Tbilisi, Georgia

After a week in Azerbaijan, it was time to take a long weekend to explore some nearby countries that I wouldn't otherwise travel to separately. One of those was Georgia, a confusing place to tell people you're visiting if you're from the states ("not that Georgia"). Fun fact: the only time I went to the state of Georgia in the US was on a layover.

I stayed in the capital, Tbilisi, which means "warm place" in ancient Georgian due to the thermal springs that tempted some ancient dude to found the city there. Ancient Georgian is about as intelligible to me as modern Georgian - not. at. all. I was not even close to understanding words. Their written language reminded me of Hindi or some other southeast Asian script. It was beautiful!

I only had 2 days in Georgia due to the horrible flight schedule between my next destination and any other country ever (dictatorships be like that sometimes, more on that in the next entry). So I crammed in 2 tours: a tip-based evening tour and a prepaid all-day tour led by the lovely Tamo. They were both awesome and had relatively little overlap (the main overlap was a visit to a bakery that has been continuously functioning for hundreds of years and specializes in mouth-watering khachapuri. I was obviously ok with visiting the bakery multiple times.). 

My favorite part of the tours (other than the bakery, obvi) was the street vendors selling fresh squeezed pomegranate juice. Just like in Azerbaijan, pomegranates are big here, and I am literally eating it up. 

 

Another fave in Tbilisi was the statue that overlooks the city: Our Mother of Georgia. The protector of the city is female and holds a bowl of wine in one hand and a sword in the other. My guides differed on the symbolism of the wine (is it held as a tribute to the hard work that goes into the production process, or raised in a gesture of welcome to friendly visitors? I got a vibe that it was the latter.) but the sword's message is pretty clear ("I like swords.")

Wikipedia pic

My pic (after taking the cable car to the top of the city).

Tbilisi is has one of the best exotic-to-manageable ratios I've experienced. It is really different from western European cities, but absolutely charming and very picturesque. Everyone speaks Georgian, most people speak Russian, and a healthy handful of guides/merchants/hotel staff speak great English. 

Speaking of Russian, we had a middle-aged Russian lady on the night tour. She left halfway through the tour and I asked the guide what was up. He said she had lectured him on presenting Stalin and Lenin as neutral facts in Georgia's history. She was upset because she expected that when he mentioned those names he would extol the virtues of the Soviet influence on Georgia. When he gently told her he wasn't going to do that, she left the tour in a huff. I was shocked that someone willing to travel internationally could have such a narrow worldview. In related news, Russia's  brainwashing of its citizens seems to be quite successful. 

On the opposite side of the spectrum, I met some awesome girls from Poland and Spain on my other tour, who like me were just hoping to explore a new country over the weekend. Mission accomplished for the 3 of us!

My gripe for Tbilisi:
Transportation to/from the airport.
It's extremely cheap, which is awesome. The cost is .50 lari (ლ), or about 20 cents in USD, and goes pretty far (it takes 45 minutes each way and brings you straight into the city center). The problem is that you must have it in exact change. I changed money at the airport (ouch) so I could take the bus, and then when I got on and offered a ლ5 bill had the attendant wave me away shaking her head. Um, ok. The bus left. I went inside and asked the info desk what happened. She explained and told me to go to one of the shops to get change (some travel blogs say the info ladies will give you change. Lies!). So I got 5 ლ1 coins and tried again. The next bus came in 20 minutes (not bad!) and I proudly offered my ლ1 coin, only to get the dreaded head-shake and a stream of Georgian explanation. I motioned that I was ok losing .50 cents and please just take this coin: no. Ok, I would pay for 2 people so it would be exact change? Also no. Finally a sweet woman just paid for me. I tried to give her the ლ1 coin in thanks (it was double her investment!) and even she waved me away. One person, .50 cents. NO OTHER OPTION.

The bus attendant on the way to the airport fell asleep on the machine. People kept waking him up to pay and he was livid. A lot of people just didn't pay (even when he was awake) and I'm beginning to think that was the better option. 

Book read during this portion: The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt. Very entertaining, but a bit too long-winded for me.