A not very productive day in Borzhomi. Started with two fruitless visits to Beeline and then Askme to see if they could get my mifi to work. Finally decided that a visit to Huawei service centre in Tbilisi was the only option.
The day was saved by a visit to the excellent museum. It has stuffed local animals including a white fox (which we saw near Ani and thought was a lynx), a brown bear, a wild boar, a lynx, an auroch and many others was well as butterflies. A dear old soul became our personal guide and with her pidgin English and my pidgin Russian we did alright. Notable features were a mammoth tusk and tooth found on the plateau above Borzhomi and a 200-year-old carved seat and table. Many exhibits reflected the life of the people (including a shepherds bear-skin coat) and bottles of Borzhomi mineral water from Tsarist and Soviet times. There were many photos of Tsar Nicholas looking typically half-soaked and badges from the second world war as well as paintings of anti-Nazi partisans and battle scenes from earlier wars against surrounding countries.
The very friendly man at the information kiosk gave us instructions on how to get to the Likani Palace (where the Tsar lived when he was hunting) although it is closed for renovation. We couldn’t find it and gave up after a couple of hours. We then tried to go to the Mineral Water Park but there was a barrier across the road with three grumpy policement guarding it. We weren’t allowed in by the one with the biggest beer gut who told us we had to park further down and walk in. Georgian cars (mostly mercs and beemers) got in with no problem. As it started to rain we didn’t bother to go, thinking that Georgia was not making too much of an effort to attract tourists. We then drove up to the plateau, which was a beautiful pine forest, but decided to go back in the town and go to the restaurant to make use of its wifi. Passed an accident on the way down with two badly damaged cars but no sign of the police, who were too busy keeping riff-raff like us out of the Mineral Water Park.
That night there was a dramatic firework display on the top of a mountain overlooking Borzhomi, and three crosses located on mountain peaks were illuminated.
