A couple of hours west of Sighnagi is Tbilisi, the capital of Georgia. Today we are taking a marshrutka (a shared mini bus) from Sighnaghi to the capital. We make good time, as no surprise, the driver drives like a lunatic in the usual way we’ve come to expect!! At first look, Tbilisi is a big, busy city… traffic is terrible! We eventually get to our Airbnb where we’ll stay for a week and do day tours to see as many highlights of the country as we can!
The first port of call is lunch and my first kebab! Oh yeah…
We walk around and suss out our local surroundings and later have booked an evening walking tour with some wine tasting to get us oriented. We take the metro one stop as it’s a bit of a hike. The escalator goes so fast you kind of have to jump (mama, if you’re reading this you’d be terrified to get on!!)… cause it goes so deep down.
Unfortunately it seems like the whole town is covered in roadworks – some of the streets look like a war zone!
But not to worry, we make it to our meeting point, which is at this giant bicycle on Rose Revolution square.
Our guide Mariam, is an enthusiastic twenty year old with lots of knowledge of the town. We avoid the roadworks and walk along some back streets and through the old town. We see buildings with the beautiful old Tbilisi balconies, European style buildings, modern buildings and Soviet era buildings.
Entering into the old town there are lots of these statues… each one has a story attached and Mariam loves telling us the stories!
We walk over the Bridge of Peace, a steel and glass bow shaped bridge, built in 2010.
We see a great night view of Metekhi Church which I’m guessing we’ll come back to for a daytime view at some stage.
Walking around Rike park, on the left bank of the river, we find wine ice cream and have to try it. There was lots of this in Sighnaghi but we didn’t get round to it. It’s nice.. not sure how much wine is actually in it!!
Next we check out Meidan bazaar which has so much stuff packed into it. I do think we’ll have to bring home some spices.
From here we walk through the area with the sulphur bathhouses. It’s called Abanotubani and we will definitely be back… we continue on a path along a river that leads to a waterfall.
It’s such an unexpected thing to see in the middle of a busy city. It’s really impressive.
Next morning we are heading northwest of Tbilisi to Mtskheta. As we retrace our steps from last night’s tour through the old town, we see the clock and have an opportunity for a photo with nobody around.
Our first stop on the tour is Jvari Monastery which sits on a hill and is really impressive as you approach it. This is considered the exact spot where St Nino brought Christianity to Georgia in approx 367. The monastery was built in the 6th century.
There are some great views from up here too. You can see the expanse of Mtskheta and the confluence of two rivers.
Back on the bus, we continue to Svetitskhoveli Cathedral, which dates to 1020. The grounds are beautiful so we walk around for the best shot of the church.
Inside, the enormous fresco of Christ, is very impressive. There is allegedly a piece of Jesus’s robe here, but it’s under a pillar and also a relic of St Andrew – again you can’t actually see it … hmmmm!
Outside there are some stalls and we taste this snack which is all over Tbilisi, called Churchkhela. Walnuts or hazelnuts are threaded onto a long piece of string using a needle and grape juice poured over them. It looks like it’s going to be sweet but it’s not at all.
Next stop is the highlight of the day – the ancient rock-hewn city of Uplistsikhe.
It’s hard to capture this remarkable cave city which dates as far back as 1,000 BC. There’s a fair amount of tourists around but we climb to the top and explore the different levels of what was a fairly advanced people’s city from so long ago!
We have a small lunch here (because half of our order never arrived!) and then we drive to Gori. The town has a fortress that you can see from the road but that’s not why we are here. We are here to visit a museum dedicated to Gori’s most famous son – Joseph Stalin. Now I have mixed feelings about going to a museum about someone who committed such terrible atrocities. I’m pleasantly pleased by our guide who really does tell it as it is (in an implied kind of way without spelling out how awful he was).
I didn’t take a lot of photos although there were a lot of interesting exhibits. One in particular was a letter from Lenin to the party stating that Stalin should be removed and should not be leader (I’m paraphrasing). There was also a whole side of a wall of propaganda which the guide veered us away from, calling it exactly that. His early life and personal life was the focus of what we saw and it was very interesting.
Below is Stalins famous armour-plated private railway car which he used to travel to some historic WWII summits.
About an hour later, we are back in Tbilisi and have dinner at Pasanouri restaurant which was recommended by Mariam on our walking tour. The food is fantastic in particular the lamb and the Kisi wine is divine. We get chatting to a lovely Ukrainian woman sitting beside us, who after spending a wonderful week in Georgia at her friends wedding now has to return to Kiev 😢.
Next morning we take a walk to the Sioni cathedral. This is where the original cross of St Nino is kept. It takes me 2 visits inside to find it and then I can’t take a photo, although it’s hidden inside another wooden cross anyway!! The frescoes in this 13th century church are beautiful though.
Next we visit the oldest church in Tbilisi, dating to the 6th century- Anchiskhati Basilica. It’s small and beautiful with some very old icons.
It’s not all about the churches you know!!! We do also see dancing fountains….
….. and cool buildings…..
….. and then it’s time for another church!! The Kashueti St. George church in the “9th April” park with its beautiful dome and frescoes.
We walk along Rustaveli Avenue, the main thoroughfare that is under construction! Through the rubble we see the beautiful buildings – the Soviet era parliament.
Opposite is the stylish looking Museum of Fine Arts.
It’s lunchtime and Shane has found a Kinkhali restaurant as we climb our way up toward the funicular. The kinkhalis are delicious and we have the tomato and cucumber salad that is covered with mashed-up walnuts – he loves it, I don’t! Later when we check out the episode of “Somebody Feed Phil” (my favourite food travel show), we realise he also went here… score!!
When we arrive at the funicular, to take us up to Mtatsminda park, the lady at the ticket counter gives a very brusque “no” meaning it’s not running. There are people standing around and a couple of workers on walkie talkies shouting at each other but we can’t get any info in English. What we do know is we won’t be able to take the funicular today which is a bit of a bummer but we still want to go up to see the view so we jump in a Bolt. The view is vast rather than pretty.
I read that at the top of the hill there is a place that sells “ponchik” which are essentially Soviet donuts!! Well they’re donuts that were popular during Soviet times. Of course I’m going to have to try one! By the way a quick sidebar here on the Georgians… the guidebook I’m reading has on multiple occasions mentioned the “friendly Georgians” but honestly we have yet to meet them (well except the lovely Lia in Sighnaghi, and the odd person we have won over!). They’re not friendly at all.. I realise they’re not a nation of smilers but shop keepers and servers in restaurants have regularly snarled at us… I swear!! We do find it very funny, but there you go!!
Unless you’re visiting the funfair at Mtatsminda, once you’ve seen the view there’s not much else to do it climb back down.
We walk the steps back down through a very nice pathway.
The path runs alongside the funicular…
We reckon that’s enough sightseeing for today and head to a craft beer bar (you’ll never guess who found that!) and have a beer. Mine is the one that doesn’t look like tomato juice and it’s really nice. I only find out when I’m 3/4 ways through that it’s 8.5%!!
I have been dying to taste the lobiani, which is bean bread and as we walk past a bakery close to our house we see them for sale – we’ve got to try one. I absolutely love it!
We try a wine bar around the corner and do a tasting of some amber wine which is delicious.
Diner tonight is going to be cheese and bread…. The bread is served with Kakhetian oil (cold pressed sunflower oil with Adjika). It is amazing!! No complaints here!!
More in the next instalment…
