Back In Georgia

OK, I better start seeing some comments.  Write something - anything!

Last week, or two weeks ago, when I was in Madrid I found out I’d be representing Marine Forces Europe at a conference in Georgia.  For those who don’t know, I was in Georgia for 7 months in 2012 so this was welcome news that I'd be going back.  The only bad part is flying in and out of Tbilisi.  Flights into Tbilisi arrive in the morning which means you’ve been on an airplane in the wee hours.  Flights out of Tbilisi depart in the early morning which means you’re either getting up at 2 in the morning, or just staying awake (and drinking) until your flight.  Why these lousy hours no one knows, it’s a mystery that has no answer, like an X-Files episode.

A little background on Georgia…   For the past 15 years or so Georgia has been trying to establish stronger ties with Western Europe, but not without consequences.  Remember back in 2008 there was this country called Russia that invaded and still occupies parts of Georgia.  The Georgians weren’t too thrilled with having essentially lost 20% of their land, and six years later when Russia occupied Crimea in the Ukraine the Georgians said, “Hello?!  We told you so!”

Helping me through this whole week were two other Marines working out of the embassy.  That made things very easy since they handled the transportation and had background knowledge on many of the attendees.  But first, before the conference started, there was a Distinguished Visitor day at one of the military bases for the conclusion of a two week US-UK-Georgian exercise (all Army, no Marines).  Pretty cool show they put on with a US Abrams tank and Bradley fighting vehicle, and Georgian T-72 tank and BMP.  And helicopters.   Lots of shooting & explosions.  I took a video with my iPhone but it came out only so-so.  Here’s a link to the story:

https://www.army.mil/article/168575

Every year the Georgian Ministry of Defense hosts a security conference with discussions on NATO, the Russian threat, ISIS threat, etc. and since I had experience in Georgia I was selected to attend.   Anyone who’s been to any type of conference knows what happens.  There’s coffee, some speeches, some smart folks on panel discussions, more coffee, and stuff like that.  However, the conference was held at an almost brand new hotel on the outskirts of Tbilisi, owned by the Chinese.  Yes it was a nice hotel but the fitness center was really great; a huge pool, gym, and golf simulator.  I only used the pool twice. 

Then two days of conference and like I said there’s coffee, conferring, and lots of sitting.   Lots of sitting.  The conference was probably planned to coincide with the 25^th anniversary of Georgia’s independence – but not from the Soviet Union as you probably think.  It goes way back to May 26, 1918,  interrupted in 1921 by seven decades of Soviet rule until the .  So on Thursday I was invited to sit in the VIP section for the country’s 25^th Independence Day celebration in Freedom Square in downtown Tbilisi.  It turned out to be a very intricate affair with simultaneous video feeds from all across the country.  First the US Army battalion marched in (led by the visiting US Air Force band), then the British Army company, then the Latvian Army honor guard.  Then the Georgian brigade marched in; really impressive.   Afterwards, I had the afternoon free until my early morning flight on Friday.

Photo opp - with the Defense Attache from Romania.

Every night we went out to eat and I got to enjoy the fantastic Georgian food.

Khatchapuri – an oval shaped pizza except twice the taste and ten times the cholesterol.  With or without the egg, mmmmmm.

Khinkali – very similar to boiled Chinese dumplings, but very juicy.  Bite, suck, swallow!

Then there's one of my favorites; I can't remember the name but it's a dish of chicken pieces cooked in a shallow clay pot with butter, yogurt, and garlic.  

Lastly, I took a bunch of pictures of the Independence Day ceremony but I found a video probably posted by the Georgian gov't.  Much better quality and coverage than I had.  As I mentioned, the ceremony was video-shared across the country so some of the shots are of army units in their regional areas.  It's an hour long but most of the good stuff is in the first half.  One interesting scene is at about 33:15 where they all take a knee and pledge their oath to the country.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P3kBUB1BYCs

**Bonus**For my fellow PCHS grads, go to 14:15 and see how quick you can name that tune!

Week 9

Madrid
Last week I was back in Madrid for a conference.  Every year the Spanish military and US military get together to discuss what mutual training events we will do.  The weather was beautiful, as is usual, and it was a very easy conference.  First there are introductory speeches, then coffee break, then some meetings, then lunch, then more meetings, and that was it.  It was a two day conference which could have been fit into one day, but I'm not complaining.

I also took the Madrid Metro which was easy.  It's color coded just like the Washington DC Metro (and like the Stuttgart area S-bahn) and to make it more-er easier, there's an app for that.  The only problem came when I got off at the stop near my hotel.  I walked out of the station looking at the map on my mobile and some old guy comes up to offer help.  I tried the usual pointie-talkie but then remembered I had the hotel business card.  He looks at it and starts talking and gesturing for me to cross over the street and walk down 2 or 3 blocks.  So off I go and after maybe 10 minutes I figure I'm not near my hotel.  Once again I pull out my mobile and navigate my way back and as I turn the last corner where my hotel should be, I look one way and see the hotel a half-block away, and look the other way and see the Metro station a half-block away.  Muchas gracias old Spanish dude!  Not!

Walking around Madrid is nice.  But, the last night I wanted to get a light, simple dinner, and I wanted to eat at one of the outdoor sidewalk cafes.  They are everywhere so it didn't seem too difficult.  The problem is most of them serve tapas; appetizer stuff, and I wanted something a little more substantial.  Eventually I found a place that looked good so I started off with a beer.  "Una cerveza, por favor."  After awhile he he brought out a menu with English subtitles.  I saw chorizo and thought that was perfect.  A nice cooked spicy sausage probably with some rice and maybe vegetables.  Nope.  He brought out a plate of deli-style sliced cold chorizo.  And nothing else.  Yay....tapas.

Ah well, whaddya gonna do?

Week 8 or 9

Sunday May 15 -

I think I owe you last week's blog, from two weeks ago now.  So, uh, lemme see.

I went back to the air base in Moron, Spain.  I met with my kinda-sorta Air Force counterpart.  It was a good & bad visit.  The good part was a dinner out in town, I was the only Marine in the group of Zoomies but had a good time.  I don't remember the kind of steak I had but it was muy fantastico!
The bad part is I hurt my leg.  I went out for a run in the afternoon which is usually great.  Since it's an air base it's flat and nicely landscaped so it's easy to get a good pace, impossible to get lost, and the palm trees wave gently in the breeze.  But, about a mile into my run my leg cramped.  So I had to hobble all the way back.
Hobble, hobble, hobble, hobble.......

But here's a nice photo of the flight line from our billeting area.

A few days later I was back here in Germany, just in time for the end of Stuttgarter Fruhlingsfest!

It's the springtime version of Oktoberfest but also with normal modern fair rides, tests of strength & skill, and ice cream.  

I went with a bunch of people from work and their spouses.  Most of the men & women wore leiderhosen (for men) or dirndl (for women).  I couldn't see spending $200 for leiderhosen that I'd only wear once, and I didn't want to scare people with my skinny white legs.

Entrance to the beer tents is free but almost everyone makes a reservation to guarantee a table.  Here's what it looks like walking in.

Yeah, it's a lot of people.  And it happened to be an unusually beautiful sunny day so you can imagine what the tent is like after a few hours - it's a big hot smelly smokey endurance contest for your kidneys.  I tried getting good pictures but it was so crowded there was always someone in the way of a good shot.  

There's a band that plays non stop for about 90 minute sets and it seems every other song was the drinking song.  And everyone stands on the benches, except when you're eating.  At the table behind us was a bunch of girls that we all said looked like they were 16.  It turns out they probably were 16 since the rules (law?) says anyone over 16 is allowed in without a parent.  Holy schnitzel.

Last thing. the next day was a Sunday and to recover I went out for a run.  Actually I was good and didn't drink too much so I wasn't hung-over.  But once again I got about a mile out and my leg cramped again.

Hobble, hobble, hobble, hobble....

It's not a muscle cramp so after a little internet searching I think I strained my achilles tendon.  So, ok, no running for awhile, just beer.  Das es gut!

http://stuttgarter-fruehlingsfest.de/en/service/haeufige-fragen/

7th Week

It's late and I never got around to this week's post so sorry but you'll have to wait another day or two.

Sunday May 8
Lots happened but first, Happy Mother's Day!
OK, I have a good reason why this post is late but since the reason happened this past week you'll have to wait for that post.
So, two weeks ago.....
I went to Madrid to meet a few more people I'll be coordinating with from the Embassy and the Office of Defense Cooperation (ODC).  The ODC is, as the name suggests, a group of US military and civilians that works with the host nation's military for doing training together.  So four years ago when I was in Georgia, the ODC there helped coordinate that.  Our unit down in Moron, Spain does a significant amount of training with the Spanish military and we're trying to do more of it, and more complex training.

Madrid is a gorgeous city.  Beautiful, interesting, charming, hip, and just cool.  Except in the summer when, I'm told, everyone leaves the city and goes on holiday to the beaches or anywhere other than the city since it's too hot.  Modern Spaniards love burgers.  Not surprising since they're known for meats but there are a lot of places to get a burger, a few typical cheap burger joints but mostly upscale burger restaurants with choice of meat: US beef, Spanish beef, Japanese Kobi beef, veal, pork, etc.
I was there for a day and a half and lunch the first day was in one of the nicer places.  I had a burger of the waitress' recommendation.  I can't remember what it was other than really good. mmmmmm.

I wandered around in the afternoon and had a Negroni cocktail at an outdoor cafe.  A Negroni because I read somewhere the Spanish have a current craze for gin, and the Negroni is supposed to be  the 'it' drink.

The hotel I stayed at was just a few blocks from the Embassy and not surprisingly several other embassies are in the area.  Here's the Portuguese Embassy, right across the boulevard from my hotel.

And this is Plaza de Colon with the monument to Cristobal Colon in the foreground, the Spanish National Library and Archaeological Museum on the right, and the plaza dedicated to Cristobal behind the flag.  Remember, Christopher Columbus was Italian but sailed on behalf of Spain.

Once back in Germany I spent the weekend with my wife's relatives who live outside Pforzheim which is only about 30-40 minutes from Stuttgart.  Pforzheim sits on the northern edge of the Black Forest so we spent a day visiting a few towns in the area.
The tower in the photo below is part of an original castle built 500? 600? years ago.  The photo on the bottom is a view of the Black Forest from atop the tower.

And 'cousin' Sebastian, his girlfriend Christine, and me.

Since that weekend happened to be the first weekend of May, it was 'May Day' when German towns put up a tree in the center of town.  I guess it's sort of like a Christmas tree, but different.  Each town has one and the local firemen are responsible for getting the Mai Baum up entirely by muscle power and poles.

I have a few videos of the process - it took about a half hour.  Hopefully my daughter who again made Dean's List for film school will know how to stitch together the video clips and make it better.

OK - that's it for now.  I'll work on this past week's events tomorrow night.