You’d think that because we were so tired from the cumulative interrupted sleeps, we’ed sleep like babies, in a hotel. Not so, but this time it was self inflicted, gluttony. Jen ordered a local dish, and I a pizza. I could have survived on half the pizza but no, managed to consume all but one piece!! To worsen the crime, we went from the dining room to bed, instead of going for a walk to help digest it. After walking around the room at 3am I finally slept till 7.30.
It rained overnight but by morning was fine enough to head out into the city to enjoy the atmosphere.
The city.
Tblisi is situated a in narrow a river valley. The Kura river runs roughly east – west and that old town is on the southern side. The streets to the hotel are steep, narrow and cobbled.
The city is an important point in Trans Caucasus trade and politics, being at one point, close to the silk route. Once a walled city and remnants of the wall are evident today, built over, and incorporated in buildings. Tblisi has a population of approx 1.5million. The city experienced Russian rocket attacks in 2008. Parts of Georgia, approximately 20% is still under Russian control, Abkhazia and South Ossetia.
Finding maps.
Our objective this morning, to find maps. There are various tourist shops and hop-on-hop-off bus offices, but none have maps of the country. A 15min walk to Liberty Square finds a Tourist Information kiosk and a very pleasant helpful young man in charge. He did not have a map of the country but a series of regional maps, four of which were sufficient for our needs.
There are two cable systems running from the bottom of the valley to various points on the top. After resting for a bit on a park bench, we queued for the one that visits a huge metal statue. 66ft tall aluminium Mother of Georgia, holding a bowl of wine in one hand as a welcome gesture, and a sword in the other to deter those with evil intent. Built in 1958 too celebrate the city’s 1500 years.
A series of pathways from the statue lead us back to our hotel not too far below it. Jen decided she was hungry around 3pm and we climbed up to the hotel restaurant for cherry pie. Gega, the young hotel manager called in and we chatted amiably about many things. He had lived in London where he played rugby, was a huge fan of the Hurricanes, a NZ rugby team, and knew all the players names and attributes of, from an earlier era. The irony of this discussion is that the final of the Under 20 rugby World Championship had just been played in Tblisi and France had defeated NZ by 26-22. I watched the full replay and it was a scintillating game, with NZ dominating but not winning. While discussing sport, it would be remiss of me not to mention the departure of England from the Football World Cup. After leading for much of the game, two late Argentinian goals sealed the game. Maybe next time? I still remember the euphoria of 1966….:)
Later we went for another wander around, mainly looking for a barber shop. I’m about a month overdue for shearing but do you think we could find one!! Where are all the Turkish barbers?
Along the way. The Brown Brothers are at it again…:)
We did find a quirky bar/restaurant where Jen sampled the local wine, with not a great deal of success. They are very different to NZ wines.
A little later we settled on a street restaurant where I enjoyed a Chicken Caesar Salama and Jen another local dish, which she enjoyed.
The day ended with control of our environment, the air-con system.
Tomorrow we go driving north along the Russian Military road.
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