Jan & Feb 2015 in Tbilisi

After returning from Greece we enjoyed several quiet weeks here at home.  Well, after all the holidays, which was a drawn out several weeks.
We quietly celebrated "Western" Christmas on 25 December with our Georgian Christmas tree and new crèche figures from Spain.

Lladró

These trees come in sizes from about a foot tall to over six feet and are carved from a branch of a hazelnut tree.  At the end of the holidays some people burn their trees to signify removal of past sins/ills/bad luck.  The whittling causes the curling and they're careful not of cut off any streamers so everything is still attached to the stem.  This one is about 18" tall and cost about $3.  As of the middle of March it's holding up well and not shedding or anything.

Beautiful Christmas lights on the big boulevards in our part of town.  Even small villages hung some simple lights on their main street.

Liberty Square

Christmas program at the Tbilisi Branch

Christmas dinner anyone? 

Then came New Year's Eve with massive neighborhood simultaneous public and private fireworks all over the city. We hear it was an all night party with friends (we passed out at midnight) and New Year's Day was spent with family .  The Georgian version of Santa comes on New Years Eve.
January 7th was Orthodox Christmas where the devout Georgians spent several hours standing in Church since there are no pews, we are to understand.  Orthodox New Year is the 14th of January and the holiday's end January 19th with Epiphany (a Monday this year).
whewww!

It has been a mild winter.  No snow, very little rain and not too cold.

Here are some more "out and about" pictures of Tbilisi.

Iron work on the bridge near Roy's work

Georgian lions at both ends of same bridge 

Hero's Square

This monument honors war dead and is only manned during daylight hours.

In front of the Concert Hall 

This bike sculpture is maybe 3m high (18').  There are dozens of bronze sculptures around the city, some in unlikely places.

The back side of our apartment building 

These are neighborhood street parking attendants; our new friends here have nicknamed them "Modi Men" because 'modi' is the word they say as they are directing you where to park; modi in Georgian means 'Come'.  I'm not sure how they are assigned but seem to manage about 10 or so spaces in busy parts of the city, on the street or the wide sidewalks where, since parking is so limited, everyone parks.  I'm not sure if they are paid by the city but hope you will tip them when you leave your space.  

sidewalk parking

large nearby grocery store.  It's official name is the Smart store.  We call it the squirrel store.
Yes, a Wendy's is attached. 

neighborhood school

This beautiful pool is right next door to our apartment.  It also has exercise equipment upstairs on both sides.  It took me awhile to get accustomed to swim these long lengths (50 m) without a nice wall to push off of every 25 yards, which is the length of most US pools.  The public pool in Darwin Australia was my inauguration to 50 m pools, so now it didn't seem quite so bad.  It is not as cheap as US gyms by a long shot.  No, you do not want to know how much the monthly fee is.  :-/

50 meters with a diving well at the far end