TBILISI, Georgia
By Marianne Gray
The Old Town District, with its
heritage of churches (the
country is overwhelmingly
Eastern Orthodox Christian),
hot spring bath-houses,
mosques, synagogue and
towers, has recently been
meticulously restored and is an
architectural joy. Above it are
the slopes leading to Sololaki,
bilisi, the capital of
Georgia, sits between
the Black Sea and the
Caspian Sea on the
crossroads of the Silk Route
between Europe and Asia.
The Caucasian Mountains
loom in the distance and the
town brims with history.
T
Georgia was once part of the
USSR – it gained
independence in 1991 – and
Greeks, Romans, Mongols,
Persians, Ottoman and
Byzantines have passed
through giving Tbilisi a
wonderfully exotic, conflicting
and intangible style.
Tbilisi, population 1.2 million,
is a beautiful, largely 19th
Century, art nouveau/deco city
on the swiftly-flowing river
Mtkvari. Part of it has a
Parisian atmosphere with its
vine-draped courtyards,
cobbled streets, pavement
cafés and boulevards of
elegant buildings with fine
doorways. Then you turn a
corner and you’re in the Asian
district set on winding lanes
with tall, narrow houses,
elaborate windows, hanging
wooden balconies, mosaics
and leafy squares.
and Mtatsminda with their
stunning views over the town
that goes back to the 4th
Century.
Once the holiday haunt of the
privileged elite of the Soviet
Union, it is still a charming city
but clearly its heart has been
ripped out by years of political
unrest and Soviet lack of care.
In its day, it must have been a
centre of great culture. Little
by little its heart is starting to
beat again.
alphabet of 33 letters and
complicated grammar.
Impossible for the outsider to
decipher, luckily most signs
are written in the Latin
alphabet as well! Courtesy of
CNN most traders speak some
English and are very helpful.
It’s easy to get about, if you
can steel yourself to the chaos
of traffic, and don’t miss a trip
on the Metro with its
extravagantly decorated
(Russian-built) stations.
The food is great: lots of street
food, lots of grilled food, lots
of fruit and vegetables.
Georgia’s wine-making is the
oldest in the world and the
wine is very good, made from
a choice of 520 grapes, and
still inexpensive. The local
brandy, chacha, isn’t shabby
either and can be really wild.
Then there’s the beer …. with
12 different kinds of wheat
grown there it is beyond simply
‘interesting’.
Because of this, I would think
that Tbilisi will become the
next Riga or Gdansk, a pretty
place to go where the beer is
cheap and you can sleep in a
hostel or hotel for next to
nothing. So get there before
the lager louts discover it!
And, possibly, before Putin,
who has several military
installations on the border,
walks in and claims Georgia
back.
PS While in Tbilisi, allow
yourself time for a few
excursions to places like the
glaciers and the Caucasian
mountains or Gori, Stalin’s
birthplace and its Stalin
Museum. Or maybe take a dip
in the Black Sea in Batumi
and a trip along The Wine
Route.
The official language is
Georgian, written in an ancient
script and debatably from
Phoenicia, with its own unique
For more information:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georgia_(country)
This trip was done through Voyages Jules Verne:
www.vjv.com
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