So we woke up and waited for the minibus driver (who was conveniently staying at the same hotel). We were to journey back north through the mountains to Tblisi. The journey north took almost half the amount of time the journey south did. Not only did we hardly stop (yay for no smoking Armenian-Russians), but our driver drove like a bat out of hell. The trip that took us approximately 7 hours on the way down took only 4 (and this even includes the time change that we didn't know existed). When I say this guy drove crazy, I am not exaggerating in the slightest. He took turns in the mountains so sharply that one of the Russians riding with us actually had to make the driver stop the car so she could throw up. Truthfully, even I was feeling a little queasy during part of the ride.
Luckily, we made it back to Georgia safe and sound. We exited the bus and asked for directions to the old city from the metro station. It was very difficult to find someone who spoke English. We thought that asking younger people (close to our age) would yield the highest likelihood of people who speak English. We finally found Beka, who spoke English and decided to guide us personally to the Old City since he was on the way to the same place. He was studying Economics at a university there. He lead us to the area where he thought we should stay and told us a little about the city and which places we should visit while we were there. He also showed us a really pretty overlook that not many people know about where you can gaze down at the Kura River which runs through the center of Tblisi.
We found a nicer hotel district across the river. After the less than luxurious accommodations over the last few days (and the whole spending 30 something hours on the bus), Alex and I both agreed that we could splurge for a nicer hotel. Even this "nice" hotel only cost something in the neighborhood of 20 or 30 dollars per night. However, with a warm shower, clean room, air conditioner, and soft bed it was a huge upgrade from the places we had been staying.
We put down our stuff and headed out to explore the great city of Tblisi. Our first objective was to get something to eat because we did not eat much on the trip from Yerevan. We asked the man at the desk, who spoke English (another benefit of being in a nicer hotel), where the best place to eat Georgian food would be. He wrote out a list of Georgian food for us to try and recommended a restaurant that was of high quality and reasonable price for us to try the foods. We crossed the river and ventured towards the restaurant. The Old City was revitalized and did not have the same sort of Soviet architecture found in many post-Soviet states (though there were still places in Tblisi to find this architecture). The streets in this area were cobblestone with French influence. It was definitely a chic part of town.
The restaurant was fantastic. We ate Mcvadi (very cheesy bread that went well with sauce), Khachapuri (a cream and meat stuffed bread), and a meat main course (I think Alex had trout). We complemented our meal by splitting a bottle of chilled Georgian white wine. The entire meal came to about 25 Lari (15 dollars), which was awesome considering what we ate. Georgian food was definitely much cheaper than Armenian food. Towards the end of our meal, a woman named Maggie approached us from another table. She was an American who was working as a traveling journalist for magazines like Backpacker. She hadn't spoken to Americans in a while and so wanted to chat with us. She asked us about our impressions of Tblisi, our trip to Armenia, other traveling experiences, and other stuff. We sat and talked with her for a while before paying our bill and leaving.
We continued to walk along the street and came across a Georgian synagogue. I pestered Alex to go inside. We walked in and walked around the synagogue. I think it might have been a sephardic one because the bima (altar) was in the center of the synagogue instead of at the front of the sanctuary. The bima also resembled a ship. It was oddly shaped. Otherwise, it was a pretty standard synagogue with an upstairs for sunday school. I gave a donation to thank them for allowing me to come inside and check it out. Seeing the synagogue there was a pretty amazing feeling. One does not typically associate Georgia with a large Jewish population. However, it exists. I am amazed that the synagogue survived all of the Russian pogroms (which is how my family ended up in the United States) and survived the anti-religious Soviet regime. The Jewish community there has seen so much adversity and yet it still continues to live and thrive. It just amazed me.
We continued to walk around and walked back towards the old city along the river. Some Georgian girls caught Alex's eyes and smiled at him. I am pretty sure that women are his biggest weakness. It's so strange to me because it's for these women that he meets one time and never sees again! :) Anyways, so he starts making eyes at some girls. They wave to each other and the girls start giggling. They spoke in Russian or Georgian (we honestly weren't sure which) and we couldn't really understand them. As we walked a way, a guy tapped us on the shoulder and in what little English he could speak, asked us to follow him. They tried with what little English they know to speak to us. They asked us where we were from, and we stated America (because everyone likes America now). They asked us what we were doing in Tbilisi and we told them that we were visiting. We all were trying to speak a combination of languages to each other. They tried speaking in English and Russian, and we tried English and Turkish. Eventually it came down to drawing pictures and hand gestures. The two girls along with their lone male friend motioned us to follow them.
I was pretty resistant and thought Alex was being an idiot but it seemed like I didn't have much of a choice. They took us around the backward, hidden alleyways of Tbilisi until they arrived at a building. I followed Alex through the dark passageways inside the building up to the place where his new friend Mariam worked. Alex was lest worried about all of this than I was.
It turns out though that they worked at a craft school for jewelry making. They called someone on their cell phone who spoke English and he translated for us what they were saying and he translated what we were saying. Basically the school is also a place for female refugees from South Ossetia to pick up another trade. It was interesting to hear about the damage the Russians have done to Georgia but it was even more interesting to hear about how much these girls loved America. They were also especially curious about Alex because I showed that I was much more interested in this conversation than me. Actually, its not that I wasn't interested, it's just that the language barrier and drawing of sign motions became exhausting for me. After they finished chatting with Alex, they accompanied us out and said goodbye.
We noticed that there were a lot of churches in Georgia. They were built in the same style as the Armenian ones, but their religion was slightly different. Being so close to each other, I am sure the Georgian christians were heavily influenced by the Armenians.
As the sun set, the city lights shone brightly. There was one part of the city where city walls stood with different colored lights illuminating them. It was a pretty sight to see. We didn't really have an agenda that night. We just walked around to see different random things. We also saw Freedom Square lit up at night where the Central Bank was located as well as the building for the local government in Tblisi. A short walk away, we came across the Parliament building. In front of it, a sign in both Georgian and English read: "People for Saakashvili's Resignation." I had learned all about Saakashvili in my EU Relations with Russia and CIS Countries class. The people of Georgia do not like Saakashvili nowadays and believe he provoked Russia into attacking South Ossetia in 2008. They also believe he has not handled things well for Georgia after the Rose Revolution that brought him to power. At any rate it was exciting for me to see and my nerdy political science self took a picture in front of the banner!
We walked up to the base of a tall hill. At the top was an Eiffel Tower looking structure which was actually the Tblisi Broadcasting Tower. There was a way to go up it but by the time we got there it was already closed. I thought this was really unfortunate because I bet the view would have been amazing. There was a shop nearby and we ended up chatting with the owner. I wish I could remember more about what we discussed, but I don't. I remember it being a nice conversation and him inviting us to come back and visit him again sometime. We walked down the hill to the river, crossed it, and made our way back to our hotel. After all that walking, my feet were quite sore but I was ready for another day in Tblisi!
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