I am told that most locals are out of Tiblisi currently and are resting in Batumi (6 to 7 hour drive), or Poti on the Black Sea. Is that why the streets are so clean? No, I truly believe that I was tired of all the dust from the construction in Yerevan and this break did the trick. Once the project is completed the streets will look great.

I have also noticed, similar to Yerevan, Tiblisi has the same spelling mistakes (bad habit of mine). For example in the Levon Travel brochure it states that �fares for other destinations shell be provided upon request�. Same goes for the English menu in restaurants. The names of shops make me giggle like Voulez vous, Big Ben (a clothing store), Monte Carlo and Prospero�s a bookstore.

The train system works in Georgia. One can catch the train from Batumi at 8pm and arrive in Tiblisi at 8am. The distance from Tiblisi to Batumi is 384 kms, to Poti 335 kms, to Baku 630 kms and to Yerevan 295 kms. By the way the name Tiblisi means hot. Apparently when the old capital was Mtskheta once the king went hunting in Tiblisi, shot a bird and it fell in the water, boiled and cooked because of the hot springs. Another legend is that Mesrop Mashtots was asked many times to write the Georgian alphabet. One day he got mad and while he was eating spaghetti, he threw his food on the wall and created the alphabet.

I spoke to another local today who has many Armenian friends and he told me that in the soviet times, The Armenians were the rich ones. Now it�s now just the Armenians who aren�t living well but the whole of Georgia.

So today I went back to Nazi�s place (the home stay) to pick up a CDRom that Hans had left behind consisting pictures of Armenia. There were two tourists there one was Japanese and the other German. Then I went to the second McDonald for a fish Mac. Walked all the way back to Vake and was followed amongst other things. This guy in a BMW must have spotted me from across the road and started following me by car. After the third attempt and his stupid honking, I turned and said, �I don�t speak-a your language, just give me a vegemite sandwich� I must have been humming the Men at Work song, I don�t speak-a your language, he just smiled and gave me a vegemite sandwich. Anyway since he didn�t understand a word I had said, he drove off, serves him right!

This is my last log from Tiblisi; hope I didn�t bore you all too much. It has been a great experience and my friend was a great host. From my observations, I believe Georgia should have prospered a lot more than what Armenia has because of its open borders, however doesn�t seem that way because of its corrupt government. Nonetheless there are a lot of sites to visit, history and culture and should be a backpacker�s paradise as SHOULD Armenia. My next log will describe the trip down to Yerevan and since I�m catching a marshrutka, I�m sure it�ll be adventurous.