Within 10 days of arrival, we felt we had landed – moving into a delightful apartment in the Vake district of Tbilisi after screening a half-dozen more. To us, it feels like a section of leafy Brooklyn, with services and accessibility akin to our Saldanha area of Lisbon – countless small markets with fresh produce, international food shops, numerous houseware and specialty products, as well as wine bistros where we’ve already made friends.
A huge bonus is that we are just a few steps from Vake Park, a bit like Central Park in NYC.
This urban park, moreover, is joined to a hiking mountain like Lisbon’s Monsanto. Here’s the view from about half-way to the top. We climbed to here, but a cable car and zip line connect the top and bottom of the mountain.
So it was a very good welcome in Tbilisi! A week earlier, we pulled an all-nighter to reach here, flying through Istanbul, and sprinted the length of its vast concourse to arrive at our connecting gate in time. At Tbilisi airport, passport control took just 10 minutes. Bags arrived just as we reached the carousel. SIM card another 10 minutes. Cash in 2 minutes. Then off to the hotel, where we planned to stay while hunting for an apartment.
The hotel looked out over Old Tbilisi from a ridge on Mt Mtatsminda. When we arrived dead tired, we needed to wrangle with the staff about its mistaken switch of our room. In the end – all good! This is the view we were able to enjoy from our private verandah.
Below the hotel, in the quaint hillside district of Tbilisi called Vera, we took a bit of time to enjoy some sights, such as this arty house – moustachioed, tattooed, and wide-eyed – smiling upon us.
Further below the hotel was Rustaveli Plaza, a major junction in the central city. Just before finishing the descent into the plaza, we saw these two towers and a dome, showing the old, the new, and alas a fancy McDonalds.
A massive Moorish Revival building at Rustaveli Plaza
And we took a walk down Rustaveli Street to Old Tbilisi. Once named for Lenin, the elliptical Liberty Square has celebrated freedom from Russia since 1990. In the center of this busy thoroughfare, the statue depicts St George slaying the dragon. George has some relationship to the name of the country.
It’s become clear from the frequently political graffiti around town what the people think of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine (and its potential threat to Georgia).
Persian style woodwork and architecture adorns much of old Tbilisi including the right side of this main street connected to Liberty Square. Iran is just on the other side of Armenia, very close to Georgia. On the left, some of the city’s plentiful late 19th century buildings contrast harmoniously.
The glowing interior of the medieval Sioni (Zion) Cathedral, one of the many Georgian Orthodox churches of old Tbilisi.
Peace Bridge, connecting old Tbilisi across the Kura River to nothing much.
A colorful stall displays churchkhela at the sprawling central market of Deserter Bazaar. What is that, we asked. It’s not sausage…it’s actually a healthy vegan candy that some say were carried by medieval Georgian soldiers for an energy boost. To make it, you thread walnuts on a string, dip the strung walnuts in a grapey roux, and then hang to dry. The roux hardens into a texture a bit like gummy bears. The colors change with the type of grapes.
Near the large flower market at Orbeliani Park in the old city, a kiosk offers typical Georgian food like this Adjaruli khachapuri. The fishing population of Adjara on the Black Sea created this boat-shaped adaptation of the typical khachapuri of bread and melted cheese. Suggested technique is to break bread from the edges and dip into the eggy cheese center. The beer is from Kazbegi, the mountainous region in the north of the country.
Though we’d just spent a little time in seeing the heart of the city, while focusing on finding our apartment, we’d already seen enough to thrill us about living here for a while.
(To enlarge any picture above, click on it. Also, for more pictures from Georgia, CLICK HERE to view the slideshow at the end of the itinerary page.)
