Beautiful Georgia

A week after returning from Budapest I was again traveling – this time to Georgia, Tbilisi, which I know a little and like a lot ( I wrote about it back in october after my first visit there.) It was again work related, but fun nevertheless. Since my colleague and I organized the trip and were in charge of 17 people, it was a bit stressful, but Georgia is well worth it.

There are so many things to explore there:

Old streets of Tbilisi with colourful mosaics near the doors...

Strange characters (I actually remember noticing this men before, and here he was again, at the same place)

Narikala fortress that dominates the city skyline...

Peaceful yards of the churches;

And, of course the Uplistsikhe Cave City in Gori is something to explore for hours...

All In the Details...

There are so many cities in the world but only some of them speak to your soul.

From the moment I laid my eyes on Budapest, my heart melted. The road from the airport to the city was the start of the romance – bright green of grass and trees seemed cheerful after prolonged greyness of Baku. Shady parks begged to be explored and there were people everywhere: riding their bikes, strolling or sitting on the grass.

After a week in Budapest my first impressions were confirmed: it is certainly a place I would love to live at least for a while. The details  - in the facades of the building; in the layout of the streets; in the silhouettes of majestic bridges across Danube, in soft night time light - are completely amoured me. I tried to determine why this city seemed so captivating to me. What I realized is that though three last cities we happened to live in, Beijing, Reykjavik,and Baku, were undoubtedly interesting, their architecture (Forbidden City or Temple of Heaven aside) overall was plain. There you had to look hard for something striking, in Budapest it was a visual feast.You could simply step out of the hotel door and arresting images were at your disposal.

Given that my training ran until five, I didn’t have many opportunities for good photos but below are a few.....

Windows

Looking from outside into an open window one never sees as much as when one looks through a closed window...What one can see out in the sunlight is always less interesting than what goes on behind a windowpane. In that black or luminous square life lives, life dreams, life suffers.....

Charles Baudelaire "Windows"