What goes up in Tiblisi….

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Day 4 Georgia. Tuesday 13th Sept.

What goes up in Tiblisi….



This isn’t a place for disabled people or for anyone who struggles going up steep hills or steps. The pavements are, I think, based on the Caucasian mountains and the hills on Mount Everest. If you’re in a wheelchair, forget it as you’ll barely make it out of your hotel before they stick some obstacle in your way. I wonder what they do with all the disabled people here? Maybe there’s an area somewhere outside the city that’s totally flat….??

Either way, disabled tourists…..forget it.

If you’re here to lose some weight though, you came to the right place. If you’re looking for a challenge, Tiblisi is your town. There will usually be something interesting at the end but you will have to put in some effort to get there.

We started by using the hop-on-hop-off bus we used yesterday as the ticket lasts for 24 hours. We planned to get off at Revolution Square but that stop didn’t appear to be announced today so we missed it and got off a bit later, giving ourselves a bit of a walk to Dry Bridge. We even saw our first McDonalds. What a day!

There is a flea market on Dry Bridge every day but it was only just kicking in when we got there so we decided to go for a drink and something to eat first. Happy Cow told me there was an restaurant with vegan options nearby and it was open. It wasn’t according to a grumpy woman on the stairs. But we’ve just scaled Kilimanjaro to get here Claire didn’t exclaim even though it felt like it. We had also had to cross the one road in Tiblisis that pedestrians don’t hurl themselves at too, which entailed using an underpass….more stairs of course!

Yes, crossing the road in Tiblisi usually just means walking and presuming the cars won’t hit you. Claire thinks I’m trying to bump her off….particularly given all the cars driving round with their front ends missing. I mean, I did make sure she got some travel insurance before we left…..

Anyway, back to the food saga. Thanks for your patience. I’d seen somewhere that said they did avacado toast so we headed back there, had a word with a grumpy waitress and sat down.

I asked for two avacado toast and two diet cokes, even pointing at the diet cokes. She bought none-diet. We coped. The avacado toasts came… A small toasted bun each, some tomato, an egg and a small ball of green stuff that we think was supposed to be avacado. I gave my egg to Claire as I hadn’t been expecting something none-vegan on something so simple as avacado toast. Claire kindly gave me her avacado in return. Given that it tasted nothing like avacado and looked like it had already been chewed she didn’t really miss out on much.

We gave up trying to get the waitress’ attention to pay the bill and I went inside so she could grimace at me a bit more. I’m pretty sure she overcharged me for the snotballs of avacado toast thingies but I just wanted to get out of there by then.

And so back to the flea market on and now around Dry Bridge. It was getting bigger and the variety of things on offer was mind-boggling. Been after a squeezebox mate? We have a few on offer. Antlers? Just down there sir. Actual silver dagger gullible Englishman? $300 to you. Er no thanks! Lots of jewellery, axes, gas masks, antique electrical equipment, pottery, old cameras, meat grinders etc etc were all on offer.

Sadly, stall holders seemed to know what things were worth if they were old things and were prepared to ask too much if they weren’t. We did buy a little figure of the Georgian statue and Claire bought a necklace but generally there weren’t the bargains to be had that I’d hoped for. Well worth a nosey though as it’s fascinating seeing what’s for sale.

Next stop, a funicular railway to save a very steep climb….but even the base station was at the top of some steep streets…. To go on any transport you have to pay 2 GEL for a card and then put money on it. This of course was a different card from the one I bought the other day so another 2 GEL gone on a bit of plastic plus about £6 each for a return trip. Note: this card is also used at the top to pay for rides in the theme park.

The turnstile operator and driver was Charismatic Carl and I thought I’d never get away from his witty banter and all round happy demeanour.*

*Not true obviously-he was typical Georgian customer service.

At the top is Mtatsminda Park which is a park with rides and restaurants and stuff. It was quite empty and there was some work being done which meant some things weren’t open. More on that anon!

We went on the huge ferris wheel (£3), the rollercoaster (£4) and the ghost castle (£3). The ferris wheel gave great views over the city and included a free photo after….the con being it’s about 1” square….or you can upgrade…. A fridge magnet of it was only £3 so we ended up with that too.

We had to wait for enough people to go on the rollercoaster but it was only a few minutes before we had enough to go. We sat at the front of course and were surprised that the centrifugal force didn’t keep our legs still but they were flying in the air through the three loops. Good fun but hardly Alton Towers.

The ghost castle was one of the most rickety rides I’ve ever been on and quite amusing because they shut us in the cart like it was a cage. Obviously being behind bars suited Claire but I found it a bit weird. The cart rattled around, up and down, in and out for a reasonable amount of time before we were back at the start where…..the scariest thing of all….the ride operator….gulp…..smiled!! No doubt he’ll already have been sacked!!

We then found some dinosaurs but it cost money to go in and see them, not much but it didn’t seem worth it as they weren’t even animotronic let alone real dinosaurs (despite that part being called Jurassic Park!!).

Back near the exit Claire needed the loo before we headed down and I decided to couple that with a trip to the video games. So we walked uphill and up steps back into the park, used the loo, walked further uphill and….the video games room was shut….

We also saw a sign for a 7D ride….yes 7!! It didn’t say what the 7 were and it wasn’t open so maybe I’ll never know.

And talking of toilets….we were weren’t we? The toilets at the park were of the squat variety which I have luckily managed to avoid pooing in since I got arthiritis because, well, how do you do it?!?! I can barely bend over to tie my laces never mind squat, hold it and then get back up again. Should I Google how to do it? There is nothing to hold onto so…what!??!

Anyway, Charismatic Carl was on the funicular again so you can imagine how much fun he was! Back at the bottom I went onto Happy Cow and we were soon heading in the direction of Kiwi Vegan Cafe on a ‘mainly flat’ route. Mainly flat for Tiblisi methinks…

The cafe was quite cool and it was nice that such a place exists. The service was actually friendly which was a nice change, the food was great and the drinks were too. We were both full so that’s always a good sign.

After a stop off at Spar it was back to our pad to sit outside and write blogs again. I’ve done even more walking today then yesterday and even more exercise! Tomorrow we start on doing trips….

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