Two South Africans 🇿🇦 exploring Georgia 🇬🇪
The sun is out, spring is here but also thunder and rain. 🌧 Coming from Cape Town it rains in the winter so this spring rain is refreshing and strange but welcoming on the really hot days. This also means our still African summer tan is coming out. What a bonus two summers in one year ☀️ I can live with that.
We’ve left beautiful South Africa our home country to the unfamiliarity of an Eastern European country — Georgia. Both these countries are underrated — but simply unique.
If I were to introduce these two underrated countries to each other I would say this
Dear Georgians,
No not the area in Tbilisi called Africa. They call this area Africa because it’s so far from the Tbilisi centre area. 😂 Meanwhile many have not been to Africa and ironically Africa is not the furthest continent from Georgia either. 🤔 Who am I to judge we sat on graves if I can add accidentally — not sure if that makes it any better.
South Africa I believe is unique, diverse and simply naturally beautiful — Europeans your minds will be blown.
Dear South Africans,
I know most of you had no idea that either Georiga as the country exists or where it’s on the map. Once you are done looking, yes it’s that tiny country almost as big as Mpumalanga, put down your latte’s and pick up your passports. Once again I don’t judge in all honesty I didn’t either.
Georgia might not be all that different for Europeans but South Africans shake off the sand and dare to leave your decaf, almond cappuccino behind — even just for a month or two. (We’ll get to coffee in a bit) It’s freeing — and I can’t even explain that in words it’s a feeling that I haven’t felt before. The seasons are real things not just words and public transport legitly works every time 😯
And bonus fact the country is the shape of their traditional khachapuri or probably the other way around.
Georgian Opera 🎶
On another note, we’ve been to our very first opera and what an experience this was indeed.
I haven’t felt this “cultural” ever 😂, no SA are not known for our opera’s rather our sports. So we did something we’ve never done before (I feel like this should be our tagline) we went to go see or more accurately to hear a Georgian opera.
Yes, it was Georgian — so did we understand it — no but you know when you hear something exceptional it doesn’t matter. The entire experience was unreal, changing from my yoga pants to a nightgown, high heels and taking a cab to drop us at the absolutely beautiful opera house on a rainy spring day was something out of a movie scene.
It’s definitely a life experience so next time we are in for a ballet at the spectacular opera house 🩰
Bored? Naah time for fun board games 🎲
We were totally blessed to be invited to a village to play board games and speak English to the youth by an impressive young lady. She lives in a village where they don’t speak English. She is originally from Azerbaijan and moved to Georgia at a young age. She taught herself English. Oh, and she is only 19. 😮 I’m in awe of how impressive that is and her English is really good. She mentioned she sometimes feel scared that people will laugh at her when speaking English.
She shouldn’t no one should, do you know how hard that must have been. Not only does she speak three languages she was brave enough to teach herself the third and then teach other children in the village English too!
The wait
We took the metro from our home in Didube to Samgori station. We walked around in the area while we waited for our lift and our South African friend who joined. Now meeting people in a foreign country isn’t as simple as saying meet you at Bootlegger on Kloof street. We took photos of the metro signs to show which direction we went and a video of the street and our surroundings to show where we where 😂
The first time in life I’ve experienced that I can’t fully explain where I live. Their street names are the full names of people and hard to remember or pronounce eg. Ivane Machabeli — a Georgian writer. Not all are that easy though.
Back to while we were waiting for our lift. This was a busy area with street stalls everywhere you look selling fresh and hand made goods. We ended up in this hidden warehouse which was totally amazing just a massive open space with fresh fruit, vegetables, meat and cheeses.
The village
Our lift arrived and we met her mother and it’s funny how all moms are the same even in another country. Her mom asked us where we from, what we do, what’s our religion and why are we here. 😊
We met new people, we had English conversations with the youth and we played games. It was really fun playing games like monopoly — I can’t even remember when last I played that. It was quiet and peaceful outside in nature. There we were South Africans, Armenians, Azerbaijani’s and Georgians playing games. What a special moment.
“If someone is speaking to you in a foreign accent, they are smart enough to know two languages and were brave enough to do their job in their second” — Unknown
Oh, ky you coffee/q’ava lovers (addicts ;)
Let’s get into the coffee situation. In our first weeks here we’ve been hunting for good coffee — ok we might have high standards for coffee but that’s what we have been used to. Yes, we don’t make it easy for ourselves either with our decaf, almond lattes. I won’t say we gave up on that hunt but we have come to realise our homebrew coffee is better.
That’s it see you at our 2-month mark
Anina & Daniel
