Bus Travel in Tbilisi, Georgia

to ride this...

you need this...

you wait in one of these shelters for your bus...

and these signs...

well, I quickly learned it's important to pay attention to them.

The first time I got onto a bus here in Georgia, Deborah pointed to seats and told me immediately to go, sit. The drivers here don't play, they start driving again quickly after they shut the doors. And it isn't a smooth start. She knows that and she didn't want me to face plant.  As I walked toward the area she'd directed me to, I noticed the signs and turned around, heading back to her. I couldn't sit in those seats, they were for handicapped persons. Her quick reflexes and strength are the only things that kept me standing as she pretty much wrapped me in her arms and deposited me on a seat near to where she was standing.

When I got home I told Abigail the story of my almost mis-hap. With a look of concern and a quick "Oh, grandma..." she kindly and gently explained something important to me. 

"If the seats are for handicapped people, there will be a wheelchair painted. If the seats are for pregnant woman there will be a stick person that looks pregnant. Those signs mean the seats are for, well, people like you." 

In other words: Those seats are for old people. 

I happily sat in one of those marked seats the last two Sunday mornings as we went to church. Being educated correctly, and swallowing my pride, has proved to be very helpful and has kept me injury free. Also, my daughter knows what she's doing. I should have listened to her the first time.