Tbil 'Where?'isi

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?’

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. 

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.

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.