Blogs from Tbilisi District, Georgia, Asia - page 4

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Asia » Georgia » Tbilisi District July 20th 2021

I packed an extra bag. A duffle of sorts that folds down to nothing, but is roomy enough to bring home souvenirs, Georgian originals and the bounty of all my holiday shopping. Thus far into my Georgian adventure, the bag remains folded up in the corner of my suitcase. It looks sad and useless at this point. That is the bad news. The good news, my pocketbook has been unaffected by Georgian gift shops or boutiques. I am not ready to wave the white flag on Georgian finds just yet, but at this point my hope is not high. The souvenir shops are filled with the sort of kitsch that would please traveling Grandma’s and cruise ship travelers. The high end fashion boutiques are not abundant and I am certainly not within their target audience age ... read more
Scarves for Sale
History Lessons
Traditional Georgian Hats

Asia » Georgia » Tbilisi District July 17th 2021

Rarely would I ever top a city’s must see list with a hotel, but the Stamba Hotel is more than just a hotel. It is a place to eat, drink, sleep, shop and marvel. At every turn, there is a new and interesting vignette, an aesthetic feast and a stop in your tracks wonder. It might actually cause stimulation overload, but at the same time you can’t get enough. Once a large publishing house, the warehouse building is now a boutique hotel that feels more like a living, breathing art gallery. The rooms seem like upscale loft apartments sprinkled with unexpected, decadent fixtures, like gold plated free standing bath tubs in the middle of the room or on the balcony. In a nod toward the building’s history, the walls of the rooms, the bar and the ... read more
Lobby/Reception Area
Lobby Bar

Asia » Georgia » Tbilisi District July 17th 2021

As Willie Nelson’s version of the old timey song Georgia on my Mind plays on repeat in my head ever since booking this vacation, I can’t help but accept I really don’t know much about The Republic of Georgia and I am guessing I’m not alone. We all know Georgia exists, but what else do we really remember from history class or geography lessons? For starters, the song annoyingly invading my brain has nothing to do about with this little country at all. The song is about the American state, not surprisingly. Right out of the starting gate, there is a bit of an identity crisis with Georgia. Am I in Europe? Asia? Eurasia? The correct answer is, Georgia is located in the Caucasus Region; essentially at the intersection of Eastern Europe and Asia. Formerly a ... read more

Asia » Georgia » Tbilisi District July 14th 2021

I’m a planner. I’m a plotter, I’m an organizer and I’m a dreamer. I can be a bit of a romantic, an adventurer and an information seeker. I know all of these dimensions about myself because of travel. I have learned I have an insatiable appetite for information when I am planning a trip. I have learned that I want to plan and plan and plan, but I don’t want to create a rigid travel itinerary. I want to lay out an old fashioned paper map and I want to trace routes. I want a trip that lands somewhere between overly scheduled and do whatever whenever the spirit moves me. I want to see everything, but I also want long, leisurely moments where I simply watch the world go by before my eyes. These are the ... read more
Travel Planning Corner
Dream Trip List…partial list!

Asia » Georgia » Tbilisi District August 30th 2019

We departed Sheki for the Georgian border early on Sunday morning (which happened to be Bill's birthday!) Our leader Balash was a very good leader, shook all our hands individually and left us at the Azerbaijani- Georgian border where its approximatley a 700m walk to Georgia. We met our new leader, Tamari, on the Georgian side and were taken go our homemade lunch in the Kakheti region (which happens to be wine region). We feasted on delicious Geogian food and sampled homemade chacha, a vodka-type spirit made from grape skins. Afterward we visited a traditional winery where the wine is produced using the traditional methods of fermenting the wine underground in claypots, the wine prodded with a rake type implement and skins, stems and all thrown in which gives the white wine an amber colour. The ... read more
Traditional Georgian drinking horn
Sighnaghi fortress
Sighnaghi

Asia » Georgia » Tbilisi District July 28th 2019

On my last day, I woke up fairly early, though breakfast here does not start until 9. My friend had told me that things don't start until later here, and it was funny to note the truth of that. So, I took a shower, packed and right at 9 I walked down for breakfast, eating my favorite dish of chicken with cream sauce (I asked what the name of this was, and the girl looked at me like I was crazy. Chicken with cream sauce) and soaking it with bread. Then I went upstairs to finish packing and decided to check out. I brought my luggage downstairs, then started to walk to the Ikalto Monastery close by just before 11am. Soso said he would pick me up at 1pm to take me to Tbilisi, basically for ... read more
Ikalto Monastery
Water spout - perfect after a hot hike uphill
Water springs

Asia » Georgia » Tbilisi District June 13th 2018

Eid Holidays gives me time to update and awaken something that I started 4 years ago. This time I'll be sharing my 1st winter experience....Snowfall at first sight :) Flashback to last December 2017, one of the bravest thing I did was to booked a plane ticket and celebrated my 29th birthday in Georgia. Many might think that I was referring for the state in America. But nope, It is somewhere between Europe and Asia (EurAsia) along with the Caucasus Mountain. So, for us working in the Middle East, Georgia has been the famous getaway place in any of the 4 seasons. Roughly only 4 hours direct flight from Doha (ooooppss,, location update my last blog entry I was still in Oman now I changed my work location) never-mind guys!. and almost 7 hours if with ... read more
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Asia » Georgia » Tbilisi District October 7th 2017

We move east in the Caucases, calling in at the town of Gori on the way. Gori is famous for being the birthplace of Joseph Stalin. Thousands of towns in the former Soviet Union had a statue of Stalin in their main square, now Gori is the only one. A museum is dedicated to his life, well, dedicated to the positive parts of his life and glossing over the rest. It's our first time in a museum covering the life of a mass murderer and it is difficult to know how to react. We ask our young guide whether the local people still see him as a hero. The old do, she says, but we young do not. We climb into the mountains. Our hotel in Gudauri is at 2100 metres and there is a scattering ... read more
Tbilisi
Nuts in grape jelly snacks
Stalin's train

Asia » Georgia » Tbilisi District September 3rd 2017

Took ages to clear security customs at Tbilisi International Airport, but finally emerged to find the driver from our hotel waiting to collect us. It was warm, too warm. In fact I was astonished find the weather even hotter than Zambia on account of the humidity. This was not going to be good. We arrived at our residence for the next three nights, Hotel City, on a side street off Freedom Square. My room was a disaster; right at the top floor where there was no lift access, it was tiny and u-shaped (to fit around the bathroom) with windows on three sides and curtains that didn’t keep out the light, an uneven floor and air conditioning above the door that didn’t reach the bed at the other end of the “U”. I complained to the ... read more
The old Gergian parliament building on Rustaveli Avenue
The view of Tbilisi from Narikala Fortress
Wine tasting at the end of the walking tour

Asia » Georgia » Tbilisi District September 1st 2017

Everyone is talking about Georgia of late, and it's a privilege to join the summer hordes exploring the country, along with eight million or so of my closest friends! Although the distances in Europe are not vast between countries, booking flights is often problematic as it's rare to purchase a ticket without a stopover on the continent. Often the better part of a day is taken up at airports, so you can imagine my delight at being able to secure a direct flight from Odessa across the Black Sea to Tbilisi, the capital of Georgia. It was an effortless two hour commute, and though Georgia is technically part of Asia the country feels very much European from arrival at the airport. I was able to snaffle a taxi to the hostel for a not overly exorbitant ... read more
Peace bridge
Central Batumi
Great building




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