New Year shopping in Tbilisi

The introduction

Hello everyone, I hope that you are doing fine!

Today I want to tell you about this New Year shopping in Tbilisi and that New Year day, in general, because that was one of the most memorable days this year, I guess, because of the New Year, which is a great celebration of the year and the time we spent together as a family and everything.

Well, I must say, that New Year is a big event for everyone in Georgia and they celebrate it very specially. And, I guess, almost everyone tries to be with their families and stuff and have fun and celebrate the New Year together with some wine and food, of course, because if you don’t have these two, then they say, that you are not celebrating anything. And, traditionally, men drink plenty of wine and then the next day it’s a hangover day and they whine and drink again and, well, it continues every day, if you want to know the truth, and then there’s this second New Year on the 13-th of January, it’s called the Old New Year or New Year in older style and they also celebrate New Year that day and then goes drinking and stuff and, well, January is a month full of holidays and drinking, if you ask me and everyone else.

Well, to be honest, New Year shopping is not as tiring as it seems, however, this time it was kind of tiring if you want to know the truth. 

First of all,  I must tell you, that the other days we were in Kakheti, where our grandparents are and after that we wanted to go back to Tbilisi, so that we could celebrate the New Year there. So, it was the 31-st of December and it was early in the morning when we packed some stuff and hit the road to Tbilisi. It was just some usual day, I mean, people usually expect to have some snow or something like that on New Year, however, it was just really sunnyand nothing was really as it should be on New Year’s day, if you ask me. The feeling of New Year was gone, I guess, because of that.

Well, we got home and my father went to work, because he is a doctor and he had a nightshift that day, I mean, the New Year’s day and it was really sad, because he wouldn’t be with us celebrating New Year, however, he would come home the next day and we would be together, though the next day my mother and brother were supposed to work, too, I mean, my mother is also a doctor and my brother is a medical student and he also works at the hospital.

Anyways, we got home and we started thinking about our plans for the day, I mean, we had to buy some things for the celebration and there’s this East Point shopping and entertainment center just nearby us, so that we were planning on going there for shopping and buying some necessary stuff and, well, maybe some other things, too, besides, we had these bonus points that were to be spent, otherwise they would be gone, so that we decided to go to East Point for New Year shopping _ me, my sister and brother.

Super supermarket

There’s this Super supermarket in Tbilisi and one of their branches is in East Point and we wanted to spend those bonus points there, because they have some pretty good stuff, however, I must say, that they are pretty expensive, too, comparing to other shops and supermarkets.

So, we went looking for some stuff, that we could buy with about 30 Laris, however, we could add money to those bonus points, too, and buy something that we wanted. We looked at everything, I guess, however, it was really difficult to choose something from all those things, that there were, because there were many beautiful and necessary and lovely things there and each of us thought about different things, I guess, and then I thought about my father saying that he wanted to prepare some cognac as we have some vodka at home and stuff like that, and I started looking for something, that he would use as a storage for that cognac. There were some storage jars and bottles and things like that around and there was this light purple large bottle with some lovely shape and I just loved it, however, we couldn’t really decide whether or not to buy it. I had it with me in my hands for some time and then we decided to put it back and decide and while deciding we went to Carrefour supermarket to buy some food and drinks and things like that.

When we went back to Super from our shopping in Carrefour and some other shops, I searched for this bottle, however, I couldn’t find it. Someone had already bought it and I was pretty frustrated because of that. At least I could do was to put it in the back, so that no one would see it, however, I didn’t think of it then and so it was gone. Well, we still bought another bottle for that, however, it was not that lovely or something, but it was still good, if you ask me. And as it was 15 Laris or so, we had to search for something else to spend the whole points, you know, so that we looked at some plates and decorations and kitchenware and bathroom stuff and finally, we decided to have those two mugs for tea or coffee with their small spoons. They were pretty beautiful, if you want to know the truth, and those were supposed to be for our parents, because my father loves drinking tea and my mother loves drinking coffee.

Getting out, they had this free wrapping service and you could tell them which colours you wanted and they would wrap gifts for you, so that we decided to have those presents wrapped. They looked really amazing in those green and red wrappings and we were satisfied, too.

Shopping in Carrefour

So, we went to Carrefour. There were many people there, however , not so many as there usually are. Well, maybe they had New Year shopping some time earlier, because they thought that there would be many people shopping on New Year’s eve. So, we had some plenty things to buy, I guess. We had this kind of list and everything.

You know, if you have time and money and you want to buy some things in one place and not to go here and there for different things, you can just go to Carrefour, let that be in East Point or in Tbilisi Mall, because this is a large hypermarket and there is almost everything that you can need. Well, to tell you the truth, sometimes it’s not that comfortable going there and shopping and everything if you just want some things to buy, which can easily be found in a regular supermarket, so in that case, you can just go and shop there in some smaller supermarket, you know. However, if you want to buy many things, you should definitely go to Carrefour and enjoy your shopping there.

So, when entering Carrefour, we had these bags with us and we needed to hand them over to a desk nearby so that they would stamp it or something in order to know, that we had it before entering Carrefour and that it was bought somewhere else and things like that, you know. However, the security there said, that we didn’t need to do anything, so that they gave us those bags and we just put them into the shopping cart and went on shopping. Well, there are many sections in Carrefour and the first one that we saw was this kitchenware and some gifts section, where we were looking for some things to have as gifts, you know, for our parents and cousin and, also, my brother was looking for a gift for this Secret Santa game and while me and my sister had these ideas about his gift, he didn’t really paid much attention to us, so that then we just went on and continued looking for the gifts for our family members. Then there was this clothes section, where they had some things on sale and there were some pretty good stuff , if you want to know the truth, however, we didn’t need anything there at that time.

After some thinking, we decided to buy some gifts to our parents in the bathroom section, I mean, there were some great body lotions and shower gels and cosmetics and stuff like thatand there were some of them together just like the gift stuff, so that we decided to buy those stuff to my mother and father and we were very satisfied with our decision, however, it really took us much time to decide that and to decide which one we would buy.

Well, we wanted some chocolate or cookies or things like that, because we always have some chocolate on New Year, however, there were so many people waiting in line for those chocolate and cookies _ which you choose and then you have to weigh them so that they stick that paper where it says how much it costs, that we decided not to get those chocolates or to get them somewhere else. Though, they have some good chocolate and cookies there,  I must say.

After the dairy and wine section, there was this large section of fruit and vegetable and nuts and spices and etc. section and that is a broad area, where it’s always crowded and there are all those different types of fruit and vegetable and other things and you can go there and choose whichever you want and I just like that, I mean, I like the fact, that I can choose which one I want to take with me and not someone else. So, first of all, we bought one pineapple, so that my brother could cut it into some amazing shapes, which I didn’t know that he knew, so that I was looking forward to seeing him cutting that pineapple. Well, we also needed some walnuts , so that we could prepare some Gozinaki _ which I just love and I couldn’t wait to eat it. And we already had some oranges and kiwi fruit at home and we wanted to buy some mandarins, but those ones that they had there were not looking so good, so that we didn’t take any of them either.

Then there was this prepared dishes section, where they had some good stuff, however, at that time many things had already been sold, I guess, so that we just took some fried fish and mushroom salad and then I saw these pickled stuff nearby and I just love pickles, so that we took carrots and cabbage and pepper picklesand then there was this garlic pickles, which I hadn’t tasted and I wondered how it tasted and, well, my sister told me, that she used to eat it when she was little and it was good and that I should taste it, so that we took that one, too.

After that, there was this bread section and they have much variety of breads and my sister saw these cute small breads packed together and they looked pretty good and we just decided to take them. You know, my sister loves such stuff and she just loves tasting all that new stuff that she encounters anywhere and that’s kind of good, I guess, because you only live once and you should try some new things, right?! And those breads were pretty delicious, I can say, so that the decision was pretty much a good one! So, if you are in Carrefour and see those small breads packed together , you should know, that they taste really good and they are worth buying! There were also these Brownies, which looked pretty good and they were pretty large pieces, too, however, we had enough cakes at home and decided not to take them , though we really wanted to taste them, I must say.

You know, they have some good muffins and donuts in Carrefour, though my sister doesn’t really love donuts, I really enjoy them, so that I kind of thought about taking some donuts with us, however, as I’ve already mentioned, we already had two large cakes at homeand those other cakes and sweet stuff would be just extra and we weren’t be able to eat them and I just don’t like when there is so much food or cakes or whatever and people can’t eat them all when they are more than enough and when things are just left like that. So, we didn’t take any of those donuts or muffins because of that. Maybe we would buy them some other time.

We had to take some juice and mineral water, too , of course, because no one imagines New Year and Christmas and those days without Georgian mineral waters, such as Likani, Borjomi, Nabeghlavi and others. They are pretty great on hangover and everyone just buys one of them and there are always any of them in the fridge on those days. You know, we had to look for them for some time, because we didn’t really know where to look for them and the consultants were nowhere to be found, I mean, it was a busy day and everyone was somewhere helping some people, I guess, so that we couldn’t find any of them. In spite of that, we finally saw those Borjomi bottles and then there was Likani, too. You know, my father loves drinking Likani and we drink it, too, however, some people prefer drinking Borjomi to Likani and my sister prefers this Mitarbi mineral water,  I guess. Well, to tell you the truth, some may say, that there’s not much difference between them, however, I think, that there is and, maybe there’s this main difference in the amount of carbon dioxide in them, I don’t really know.

Well, after all those stuff in our cart, we realized, that it was getting pretty late and we had to go home to actually rest before midnight and prepare some things, you know. So that we went to the cashier and paid for our shoppings. However, my sister just went out to “do something” (actually she wanted to buy some things for us,if you want to know the truth) and she had my wallet with her, so that me and my brother were waiting at the cashier for her to come and, well, finally she came and it was just in  time of paying the money, so that it all went well and we got back to our car.

Biblusi books

Although, until we got out of the shopping center, there’s this Biblusi books store there and we went there to buy some things for our cousins. They had this big New Year sale in Biblusi and books were up to 50% cheaper and that was just great, because 50% is pretty much amazing price for those books. So, we were looking for some English books, I mean, maybe some alphabet books or something like that for my little cousin, who is just six years old and, well, there was not that kind of alphabet book, however, we found this amazing book about world trains and it was a book with those things, that can move and everything and it was really exciting stuff, I mean, I would love to read that book, too, so after some time of analising, we decided to buy that book. After that, we looked for some books for our second cousin, well, my sister wanted to buy him this book called “The diary of a whimpy kid” and she knew, which part she wanted to buy him, however there was only one of those books left there and we bought it, of course, however, getting home and looking at it, she realized , that it was a book about the movie and not the book itself, so that she had to buy another one some time later. You know, those diaries are pretty awesome, I mean, they are really funny and easy to read and, you know, my cousin doesn’t really love reading books and no boy in that age likes reading books, however, he did read those first two books of that diary and he really liked them, so that, that’s why my sister decided to buy other books, too, however, the ones after the first two are not yet translated into Georgian and she bought that book in English and we’ll see whether he will read it or not and if he likes it, that will be great, of course. However, there’s this thing, that the English version is like an advanced English,and he is not that great in English, I mean, they have just started learning English, so that this book is pretty difficult for him, I think, but it will be kind of a motivation to work harder and learn English fast.

Anyways, we bought those things in Biblusi and there was this book for children, it was really funny and amusing. There were these different animals in it and there were glasses too and they were 3D and you could look through them and something happened and, well, it would be a great gift for children, if you ask me, however, we decided that our cousin was too old for that and didn’t buy that book.

Well, that was pretty much our New Year shopping and after all those things, we went home to prepare some stuff and prepare ourselves for the New Year celebration. To tell you the truth, there were not many things to be prepared, as my sister had already prepared some stuff and my mother had also done some things and we only needed to prepare some Gozinaki and lay the table, if you want to know the truth. You know, they used to prepare all those stuff on New Year’s Eve and they were all tired and stuff after all the preparations. Nowadays many things have changed and everything got easier and that’s how it should be, if you ask me.