MarkandJim.com

Here I am outside the Narikala Fortress, originally built by the Persians in the 4th century

I was looking forward to Tbilisi, a historic capital wedged between the Russian, Persian, and Ottoman empires. It’s a place I have long wanted to visit and it definitely lived up to and even exceeded my hopes.

It’s hard to say that there is anything specifically great about Tbilisi (known typically as Tiflis until 1936) except that it just has a great feel to it. Because of its location at the crossroads between east and west it has always been something of a cosmopolitan city, something evidenced by the wide range of architecture. And the fact that the weather was just about perfect – sunny with low humidity and highs in the upper 60s – didn’t hurt. This thing about travel during the shoulder seasons can work really well.

We stayed at the Rooms Hotel Tbilisi, sister hotel to the place we stayed in Kazbegi. I think these are the only two hotels they’ve done but it’s an absolutely great model turning old buildings into lively and exciting spaces.

What is there to do in Tbilisi? You can walk around a lot. The old city is small but definitely worth a visit or two with some good restaurants packed in. The Bridge of Peace over the Kura River is a particularly beautiful walkway. You can take a cable car from right near the Bridge of Peace up to the 65-foot Mother of Georgia statue, erected in 1958 to celebrate Georgia’s 1,500th anniversary. Or you can ride a funicular up to Mtatsminda Park, home of a 200-foot high ferris wheel with great views of the city.

Mark in the ferris wheel of Mtatsminda Park

One surprise was the Zurab Tsereteli Museum of Modern Art. I wandered in one afternoon after lunch and a pleasant hour or two reading in a park, not expecting much. Instead it was one of those serendipitous moments when you learn something truly interesting. Zurab Tsereteli, you see, is Georgia’s most prominent modern artist and, since 1997, President of the Russian Academy of Arts. We’ve actually seen two of his more famous pieces in Moscow, a decidedly controversial statue of Peter the Great – occasionally voted one of the ugliest statues in the world – and the somewhat more conventional Cathedral of Christ the Savior.

The current exhibit in Tbilisi’s Museum of Modern Art is a collection of recent work, large oil paintings from the last 10 to 15 years mixed in with some large statues he’s done over the years. It’s a remarkable body of work for someone who would have been in his late 70s and early 80s when he created them. It was fun to learn about this giant in Georgian and Russian art, though I would try to forget that he’s a big friend of and apologist for Vladimir Putin.

Tsereteli’s Dima with Tonic and Gin. I can’t say exactly what that title means but I like the painting.

And then the other big event for us was an evening with Patty and Chaz, a couple from St. Louis we met and enjoyed drinking with in the Maldives. Just before we pulled into Kazbegi a few days ago I saw on Facebook that they were leaving Kazbegi. I messaged Patty to ask if we had just missed them and we discovered that we would cross paths for one night in Tbilisi, so we made plans to have dinner. It’s one thing we enjoy a lot on this adventure is meeting friends – sometimes old friends, sometimes intrepid travelers we’ve met along the way – in obscure places. I’ll call Georgia obscure enough to qualify.

A fun evening with Patty & Chaz. Officially they live in St. Louis but they seem to be on the road almost as much as we are, and just as likely to be in some pretty obscure place. Last time Maldives this time Tbilisi. I’ve suggested we do the next meeting in Zanzibar.

This is our last stop in Georgia; from here we head down to Armenia for six nights. One word, though, about Georgian wine. For years, particularly in recent years as I’ve read Russian and Soviet history, I’ve read about these great Georgian wines. Over and over you hear how surprisingly good they are and I was looking forward to trying them. Surprising, yes. Good, not so much. Perhaps they were good in comparison to what else you could get in the Soviet Union in the 1940s or 1960s, but Mark’s estimation was that they ran from tolerable to terrible. I probably wasn’t quite that negative but I would say that the gap between reputation and execution was perhaps the biggest I’ve ever experienced. Let’s just say I won’t be hunting out the Georgian Wine section in Manhattan liquor stores when we settle there in a few months.

Mark on the Bridge of Peace

And standing beneath the Mother of Georgia. She has a bowl of wine in her left hand signifying Georgian hospitality and a sword in her right hand for, well, just in case…

Part of the Tsereteli exhibit

And one more I liked, titled simply Sergei

One feature of the former Soviet Union that I’m always amused by are these underground passageways to cross major streets. I mean, you certainly wouldn’t want to interfere with vehicular traffic, after all. One you get down there there are all sorts of little shops and people selling stuff and, often, bad musicians.

A funky little restaurant in the old city where we had a frustrating meal, one of those places that after you wait and wait for food the waiter says “It will be here in five minutes” and fifteen minutes later you’re still waiting. The setting was nice though.

The original Grapevine Cross, carried by St. Nino into Georgia in the 4th century after she was given it by Mary herself, now in Tbilisi’s small but elegant Sioni Cathedral

Christ sitting in the dome of the new Holy Trinity Cathedral, consecrated in 2004. The main cathedral of the Georgian Orthodox Church, this is pretty much the only finished space; the vast majority of the interior remains to be painted. I guess we’ll come back in 10 years or so to see how they’re doing.

And finally a view of a little bit of Tbilisi and the Kura River across to the Holy Trinity Cathedral from up near the Narikala Fortress. Fall really is beautiful here.