Big Cathedral, Old Houses from all of Georgia and Meeting a Street Artist

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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 tourists there, however most of them stood in front of me when I tried to take photos.I wanted to try the Museum of Ethnography again, but after being ripped off on Monday, we were dubious about transport. It would be a 90 minute walk to a cable car station that would take us above it. We decided to take the walk and stop for lunch on the way. Lunch was on Rustaveli Avenue which probably is the most expensive area as it’s where Parliament, the ballet and expensive hotels are. The thunderstorm that began was the clincher that made us choose to stop. It wasn’t overly expensive and as I could only eat half of my imeruli khachapuri, the waitress gave me a box to take the rest away in.The long walk along Rustaveli Avenue became less touristy as we came across shops such as Next and large shiny office buildings. There’s a lot of building in progress in the area, so we often walked over dug up pavements surrounded by workmen.The cable car up to Turtle Lake wasn’t a tourist one, but a small blue car that was standing only. We squished into it with a few locals and the operator. The narrow windows in the doors had no glass but were only big enough to poke my face through.The museum was a 10 minute walk downhill from the station and open this time! I doubt the amount of tourists in there amounted to double figures. This open air museum is on the side of the hill and contains old reconstructed houses from all over Georgia of different eras. It was founded in 1966 and is still a work in progress.A silent woman followed us to house 1 and it was a bit odd, but it turned out she had a key to let us in. She asked if we spoke Russian and shook her head when we said English. So we didn’t learn anything about that house.House 2 contained an English speaking lady who explained it was from East Georgia and that’s why it was wooden. Many of the houses were made from chestnut or elm. And many were on stilts because of the humid weather with high ceilings. Stone houses are from western Georgia.A lot of the furniture was beautifully carved and most of the houses had belonged to middle class people. There were also reconstructed cowsheds, barns and many, many wine cellars which aren’t actually cellars. But if we don’t know how to make wine in the Georgian style by now, it’s a miracle.I even found a cat! A black fluffy female sleeping on a man’s coat outside one of the houses. The man claimed he used to have 45 cats but then the museum kicked him out. I’m not sure if he was the caretaker or a squatter, or what happened to the cats. As we talked, the cat barely stirred despite me stroking her.There was a lot of walking up and down hill at this museum and the cafe was closed, so nowhere to get a much needed drink. We couldn’t face a lot more walking so Glyn used the Bolt app to order a non rip off taxi.The taxi arrived quite quickly and did his best to avoid unavoidable traffic. I think it cost around 18 laris as it was a fancy taxi, the economy ones being unavailable. However, it was a lot less than the rip off 150 laris from Monday!We stopped at Meidan Bazar as it’s easier to describe its location than our back alley guest house. Plus Glyn wanted to get spices so that he can cook me Georgian food when we get home. I also was enticed into trying wine ice-cream and surprisingly it was very nice. I had a red wine flavour, the name of which I’ll never remember let alone spell.Since I’ve been in Tbilisi, I’ve seen a lot of street art that contains cats (and other things), but it’s all about the cats for me. The artist signs his work as @goshaart and I found him on Instagram and got chatting. This resulted in planning to meet this evening.His name is Sergei and he’s Russian, but does speak a little English. We planned to meet in a cafe that was closed, so he took us to a table in a wine shop, where we drank wine. Glyn had Fanta in a wine glass. Sergei doesn’t have a shop and the streets are his gallery. He doesn’t get paid for his street art, even though it’s vastly improved many hoardings, electric boxes, tatty walls and doors. However, it is free advertising and he carries a variety of his original art in a big grey bag to sell to people like me. I’ve seen on Instagram that he also holds street art workshops and I asked if he has permission for this, he doesn’t unless it’s a private building. He just wears a bright orange high-vis vest and people thinks he’s on official business. And why not, his art brightens up everywhere he creates it.I couldn’t make up my mind which piece to buy. There was one I liked that doesn’t have a cat on it, so he offered to draw one in if I buy 2. I bargain a little in asking for three cats, as I have three cats and it’s a deal. I even get to choose where on the picture the cats go. One is flying in (Jambo), one is snoozing on the fence (Cosmo) and the little one is watching (Pauli). It’s a black and white drawing and the cats are in silhouette, so I decided which cats were which by their sizes.I have spent more than I would normally, but it’s original artwork and I knew the prices from Instagram in advance. I just didn’t mean to buy two but I’m glad I did.

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