More Tbilisi, Georgia, Sept 2022
Next day, we came back to the old town to check out the local Dezerter Bazaar, a wholesale and retail vegetables and fruit market. We had found out that Tbilisi had a small metro system, so we decided to try it out and walked from the hotel to the nearby 300 Aragveli metro station to take the metro to the Dezerter Bazaar. The metro station looked aged inside, and I bought 2 tickets, cheap at flat rate of 1 Lari ($0.33 cents). There was an escalator descending down to the metro subway and not only was it very noisy (sounded like maintenance on it had been deferred), but it was moving much faster than we are used to. This escalator spooked Dilshad, who refused to get on the escalator. So, I asked the ticket lady where the elevator or stairs were to go down; she said there were none. The only way to get down was with the escalator. And Dilshad would not budge. So, I gave the tickets back to the ticket lady to give to someone else (why waste them?), called an Uber and we went to Dezerter Bazaar.
The Uber we got was a largish sedan, and a brand I did not recognize. The driver fortunately spoke decent English, so I asked him about the vehicle; he said it was a Chinese brand called BYD, and it was an electric vehicle. It was not only very comfortable, but had a smooth ride and was very quiet as expected in an electric vehicle. I asked him about the limited driving range and since it was a taxi, how long did it take to get recharged, which meant the taxi would be out of service, and not generating revenue. He said that to recharge, they simply drive into their depot, and the whole battery pack gets swapped out for a newly charged pack, in a matter of 10 minutes or so. So, they effective had very little down time for the taxi. Ingenious design of the BYD car for taxi use.
At Dezerter Bazaar, we found a local restaurant outside the market and started with a typical Georgian kachapuri breakfast on a patio near the market as we were hungry.
After this filling breakfast, it was off to check out the Bazaar; some scenes below
After the Bazaar, we decided to check out the Holy Trinity Cathedral, commonly known as Sameba (Georgian for Trinity); a modern (Nov 2004) large church perched on a hilltop above Tbilisi. It was indeed grand.
Inside, lots of weddings were waiting to take place, one after another. Wedding factory 😊.
Georgian Orthodox wedding ceremony required several rotations: similar to Hindu wedding ceremonies
After the church, we walked to Rike park, where we took the cable car for 2 Lari each or about $0.66 cents each, up to Narikala Fortress; the ancient fortress that was built according to the legend, by the King Varaz-Bakur of the ancient Kingdom of Iberia (nothing to do with Spain) around 364AD. Towards the end of the 4th century, the fortress fell into the hands of the Persians, but was recaptured by the kings of Kartli by the middle of the 5th century. It was considerably expanded by the Umayyads in the 7th century and by King David the Builder of Kartli. The Mongols renamed it the “Narin Qala” (i.e., “Little Fortress”). Rostom, the Safavid-appointed vali/king of Kartli, fortified the surroundings of the fortress and transferred control of the fortress to the Iranians in the 16th century.
Some scenes from the fort
Great panoramic views of Old Tbilisi from the fort
The Narikala Fortress & Mother of Georgia statue are on a hilltop. On the other side of the hill was a Botanical Garden and access to Old Tbilisi. So, we walked down to the Botanical Gardens.
The Botanical Garden led to the 2 Love bridges and Old Tbilisi we had visited in previous days. We spent some time enjoying & people watching in the Botanical Garden and Old Tbilisi, and then walked through the old town and had dinner at an Indian restaurant that Dilshad had found
Panoramic views from Indian restaurant
More scenes from other parts of Tbilisi below over a couple of days
Panoramic views from a viewpoint of the newer extensions of Tbilisi on the east side of Tbilisi
Next day was Sunday, so we went to the ancient Anchiskhati Basilica of St Mary (built in the 6th century; Georgian Orthodox Church) for the 9AM Sunday service; where the choir was supposed to sing polyphonic hymns, where the singers manipulate their voices to produce 2 notes at the same time. When we got to the church; there were clear signs that they did not want any pictures or videos taken inside :(. So words will have to do the description.
Inside the church, it was fairly crowded with practitioners who were simply milling around in no particular order. There were no pews in the middle, just a few scattered along the back walls. Priests were wearing a red coat and milling around with parishioners. The choir was a few priests singing, but I had no idea if it was polyphonic or not (untrained ear). What I did notice is several parishioners’ would go up to a priest, and together they would go a little away from others, and with their heads side-by-side, the priest would hear their confessions (heads side-by-side meant mouth to ear conversations so others nearby could not hear). There were no confession booths anywhere in this small church. I actually saw several of the parishioner’s crying while confessing. Quite a sight.
After this interesting service, we went to the car rental place where we had booked a rental car, went to the hotel, checked out, and started driving east to the wine region of Georgia.
Khaketi wine region of Georgia next
Our trip so far
- 2022
- Akaki Tsereteli
- Anchiskhati Basilica of St Mary
- Botanical Garden
- Bridge of Peace
- Citroën Ami
- Dezerter Bazaar
- founding father of Georgia
- Georgia
- Georgia Museum of Fine Art
- Georgian National Opera and Ballet Theatre
- Georgian Orthodox Church
- Holy Trinity Cathedral
- Ilia Chavchavadze
- kachapuri
- Kura river
- Lobiani
- Mother of Georgia
- Mother of Georgia statue
- Narikala fortress
- National Gallery
- Parliament of Georgia
- polyphonic hymns
- Rike Music Theatre and Exhibition Center
- Sameba
- Shota Rustaveli National Theatre
- Tbilisi
- Tbilisi town hall
