Austin's Escalator Ride...and ER visit

Thursday night, we head to the metro to go to a music festival downtown. The plan is to meet Barbara, the newest liaison, at the next metro stop and then head to Republic Square. I call Barbara and tell her we are at the metro and will be at her stop in about 5 minutes. We never make it.

The Soviets built the metro - it is old, clean, cheap ($.14)and is the usual way we travel downtown so the kids have been on it countless times. The escalators are very fast and very steep. A person - usually a woman - sits in a glass booth at the top and bottom of the escalators and watch people all day long go up and down.

Austin was doing his normal figeting and trying to tell me sometime. As I move closer and about to tell him to move his foot away from the side of the escalator, the heel of his tennis shoe gets caught between the bottom of the step and the side of the wall. He starts whining and trying to get his foot out. I try and when it doesn't budge, I have flashes of the steps crushing his ankle as it flattens and start screaming (in English) STOP! STOP! and waving my arms. When the escalator keeps going, Madisen starts running down the escalator to bang on the glass booths.

It stops. Scores of men start running to us, I point to Austin's foot, and start explaining in English. Luckily, it was pretty obvious what was going on. Austin is crying and scared; Cole Ryan and Madisen are scared, but are quiet and let me try to calm Austin who is feeling his foot being tugged out of the huge steel jaws. The metro men pull out a couple of crow bars, untie his shoe, and then work his foot out. It hurts him, but it is not serious. One man picks Austin up like a baby (a 55-60 pound baby) and starts running up the other escalator and motions for us to follow. Austin is placed in an office, given water, ice, and a fan, and then the questions start. I try to call Armine but the cell phone doesn't work and the phone sitting on the desk apparently doesn't make outside calls. The main guy eventually goes outside. Turns out that the man is afraid that I will file some kind of report against them. By that time, I was so grateful that my son's foot was not crushed and was only bruised, everyone had reacted quickly, that filing a report or a lawsuit was beyond my comprehension. He insists that Austin go to the clinic and we hear sirens in the background.

The next adventure: ambulence ride through Yerevan. Austin is placed on a stretcher and the three of us sit next to him with the nurse at his head. There are no seatbelts, no signs of first aid other than the stretcher that Austin is lying on, the driver is smoking, and the van is dirty. It was a far cry from the ambulence that Cole was in when he bashed his head on the side of the pool last year. After the ambulence almost rammed into a car a couple of times, we arrive at the hospital. They put Austin in a wheelchair and we follow him into a room. A really nice young doctor comes in, speaks some English, and asks Austin if he can walk. Austin gets up and walks awkwardly, but is fine. The doctor tells us to go home.

Austin decides that he doesn't want to go home, but wants to go to the musical festival instead. After a quick jaunt to check out the music - with Austin walking a bit and then getting a piggy back ride from me - we go home - by taxi.

Follow up: we rode the metro 2 days later and Austin is very, very aware of where his feet are on the steps. And he didn't have flashbacks.

Tbilisi, Georgia

Madisen, Cole Ryan, Austin and I went to Tbilisi by train at the end of May. Sounds adventurous and exciting, huh? The reality was much different....

The distance between Yerevan and Tbilisi is about a 6-7 hour drive depending on the border. The train is at least 15 hours and stops at EVERY town, village, and random place between the two cities - not to mention stopping at customs on both borders (for some reason the two are about 30-45 minutes away) for ungodly amounts of time. On the way back, the kids had enough time to feed the stray dogs, buy delicious cherries, find a store in town, make lifelong friends, and ask at least 250 times, "when is the train going to go?"


As I had been previously warned about the train conditions, we had a sleeping compartment - 4 sleeping berths in one private compartment. There were two upper berths and two lower ones. The train had not been updated since Armenia gained independence in the early 1990's - grimy windows, very old bed cushion and pillows, and threadbare rug. Luckily, we had clean sheets that smelled strongly of chlorine (actually, we were supposed to pay for them, but the conductor on the way to Tbilisi passed out within about an hour of our departure and I snagged four sets and blankets thinking that they were included). I was warned to use the bathroom early and not drink much as it had probably not been cleaned since the collapse of the USSR. I smugly thought we could handle any bathroom - I had a packet of portable Charmin toilet seat covers (thanks Susie), a daughter with a good attitude, two boys who will go just about anywhere, and personal experience in a disgusting Egyptian train 20 years' ago. Erica, a friend with two young boys and lots of train traveling experience throughout the former Soviet Union, advised me to bring a "pee jar" for emergencies. Thankfully my kids were up for just about anything and the boys thought peeing in a jar was a great new way to go to the bathroom. We survived the ordeal, but it is not something that either Madisen or I want to repeat.


The border crossing is pretty brutal as the customs guards wake everyone at 5:00 a.m. to check the compartment, luggage, passport, etc. One guard had the gall to ask me if I had anything else in our one suitcase except clothes. Did he not see there were three children tagging along? What exactly did he expect? After 2 hours at the Armenian border, we did the whole thing again on the Georgian side for another hour and a half.


We finally arrive in Tbilisi, hail a taxi and go to our bed & breakfast. As we walk into the place exhausted, CR trips and falls breaking the glass pee jar on the white marble steps. Thank God it was empty, he was not hurt, and we couldn't explain what it was even if we had wanted to. Our room was not yet ready so we sit in the lovely parlor with old European aristocrats framed in gold staring down at us, delicate hand painted glass and china vases, bowls, and sculpture surrounding us while our hostess plays - and sings - Georgian children's songs on a white Steinway baby grand piano. I try to be polite and smile; the kids are zombies and just stare. While our hostess must think they are unfriendly children with poor taste in music, I am relieved that at least they are not a threat to the objects d'art in the room.

The next couple of days we check out the fortress high above Tbilisi. Madisen has no real interest in climbing to the top and sits down in the shade of the church; the boys want to go everywhere despite the heat and perilous drops. We make it up and down and then go to one of the only mosques in the city. Austin gets a big kick out of the headscarves that Madisen and I wear and the fact that we all go barefoot while inside. Next, the sulpher baths which have been around for hundreds of years. We have our own room for an hour and I get a "bath" and a "massage" by some large Russian woman armed with a bucket of soapy water, horse hair wash "cloth," and a desire to show who is in charge. She orders the kids out (they actually listen) and my bathing suit pretty much off. Then the massage: part hitting, part beating, part trying to rub my skin off the bones. I come out and the kids have wrapped themselves like Romans in the sheets that were our towels, but Austin has not gotten the message that the wrap should also cover up his private parts. So, the sheet/towel covers his entire body except the parts that should be covered. Madisen takes a picture. It will not be posted.

Going to Georgia.......NOT the state

We went to Georgia about 2 weeks ago. It was fun, but unfortunately, we went on a train instead of an airplane......

The Train was gross. It looked like it hadn't been cleaned out since it was built. There were 4 bunks, two on top and two on the bottom. There was a foldout table and a disgusting window. When we first got on the train and into the cabin,Cole said "I wish I could live in here my entire life", he changed his mind in a little bit. Once the train finally got started, we ate. Armine had made some meat and potato things which we ate. We also had brought cheese, bread, eggs(for in the morning), coke, juice, water, beef jerky and maybe a few other things I can't remember.

After we ate, the boys wanted to put the bunks down(mom had put them up when we got on) and mom said just one. We put it down, and started to play on it. It was fun to play on the bunk, but got tiring. I liked to just lay down and look out the window, but the bunk was to small for all of us to fit on it. Cole and Austin liked to go up and down...It got VERY annoying.

Soon we figured out there was no electricity...I started to read Eldest immediately. We played a little bit more and then Austin said "I need to go to the bathroom" Mom took him to the bathroom. There is only one word for it DISGUSTING. I am going to start describing it so skip the next paragraph if you don't want to know about it.

The Bathroom was gross. There was pee all over the walls and you wouldn't want to touch anything. It was small but there was a sink, toilet and a hole in the floor for something. The sink didn't work and the toilet didn't flush...gross.

Luckily, we had brought a pee jar so we wouldn't have to go in the bathroom. Cole and Austin went in the bathroom and I looked in it. Mom of course had to go in the bathroom with the boys.

After that we played some more on the bunks. Then mom went to go get the sheets and blankets. She said the sheet guy was asleep so she just grabbed them. Mom just wanted to throw the sheets and blankets on the bunk, but I decided to make the bunk up. Then the electricity came on and mom decided to read Captain Underpants and Shiloh to the boys who were on the top bunks. I read Eragon outside of our compartment for awhile. I came back in and then I got into bed. After mom was finished reading to the boys, we all went to bed. I was really cold while I kind of slept. Cole and Austin and I got sleep, but mom didn't.

In the morning, we ate eggs and sweet bread. We stopped at the borders about 5:00 on the Armenian side for about 2 hours and then on the Georgian side for another 2 hours. While we were on the Georgian side, we fed a dog one egg who looked like it had been in a fight. A big while later we were moving again. Before we got to Georgia, Tblisi, I had to go pee. I decided not to use the toilet, but to use the pee jar, so I told everyone to get out of the room. I finally went, and I filled the jar up halfway full, I had to pee ALOT. We finally got to tblisi.

I will write more about Tblisi later, but I think it is mom's turn to write.

The pictures are of us eating on the train, Austin and I waiting for the train, and the boys on the bunk.

Madisen