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Published: September 13th 2022
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, it was very quiet as little was open despite it being after 10am, even the cats were still napping. Tbilisi appears not to wake up until around midday, but stays up late. The Dry Bridge Market was barely open at 11.10am, so we took to a fair bit of wandering to find a place for a very late breakfast.
Ordering avocado toast
at a cafe on a busy street, we were met with the usual indifference we’ve come to expect from customer facing staff. The waitress got our order completely wrong and no shits were given. Glyn had to chase after her just to ask for the bill as she pointedly ignored all eye contact.
Returning to the Dry Bridge Market which is a huge outdoor flea market, it had become a lot busier. Wares for sale included a variety of knives and axes, jewellery, ceramics, brass stuff, 70s/80s vinyl, accordions, gramophones, old film cameras, outdated electronics and many, many cables. It look like I’d emptied out my attic! Well almost. I don’t know what was the most disturbing find; an old mace weapon or a Boney M album where the cover photo had the band scantily clad and the male singer holding the women in golden chains as though they were slaves (it’s called Love for Sale if you want to look it up).
A necklace I’d previously eyed up near Narikala Fortress was about a quarter of the price, so I bought that. Glyn was browsing ornamental knives as worryingly, he collects them. This is the man that
Street art
Check out the artist on Instagram, goshaart cuts himself when going shopping, so you see why I get concerned. However, none were bargain enough for him. There were so many antique cameras, including one in the shape of a football, but upon research on eBay, they were only a little cheaper. No haggling appears to happen here, if you say it’s too much, the vendor shrugs and off you go. You will not be chased with a lower price.
There’s some graffiti in the area, occasionally in English. My fave was one that Glyn spotted, “F*** you if you bad!”. There were quite a few anti Russian slogans, I think the most unfair was “Russian not welcome if you bad or good”. In a couple of places “F*** Russia” had Russia crossed out and replaced with Putin. That seems fairer to me, I’d hate as a Brit to be judged alongside Boris Johnson and his ilk. Most graffiti was in Georgian so I haven’t a clue what that was about.
As the day began to get hot, it was time to trudge up very steep cobbled roads to the lower funicular station to ascend Mount Mtatsminda where there’s an amusement park. It was very empty,
Old buildings
Tbilisi, Georgia but as it is open until 11pm, I presume it comes alive when it’s a lot cooler. Call us mad dogs, but we go out in the midday sun. And we suffer for it. But there were no queues. In fact at the rollercoaster, we had to wait until a couple more people turned up so that there were enough to run the ride!
The panoramic views across Tbilisi were pretty awesome, and even more so from atop the giant Ferris wheel. The only thing higher than the Ferris wheel was the rollercoaster, so note, the best panoramic view of Tbilisi is from a rollercoaster. But like most rides worldwide, you can’t take a camera. It wasn’t a great rollercoaster, mainly because it was slow when it needed to be fast. Normally centrifugal force keeps you in your seat during the loops, but this was too slow and we were thrown against the restraints in a jolting and concerning manner. I didn’t scream, it was more of a calm ‘bloody hell’. Once was enough.
We also took the ghost train, which was a long ride. The mechanical stuff that is intended to make you jump totally failed with
me. Anyone who knows me knows I jump when someone says hello, so this was a fail of epic proportions. The downhill bits that are meant to be exhilarating were painfully slow and the whole thing had seen better days, perhaps around 40 years ago. However, we had a laugh.
Yet again another day had slipped by and it was getting close to 5pm. Many things were closed, including a 7D cinema, which I really wanted to go in just to find out what all the D’s are! I think the most I’ve been to is a 4D cinema, so there’s 3 D’s I haven’t experienced!
We returned via the funicular and thankfully the walk back was downhill, Glyn found a vegan cafe to eat at that also served wine cocktails. The food was nice and they also played music we know and like such as Nick Cave and the Sex Pistols. In fact, they played “God Save the Queen” by the Sex Pistols, I don’t think anyone would dare to this in the UK currently, it’s not a celebration of her life for sure, but we appreciated it, being the plebs we are.
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