Whenever I mentioned that I was heading to Georgia, people's immediate reaction was 'why?'. Although Georgia wasn't very high up on my bucket list, one of my best mate's parents had been a few years ago and loved it, so she was keen to go and I was happy to tag along and explore somewhere new.
We've been on various holidays together, including to Madrid, Rome, and Zagreb and chaos is pretty much guaranteed when we're travelling together. Despite my initial confidence that this wouldn't be the case since we were both now in relationships, I was very much mistaken.
The first hurdle that we had to overcome was our flights being changed from direct to indirect flights via Riga at very inconvenient times. Our outbound flight was on Thursday evening but while we settled in with our glass of wine at Gatwick, we quickly learnt that the flight was delayed by roughly two hours. This wouldn't be a big deal, except for the fact that our connection was a mere one and a half hours and if we missed the second flight, we'd have to wait an entire 24h until the next flight out to Tbilisi. That said, we're not the sort to panic so we simply relaxed and boarded the first flight.
Soon before landing, the pilot announced that connecting flights were likely to have waited and as we headed towards our second flight, we realised that the place had been held just for us. There were various interesting aspects to this flight, including that the man next to me was lacking a great deal of self-awareness (he had his seat back, tray table down, and seatbelt unbuckled for take off, he stood up during landing, and throughout the flight complained often to the stewards about the language barrier and apparent lack of freedom). Others refused to put their small rucksacks under their seats in order to make room for our suitcases in the overhead bins. Despite landing in Riga at midnight, it wasn't completely dark yet and we saw a beautiful sunset, as shown in the images above.
The flight from Riga to Tbilisi avoided Ukraine completely, meaning that the route took significantly longer to complete but we made it to Georgia just after 5am to various taxi drivers constantly offering us lifts. We found a Bolt so decided that it would be a more reliable option - spoiler: we were wrong. Not only did the Bolt driver pick us up from the wrong place (and charge us for waiting!), he also lacked lane discipline and dropped us off in the middle of nowhere at 6am. He pointed to a building on a square and informed us that it was our hostel, then drove away. As we went to explore this building, a big dog came running and barking at us, so we walked quickly (see: ran) around the square and he eventually stopped and went back got the square. The issue was that we hadn't yet reached our building and the dog was acting as an obstacle. We tried to get to the square again around the other side, but once again the dog came for us so we locked ourselves in an ajar Airbnb. It was at this point that the dog settled down right outside the door and we realised that we had no WiFi, no signal, and no way to find the hostel. Luckily, I'd loaded google maps at the airport and it managed to stay open so we could at least spot our hostel and try to get there by foot. After what felt like an hour (we later found out it had been about half of that), the dog wandered slowly off and we legged it in the opposite direction to reach our hostel. After a couple of incidents with other stray dogs and locals who couldn't understand us (but invited us into their house nonetheless), we finally made it to our hostel and thankfully the receptionist let us in (and reassured us that the strays wouldn't harm us).
Day 1
We got to the hostel at 7am, so when the cleaners came pounding on our door at noon, we were still in bed. After taking one look at us they decided that they'd better come back later, and we resumed our rest. Although we'd booked a mixed dorm of 4, we had the room to ourselves that night (which was appreciated) and the hostel sported a terrace with a gorgeous view of the city, which was one of my favourite memories of the trip.
When we finally felt alive enough, we ventured out into the city and decided to treat ourselves to some local cuisine. I had grape leaves stuffed with minced meat ('tolma') and my friend had Georgian dumplings ('khinkali'), both of which were delicious. This was supported with some local white wine, which went down a treat and was exactly what we needed. We walked from the old town to the Radisson Blu on the main street, passing various landmarks, including the National Museum, Liberty Square, and Parliament. It was a hot but humid walk so we treated ourselves to some pomegranate juice from a stand, as well as a lemonade and more white wine. Many of the buildings were very impressive and well worth seeing.
In the evening, we tried bean stew in a clay pot ('lobio') with bread, which was delicious and on returning to the hostel we had some local beer whilst chilling on the terrace and meeting a couple of other travellers. My first impressions of the city were that it was very artsy, for example there was an abundance of paintings and murals throughout the area, and that there were a relatively high number of people with glass eyes, which was a rogue but apparent observation.
Day 2
Our second day was definitely when we peaked energy-wise on the trip but was also one of our most eventful days. Despite our roommate leaving at 2am (and shining a torch in my friend's face in the process) and extremely heavy rain (which apparently led to a very cloudy but orange sky), I slept about 10 hours that night so woke up feeling very energised and refreshed.
We had a rough itinerary for Day 2, which included visiting Narikala Fortress, the Mother of Georgia, and the Old Town. On our way to the fortress, we decided to have breakfast at a nearby café, which consisted of a watermelon and feta salad for my friend and honey cake for me, which was unusual but enjoyable. We'd seen watermelons all over the city and in Georgia they're significantly bigger than in the UK. On arriving at the fortress, we realised that there would be more climbing involved than we'd anticipated and that our decision to wear flowy summer dresses wasn't the best shout, but regardless the views offered were incredible. My friend and I actually separated for a bit when we realised that we wouldn't both be able to climb over a certain part, however we reunited at the Mother of Georgia nearby. The statue isn't worth visiting close-up in my opinion as you can't see much and there are much better views of the statue around the city, but the fortress is worthwhile (despite the steep ascents and lack of handrails). Between the two monuments there are an abundance of stalls and Tbilisi Cable Car, which we took down towards Rike Park, from which we visited Metekhi Church. This is a Georgian Orthodox Christian church located opposite the old town, on a cliff looking over the river Kura. It was here that we first noticed the abundance of weddings (granted, it was a Saturday in June), with several bridal parties around the church, a constant ensemble of beeping cars with people sitting out of the windows and even one car doing doughnuts in the middle of a busy roundabout! By the church is Vakhtang Gorgasali Statue, which features the founder of the city on horseback.
The next thing on our agenda was to visit the Old Town, which was also where our hostel was located. We walked around and although various parts are quite run-down, it was probably my favourite part of the city, offering a lot of character and variation; it was quite a residential area and very laid-back. We decided to then visit Mtatsminda Park, which we were under the impression was a National Park on the mountains (spoiler: it's a theme park). After several attempts, we managed to catch a bus headed for Mtatsminda Park, which offered contactless payment, and enjoyed a fresh salad alongside a local dish consisting of aubergine and walnut paste (Badrijani Nigvzit) and, of course, some local white wine. We enjoyed the lunch and then strolled around various areas of the park, taking in the spectacular views and admiring the area. That was until we were stopped by four shopkeepers and escorted back to the restaurant to pay for our lunch, which we'd completely forgotten about. Once we figured out the reason for our warrant, we were obviously very shocked and wanted to pay there and then, however they didn't take card and I didn't have enough cash (and my friend also had no money) so it wasn't looking good for us. They must have realised that we had no intention of dine-and-dashing, but regardless the owner of the restaurant took my mugshot (which wasn't appreciated at all) and on arriving at the restaurant to pay by card, the waitress who had served us was far from impressed. After the shambles in the amusement park, all we wanted was to leave as we became paranoid since people kept staring at us, so we took the funicular down to the city then walked back to the hostel.
On the way back, we passed many locals (including children) dressed in traditional attire and performing songs to the crowd, which was heartwarming. It was overcast but hot (around 27°C), so we stopped by a wine shop and tried a few samples before settling on the wine of choice to enjoy on the terrace. After a slight mishap on opening the wine (namely: breaking the cork in half), we sat back and played cards looking over the city, with a glass of wine in hand. Slowly, more and more people who were also staying at the hostel joined us and after chatting for a while, we decided to join them for dinner at a local Georgian restaurant. The food was delicious, and after this we went to Dirty Habit bar, where a girl with an amazing voice was singing and drinks were cheap. Of course, we ended up at a club, which was extremely eventful, with my friend accidentally cutting her leg after dropping a beer bottle, another girl passing out behind me, the bartenders having water gun fights, and being escorted again whilst trying to find the toilets. There were live performers initially, followed by electro music and you were allowed to smoke indoors, which was reminiscent of Zagreb, Croatia and Tunis, Tunisia. Despite our new friends' qualms, we eventually made it back to the hostel and continued to chat and smoke on the terrace until around 6am, at which point we headed to bed. It was definitely an eventful night but a lot of fun.
Day 3
Our final full day in Tbilisi was definitely a day of rest. We were very tired and hungover so our previous day's talks of taking a day trip to Armenia (which is an extremely common excursion) was out of the question. Instead, we visited the fascinating clocktower (which I ended up getting a magnet of) and Anchiskhati Basilica, and enjoying the music from a pianist on the street, before trying a local dish of bread, cheese, and egg (Khachapuri) and lamb (Mtsvadi), which was exactly what we needed. We visited a gorgeous mosaic bathhouse (Orbeliani Baths), behind which is Leghvtakhevi Canyon and a waterfall, which is definitely worth visiting. We dined nearby and ate very questionable cuts of meat, before heading to the Royal Bath to experience the thermal sulphur baths. They only took cash which was slightly annoying, but it was definitely worth it (and I usually do not care for thermal baths), as we had a whole room to ourselves and my friend even got a massage. The baths were stunning and it was a great experience, though it is worth noting that the baths are very hot so I'd recommend brining a bottle of cold water with you.
We had a 5am flight, so tried to have an early night (which was very unsuccessful and accumulated in a total of one hour of sleep), and on our way out of the hostel we passed the terrace, at which point we were invited for beers with our friends from the previous night, whilst new joiners stared at us and told us that they'd heard so much about the 'two British girls'. We didn't ask questions but as we said goodbye, an Australian guy told us to keep doing what we were doing and being ourselves, which melted my heart.
Final thoughts
Tbilisi is an uncommon holiday destination, but means that the people you meet are likely to be some of the most interesting and it was a great city trip, full of art and hills. Obviously with the Russian-Ukraine war going on, there was a lot of anti-Putin graffiti around and there are some parts of the country that are unsafe to visit, but there is a lot to do in the capital and various excursions are offered to other parts of Georgia too if you have more time.
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