November 20. Exploring the city

OMG!! What a weird country!!! I guess I have to provide a some clarification. I guess it is better to do it in sequence.

We got up close to nine today and what's funny, everyone reported being up at night as we were going through our time shift adjustment. Only none of our times up overlapped. So there is no proof that anyone was up at night. Well, maybe just me.

After breakfast we walked through the old city, dropped off Mark at his morning meeting with a local colleague and continued our tour of fantastically dilapidated ruins. Many standing up in a silent resistance to the basic laws of physics. Old town is painfully beautiful. Painful because it is really beautiful and not like anything we've seen before and it is beyond redemption. And many of those homes still had people living in them.

 Passed Vilnius square on the way uptown. Looking familiar?

Afterwards we walked uptown and walked up the St. David's church high on the mountain. Awesome walk and the view. Visually there is nothing left after these intense days of eating but running really paid off getting up that hill.

As much as we are not into cemeteries, the beauty and expressiveness of some of the gravestones kind of make it OK to make an exception every now and and then. Their cemetary was exception-worthy. The church is beautiful. Georgian church architecture is very distinctive - central octagonal column where orchthodox churches usually have their domes, and squarish main building with slanted roof.

The one thing I look for in every one of them is the image of St. George killing the dragon. Sometimes it is a real dragon, other times it is a human figure that is supposed to represent the dragon or the evil spirit. Would be nice to get one. When we were in church old Georgian man came up with a headscarf. "Please put it on, daughter, " he said in Russian. It was not offensive at all. He was not pushing it down my throat. Such is the custom in this generally non-religious country. Thereafter I've tried to seek out those headscarves when we visited churches - there are usually a few scarves in the box inside a church.

We met up with Mark and his dour friend who shared some helpful insights and continued our walk.

Saw the spanking new synagogue. Some stuff including David's chair was still wrapped in plastic inside. The prayer hall on the second floor was magnificent. It is very different from typical synagogues. While most are bare with architecture and design making up for the modest decor, this one featured all the works - crystal chandeliers, gold leaf wall and ceiling paint, and gilded beema.

Mark read the signs written in Hebrew. Will have to read up on the history of the synagogue. Later we found another one - Hebrew sign on a side entrance on Leonidze said "House of Rachel." It was closed though.

Next we visited a few galleries located on the surrounding streets. Liked!

We had lunch at the local brewery. I think it is called Mirzaani. We did not go wild like last night but even with utmost self restraint running around afterward was out of question. Note the cute handle the local lavash bread has. It is because they make it round like usual and then hold one end and smash the rest into the oven. And so the handle is formed.

Took the cable car back up the mountain again and this time walked around the fortress. It is pretty high above the city. And the stairs are not designed for non-suing public. Scary stuff. Until we saw local schoolchildren aged 7-10 walk up the same paths. There are some pictures below. They do not do the views any justice.

In the evening, we saw a gathering in support of Israel. There was a fairly large group of people near restaurant Konka. The people were waiving Georgian and Israeli flags, there was a singer singing songs in Hebrew. The gathering was surrounded by the police. I am not sure who was gathered - whether it was Jewish or Georgian population or both but it was nice to see.

Then we got to the area where there are sulfur baths. Not to miss. There are a few companies that manage them. We eventually ended up at the closest one - liked the democratic management the most at bath number #5. It featured a large room with leather sofas for relaxing, another room with hot and cold surfer baths, and sauna. The whole thing cost 80 lari per hour. We all got a scrubber to scrub our skin with vinegar and rough loofa. Then boys also got soapy massage with even rougher loofa. That was 20 lari. It was very very nice.

Then we has dinner with Marks friend Nick and his wife Tamara at Old City restaurant. I did not mention it previously but Tbilisi has this interesting peculiarity - practically no streetlights, and local dzhigits do not honor the stop sights and cross walks. Literally and for real. Every major crossing, say 3 lines in each direction become an interesting test of your good luck for the day. That may also be the local method for controlling the senior citizen population. Anyway, the crossing to the restaurant was about 4 lanes each way. And the lanes were not marked. My life flashed before my eyes. But I lived to tell the story :)

So the dinner. It was a traditional restaurant. There were singers with beautiful voices (going at full volume) just like in the movies. The selection of songs ranged from Georgian traditional, to Hava Hagila, to Arabic, to Gypsy Kings. A group next to us had the whole traditional party going on - there was a tamada making the toasts, men got up to hear and repeat them. Towards the end they started to pass around what looked like a half a liter horn which each man drank with another toast. Tamara ordered traditional selection for us to let us try what did have not still. That was pretty much the double of what we had on day one. Towards the end we finished off with chacha - a local version of moonshine made from left over wine by-products. Very very nice!!

The conversation, whenever the music allowed it :), was very interesting. Nick is American who had taken interest in local culture (and women - as of Tamara :)) and moved to Georgia and works as international journalist. Tamara works in film industry. I forgot the name for her profession but it has to do with taking notes during each and every take of the film and creating the record that is used in the editing process. It was fascinating to hear the insights into the life in Georgia.

I've started my post with the comment how weird this place is. It really is. I have never seen this level of niceness, good will, and helpfulness in any country we visited. Literally every single person we approached went out of their way to be nice to us. Nick and Tamara of course top that. It is incredible that something like that can be happening in a country so ravaged economically.

Tomorrow we are going to the wine country - Kakheti.