Lunch with Mike at Stamba. Weather beautiful.

Stamba—hotel, bookstore, gift shop and restaurant. A very unique place. I think hotel is 5-star, bookstore has a large(ish) English section, restaurant was delicious and very nice and gift shop carries only items made in Georgia. Met Mike for lunch here on Saturday. Bought a couple of gifts and two books, John Grisham’s, The Broker and Katie Bishop’s, The Girls of Summer. I need easy reading. I have been surrounded for weeks by people speaking a very difficult language, in a city/country I know very little about and a history and culture dating back to mid-6th or early-5th millennia BC. Cut me a break, I need some easy reading! ; )

Walk back to the apartment after lunch and time with Mike. Lovely glass of wine—Saperavi qvevri, passed this shop with Talbots, J Crew and Old Navy goods (didn’t go in) it struck me as funny to see here, and yet another park close to my apartment with yet another larger than life Soviet era statue.

I like these Soviet era monuments. So big and imposing as I guess they were supposed to be. Nice to see (and photograph for me—hope I am not being too politically incorrect here) all around the city. Not every monument built in Soviet Georgia was overtly political and some succeed in shaking off/surpassing former associations including (but not limited to) the Monument to Saint Nino (the Enlightener of Georgia), the Chronicles of Georgia memorial complex—both designed by Zurab Tsereteli. And, then there’s Kartlis Deda, the statue of Mother Georgia—my favorite, an enduring symbol of nationhood with or without the context of her socialist sisters. I’m not sure about all of the monuments, but I think any Soviet-era monuments that can’t be rehabilitated as national symbols now (and rightly so) face demolition, obscurity and decay. Again, I hope I am not being politically incorrect here.

PS I know I need more pictures of Mike—he doesn’t like his picture taken. ☹️