Across the Caspian by Norman Handy

Author:Norman Handy
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Austin Macauley Publishers
Published: 2019-06-27T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 9

Tbilisi

We retraced our route over gravel roads, through Udabno, past shrinking temporary lakes to Sagarejo to re-join the main road. Throughout the morning the clouds were burnt away by the sun and it turned into a bright sunny day. We reached Tbilisi at lunchtime and found our hotel, Hotel Istanbul on Agmashenebeli Avenue. There weren’t ready for us so we parked outside the hotel and went to find a restaurant. There was a pizza restaurant just opposite and Kush, myself and several other members of the group went no further than crossing the road.

After signing in and dropping our luggage, we went our separate ways to explore Tbilisi. The Georgian word ‘tbili’ means ‘warm’ and is a reference to some hot sulphurous smelling springs that erupt near the banks of the Mtkvari River that flows through the centre of the city. The city was founded by King Gorgasali in the 5th century when he moved the capital from Mtskheta not far away up the road.

The city is located along the steep banks of the river and everywhere is overseen by the tall rim of the valley high up the mountain side with a TV tower and a Ferris wheel set a short distance back from the valley rim. The old city is located at the narrowest point on the river which was also the point where an ancient bridge crossed the river. The old centre is a mass of narrow winding streets, houses with balconies, churches and now more modern facilities such as bars and restaurants and dominated by the castle sitting on an outcrop of rock, immediately above the old city.

Very few buildings survived the burning of the city in 1795 by Persia so this area was largely rebuilt after that date in styles popular at that time. A quarter of Georgia’s population of nearly 5 million people live and work in the capital city so it’s no surprise that it is crowded and busy.

I didn’t have a map or a guide of the city just a flyer from the hotel on the Open Air Museum of Ethnography so I crossed the bridge over the river that flows through the centre of the city. I followed the road up the hill on the far side. There was a large intersection with flyovers and a confusing mass of under passes and it was difficult to get the right road. I walked for a while but realised that the scale of the map was quite small and the museum was not as near as I had expected. It had turned into a hot afternoon and I wasn’t confident that I was definitely going the right way so I turned back with an idea to wander around part of the city near the hotel.

I wanted to visit the railway station but to get there, there was an underpass under the busy road outside the station. Inside, it was more of a market than an underpass with traders’ small stalls on either side of the underpass and only a little space to squeeze through to get past.

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