The Doors of Georgia

Here we have doors from Telavi, Tbilisi, Gori, and Kutaisi. These are pretty typical of the doors I've seen....most with multiple layers of peeling paint. (All of the photos are mine.)

მონა არა! მუშა!

Saw this bit of graffiti while I was running to Entree this morning in Tbilisi to get myself a double cappuccino to go before hopping on the marshrutka to make my way back to Kutaisi.

მონა არა! მუშა! (mona ara! musha!) = Not a slave! A worker!

9:10 pm on a Sunday Night in Tbilisi

Supposedly, this place has the best shawarma (aka, doner kebab) in Tbilisi (it's not too far off of Freedom Square heading towards the old city). They took about 10 minutes to put together, but, man, was it ever worth the wait.

Tbilisi Graffiti

Not sure I believe that.

I could use more piggie in my life.

Some days, this could be me in action.

Wonder if this is how Skeena dreams.

This is my girl!!!

I was in Tbilisi earlier today and snapped a few pics while I was out and about.

Tbilisi

Curious what Tbilisi looks like? Here's the view over town today from the Narikala Castle.

Mash Hair, Tbilisi Style

The before shot.

Step 1: Highlights (my PM waited around for me and had her nails done in the interim)

Step 2: The dye job

Step 4: Too much hairspray (Step 3 was the cut, of which there are no photos)

The after shot.

You know how it goes. Eventually, no matter where you are, you need a hair cut (and, in my case, a little bit of work done to cover up pesky roots). About a week ago, when I realized that I was in need of a little hair love, I sent an email off to my project manager (PM) in Tbilisi to ask her if she had any recommendations of where I might be able to get my hair done (NB: not only is this woman a font of information, but she's damned stylish so I knew she'd be able to point me in the right direction). Of course, she got back to me immediately and said she knew just the place. I let her know when I'd be able to come into Tbilisi and she made an appointment for me.

I showed up to our offices in Tbilisi mid-afternoon on Friday. I didn't know where the salon was, but  our PM had said she'd be able to walk me over because it was quite close, so I wasn't too worried. (Although I'm not sure of the name of the salon, it's somewhere over on Abashidze Street, a few blocks behind and to the left of the Goodwill on Chavchavadze Street.) The salon itself is smoky, small, and fairly anonymous. It's the kind of place I wouldn't even recognize if I walked by as some place where hair magic happens.

The salon is run by two Armenian brothers, and I had the pleasure of being worked on by both of them.  The order of how they worked on my hair was not what I expected, but I figured they knew what they were doing, so I didn't ask. First, came the highlights. Then came a shampoo. Next was the actual dye job (and dye was applied over my entire wet and freshly shampoos & conditioned head, not just the roots). Then, another shampoo. Finally, I had a cut and style. The whole thing took nearly 3 hours and set me back about 100 lari (about $60).

While I was being worked on, other folk filtered in-and-out. One of the brothers left for about 30 minutes while my head was covered in foils, and the other switched back-and-forth between Skypeing family members and playing solitaire. Both shampoos I received were rather uncomfortable (which was a bummer because the shampoo is usually my favorite part of the hair cut experience), and I had a bit too much hairspray applied to my hair (to be fair, any amount of hairspray is usually too much). Perhaps worse of all, when I walked out I reeked of smoke. However, I'm so happy with the final result, I will be back to see them again.

K Does Georgia: A Completely Random Set of Photographs

Tbilisi Teaser Number Two

Tbilisi Teaser Number One