seems too much to wish for at the moment.
Here are some photos of the Tbilisi Christmas lights, photos by Lejla:
This post has photos taken at the end of October. My internet has been either down or so slow it has been impossible to get the photos on a post till now. Some of them were taken when it was going dark and I forgot to change the settings on my camera.
In no special order:
No, I don't know who it is or why he is planted in a square off Vilniaus gatve. It's not even listed under Wacky Vilnius in VIYP.
I spotted this on a bus shelter. It's a poster from the 1930s, claiming that consumers needed protection from speculators, middle men, agents etc. I wonder why it was chosen to advertise an exhibition of old posters. Antisemitism is growing in Lithuania.
I spotted this on All Souls Day. Someone had set up a little shrine with candles and a bicycle painted white. Not clear whether someone was killed here.
In Vilnius there are lots of old churches, so I was not surprised to see this copper dome waiting on Dominikonu to be hoisted onto the roof. However I turned my back for a moment and suddenly there were two. One day later, the bell tower was already working and the bells ringing out.
This notice at the entrance to Uzupis, declaring the Uzupis republic is nothing new. But I hadn't seen the 4 languages underneath before.
This is one of the cosy cafes for which Vilnius is famous. It's by the Uzupis Angel, and decorated (as you might expect) with angels. Not sure why they have the Latin motto but it sounds good: Coelum est in nobis, which seems to translate as "heaven is in us", a noble sentiment.
In a courtyard we spotted this statue. If you enlarge it you will see the reason for the steps thoughtfully placed so that you can put your All Souls candles by the feet.
And here is the Uzupis Beauty Salon for Top Dogs.
This traditional wooden cottage (behind the fence) doesn't have gnomes in its garden, it has storks.
This is the one we found most bizarre. It's a photo of a plastic surgery clinic, at around 6pm. Now you would think that customers would not be so keen to have their plastic surgery exposed to the world, without blinds. But when we went past, all was visible.
And adding to my collection of musical public transport, here is the bus dedicated to Vagneris (Wagner to you and me).
On a walk recently in Tbilisi, through some parts of the centre where the buildings are nothing special: neither old nor new, I came across this hoarding on a building site where demolition was taking place.
As you can see the buildings are brick, low rise and small scale whereas the hoarding depicts a new development with skyscrapers quite out of keeping with the rest of the town. As far as I know they are being built (or at least they were before the financial crisis hit) on the way out of town near the American Embassy. Who will buy the goods in the shops or live in the towers I'm not sure. Why they grace this building hoarding I cannot imagine.
Why can't Tbilisi look after and respect its own buildings? Here are some old ones which are definitely worth preserving:
(photos by Lejla).
This square near Pur Pur is a quiet haven for old men playing chess, ladies gossiping and children playing. But I don't suppose it will last long.
Well actually it was a visit to a sugar factory, but it was situated near Gori. I had the bright idea of making a video of the energy audit, we are going to do there, so we went to do a recce of what to film. The location caused a certain drama with the international engineer we were going to use, who preferred to believe what it said on the British Embassy website, rather than us, who had actually visited the plant and knew whether it was risky or not. Why he couldn't just say he didn't want to come before Christmas I don't know.
We could see that reconstruction was going pretty fast. The bridge over the river at Gori has been replaced by a rather bouncy steel framed bridge and a new motorway is being built between Gori and Tbilisi. The official reason is that it is the new "Silk Road" linking Baku and Poti on the Black Sea for the transit of goods for the region. I assume it is US money and that is why they are building a road, rather than expanding the railway line, which would be more green. So next time the Russians visit Gori they will find it even quicker to get to Tbilisi.
The barracks at the Military Base just outside Gori are being repaired after bombing:
Various little villages of boxes like this have sprung by the side of the road. The boxes look rather pretty, but don't have bathrooms or toilets or heating. One can say they are definitely better than tents for the winter. Their cost per sq m is about the same as the posh normal housing built in Tbilisi, which comes with plumbing at least, even if not with heating or bathrooms (for some reason these are considered extras). Some people are remarking that builders and others are profiteering from other people's misery.
Of course the view of the Caucasus mountains is a compensation, but judging by the usual tendencies, the IDPs will be there a long time.
