Tbilisi is bisected by a river that runs a greenish brown. It’s not the prettiest, but two of the bridges that cross it tell a lot about this city. One is the Metekhi Bridge, built near a church from the 13th century. According to one story I was told, an earlier incarnation of this bridge was the site where a Muslim conqueror demanded Tbilisi’s Christians convert and desecrate the crucifix by stepping over it. According to the legend, no one converted and tens of thousands were thrown into the river.
Nearby is a very new bridge mostly made of metal and glass. Its topped by a white symmetrical wave with a matrix-like design. At night the structure lights up and people take photos.
On the western bank is a European-style street of expensive restaurants and hip cafes. The adjacent Presidential Palace likewise has a glass dome in the center that loudly signals Tbilisi’s modernity, and among developing countries that produce this clash of old and new, I think Tbilisi’s version has been well executed.
It’s hard for me to discuss much about Georgian people as a whole, because 90% of my interactions have very fortunately been with my friend Tato and his family. Tato works for an NGO that I visited on my first full day in Georgia, and ever since he’s been taking me out for Georgian meals, giving me tours of the city, and inviting me into his home where I watched several World Cup matches. Next to Tato, my best friend in Georgia must be his cocker spaniel, Choppy. 
Coming from Moldova, or the land of terrible food, Georgia has been a blessing. Most dishes are some combination of potatoes, peppers, onions, lamb or pork, and a surprising amount of cilantro. Eating sausages for multiple meals per day has reminded me of Hungary and Romania two summers ago. Overall I’d say the cuisine is excellent, albeit shy of Turkey’s gold standard eats.I was also impressed with the number of churches in Tbilisi. They’re almost--but not quite--as common as mosques in Istanbul. In Avlabari, they recently built the enormous Trinity Cathedral. The central church is part of a complex of nine chapels that is about 4/5 the size of a football field. The church is actually most attractive from the outside. The interior, like many orthodox churches here, has bare walls in favor of ground-level altars and icons.
Once inside the central church, the amount of space is somewhat underwhelming. Large pillars shrink the floor space a great deal, and while the architects created a very tall church, they didn’t make it exceedingly wide. For someone who has been in Mimar Sinan’s Selimiye Camii, where the pillars are ingeniously integrated with the walls to make the interior entirely open, the Trinity Cathedral was in this way a little disappointing.
Perhaps the best surprise of Tbilisi was a movie theater that twice a week plays films with English subtitles. I was lucky that both films they played while I was here--Good Bye Lenin! and In July--were good films, and ones I hadn’t seen before. For a film buff who hadn’t been in a movie theater in more than a month, this was a welcome treat.
Tomorrow I leave Tbilisi for Israel, which will of course be a unique experience. Apparently, the Syrian stamp in my passport means that I’ll have to go through an additional level of security where I will strip completely and someone will yell at me in Arabic to see if I respond, among other stations. Wish me luck!
We recently visited Tbilisi and would never go back. It was much more 3rd world than I'd expected. Graffiti is everywhere. All of the sidewalks are patched, repatched, uneven and crumbling. Vehicles speed along, ignoring or straddling the painted lane markers. Most taxis look like they've been in a demolition derby, and have cracked windshields (not caused by small rocks spewed from the vehicle ahead, but rather looking like they're places where peoples' heads have hit the windshield). Women beggars are everywhere, many of whom have been injured and maimed and their clothing torn to show their injuries. Many of them hold babies or young sleeping children in their arms. Stray dogs and cats are everywhere. The beer has no hops. Most of the men just sit around and don't work unless they can get a bank or managerial job, so the women trudge their kids to the beat-up local bus and/or metro to take them to day-care, while the family car remains in the driveway and the father just sits outside all day. There is definitely ethnic hatred in Tbilisi, as drivers would argue with us about: (1) why the U.S. has a black president and couldn't we have found a good president, and (2)what nationality are we really? They don't accept that we're Americans -- they demand that we must be something else. Where did our families really come from? Although the country tends mostly toward orthodoxy and the Church has banned abortion (and all forms of birth control), abortions are the main form of birth control. Tbilisi has a brand new fancy schmancy train station, but where is their business sense? They expect people will come through the train station and buy a washer or dryer at the adjacent appliance store. And 30 feet from the train station, is a huge, hot and crowded outside bazaar where most folks buy what they need. This is where we saw most of the beggars. I could go on and on . . .
ReplyDeleteOh yeah, and that beautiful glass-covered bridge pictured above, and which was just finished, wasn't engineered correctly so it has been closed to traffic for repairs.
ReplyDeleteI've never heard someone hate a country so much for being poor.
ReplyDeleteGreat post Cole. Keep it up!
ReplyDeleteI have a question to the Anonymous_ In which language have you contactet with Georgian Taxi drivers?
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