The first time I saw pictures of Tbilisi, Georgia two years ago with its colourfully charming architecture, dotted with Eastern Orthodox churches, art nouveau buildings with ornate balconies, and natural foliage that changes colours with the season, I just wanted to go jump in a plane and start snapping pictures. That was a couple of years ago, but due to the unrest at its borders, my travel buddies and I embarked on a different adventure.
Yet, Georgia sat in my bucketlist... waiting. Thus, when my room mates mentioned the plan of visiting her, I needed no second bidding.
DAY01 18 December 2015
We were advised to wear layers upon layers of clothing but nothing could truly prepare your body when it's seemingly tossed from the frying pan to a freezer! When the pilot announced -2 °C, instantaneously, my brain froze to its core! Trying to conjure up images of sunshine at 2 am while freezing your socks off is downright impossible!
But it wasn't too bad when we finally got into our warm apartment on top of the warm welcome we received from the airport.
After what seemed like an eternity of sleep, we woke up to a bright, chilly, still welcoming Georgia. And my! the sights didn't disappoint. Right from our doorstep, we were greeted by a maze of cobblestone-lined streets which transported us to another space and time!
The cobblestones led us to Metekhi Church and the 1960s equestrian statue of King Vakhtang Gorgasali beside it.
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| METEKHI CHURCH AND CHURCHYARD. This is where Vakhtang Gorgasali built his palace, and the site’s first church, when he made Tbilisi his capital in the 5th century. |
Looming over it all are Narikala Fortress, a reconstructed 4th-century citadel, and Kartlis Deda, an iconic statue of Mother Georgia . Conspicuously so, are the pendulum-like cable cars which hypnotisingly beckon to drop other plans and just hop in.
We vowed to explore them soon. But first, we needed to meet a friend. So off we went to the busier Rustaveli
street. The central avenue in Tbilisi, named after the medieval Georgian poet, Shota Rustaveli, the Rustaveli Avenue starts at Freedom Square extends for about 1.5 km in length. Flanked on either side with governmental, public, cultural and business buildings which are a delightful mix of modern and 20th century architecture.
We waited for Lasha (who was then a friend of a friend), infront of the Georgian National Museum (which we failed to explore) Too bad, because we missed seeing the treasure trove that it was, for apparently, it housed an archaeological treasury of pre-Christian gold, silver and precious stone work from Georgian burials going back to the 3rd millennium BC.
One simply cannot miss THE Georgian brand of hospitality through a Georgian feast. Lasha took us to his favourite restaurant. No second-guessing why he liked it, either. The soft, warm and homey interior was a stark contrast to the chilly atmosphere outside, the place just literally embraces anyone who enters there, making our first taste of Georgian food more remarkable and pleasurable to the hilt.
Lasha played his role as our host to perfection as he patiently guided us through every main ingredient that comprised each meal. He rather enjoyed watching us fumble through eating the khinkali (a popular Georgian dumpling made of twisted knobs of dough and stuffed with meat and spices). Jane especially loved the Sulguni cheese stuffed mushroom, so much so that we ordered it for every meal we had after that. This collage actually contained a combo of the different meals we have sampled but the khinkali and mushroom are ever present on every meal.
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| from left: Gem, Jane, Lasha, Gabby and Ninuca |
After that filling lunch, we headed to the mountains . Along the way, we met Nina and Gabby, whose presence, along with Lasha's breathed life, laughter and warmth to our whole Georgian adventure.The nearest ski resort was several miles off and we simply had no time to spare. Lucky for us, we've got Georgian natives to guide us through the Georgian path--the easy way, without sacrificing time and quality of experience.
We were all shivering from cold and sheer excitement of having our first snow experience. But I never realised that getting there is as exciting as the actual touchdown (or meltdown) !
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| Hiking through a beaten path and meeting more friends on the way. |
So, off we went to Borjomi. On our way to snowville, we dropped by and hiked a few miles to visit a monastery. I never realised just how much I missed hiking until my wellingtons crunched on the all-too-familiar ground. As the gentle, cool wind beat upon my cheeks and stretches of winter beaten bush loom and line the beaten path fill my nature-parched eyes, I had this awful urge to break out into a Longfellow poem recitation.
Then touchdown .... and meltdown.... to our first taste, feel, smell and sight of snow! I just want to be silent here and let the pictures speak a thousand words:
At this point when everything has been going on so well, certainly more than what we ever hoped for, it was so apt to say a prayer of gratitude. It wasn't too hard as Georgians are actually a religious lot and visiting places of worship actually encompassed a bulk of our exciting journey.
The interiors of the churches more or less have the same lay-out. At Georgian churches, church-goers give pocket change for thin golden yellow candles, supposed to be for each something or someone you pray for. The small room of the church has no seats, only ornate painted portraits of Christian scenes. The thin candles standing on sand-filled tables illuminate the silent room. People, women's heads covered with scarves mill about praying infront of portraits, crossing themselves frequently and kissing the portrait frames. I would later learn that they had no services , sermons or sunday schools but at one time , we entered one of the churches, there was a choir singing -- the-making-your-hair-stand-on-end-kind of singing!
The first thing that struck me everytime I enter their church is the solemn atmosphere. So much so that even a whisper would be deafening. It was simply, serenely beautiful and as much as I wanted to take pictures, I hesitated because to do so would have been akin to sacrilege. But when our friend assured that it was alright, we were able to take some discreet ones.
That about wraps up our first day... that and a bottle of Georgian beer on top of a gargantuan serving of chicken-beef shawarma! Our day was so packed that had something happened and forced us to leave, I think we would have gone home fulfilled.
Day 02 19 December 2015
TBILISI: GOOD OLD TOWN
The second day dawned equally chilly but our bodies have quietly tempered themselves down, or at least that's what we thought when we decided to leave our gloves behind. After a sumptous breakfast of (yes, leftover!) shawarma drowned with coffee, we promptly set our course for the day: EXPLORE THE GOOD OLD TOWN TBILISI. (and once and for all stop that perennial swinging of the cable cars in my dreams.. haha!)
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| View from the Cable Cars |
Mother Georgia gently beckoned from a distance as we rode the cable car that would take us to her. The two-minute ride connects Rike Park on the left bank of the Mtkvari river with Narikala fortress. For one Lari (Metro cards) you can kill several birds in a stone: have a seamless 360 ° view of the city; have an easy ride up the hill; have an all exciting theme-park-like experience and more!
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| Narikala Fortress |
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| CONTRASTS: Equally stunning are the views of the city on one side and the vast coniferous forest on the other. Both are seemingly guarded by the huge statue of Mother Georgia. |
It wasn't too chilly then even if we felt like we were on top of the world taking in the sights and sounds of the different sides of Tbilisi.
And while we're at it, we thought it would be fun taking the sights to greater heights.
So much to take in , we were having a sensory overload . No wonder, we lost track of the time. Only our grumbling tummies decided that it was time to go back and refuel.
But wait! Not even our protesting guts could stop us from stopping by the bridge of peace. The bridge which practically flashes :"I am modern!" against the backdrop of the charming old town Tbilisi , is a pedestrian walkway over the Kura river. At night, it shimmers with an interactive light display generated by thousands of white LEDs. To an onlooker, it might have been quite a sight to behold. Yet, I couldn't help thinking that it was quite out of place. Cynical old me!
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| The bridge of peace |
So, we were quite lost for we couldn't find a place to eat. Finally, we found this Moroccan inspired restaurant tucked in a small corner, right across the Bridge of Peace (and for that alone, I was willing to give the infamous bridge a second chance!) And once again, we got awestruck by the interiors that for awhile, we wanted to turn tail and run because the place looked out of our price range. A place like that in Dubai would set us back a few hundreds or even thousands.
But hunger games won the day, so we checked the menu and our jaws dropped onto the ornately carved table when we saw the ridiculously low-priced meals! And marvel of marvels, when the waiter saw that we were taking pictures of the place, he guided us to this sanctuary filled with traditional clothing and accessories and promptly invited us to help ourselves.
Armed with a full stomach and renewed vigor, we decided to explore further and try the metro. That was quite a ride! The going down the tunnel through a long escalator down is already a unique experience in itself... straight out of the twilight zone! Foremost in my mind was "I won't want to ride on this (the escalator) alone!" The metro was packed, busy and quite efficient. Hey the escalator ride seemingly took longer!
We alighted at the Rustaveli station and retraced the now familiar streets. The avenue was bustling with people preparing for the festivities of the season. Even on the first day, as we strolled along the Christmas bedecked streets, I was silently admiring the handmade arts and crafts on display at the sidewalks. It wasn't too hard to imagine though, where such artisanship and creativity spring from.
At daytime, one could really see the old charming Georgia, but nighttime brings out her modern sheen. Owing largely to the Christmas season, the streets are lined with bedazzling lights, though I'm guessing that even in ordinary nights, it would still look spectacular.
The view from the top is even better ! Kudos to our friends, we got to see the city at night from the Narikala fortress and went as far as the TV tower where we got to see Tbilisi from the highest point in the whole city:180m over Mtatsminda mountain! We got chilled to our bones but the view was well worth it.
The focal point of the day, however, was our stop at the awe-inspiring Chronicles of Georgia. From a distance, it certainly looked like stonehenge (in fact, Gem called it such)
Even from a way off, I knew that the monument had to be huge, but I wasn't prepared of its immense size! We visited it at night so we didn't really get the full scale of its appearance; thus, I had to borrow some pictures from a fellow traveler.
Here's how they looked when we got there. Not in picture are the twinkling lights of the city below and the majestic view of the Tbilisi Sea (which is actually a reservoir).
The Chronicles of Georgia is a massive art project describing the most famous persons and events related to Georgia's history. It also shows recognisable scenes from the bible.
I imagine that the best time to go there is during sunrise or sunset when one can see the first or last rays of the sun highlighting the columns of the monuments.
The colossal rendition of their history on those columns left a lasting impression in my mind as to how the Georgians would go to such lengths to preserve their culture. One could see it in every loving curve and line of each statue and relief that seemed about to spring to life. One could hear it when Ninuca (who is of this generation) speaks about her country's traditions with such pride and joy!
DAY03 20 December 2015
MORE GEORGIA
Thus, after going through such heights during the past few days, each one ending with all three of us short of crawling to our bed in fulfilled exhaustion, I thought it could only go downhill from here. (I was to learn later that there are more to explore in Georgia, especially during the summer!)
Jump to after breakfast (or was it brunch?) with our newfound friends, we stopped by Nina's university. She's doing choreography of the students' performance for Georgia's Got Talent.
Jane and Gem were totally at home here and even looked like high school students. The most memorable part was counting in their language: erti, ori, sami, otxi, xuti, ekvsi, svidi, rva!
After a very late lunch at the Cornerhouse where Lasha works, Nina and Gabby took us to Lisi Lake. Another picturesque site, but we didn't stay long enough because of the chill that permeates-this time-to the bone marrow. In fact, a good part of the water surface was frozen!
On our way back, we caught another glimpse of the city... probably our last view of her at daylight.
Our Georgia sojourn ended almost as quickly as it began. There are hidden depths that have yet to be explored, new heights yet to be scaled, more friendly folks yet to meet... but even for the briefest moment of our stay, truly, we have come to experience Georgia, as "the country of Life".
