His experience on the train is quite pleasant. A teenage girl, traveling with her father, strikes up a conversation with the Traveler in English. Her father, on the other hand speaks only Georgian and Russian.

"Can you play a song for us?" She asks .

Um... I've never played music on a crowded train before... but what do I have to lose? he thinks...Hey, they asked for it!

So he whips out his six string and entertains the entire passenger car with some of his favorites... without a complaint from anyone.

A couple other young folks--who also speak English--strike up a conversation. "You know Gori is the birthplace of Stalin.... you should visit it"

It's another unforgettable encounter with the wonderful folks of Georgia.

He would like to see Stalin's birthplace in Gori--but is not quite sure how to approach it, as he doesn't know how people feel about their notorious son. Do they love him... hate him? He starts out in a quiet neighborhood nestled against the wooded hills... but soon realizes that the real city is on the other side of the tracks .

Gori is one of the few Georgian cities that actually feels like a city--a Soviet style city with wide boulevard, identical buildings on both side, huge, austere government building...

And finding the "birthplace of Stalin" will not be exactly difficult. It appears that the entire city was razed to the ground, and then rebuilt again--just to make Stalin' birthplace it's absolute epicenter! The main boulevard converge on this single spot: a temple-like structure built over a humble little house.

It's a surreal sight. It seems that the idea was to elevate Stalin to a God-like status, making the entire city a place of worship of the Superhuman being.

And the strange thing is that, after Stalin's death, the Soviet Union had a change of heart towards their brutal former dictator, and there was an effort to purge him from history a bit, renaming cities and even removing his image from movies!

And yet, Gori still remains an untouched temple to perhaps the most controversial figure in Russian history .

He hadn't realized that Stalin was Georgian. Georgia seems culturally, linguistically and geographically a million miles from Russia. Georgian's with their cheerful, festive demeanor remind him more of Greeks or Spaniards, not Russians. And yet he rose to rule Soviet Russia...one of the most cold and cruel empires of modern history.

Not quite sure what to feel. Respect? Disgust? This was the guy who turned his peasant farmer country into an industrial and military superpower... committing unspeakable horrors against his own people in the process...

Well... what's done is done... Let's move on.

A nearby hilltop castle is a more pleasant, laid back discovery. Perfectly perched on a high plateau, you can go up and enjoy a great view of the entire area: Gori well planned city layout and industrial zone on the horizon... with a large Georgian flag flapping in the breeze.

Here he finally have a chat with a fellow tourist... heads down into town to stroll up the leafy boulevard while eating a Russian ice cream bar... and then head on his way.