La Gorda

Who ever would have thought to be grateful for a flooded restaurant? Who would have thought that a restaurant would flood without heavy rains? All of these questions you never really think of the consequences but I do promise you they do make a difference. Tonight I was going to a Khinkali, Georgian dumpling, place with some friends, but as it turns out the restaurant was closing as a water pipe had exploded and there was water on the floor. I felt a bit relieved in a way as it seems they are repairing water pipes in front of my house and down the road from here which makes me think perhaps there IS a problem with the water pipes and they aren't just doing it for practice or to annoy residents. Speaking of annoyance, I learned that the Russians change cases for numbers before months or days, etc. several times. For example 1-5 weeks/days, etc is one case, 6-18 or so is another, 20-25 is another and so forth. I honestly think they did it to annoy the foreigners.

As the pipes had exploded we went to a Spanish restaurant that had just opened. Curious to see if they had anyone Spanish there other than the owner I decided to speak Spanish with them and as suspected, they did not understand Spanish, nor even the menu in Spanish which is always useful. They messed up our order several times bringing us dishes with meat even though the majority of the party is vegetarian/fasting (to be discussed later). Towards the end of the meal, someone speaking Spanish wiggles up next to me trying to turn on a light switch. We were excited as there was finally better light, but secondly speaking Spanish. I turned to them and asked in Spanish where they were from and began a friendly conversation. They asked me how the meal was and I said great but began to outline that we had had several order mix-ups, attitude from the staff and other friends of our had had issues with them not speaking an ounce of English. The owner and friend were quite distraught by that, apologizing profusely and mentioned how the waitstaff doesn't ever seem to listen. They sent over several extra free desserts. As the bill comes, the waitstaff has overcharged us and charged us for food we didn't consume. As the situation began to border on comical/absurd, the surrealism emerged. The bill was fixed as the waitstaff was getting concerned with the free food being sent by the owner and us chatting away in Spanish, and we learned that the owner is Georgian but grew up in Spain. He mentioned that his family moved away with communism. Originally our friends thought he was Jewish perhaps as many Jews moved during that time, but as the Georgians probed a bit more it became evident that a celebrity was before us, only I was the only one that was totally clueless to this. He mentioned that his family was in Bulgaria, Russia, Spain, etc. After he mentioned his last name, Nino, my friend asked a few more questions and I later find out that he is the second in line to the Georgian royal throne, meaning if it was reinstated, he'd be prince, and his cousin would be King of Russia if their monarchy went back. So if the restaurant hadn't flooded and we hadn't been sitting where we are I would perhaps not have Prince David's phone number and a lunch meeting with him and his friends next week :)

Whoever thought Spanish wouldn't be useful in the Caucasus hasn't realized the impact of tsiganka's suenos.