A cable car, a Bolt and the Georgian Banksy in Georgia

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Day 13 Georgia. Thurs 22nd Sep

A cable car, a Bolt and the Georgian Banksy in Georgia



We have done our last trip so no alarms today!! I was awake for 8:30 but Claire managed to sleep for about an hour longer. This must be what it’s like for other people who do ‘normal’ holidays….??? I just felt lazy to be honest.

The rest didn’t last long though. We were soon walking up (of course ‘up’) to the Holy Trinity cathedral which is the best religious place we have visited here. Lots of clunkers walking really slowly towards it as usual just to ruin your photos but I guess having a couple of clunkers in shot gives some scale to the size of the building.

With a walkway reminiscent of the Taj Mahal leading up to it, no pools for reflections though unfortunately….oh and inevitably some steps up to it, it is quite a sight. We walked over to one corner to shoot the building in the best light and the head of the clunkers stood up and just stood there in our way. Apparently clunker-pushing-off-walls is still illegal, even here. Damn.

So let’s go inside where there’s a clunker convention going on in front of Claire. As she’s waiting to take a picture, a trio of clunkers are photographing each otner looking miserable in front of Jesus. Now I’m far from religious but having your picture taken looking like the world is about to end in front of a huge altar seems a bit wrong.

Anyway, stop moaning and get on with it! The building inside was quite stunning too with really high ceilings and all very well maintained and looked after. Well worth a visit and not up too steep of a hill. Free to get in too.

Because you started me moaning I’ve missed something out. Will you let me concentrate!

T’other day we were told of a graffiti tunnel and a bridge with photographs on. Today we found it by accident and it was worth the accident. Some of the graffiti was really good and the photography was on the under-bridge walkway and were a series of images that had won awards. Some of the pictures were quite harrowing but it was really interesting. On the way back from the cathedral we walked on the otner side of the bridge where there were different pictures.

We were heading by now to the Ethnographic Museum, yes the one we made it to on Monday in a rip-off taxi only to find it was closed. We were to take the cable car up this time, after lots of walking of course.

We discussed stopping for something to eat and that idea was hastened as the thunder, lightning and rain started. A place that we were too early for last week was open today so we sat outside under an umbrella. The food was okay and the waitress actually smiled a couple of times. Onwards and, yes, upwards. The road wasn’t too steep, the rain was intermittent and the walk was quite long. We walked through the posh area where there was a Next, a Swavorski and even a Wedgwood shop. As with a lot of Tiblisi there was improvement work going on and it was quite hard to walk in some places. We finally made it to the lower cable car station though.

As usual the guy there spoke to me in Russian first, thinking I look like a Russian. He switched to English and told us to wait ten minutes. We were confused as to how to check the balance on our travel cards even though the machine could be put into English. You click on transportation and it blathers on about everything but what you want to do. I was convinced we still had some money left from using another cable car last week and that turned out to be the case. You can share a card on cable cars but not on other transport, just to make it more confusing.

This cable car was 1 lari each, about 30p. It was quite old and five of us plus an operator were squeezed into a small car. It was quite cosy as we were pulled slowly up the hill and even cosier when the operator had to swap sides to open the opposite door from the door we went in. Well worth 30p to save the climb though.

At the top we were at Turtle Lake and Google maps was telling us to walk all the way around the lake first….. We just got on the road down to the museum and cut 12 minutes off the time. Does Google maps have a scenic route setting?!?!?

The museum was open, hooray! It was 20 lari each and I had a right laugh with the cashier. I thought I’d never get away. Not really. No sign of a smile, even though I thanked her in Georgian.

No-one collected our tickets inside but a security guard was thankfully on hand to glare at us. So now we felt welcome. There was a distinct lack of information or signposts. A small map had some numbers on it but didn’t tell you what the numbers were in any language. And there really were no signposts so you just had to wander over a vast area hoping you’d come across something amongst the trees.

I haven’t explained what this place is have I? So, it’s a series of houses from different areas and eras of Georgia, all moved and rebuilt in Tiblisi. It was one guy who started it all and there is an area inside of self-congratulation.

So the numbers on the map are different houses or, often, another winery. I think I’m an expert now in how tney used to make and now make Georgian wine even though I can’t stand the stuff.

So we approach the first house and a lady appears with some keys and opens it up for us. She speaks to us in Russian and walks away disappointedly when she realises we speak English. In the next, and a few other houses, are ladies who explain, in English, about the house and the objects inside. All of them are women by the way, no men.

Anyway, each one is a short explanation and quite interesting and really adds to the place. Tnere aren’t many vistors but you can see why it is relatively expensive when you are paying so many people. So you walk round and find a few interesting houses, not all of which are open and have a speaker inside but you don’t really know where you are going or if the museum is actually enclosed.

Some more of the houses appear to be up the hill amongst the trees and we find some of them. The rest we gave a miss as we were back down at the bottom and I think my legs and knees are rebelling. It was an interesting visit but a few signposts wouldn’t go amiss, oh and somewhere to buy a drink or a souvenir or something. There was no shop and a closed cafe so if you didn’t bring food or water, you needed to walk 15 minutes to Turtle Lake……uphill.

There were toilets thankfully but the water appeared to have been turned off in the gents and all the urinals were covered up. Not sure if the water was off because someone was cleaning in there but it’s a good job I didn’t need a poo as the toilet wouldn’t flush.

We needed to get back into town and walking was poo-pooed very quickly by both of us. So we decided to use the Bolt app and cetainly not a taxi…..grrrrr…. We are both still angry about that. It was a busy time so all the cheapest rides were busy but for less than £6 we were picked up within 5 minutes and driven in a premium car to the other side of town. My daughter will be angry we didn’t take a Tesla but they were twice the price and busy….but still would have been a lot cheaper than that taxi the other day. So, yeah, if you want to travel in Georgia, get Bolt: there’s no Uber here in case you were wondering.

Back in the old town square one of our previous guides had told me where I could get some local spices so we headed underground to a bazaar. Claire tried some wine ice-cream while I found the spices I was looking for. The bazaar was interesting, had a good selection of stuff and everything had a price on which is good. Georgian food coming up at home soon!

We nipped back to the guesthouse to unload and for me to start this blog. Next thing. There is a lot of street art here and one of the artists features a lot of cats….you can see where this is going… So Claire contacted him as he sells individual pieces of art to customers and so we were meeting him tonight.

In the basement of a winery we sat and chatted with the Georgian Banksy (or he could be the ACTUAL Banksy!). He showed us how he puts on a hi-viz jacket and just does his art so people think he is official. He has spruced up and improved so many places in Tiblisi and Batumi….and he doesn’t get paid. His money comes from things like tonight and a calendar he releases each year.

Clare was struggling to decide on just one to buy from the box of pictures he had bought so, if he added three cats to one picture, she would buy two. He sat there and drew three cats onto one of his pictures, so at least we could see he is actually the artist, and Claire Paypalled him over the money. It was all quite ineresting meeting an actual street artist whose work you have seen all over the place. Claire will be looking for frames when we get home.

Last stop of the day was a return to the first place we ate in Georgia as I really enjoyed the lobio there. So what had they run out of? Yep, lobio. I ordered some other things and far too much for me so Claire helped me eat it all. It was all good and not too expensive.

So despite taking a cable car and a Bolt I have doubled my move goal yet again and walked nearly 22000 Glyn steps. Last day tomorrow but I’m not allowed to rest I’ve been told because I had a rest on Monday afternoon and Saturday will mainly be sitting on my backside on planes. I’m a very lucky man I’m told.

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