These past few days have been spent slowly. Waking up relatively early, heading to a cafe, heading to another Airbnb, having some good food somewhere, and then heading off to some well needed sleep. I'm definitely exhausted at the moment, but I've missed the fun of travel. Where everything is typically in motion, one place to another. The excitement of basically being on autopilot and navigating all kinds of streets. Primarily the historic ones around Tbilisi.
Buildings in this area are well over a hundred years old. Some have their pre revolution owner names still on the flooring. Some have candle holders where before there was no lighting via electricity in the hallways. The decay is extreme, but so are the details and beauty to be found. Roaming this area is so much fun, it's quiet, old, and riddled with historic interiors just hiding in plain sight. I've loved stumbling into those and perhaps I'll make a post specifically about those if I have the time. Met within these slow days have been a mix of heat and rain. Strong evening storms and heavy rains that I've loved so much. Making the atmosphere richer. More cosy. I want more! Though this does also make getting out a bit more difficult sometimes, given I only decided to bring summer clothing assuming this would be a shorter trip. It wasn't!
I feel like this trip, as tiring as it has been, has made me wake up a bit. I feel more motivated, more wanting to get out and explore and create again. I've been shooting some film stock here and there, and just finished a roll of Kodak vision2, a now expired stock that isn't produced anymore, replaced by a newer version from Kodak. I'm excited to see how those turn out but it could unfortunately take up to a week with lab times.
And lastly here are one of those older building entrances. The walls peeling, forgotten. A dampness within. Quiet. Though still used by a few fortunate residents. I'd love to talk to them one day and see what they have to say about how they came about living in them, what their thoughts are on the history of these buildings.
