Blogs from Tbilisi District, Georgia, Asia - page 2

There’s a big, golden roof atop a Cathedral that can been seen from all over Old Tbilisi, so we had to go sooner or later. Today was the day. Following Google maps, we came across an underground walkway that had very good street art. This led to the pedestrian part of a road bridge that showcased winning images from the International Kolga Awards Exhibition. It was quite fascinating with signs in English explaining the background for each. Naturally the Holy Trinity Cathedral of Tbilisi was uphill, then a bunch of steps to boot. It’s rather new, having only been completed in 2004, so in pristine condition. At 87.1 metres high, 70.4 metres long and 64.7 metres wide, it’s one of the largest religious buildings in the world. Despite being free to get in, there weren’t many ... read more

Day 14 Georgia. Fri 23rd Sep Calling the cops and chronicles on our last day in Georgia Another late start on our last day here as, AGAIN, we didn’t set alarms. We walked down to Meidan Square to order a Bolt as it’s a bit of a maze where our guesthouse is. Who should we see on the square but our rip-off taxi driver from the other day. He pretended not to remember us but Claire was straight in there, soon accompanied by me. He used the usual excuses then offered to take us somewhere for free, then offered to take us to the airport for free tomorrow, then offered us 50 lari back…. He had rippped us off for about 130 lari and obviously knew he was in the wrong. Claire went to call the ... read more

Day 10 Georgia. Monday 19th Sep Getting ripped off on our day off There’s usually something that goes wrong on our holidays whether it be delayed flights, luggage going missing, me getting ill, being overcharged….simething. We had no trips booked today so Claire declared it a national holiday, for the two of us anyway. I was promised some relaxation time so this really was a special day! The first plan was to visit the ethnographic museum which is a bit out of town. We’d been to something similar in Romania and enjoyed it. Getting a bus involved getting another travel card and putting enough money on it for each of us for a bus, then working out the bus and where to get off…. It looked a bit complicated so it seemed worth it to pay ... read more

Having spent a lot of wedge on the 24 hour Hop On Hop Off bus yesterday, we were determined to do more hopping today before time ran out. We meant to get off at Rose Revolution Square (named after a recent revolution that spilled no blood) but it was unnoticeable and we got off somewhere on Kote Marjanishvili St, as it looked interesting. But it wasn’t that interesting, in fact we came across our first McDonalds. We had previously noted that there weren’t many American food chains in Tbilisi, but I guess the old town was the wrong area for that. However there’s lots of Georgian eateries in old town, which I hope means that’s what tourists want as opposed to the things they can get back home easily. Walking down to the Dry Bridge Market, ... read more

Day 3 Georgia. Monday 12th Sept. How many things can you do in one day in Tiblisi? So the first plan today was to go to the Magti shop to get a SIM card. This would be great for finding our way round, finding places of interest and vegan cafes and stuff. I took a picture of the Google maps directions and was all ready to set off when…. ……Claire happened….. ‘So I thought we’d start off at the fortress then go this church then….oh yeah, the SIM cards….we can do that after…’ You may remember that the fortress is high up but Claire assured me that she’d found a short route and I’m convinced she said it wasn’t too steep. We stood at the bottom and she was lost but decided that we should walk ... read more