We woke up and left the hotel for the bus station. Before we did any sightseeing we needed to determine whether we wanted to stay another day and figure out the logistics as far as when buses leave, etc. We had severe issues finding the bus terminal (the Turkish bus terminal was different from the main terminal). Although we had just been there 2 days ago, it was dark and night time so we didn't have the ability to see exactly where we were. After walking a while and getting lost several times, we decided to hire a cab driver to take us there. The driver tried to rip us off but Alex and I were stern about the price we agreed to at the beginning of the ride. For some reason, cab drivers in Georgia seem like they are worse than cab drivers in other countries.
We eventually found the place and were immediately harassed by people from different bus companies telling us that their bus was the only one that went back to Turkey. Of course I knew that wasn't true and I certainly wasn't going to impulse buy without comparing prices. There was one guy who literally would not leave us alone. All I wanted to do was think about the times and our options but this guy was an asshole. He was abrasive and when I thanked him and asked him to leave me alone, he refused (even when I asked in Turkish it didn't matter). Eventually he gave up and started swearing about us in Turkish (little did he know that I understood every word of what he said and at that moment committed not to buy anything from him). I also told him to go fuck himself in Turkish, but I am not sure if he actually heard me.
We walked out of the area and decided to purchase a ticket later to keep our options open. We went to this Georgian place for more traditional food. We knew the place was authentic because no one spoke any English whatsoever. In order for us to order, we needed to call someone on the phone that spoke English. They served us a traditional Georgian dish (I don't know the name of it) but it was kind of cheesy and you mixed it with this other darker food. It wasn't exactly cheesy but it wasn't exactly doughy either. It's very hard to describe but it tasted good and was probably one of the most unique meals I had on our entire trip through Georgia and Armenia. We even had a demonstration on how exactly we were supposed to eat it!
Because the city is surrounded by mountains on three sides, the terrain in the city itself is quite diverse. According to wikipedia, the terrain limits the development of Tblisi. Therefore, less land causes the developed land to be more densely populated while other parts of Tblisi are virtually undeveloped. At the top of one of the more jagged hills lies the Narikala fortress. To get there, we literally had to climb up this small mountain. We passed a hamam at the bottom, which was adjacent to a Persian mosque. We briefly looked at the outside (the design was similar to the mosque in Yerevan but quite different from the mosques of Turkey). Then we hiked to the top of the fortress. The view was beautiful and there was even a neat little waterfall along the way. I think we had wandered a bit into the Tblisi Botanical Gardens.
When we got to the top of the fortress, we ran into several Georgian couples who were using the view and secluded area as a romantic getaway. Alex and I were pretty sure we even saw one couple having sex (clearly we were not in conservative Turkey anymore). At any rate, we soon discovered that we had gone around the back way to get inside the enclosed part of the fortress and had to do some creative wall climbing to get on the right side of things. It was more difficult for me than for Alex because he is taller and has longer legs. The fortress had two walled sections still intact. The Narikala Fortress was built in the 4th Century and was considerably expanded by the Umayyads in the 7th Century. As cool as it was to walk on and see this piece of history, the best part was by far the view. The hill that contained the fortress was one of the highest in Tblisi (and was located within a couple of blocks of the river) allowing for a spectacular view of the river and the main part of the city.
The top of the hill (which is more of a long pathway than a single point) also has the Kartlis Deda. The Kartlis Deda is a large statue of a Georgian woman in Georgian dress with a sword in one hand and a glass of wine in the other. This symbolizes Georgia's character of welcoming friends and a warning to foes. It was erected in 1958 to celebrate the 1500th anniversary of the city of Tblisi. On the lower portion of the fortress was the St. Nicholas church, which was nice to walk inside. The best part were the bells outside the church.
After we climbed down from the fortress, we headed across town to see the Tbilisi Holy Trinity Cathedral (Sameba). As we were walking over there, the weather took a turn for the worst and while we were inside, a torrential downpour and thunderstorm occurred. The Cathedral was constructed between 1995 and 2004 and is the largest religious building in Georgia and in the South Caucasus. It was enormous (and kind of what I expected to see in Echmiadzin). It was basically a super-sized Armenian/Georgian church (the large space on the inside kind of resembled the inside of St. Peter's Basilica in Rome to me). The inside was ornately decorated with Christian figures. One thing that struck me as odd amongst the decorations, marble columns, and marble floors was that there were no places to sit down (aside from benches near the entrance for tourists). The height of the cathedral, which can hold up to 15,000 people is 85m and towers over the entire city. This is without a doubt a doubt one of the largest structures in all of Georgia.
We ran back to the hotel in the rain. On the way, we both decided however that we both missed Turkey and that we both didn't want to spend money for one more night in a hotel. So we got our stuff at the hotel at around 6:30pm, called a cab that came at 6:55 to take us to bus terminal for a bus that was leaving at 7:00. Although we agreed on a price of 5 Lari for the cab driver, he tried to up the price to 7 upon arriving at the bus terminal. Although normally I would have argued on principle, it wasn't that much money to us and we were in a rush to make sure we made it on the bus in time. Alex was a lot more pissed about it than I was.
We got on the bus and began the overnight ride back into Turkey. At one of the stops on the way to Trabzon I ended up getting into a conversation with a Georgian guy who spoke Turkish and gave him my number to call if he ever came to the US (fully knowing that he probably would never call). We also were joking around with the bus driver a bit (I can't remember what was said exactly). All in all it was a pleasant and fairly uneventful trip back. We crossed back over the Turkish border in the middle of the night (making the process go much quicker) and I was able to purchase a new tourist visa for my remaining time there.
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