To be honest I didn’t know much about Georgia before I saw a
job for an English teacher there about 9 months ago. I thought about applying
but having never been to anyplace like Georgia I was worried if I would be able
to live happily there. This stuck with me so when I wanted to plan an unusual
stop over point on my way to Australia the capital Tbilisi seemed like a
perfect option. I emailed the school to see if I could attend but I heard
nothing back from them so instead I was just going to explore the city independently.
The country used to be part of the Soviet Union but after its
breakdown Georgia became an independent nation. Situated on the eastern side of
Turkey the country shares boarders with both Azerbaijan and Armenia and since
those two countries remain at war with each other Georgia sort of acts as a go
between for travellers visiting the ‘Caucus Region.’ Border crossings direct
between the two countries are not possible despite a large land boarder. Since
independence there have been a few ups and downs but now Georgia is hoping to
get admittance to the European Union and is developing many large-scale
projects including a streetcar system, a railway bypass and a relocation of the
central station and new urban highways.
As my flight left Istanbul’s Sabhina airport I couldn’t help
but feel as though I was venturing into the unknown. I was on a flight to
somewhere that I couldn’t even pronounce without careful concentration. Once on
the ground I came to see that the airport here looked quite nice, and that any
city with an airport as modern as this couldn’t be a scary place. If it hadn’t
been for the man smoking a cigarette at the urinal before immigration then I
could quite easily have been in any EU airport at all. And they say that men
can’t multi task!
Once through immigration I found free wifi and began to feel
a little more at home. Suitcase collected I ventured through customs and looked
for the driver who the hostel had sent to collect me. He was there, stood
waiting with a sign displaying the name of my hostel. I liked him instantly, he
spoke no English, and made no effort to speak to me all the way to the hostel,
I love taxi drivers like that. I also quite liked his determination. What I
mean is his windscreen had a huge crack (I mean from drivers top corner to the passenger
side, size crack) and yet he didn’t let that stop him from working with the
car, talk about determination. A heart stopping 30 minute ride in his car later
and I learned that cracked windscreens are stronger than autos direct would
have us believe in England. My first thoughts when he drove up to my hostel
were, ‘what kind of place is he taking me to?’
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| Geogian Writting |
It was 3 am I was tired, cold and in desperate need of
sleep, I didn’t care that the sign displaying the hostel name was graffiti
badly on the wall at the bottom of the alley; all I cared for was a clean bed
and a warm blanket. I got both of them and set my alarm for the early morning
so I could arrange my train to Yerevan.
Morning came and I spoke with Bridget the South African
worker at the hostel and she advised me to take marshrukta to Yerevan instead
of the train. She did present a good argument; half the time, able to see the
views along the way and during daylight hours. I was still considering taking
the train mainly because I’d heard you got a little picture of a train on your
passport stamp and I’d like to get me one of those. But when I checked the
train times it resulted in an arrival time of around 0100 in Yerevan, and I
don’t like to arrive in a city at silly o’clock in the morning unless I can
really help it. So it was decided I was staying in Tbilisi for an extra night
and then getting a marshrukta in the morning. For those of you unfamiliar with
a Marshrukta it is a minibus that works like a small coach. It wasn’t quite as luxurious
as the coaches in Israel (i.e. it had no wifi) but at least I wasn’t in a war
zone (ish).
Less of that and more about Tbilisi. I had read that the
city was similar to Prague only more run down. I can agree with the run down
part but not so sure about the Prague part, I’ll leave that assessment up to
you when you visit the place. I started my day with a walk up try and discover
a nice Georgian place to eat breakfast at. After my discovery of Egyptian pie
(bit like pizza) I guessed that Georgian pie would be similar so I order that.
Turns out I was wrong. It was more like a pasty and the filling inside were not
good. Still I tried and in the process of trying I was reminded of home; guess
who should come on Georgian radio, nobody but Lisa Stansfield. Funny she seems
to be stalking me on this trip, she was huge in Italy, I had conversations
about her in Belgium and here she is on the radio in Georgia. I think it’s nice
she still working. After I had embraced a bit of ‘been around the world and I I
I I I I ‘ (I was still no closer to
finding a baby; hers or anyone else’s, sorry)I decided to tackle one of the
many hills that surrounded Tbilisi. I chose the one which had the fortress on
the top and the statue of Mother Georgia.
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| Mother Georgia, do You think she's a red or white girl? |
The fortress was also linked to the city centre by an
‘aerial tramway.’ Basically a wire connected the top of the hill with the
bottom of the hill. On this wire you could sit in little cabins and ride all
the way to the top. These carts had glass floors. I was not sitting in one of
those. I’ve just read that in 1990 the rope snapped killing 20 people and
injuring many others. I think my rationale for not riding the bugger has been
justified
If I’m honest I found the fortress path more as a matter of
good luck rather than good planning, but I was glad I was. The view from the
top was great. Whilst at the top I met my first Georgian who spoke English, he
was trying to sell me a tour but not in the pressured way I was used to in
Egypt. Apparently Mother Georgia is a symbol of Georgia’s past and of future
hope. If you look at her she has a sword in one hand and a glass of wine in the
other (clever woman). The sword represents a warning to her enemies, the woman
of Georgia have fought alongside men for years defending Georgia and her people. The glass of wine is
for her friends, it’s this symbol which makes me wish I’d have met her. She
also has huge boobs, I’m not sure what that represents, maybe the statue was
designed by a straight man?
Anyhow from the top it was clear to see that Tbilisi was
changing. Sure I was staying in the old town so it was old and dilapidated in
parts, but that does have its charm, but alongside the river bank and on the
other side of Republic Square you could see modern buildings. I’m no architect
but they’re quite unusual designs. Look at this bridge. It’s not what I
expected from an ex soviet state. Guess that teaches me to be so judgemental.
Walking around the city I couldn’t quite make my mind up
what I thought of it. It was by no means unsafe, in fact I felt safer there
than I did in many other cities on my trip, most notably Brussels. The people
were friendly when I spoke with them, but no one really cared I was there. I
may get an odd lingering look of one of the children, kids will be kids,
because to be honest I’m white, blonde and blue eyed, I couldn’t look more like
a tourist than if I had a map in front of me. But no one cared; no one pestered
me to buy from their shop or to go on one of their tours. It was refreshing.
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| Some Graffitti |
After a day of site seeing I went back to y hostel and spent
the evening getting to know the people who lived there. We exchanged stories
and even read out funny articles we each found on the internet. The articles
became article read from ‘The Guardian’ newspaper. It was at this point I
started to get an uneasy feeling. I was already aware that the ceasefire in
Israel was no longer being upheld, I was there two weeks ago. Then I read about
the demonstrations and protests in Cairo, I was there a week ago. Then I heard
about Turkey declaring war on Israel (or was it Syria, by this point I was in
shock) I was there only the day before. I’m starting to feel like imp a bad omen
and that war / civil unrests break out after each I’ve been too. Fingers
crossed Georgia can survive after I leave without any problems occurring.
