How to become a local as quick as possible

Being a tourist is nice but being recognized as a tourist is uncool, isn't it ;-). Here is my semi-ironic receipt of becoming quickly a local in a new town with Tbilisi as example:

1.  At first store your luggage in the hotel and then go out dressed like the locals. I mean if nobody wears sunglasses then also don't.
2. Got to the next metro or tram station and buy a ticket.
   In Tbilisi they have the same system like Santiago's Transantiago: You buy a cheap card which you can recharge every time on demand. In Tbilisi's the card is named Metromani (MetroMoney).
   Now organize a map with all the lines or google it.
   This is an easy task in Tbilisi because there is no network map. There are 150 city bus lines and more than 200 minibus lines and no normal person can have all of them in mind. Moreover, the route of the lines change quite often. What the Tbilisi Transport Company offers is a real-time information and also an impressive trip planner (only for the 150 city bus lines).
   Important note: The minibuses and the city buses use the same numbers but minibus line 61 will not drive the same route of city bus line 61!
3. Get a local cell phone pre-paid card or contract.
   I decided in favor of Geocell. Al I needed was my passport because anonymous numbers are not allowed in Georgia. I got a SIM card put it into my phone and that was it. Whenever I like I can recharge the card. For example 2 GB Internet volume with my phone costs only 7 Lari. A minute calling costs only 10 Tetri and - I am not joking - a minute to Europe only 25 Tetri. This are 11 Cents while I would have to pay with my German contract incredible 3 €/min.
4. Now that you have got the basics use them to explore the city. The normal way is to try to buy something special. Imagine for example that you need a new battery for your camera (for your phone would be too easy).  It doesn't matter if you really need it or if you have a camera or not, just imagine this and go on. You might need the whole day and perhaps eventually fail. But this way you will travel wildly in the city, you speak to many locals and learn how everything works.
   If you are super lazy there is another way: Go to the nearest metro station (in cities without a metro use the tram instead) and drive until the second to last station of the metro line. There walk a bit around and find your way back home without using the metro or a taxi.
   In Tbilisi I did not have to imagine anything. At the end of the first day where I shot about 50 images without any problem, my beloved camera refused to work. I really tried everything.
   My Casio Exilim EX-H10, you were the best camera I ever had and I traveled with you around the world for 5 years without any problem. All images in this blog were taken by you and I never needed to photoshop any of your images before I uploaded them. RIP!
   I asked some people in the streets (many of them speak English) and could only find some small electronic stores. In one of them they sent me to their headquarter and this way I was in the Saburtalo area. It was a pain to buy a new camera because they are all so much more expensive than in Germany. Because Georgians are usually not very rich they either use their noisy smartphone camera or buy cheap ones which are noisy too. The only camera I found  with acceptable test results in the Internet was the 4 year old Nikon S8100. I could reduce its price by 50 Lari but still paid a horrible price. Now, 3 days later, I found out that the central rail station contains 5 large electronic markets offering many models and acceptable prices.
5. Buy your daily stuff where the locals do.
   In Tbilisi these are the thousands of small stores on almost every street selling water, bread, cosmetics etc.. Many shops are open also on Sundays and holidays and there are "24/24" stores which never close. Note that a "24/24" is not necessarily also a "24/7" store.
   To buy bread go to the many small bakery stores. They bake there the bread behind a glass wall allowing you to see how they make it.
6. Pay your stuff like locals. If everybody pays cash then don't use a credit card.
   Here in Tbilisi they have a very convenient system called PayBox or ExpressPay. These are automated machines which you can find almost everywhere in the streets. They allow you to pay all kind of stuff that could be paid like transport tickets, fees for water and waste, fines if you parked in a wrong way, mobile phone bills etc.. For example to recharge your Metromani card, just press it into a card reader and then insert some money.
   Now we have the right topic for the music: I:Cube - Cash Conv

The Tbilisi metro doesn't have the beautiful stations
like in other former Soviet Union cities.

In every station is a clock showing in
green the arrival time of the next train.

The metro stations are very deep in the
inner city because of the hilly geography.

The important bus stops have real-time information.
They are also displayed in Latin letters (switches from time to time).

 

The Metromani (MetroMoney) card.

View into one of the small bakeries.

An ExpressPay machine.

Its main screen. To recharge your Metromani
card press the upper left button.

A city bus.

A minibus.