Travelin'

***I meant to post this a couple weeks ago, it's a little late--oh well***

(4 April 2008)

I am so happy to be back in the USA! After an extremely interesting and memorable trip, I finally made it home and am just now getting back to D.C. time. We visited Bucharest, Romania and Tbilisi, Georgia for about a week.

Bucharest was our first stop and the city was charged with energy and anticipation for the NATO meetings.

Cops and soldiers were stationed on every corner and official motorcades zipped through every street. The NATO meetings were held in Parliament Palace--the second largest building next to the Pentagon. Sheesh, it is huge:

After my boss and I were finished with our meetings, we were able to explore the city again and meet up with a few of our Romanian friends. Ricky, who I met last year in Romania for a conference, and his wife, Kristina, spent time with us on the weekend and helped me buy a lot of trinkets and souvenirs! They are a wonderful and hilarious couple:

We were also able to spend a lot of our time with Nicole (her last name is too long for me to remember)! She was so gracious to spend most of her free time from work with me and Larry.

I had mentioned to Nicole that if there was enough time, I would like to go visit one of the LDS chapels in Bucharest. To my amazement, she knew exactly where one was and what time the service started. I didn't think I would have time to go to church on this trip, but was so excited when we arrived and a baby-faced missionary from Pleasant Grove, Utah was standing outside the church greeting the members and visitors. I was able to stay for a couple hours and it was wonderful to see the Church in action in a foreign country:

The chapel was surprisingly big!

Another favorite stop was the Bucharest Library. Go figure--Katie liking a library! I wish my mom could have seen this beautiful building. She's the reason I am such a book lover and would have loved this!

The last night in Bucharest we had a dinner with many of our friends at a traditional Romanian restaurant. Don't mind the hostage-looking photo with the newspaper....they all thought it was pretty funny that this would be my photo if I was ever kidnapped.

Next stop was Tbilisi, Republic of Georgia (just across the Black Sea from Romania). After a quick flight and layover in Istanbul, Turkey, we arrived for our extremely short stay in this beautiful country. Here's a map of the country to get a better idea of where we were. Georgia is the country in brown--it's as close to Iraq as I ever want to get:

We stayed at the Marriott in Tbilisi and just as I suspected, there was a Book of Mormon in the night stand. It was great to see, even if many of the people there haven't even heard of LDS.

Right outside the window of my room was the Freedom Square, which is crowded at all times-day or night. This square is supposed to function as a round-about, but there really is no rhyme or reason to how people drive. Our taxi's didn't have any seat belts and many windows were cracked or had holes in it. Pedestrians also don't have the right of way--something I learned very quickly. I decided to follow the old people whenever I needed to cross the street. I figured they have lived this long so they must know the secrets of survival. Here are a few pics from my window and the streets around the hotel--

The last night of our visit, our friends took us to a traditional Georgian restaurant. It was such good food--a lot of meats, breads and cheeses.

The best part of the night were the Georgian dancers and singers. Here, again, are a few pics--



..yes that is a real bottle of wine on his head!--and here are some short (and poor quality) video smidgets. First up--the singers are warming up (I think)...

Okay, now they're crackin'--take a listen..

Oh boy, the first dancer of the night. He really gets down at the end ...

Here's a bit of a beautiful lady at the first of the clip..yes, I realize half of it is sideways :)

At the end is the dude with the bottle on his head. Now where in the world can you watch a guy dance with a bottle of wine on his head while still looking semi "macho?" Here, at the end of the clip, the dancer gets ready--

..and off he goes.....!

..and finally, two beefcakes for my sis, Mel-

...yes those were real swords and I was a tad too close for comfort.

Okay, I think I'm done with this entry, finally! I wish the videos were easier to see, it was quite amazing. I'll be back soon with a report on our California trip--lucky you.