Back to Germany. Part 1

The introduction

The other day we were going to come back to Tbilisi as it was time for my sister to pack for her trip to Germany. Her college studies start in September, however she has to be there at the end of August as there are some things to be done until the college year starts. So, we had these things packed and put in the car. My sister said goodbyes to my grandparents and aunt and we hit the road. It was kind of a strange moment, well, it always is a strange moment when you have to say goodbyes to people close to you when you know that you won’t see them for  a couple of months, I mean, especially elders, because they are always so excited when you come back and visit them and they always miss you when you’re not with them.

Well, it was pretty hot when we left town, though it was only 9:30 or something. They say after 19-th of August everything changes, I mean, the weather changes for good, that day is called Peristsvaleba, which means “change of colour” in English from Georgian and that is a religious day, and the people say that after that day the weather becomes less hot, however nothing like that has happened yet, though it usually did in earlier years. It was last year, I guess, when it didn’t happen. It was all as hot as it was until 19-th. That’s really strange, because now it’s noticeable that the nature changes and we do some things that affect nature change or it changes itself or something. We should really take care of our planet, because otherwise some bad things will happen and it won’t bring us any good, if you ask me.

Anyways, we went home and brought all the stuff there and everything was hot inside. Well, we had these plans of going some places for shopping and other things and soon it was time to go. Well, firstly I had to go somewhere and then my sister and mother would come and meet me halfway when I finished my stuff and we would go to East Point and buy some things for my sister. Until then, she would pack her stuff again and, well, my mother would pack her stuff, and then we would buy some other things and pack them with other things, too. Well, it’s always a mess when you pack your baggage and I hate that process. I remember, when I had to pack my baggage first time alone all by myself. It was when I was 16 or something and I was in England and I was coming home the next day and I had all this stuff and I couldn’t decide how to pack all of them, because some things didn’t fit into my bag and I had to decide wisely how to pack everything, so that I did some variations and while doing that the whole night went and it was already dawn when I kind of packed everything. In addition to all that, the light was off in my room and I had this small lamp lit. Well, I was in my hostfamily’s house, but they were asleep when I found out about the light and so that I couldn’t wake them up, could I ? I mean, it would be rude and, besides, I didn’t really know which room they were sleeping in and I couldn’t just go into their room, or call them from outside and tell them to fix the light in my room. It was good, that I had this small lamp in my room that my hostfamily had installed there and it helped me, otherwise I wouldn’t know what I could do then to pack. I would probably use my cell phone to light my way to the bags and wardrobe, but that would be so difficult to tell what was what and what I was doing, because my cell phone didn’t have that flashlight that most cell phones have, I guess, and what I would be going to do would be to just turn it on and have it on sms or music player, because they had this white background and would have had the most light from the cell phone that I could get. Well, hopefully I didn’t need to use all that and I had this lamp to use. So, whatever I did was to stuff my bag so that I would have all my luggage ready, however, I still left my shoes out and that’s when I decided to leave them there, though I really loved them and I practically had them on all the time. They were white keds and they had these black and white squares on them in the front and they were just really comfortable.

Anyways, my sister had already decided what she would take to Germany and what she needed to pack, so it was just packing left, but as I’ve mentioned, packing is the most difficult stuff while travelling, I guess. So, my mother really had a “great” time packing my sister’s things, because there was not a large space in my sister’s bag, as it seemed, because she had all these clothes and stuff to take and though the bag was not that small, it still seemed to be small for those things.

Well, it was time for me to leave and I went to the metro station, where there they would meet me one and a half an hour or so and then we would go to East Point.

Going to East Point

It was really hot and  until my sister and mother went from the apartment, I managed to ask my sister to bring me some cold water, because otherwise it was  a disaster in that hot day. I was pretty surprised to hear them coming to meet me by foot, because it was something like 15 minutes walk from our home to the meeting point and it was almost 3 o’clock in the afternoon and it was really, really hot.

We walked towards the metro station and we looked at some flip flops as my sister needed one. There were pretty good flip flops, if you ask me, however, they didn’t have much of the sizes which my sister liked, so that she decided to buy them in East Point and so we went to the microbus station, where there’s this 224 number microbus and it goes directly to East Point and it costs 40 Tetris in all. Well, there’s this 89 microbus, too, going to East Point, but it costs 80 Tetris. However, none of them were on the microbus station and we had to wait for them. To be honest, we were waiting for 224, but it didn’t seem to come and my mother and sister were just getting tired and they didn’t seem happy under those beams of the Sun. after some time of waiting, the microbus came and we got into it. there were many people waiting for it as it turned out, however, we managed to take seats. Though it just needed 5  or 10 minutes or so to get to East Point, it still is not good if you are paying for transportation and you have to stand in it and feel every turn and bump and everything. You know, when you are not seated there and you are standing, you feel those things very easily, I guess.

Well, in a couple of minutes we were in East Point. First of all, we had to go in Carrefour which is a large grocery store, as my sister needed some things to buy. Well, they had all those sales and stuff and my mother couldn’t help but stop everywhere and look at some things that were really cute, but we didn’t need them at that moment and my sister was so impatient about that, she wanted to go to those places where her things could be, I mean, she wanted some things in the clothes’s department and some food in food department, so we slowly went to it. she had this T-shirt found that was dark purple and it was cute, I mean, the cloth was really nice, but in all I didn’t like it, because it was very simple and after some time she realized that too, and she didn’t take it. then she had those snickers on, and she tried some of them and one of them was really nice and it only cost 30 Laris, so it was really not a bad idea to buy them, so she decided to take them and my mother liked them, too. And then there was this hat that they both liked, I mean, I’m not really a hat type, but they are, my mother especially likes those hats and I don’t know why. She always used to have those types of hats and once she bought those types of hats for us, too, and I didn’t wear it, well, I wore it once or twice, but I couldn’t handle the hat on my head. To be honest, I used to wear some caps from time to time, but then I got bored with them, too, and I don’t even like wearing a hat or something on my head in winter when it’s freezing outside. However, it’s really necessary to have a hat on your head in summer and in winter, too. Because, in summer, the hat protects your head and face from the direct sunlight and in winter it protects your head from that freezing air that is around. You should definitely wear hats!

Anyways, they both liked those hats, and those hats were in different types and sizes and finally they decided to take small one. Of course, the large one was really lovely, but it was not something that you could wear every day, I mean, the casual days, and the small one would be good for everything. And, I must say, that it really fitted my sister, so I told her to go ahead and take it, too, because it looked really nice on her. And she wanted me to try it on and I did that, but I didn’t like it on me, of course, though she said that it looked great on me, too. Well, I don’t know, I don’t really like anything on me, if you want to know the truth.

So then we moved to the next “station”. Well, in fact, I went to look at the spices, as I wanted her to have this cinnamon package for herself, though she wasn’t very excited about it. it’s really good to have a small amount of cinnamon in your drinks or food every day, they say and I’ve read it many times. In fact, I use it in my tea, not every day, but from time to time, and I guess, that’s better than not using it at all, right? So, I looked at those spices and couldn’t really decide which one to take for her, and then , when my mother came, we both decided to take two types of it and then she would decide which one would be better to pack in that bag. So we took them both. And we also were looking for some spices for her to prepare some eggplants with walnuts, however then she said that maybe she had those spices left that we last bought for her and that she took with her in Germany last time, so she said that she didn’t want any of those, besides, she wanted that thing to be already ready and there wasn’t any of them like that, so that we went to another row. She also wanted some Tkemali and Ajika,those are the two things that she loves from her very childhood and never refuses when she’s suggested any of them. Well, to be honest, I don’t love Ajika, I hated it from my childhood. You know, we used to prepare Ajika at home and every summer or so, when the tomatoes and pepper were ripen here, we used to go to Sartichala, buy there some tomatoes, as they said their tomatoes were pretty delicious, and, well, they really were, if you want to know the truth, and we would buy those red peppers and we would prepare Ajika with those ingredients. It had a really good smell, if you ask me, though I didn’t like the taste, so I didn’t eat it, while all the other members of our family loved to eat it. it was really beautiful if you looked at it, too, and then we used to pour it into those thin tall bottles, which were transparent and had red cover on it. Usually, we used to open them at the end of autumn and they were plenty, so they lasted for some months, I mean, the unopened bottles were plenty, so that we could eat them how much we wanted. And, well, it’s kind of a topping, I mean, it’s a sauce, so, we usually had fried potatoes _ everyone loved those fried potatoes, and we also used to have some spaghetti, which my sister and brother loved so much, and they used to have this Ajika with fried potatoes or spaghetti on them. We also used to prepare Tkemali. Well, my grandmother used to prepare Tkemali and it tasted really good, if you want to know the truth. However, as I’ve said, I’m not a fan or either of them, I just loved the smell of them, though I preferred  Tkemali to Ajika. And when I had to choose for some reason,  I chose Tkemali. And there are many ways of preparing Tkemali, maybe I will tell you all about it later. So, anyways, she took a pack of Tkemali and a bottle of Ajika.

The other thing that she wanted was to buy a pizza and eat it until she went to Germany. There were those frozen Carrefour pizzas there and she couldn’t really decide which one to take. We had only tasted Pizza Royale and it was pretty good, I mean, it had ham, mushrooms and cheese and olive oil and it was really delicious, because I just love when pizza has many things on topping. My sister loved it, too. And she likes when pizza has lots of things, too. Well, there were some other pizzas, for example, pizza with salmon, cheese pizza, vegetarian pizza, and the most delicious was this Pizza Royale,  I guess, so we took it again, and we decided to have it with some Pepperoni and bell peppers, I mean, we would take that pizza and put those things on top of it, too, and then bake it. I just love these Pepperoni slices, they are really delicious. Anyways, we took it and then she saw those cheese sticks and she was all shocked and stuff and she bought them plenty. Well, they are delicious, I must say, but they are salty and it’s kind of hard to eat them so many, however she bought 2 or 3 packs of them. And there was this pickled peppers that she loves so much and she took them, too. And she also wanted to take some Churchkhelas with her to Germany and there’s this company called “Badagi”, they have many different types of Churchkhelas and they are in Carrefour too, and she tried to choose from those Churchkhelas, as she bought Churchkhelas from them the other time and she liked them, however there were not those ones that she wanted and finally she decided not to buy any of them. Well, to be honest, she just loves Churchkhelas and my grandmother especially prepared Churchkhelas for her, but she ate them all when she was here on winter break and then she just bought Churchkhelas before leaving and took them there. And, I guess, she just ate them all in less than a week! Well then, it was time to leave as we didn’t really want anything else to buy there. Of course, she wanted to take some corn flour with her and some dried Bazhe, but we couldn’t find them there. Well, we found corn flour, but the packing was not good enough and I knew where to buy those stuff elsewhere, so that we bought those things and left Carrefour and went to the main side of East Point, where there are lots of shops and stuff like that, where my mother wanted to buy a skirt for my sister, so that we went to those shops. I guess, it was OVS, where we entered first and they just looked around and looked at all those things and they choose some of them and stuff like that. And they had some sales, too, on winter clothes! Well, there was this black skinny dress that they chose and then there was this cute dark reddish shirt, that was really beautiful and I liked it on my sister, too, and she took it, too, so we had some great time looking at all those stuff and then it was time to leave, as they had to pack those things and we didn’t really have any other thing to do there. Just one more, I really wanted some ice-cream, you know, those ones like Luca Polare and stuff like that. They have Luca Polare and Tolia in East Point and Tolia is cheaper, but they just had 4 types of ice-cream or something like that and Luca Polare had plenty of them. They were so many that I just stood there for a couple of minutes deciding which one to take, because the balls are so large, that I couldn’t eat more than one of them, and I just wanted to choose wisely. My sister took a chocolate one with nuts taste. I love chocolate, but I didn’t really want chocolate that day, so I was looking at peach ice-cream, however then I decided to take cherry and vanilla one. It was pretty good, I can say, I mean, I usually don’t eat vanilla ice-cream, but those cherries made it taste delicious and it was kind of refreshing, I mean, it was not very sweet and that’s what I wanted, _ not very sweet ice-cream. It was so hot that those ice-cream balls just melted all the way and I was eating really fast so that it would not spill on me or something. Meanwhile, we got to the taxi station and decided to go home by taxi and it took us 2 Laristo get from East Point to our home.

Getting home

Well, when we got home, it was really hot inside, so we turned the air-conditioning, of course, and I was just kind of energized at that moment and I thought that I would go and buy those corn flower and dried Bazhe for my sister, as I would still have to go and buy them, so why not buy them at that time while I was still in shape of walking and stuff like that?! So I told them that I was going to go out to Fresco _ that is another large supermarket with many stuff and it’s just 5 minutes far from our home, so that it would be easy to go there and come back with those things. My sister was lazy to come with me, however after a couple of minutes and my mother telling her to come with me, she stood up and told me that she would come, too. So we went outside. It was the direct sun rays on us, however it was not that hot when we were walking. Well, we went in the supermarket, we found that Guruli corn flour I was telling my sister about _ it was in a lovely package and it was 1 kg in all. So we took it. Then she saw this confectioners sugar and she took it and when I asked why she needed it, she said that she would sprinkle it on some things that she would prepare. My guess is, that she wants to prepare some crepes, because she likes them and she asked me to prepare them a couple of times while being here. And she also likes pancakes and perhaps she would like to prepare them in Germany, too, however I have no idea whether she has prepared them ever. Well, everything has its first time, right?! To be honest, my mother used to prepare pancakes for us when we were children and, well, I didn’t really love them, however they all loved them and used to eat them a lot, especially my sister, who still loves them and while being here she asked my mother to cook some pancakes for her for a couple of times. I’m not saying that pancakes are not delicious, they are, though I’m not much of a fan, but my sister is. And until leaving for Germany my mother asked my sister if she wanted her to prepare some pancakes for her for the road or something, however she didn’t feel like eating pancakes right then, I guess, so she refused. I guess, my mother was kind of happy because of that, because she looked really tired with all those walking and choosing things and packing my sister’s stuff and deciding what to put where and all the other things, besides, she was coming from work and her job is not easy, I mean, she is a doctor _ a pediatrician and she has shifts and all the other stuff, you know.

Anyways, there was this other thing, too, I mean, there are spices in supermarkets and there are some of them which are already mixed specially for some dishes, so my sister saw this spice, where it said it was for meat and she just grabbed it and said that she would use it to prepare Khinkali filling and I was kind of surprised, because preparing Khinkali filling is another thing, but preparing its dough is kind of a heavy work as they say, however I’m pretty interested in what she’s going to do, I guess she will prepare it somehow and probably will tell me about it, I really look forward to it, if you want to know the truth. I mean, I use to prepare Khinkali filling and then roll the dough and put it in it and stuff like that, but I have not ever prepared Khinkali dough by myself. Usually my father prepares the dough, or my uncle, it depends where that Khinkali is being prepared. Or we just order it in a take-away restaurant, where they prepare Khinkali that is pretty delicious, I can say.

So, until we had that ice-cream, my sister was really hungry and she wanted to go home and eat that pizza that we bought, however, you know there are so many calories in ice-cream and she wasn’t that hungry anymore, I guess. In spite of that, she wanted to have some chips and she saw this chips with Ajika and she just took them. I wondered, whether it had really some taste of Ajika and when we got home and she opened it I just tasted them, however I didn’t really taste Ajika on it, okay, maybe a little, but it was not what I expected. Or maybe it was because I had not eaten chips for a really long time. In fact, I haven’t eaten those kinds of junk food for a long time, I guess, because I’m trying to eat healthy, however, sometimes it’s just irresistible not to eat some sweets and, you know, there’s always a place for sweets in your stomach!

Well, then, we went back home and it was time to pack everything that was left. You know, this packing stuff just kills me. I don’t know how my mother does that, because she packed my brother’s things, too, and my sister’s and she used to pack all our stuff when we were going on holidays and stuff like that. It’s just so time-consuming deciding what to take and what to leave and what you need and what you don’t need and stuff like that, you know. It’s just hell of a work . I mean, it’s a hell of a work for just someone to pack his/her stuff and then, imagine, packing things for four other people besides you! That’s just crazy, if you ask me. And, well, she somehow managed it. My sister was surfing the Internet or doing some things on computer and my mother was packing her stuff and she sometimes used to call my sister and ask something and then they would both continue what they were doing. I tried to help my mother in packing, but I realized that she didn’t really want me to help her, because she had already decided what to put where and me being there telling where to put some things wouldn’t be a great idea, so I just did my stuff and didn’t bother her. Finally, everything was packed and ready. They put that bag on a scale and it was something like 18 or 19 kilogrammes and the limit was 20, so it was just alright. However, it was really heavy. Good thing that they invented those bags with wheels! You can roll them wherever you want. Even on staircases. However, I had a “great” time carrying it on stairs in the Netherlands, as I had to go up and down and up and I didn’t really know if there was an elevator nearby that I could use. Well, we used that elevator on our way back, but still…

Anyways, the day was gone and it was kind of late for anything. We just watched some TV. There was this “Shua Kalakshi” on Imedi TVand I just use to watch it and laugh a little, so I had it on TV and we enjoyed the series and then it was time to sleep and wait for a new day to come. That one day was left until my sister went back to Germany again. 

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