I sometimes feel as if I travel just for the sake of having something to write about on my blog. Well, that’s not necessarily true, but I do find myself saying yes to more things than I would have previously. The point is, I was in Kyiv this past weekend and I intend to tell you about it.
I was visiting two friends of mine who are on a round-the-world trip of their own. They’ve currently set up camp in Kyiv, however, so that’s where I found myself in the early hours of Friday morning. The flight over was pretty eventful in and of itself.
First of all, I was flying Ukrainian Airlines, which uses the acronym МАУ in Russian, so I keep thinking the stewardesses are meowing. Secondly, the people this airline attracts are bizarre. One woman refused to sit in her window seat because, and I quote, “I can’t sit on an overwing seat – the wing will be blocking the view in my photographs!” This is despite the fact that it was 23:00 and pitch black outside.
There was also the young man on my flight back who decided to lean on my back (I was curled up by the window), though that was Wizz Air. Maybe it’s just Ukrainians?
I didn’t end up seeing much of the city, but I’d been before, so I didn’t feel the loss too acutely. Instead, we explored (very) alternative Kyiv nightlife, went trampolining, stumbled upon pseudoreligious Midsummer celebrations, enjoyed fire shows, and listened to electronica. In summary, it was completely outside my comfort zone and I loved every second of it.
As has been established previously, I’m rather a fan of opera. I don’t know how it happened, but over the course of the past year, I’ve gotten to the stage of turning on Pavarotti whenever I’m alone in the office. The point is, it’s something I enjoy. Luckily, I have more than a few friends willing to indulge my fancies.
That’s how I ended up at one of Royal Opera House’s “lates”, a somewhat immersive experience of operatic music and dance. The programme wasn’t extensive, but the highlights were Stretched, or Tosca reimagined, as well as a short performance of Billy Budd. I suppose that the concept was to introduce what’s on at the Royal Opera House rather than to make a full-scale event of the occasion, because it ended quite quickly. Either way, it was an enjoyable evening spent in the company of two close friends, good music, and decent wine.
On a related note, ROH Lates became somewhat of a consolation to me after my opera plans for next week were dashed. While I was in Georgia, I saw an ad for Boris Godunov and quickly booked tickets. Unfortunately, work was quick to remind me that I actually have an awards ceremony to attend on that same evening, and so I was forced to gift them to a friend. There’s always next time, I suppose.
Let’s start with the fact that this post is overdue. I had made a tradition of posting every Thursday at exactly 11:11 (admittedly, the time zones sometimes changed), but this week it wasn’t possible. Reason being? I had just endured a 16 hour journey home and was feeling pretty shattered. As such, we’ll make an exception. If we come back to the initial objective of testing out search engine and marketing optimisation, perhaps it’s not so bad to deviate from established posting times. Back to Georgia, though.
I’ve probably already described how the idea to go to Georgia arose, but I’ll still reiterate: essentially, my friend wanted to travel somewhere together. “Georgia?” I asked. “How about Greece?” He replied. “Georgia?” I proposed. “How about Italy?” He tried. “Georgia?” I insisted. “Fine.” He conceded. And so the tickets were bought and the hotels booked.
We arrived in Kutaisi at one in the morning, bought local SIM cards, and tried desperately to get the Yandex.Taxi app to work. It didn’t, so we ended up in a communal taxi alongside an American traveller. The driver, Zura, also managed to sell me the prospect of having him drive us around the next day, which I’m extremely grateful for.
Zura (contact details available on request) created his own itinerary for us, including two monasteries and the Prometheus cave, which we enjoyed immensely. He also took us to a local river and a delicious restaurant of Georgian food, where the waiter made incredible recommendations. As we were going to Batumi next, Zura recommended a transfer with a friend of his, who was heading there anyway and therefore only took 25 GEL (7.25 GBP) for the two hour journey.
Batumi was amazing. It’s more of a resort town, so there isn’t too much to do except swim or enjoy the outdoor cafes, but it had a relaxed vibe. Swimming in the Black Sea was a definite perk. I also tried wine ice cream for the first time (apparently that’s a thing – a delicious thing).
My friend wasn’t as impressed with Batumi (or maybe he was just more interested in collecting passport stamps), so he convinced me to cross the border into Turkey. We set off too late to see anything, so we just went to a shopping centre, bought some clothes, and came back to Georgia for supper.
The next victory was mine, however, when I insisted we take the early train to Tbilisi in order to arrive at lunchtime. Our first day was fairly relaxed. We had lunch at the Art Cafe, then took the funicular up to Mtatsminda Park, where we enjoyed some nice views overlooking the city.
Day Two involved wandering around Old Tbilisi, admiring the rustic balconies and petting all the cats. We trekked up to the Mother Georgia monument, then scaled the ruins of the Narikala fortress. In the evening, we decided to go have a drink at the local bar and ended up with a lot more than we had bargained for. The bartender offered us his own signature cocktail, which he named Mother’s Milk. It was fairly tasty, but as the evening wore on, he began plying us with cognac shots. I don’t remember much after that, but I appear to have had long conversations about cats with people on Instagram.
It should probably go without saying that drinking copious amounts is a horrible idea prior to taking a day trip to Armenia in a humid minibus, but I don’t always think things through. Having said that (and having experienced several instances of nausea), I don’t regret going in the slightest. Life in Northern Armenia doesn’t seem greatly changed from the state of post-Soviet collapse, but the monasteries were beautiful – although that’s still not the highlight of the trip.
I hope all those involved will forgive me for my moment of cheesiness, but what really made the tour worth it was meeting fellow travellers – and then spending more time with them the next day. Even though I had that 16 hour journey ahead of me and I’d barely gotten two hours of sleep, I’d do it all again. So cheesy.
But on a more philosophical note, I think it’s these sorts of moments of serendipity are exactly what make life meaningful. Even if we never meet the two guys we befriended again, it’s become an integral part of our collective recollections.
As I eagerly await my flight to Georgia, which will be taking off in just a few hours, I’d like to take the opportunity to revisit last Friday night. Last Friday night, you see, I attended the premiere of a brand new ballet – Rasputin.
The role of the title character, quite fittingly, was danced by ballet’s resident bad boy, Sergei Polunin. Though I didn’t think it at the time, I’ve all of the sudden had a flashback to Center Stage.
I absolutely adored that film when I was younger, mostly thanks to Ilia Kulik (who, incidentally, played a character called Sergei).
Before I go off on a tangent on how Ilia Kulik is married to one half of my favourite pairs duo – a pairs duo featuring yet another Sergei – who was actually the inspiration for my first ever limerick – wait, where were we?
Sergei Polunin as Rasputin was phenomenal. I thoroughly enjoyed his – predictive text suggests “biceps”, which, while true, was not what I had intended – performance. The young boy who danced the part of Alexei was also very impressive. He might’ve even received louder applause than Polunin himself.
Though I did have a few questions about the ballet and the liberties they took with historical accuracy, as well as its relatively short duration, I enjoyed the choreography, the music, and the minimalism in the stage design. I particularly wasn’t a fan of the way Prince Felix Yusupov was portrayed. He was too unnecessarily flamboyant – I mean, I’ve read his Memoirs, he absolutely was flamboyant, just not like that.
Rasputin felt slightly unfinished, as if we were witnessing the first draft. If they do manage to finish it one day, I wouldn’t be surprised if it joins the classics.
Swordfoosh 