The mountains of Georgia divide Europe and Asia but the narrow tree lined avenues, pavement cafes and bars and the cobbled streets give the place a distinctly European feel.
All this wasn’t apparent until we woke up this morning and looked out of our hotel window, straining to see past the derelict building next door, to see clear blue skies. The temperature was perfect for exploring the cit and we started with an expensive breakfast of sausage roll and croissant to share and a coffee each.
The bill came to just over £20. We agreed we needed to get a handle on the currency exchange rate – we are spending too much on food already.
The Peace Bridge was as spectacular as I expected and filled with Japanese tourists taking photos. The river was brown and fast flowing with several tourist boats. For the cable car, we needed to get a travel card but the cost of the card and enough credit to get up the mountain and use the buses all day, was a bargain at about less than £10 pound for the two of us.
The view from Mother Georgia was incredible – in the distance you can see snow-capped mountains, and below, the narrow winding lanes of Old Tbilisi. We walked and walked past the Botanical Gardens and eventually down a series of steep metal steps until we reached the residential area.
Here we put one of the communal scarves on our head and opened the heavily carved doors into a small church for a bit of a break. And what a sight greeted us – religious frescoes on every wall, window and ceiling. It was clearly a small but significant church.
Walking around the old town we were amazed to see the dilapidation of the buildings. Some were clearly inhabited but crumbling away. And everywhere balconies in various states of decay, but beautiful none-the-less.
Having walked around in circles for an hour or so, we settled on what looked like a nice clean cafe and refueled.
We noticed on the map that we were not far from the train station so we thought we’d go have a look so that in tow days time we would know where to go to get the train to Batumi.
As it turned out, it was lucky we went because all the tickets for the 8am train had gone and there were only tickets for the 5pm train. We walked to the long-distance bus station which was on the roof of the train station and enquired there. Worryingly most buses go overnight which would put paid to our carefully worked plans.
Plan B is to go to the rooftop bus station at 8am in the morning and hope to pick up one of the minibuses which ply this route. This is a risk but we have little choice. There is a Plan C and a Plan D but we hope not to be that desperate.
All around the city there is graffiti, even on the beautiful white building, there are tags. In the Old Town there are impressive wall paintings and a noticeable anti-Russian sentiment, due I suppose as a result of Russia bombing the pace in 2008. Today, young Russians come here to escape conscription and Russian is heard on the street and buses.
Mother Georgia stands on the hill looking down on the Old Town with a sword in one hand and a glass of wine in the other. Until I came here I had no idea the extent of the Georgian wine industry. On every street are wine shops and bars and it’s even sold in plastic bottles in the convenience stores.
This land, known as the Cradle of Wine has been producing wine since around 8,000 BC. We had a glass of red and white and it was unlike any other wine I have ever drunk – a very particular taste – one I don’t think I’m going to grow to like much.
But the Georgian beer was good and with the temperature around 27 degrees, it’s a much better option anyway.