The fourth day of our journey was fully dedicated to sunny and really ambigious Tbilisi (tbili, by the way, means warm), to the city, what left me with truly contradictory feelings.
Here ancient meets modern, east - west, luxury - povetry. Steep stairs of Old Tbilisi can lead you to a rich house, what is falling apart inside. Cool water refreshes you, but summer Sun burns till exhaustion.
Day IV. The city of warm springs
From the very frist moment our staying in Tbilisi was looking very contradictory. Luck here goes hand by hand with bad luck, failures were followed by successes.
One of the biggest stroke of luck in Tbilisi, or in whole adventure, was Berika! Sasha found him thru couchsurfing in day of coming. Before, neither she nor I had never stopped like this, that's why, telling honestly, going to the address was a bit scary. What is waiting for us there? maybe he is a psycho? Questions like these appeared in my head, but we didn't even suppose, what we were waited by, probably, the most hospitable host, what could be imagined.
Berika'd been having some nice post in Pepsi company and living in very cool duplex apartment. Few days before his wife and kid'd went to Batumi, so he without hesitation gave us the second floor. Absolutely free. Floor,
I've already told you, Tbilisi is the city of contrasts, that's one more proof.
In the morning, when we woke up, the host weren't at home; he'd left us the keys and gone to work. Among couchsurfers that's pretty common.
For myself I roughly can part the city on a few districts: Old town, modern district and district with buildings of Soviet times.
Our way ran exactly out of the last district in the north to Rustaveli avenue - central one.
Right there the next failure had been waiting for me. Foolishly I again'd put sandals on,
Actually in the district of Rustaveli avenue there is all what you need: clothes store, street souvenir vendos, cotton candy and lots of restaraunts and cafes. In one of this I and Sasha took pie, portion of chikhirtma, kupatis and glass of kindzmarauli. Yeah, indeed, wine in Tbilisi is better than in Kazbegi.
Aside from the avenue entirely different Tbilisi is located.
Sometimes decrepit, sometimes ridiculous, knitted from bystreets and steep stairs, but alive, truly sincere and very attractive. That real Tbilisi, what everyone wants to see, is here.
So if you've came to Tbilisi and haven't been here, know, that you have missed the main and you gotta come back. A walk thru the old town can take more than one day. Aged buildings completely different in style, courtyards, ornate staircases and, of course... balconies.
Seems, like it's the only one place in the world, where you can just walk and look at balconies.
Small or wide, with carved fences or with stained glass windows, propped up by beams or hanging over a cliff.
That's exactly what we were doing: just walking and gazing around. I even forgot to take photos, so in my phone right after some stairs there is funicular to Mtatsminda mountain, where special for tourists (hate this word) Ferris wheel'd been set.
Though lifting up for two costs only 9 lari, I surely can tell, that there is not the best view from the top.
Sasha, seems, didn't like it much, or she's just afraid of?!
One place what I strongly advice to visit is ancient fortress Narikala. Directly there we went after the wheel. The route was pretty long, condsidering all ups and downs, but believe me, this part of the old city is absolutely incredible.
All the attractions, what you may see in pics, are placed here. On Sololaki hill the ancient fortress is towering above, and near. estabilished in honor of 1500-years-old Tbilisi, monument Kartlis Deda (Mother of Georgian) is looking at the city and guarding it peace.
When you want to go down, I advice to use the ropeway. It costs only 4 lari, but there is, one of the best view on the city. So flying over the streets Sasha noticed one remarkable place where we rushed to go.
Abanotubani is another one must see district of Old Tbilisi.
The legend about the foundation of the city is related to the bath complex on sulfur springs located there; even the name of the city (remember, tbili means warm) appeared because of these springs.
There are few baths, so yo have opportunity to choose. Ones are cheaper, others are more expensive, as usual. Sasha and I,
...and absolutely accidentally we found a waterfall, hidden from prying eyes in a narrow gorge.
Even there were balconies, held only by beams and
Only we finished our exploration of the old city (though I'm sure at such fast pace we'd missed a lot of interestings) and came to the modern district over the river, The Sun swiftly hid behind the mountains.
The two banks of Kura river are connected by pedestrian Bridge of Peace, built by a specail initiative of Mikheil Saakashvili.
Natives especially advice to come here at night, when the backlight is turn on.
I, by the way, managed to take photos with sunlight and see the lighting. Looks really splendid and bright!
Meanwhile, the whole sky gently got covered by the dark heavy clouds. Heavy storm's gonna rage on throughout the night, but now there was only deaf thunder far away.
Tsminda Sameba was the last point of our long route.
Stone church, what'd been looking at us from the high hill during the wholt walk, and as it turned out, is the main cathedral of the Georgian Orthodox Church.
It'd got too dark to that time when we came here. Day gave way to night, burning heat... changed by cold fresh rain, what was really sybmolic. Our walk through Tbilisi came to an end.
In the next post is very accidental (yeah) trip to Red Bridge and a bit farther.
Love this city!!! I have been there once and just for one day, but it took my heart!
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