If you’re consider driving in Georgia, all I can say is don’t. The whole of Australia is baffled by Melbourne’s unnatural road rules to turn from the opposite lane, but here in Georgia, it’s so much more mentally taxing here in Tbilisi, there’s kind of lanes for traffic, but they turn into on coming traffic across multiple lanes and it’s nightmare fuel. I can’t even understand how the rules work, and there does seem to be rules.
The main square in Old Town is a great people watching spot. Gangs of flag lead tourists wander by, trying to take photos of the Metekhi Church perched on the cliff across the river that divides the city, while being beeped by the unexpected cars that enter the area from across the bridge.
Overhead a cable car scales it’s way to the ruins of Narikala castle, which at this time is being renovated and surrounded by the familiar green webbing of restoration work. I used this as an excuse not to go on the cable car for the views of the city, as I hate these things and feel a sense of panic being trapped in one (there was another crash in Italy just a month before of one of these death traps).
I was shocked how close everything is in the old town. Looking at a map it looks expansive, until you realise a street block is basically the size of a house, so what looks 30mins away is really only 5mins.
The compact size of the area, and it’s old world buildings and streets, makes this part of Tbilisi pure joy to wander around and not think too much what your destination is. Even when it was slightly raining, it somehow made the experience more the worth it. The only downside of the rain were the grey skies, which don’t make for photogenic photoshoots.
My wallet began tingling after I paid for a ticket to the Tbilisi City History Museum. It sensed correctly that Georgia would not be cheap. At 20GEL, or about $12AUD, the museum was a rickety top floor of what looked like a wine bar. It’s barely a 15min walk around, mostly filled with diorama’s depicting various old buildings that was Tbilisi in the ye ol’ times.
Next was the National History Museum. Entrance fee came in at 40GEL, but I felt like I got better value here. The main museum collection is bizarrely dominated with dozens of skulls showing the evolution of humans. However fake skulls this isn’t why you come here.
On the basement level is the treasury. An astonishing collection of jewellery and gold work, some dating as far back as 1,000BCE. This region was abundant in gold, and the artistry of the goldsmiths is staggering good, and you can see the various pieces over the millennia evolve in skill as the jewellery becomes increasingly intricate.
The second reason to visit the museum is the top floor, entitled Georgia under Soviet Rule. Here they recount as the Soviets took control of Georgia, the protests and murder of dissidents, and the eventual independence and fall of the USSR. What’s really interesting here is the wording, as the current Georgian government is pro Russia. So never do you see Russia named, not even as Soviet Russia. Instead they’re always referred to as the Bolsheviks (in the same way we always say Nazis, not Germany, in WWII).
The politics of Russia are best to keep to yourself. The government is pro Russia, but the people are clearly anti Russian and pro EU. I have yet to see a Russian flag anyway, but yet the EU flag is at every major attraction and events (there was a Armenian festival and the flags were Armenian, Georgian, and the EU). From what I’ve been told by locals, the older generation are still very pro Russian, but the younger generation are the one’s doing the graffiti “Fuck Russia” throughout the city.
As always when staying at least a few nights somewhere, I find my end if day watering hole. Who would have guessed across the road from my hotel, a large Guinness sign proudly sat atop the door to the Brown’s Bar. Yep, an Irish pub.
The owner was an Englishman, but I spent most of my time chatting to the events organiser, an Irishman named Tim. They were teaching the young bartender how to pour Guinness, and not having a Guinness in a long time, I had to get one and damn was it good. Another one, good sir!
It was here I caught wind of the Tbilisi Whisky Festival, which just so happened to be running over the weekend I was here. So naturally I couldn’t resist this, booking a ticket for the Saturday.
What I didn’t know about Saturday was the date would also be the Procession for Family Purity, which blocks off almost all of Freedom Square and the surrounding streets, turning a 20min ride into an over an hour ordeal.
If the sound of Family Purity sounds a bit suspect, it because it’s a thinly veiled day to protest anti gay sentiment. The 17th May was originally a gay rights parade day, and in opposition the Orthodox church decided to start a Family Purity day, that just so coincidently made it also the 17th May. What are the chances!
The Whisky Expo is only in its second year, and it’s obvious the locals want more. Ticket sales tripled from the inaugural year, and the place was packed. Locals and men dressed in kilts wandered the two hall expo, sampling whisky and other spirits.
It was certainly fun, a lot of the Scotch and Irish distilleries I already knew, so I was keen to try some unknowns, including Georgia’s first whisky distillery, Jimsher, which wasn’t all that bad. The only down note was the absence of Australian representation, bloody bunch of racists!
But we’re not in Georgia for whisky. It’s for the wine, and I knew the wine bar where I was going to do a tasting…