Woke up at 0800, forced myself to get up even though very tired, but didn’t rush and were at breakfast at 0930.
I was a bit disappointed with the breakfast, the emphasis was on cold meats which I’m not a fan of.
Had toast, cereal, yoghurt, scrambled eggs, bacon, sausage and orange juice. Didn’t bother with coffee, picked one up in Paul’s instead. It was lightly raining and about 17c.
Wandered down to the Peace Bridge, a very modern looking construction spanning the Mtkvari river, crossed over into Rike Park and strolled around. Came across a bench with a bronze statue of Ronald Reagan, and why not? By now, after only about 20 minutes, it was sunny, humid and about 25c. Went to go to the Dry Bridge Market, which is a large covered flea market, but couldn’t see where to cross the busy road so turned around and walked back through the park to the cable car. Decided to try approaching the market from the other side of the river later today or tomorrow. Walked back through the park to the cable car. The cable car only took a couple of minutes to get to the top of the hill, but there were some good views. There wasn’t really much at the top, just a view over the city, a Fortress that was basically a couple of walls and The Mother of Georgians, a large shiny statue.
Even though I’d paid for a return trip we decided to walk back down so got some more photos and it only took about 15 minutes.
The paths and roads of Tbilisi are in a state of disrepair – pot holes, missing bricks etc, and there are a lot of abandoned houses. There are also lots of houses which look abandoned with old doors, broken windows and huge cracks in the brickwork but had people living in them.
There are loads of dogs lying around in the streets, most have registration tags and all they seem to do is sleep. In another area we saw loads of cats wandering around. All of them looked pretty filthy though.
Found ourselves in the Jewish area and Betlemi Church, poked around a bit then carried on back to the hotel.
We’ve realised Tbilisi isn’t very big, and have already seen most of the main attractions.
The plan for the rest of the day was to chill in the hotel room for a while then head out to the Sulphur Baths, then onto dinner, so that’s what we did. Tbilisi is quite busy, lots of people around, quite a lot of tourists, though we hadn’t come across any other Aussies. The locals smoke a lot as well, so we were often walking around with the smell every where. Every 5 minutes we’d be approached by someone trying to give us a leaflet about tours, and most of the cars that were parked had signs on them either advertising tours or for hire.
Went into one bath house and were told we’d have to wait 30 minutes for a private room and it would cost 150 Lari ($80 AUD) for an hour. Said OK and went for a walk straight into another bath house that said we could have 30 minutes immediately for 30 Lari ($16 AUD). So I cancelled the other place and we went in.
The room was decent enough, all tiled with a table and chairs in the first bit. There was also a toilet, and the bathroom itself was a large room with a shower (basically a pipe with the red tap cold water and the hot one green, which caught me out) and the main pool. The room was very humid and smelt of sulphur, unsurprisingly.
We stripped off and dipped our feet into the water.
It was very hot. Very very very hot.
We eventually managed to immerse ourselves, and if we kept still it was just about bearable, but any movement felt even hotter. After a couple of minutes we had to get out and cool off under the shower. We kept this up for 25 minutes, dipping in and out and thankful we’d only booked half an hour. We were dripping sweat and just about managed to get dressed then left and sat on a bench outside for 10 minutes to cool off. There are only about half a dozen bath houses, and all are busy, so they must be a bit of a gold mine.
Walked back to the hotel to drop off some stuff, picking up a fridge magnet on our way, then walked around the corner to the number one Georgian restaurant in Tbilisi, and therefore the number one in Georgia, Salobie Bia. I’m pretty sure I’ve never been to the best restaurant in an entire country before.
Everyone we’ve come across speaks English, which is just as well because my Georgian is a bit rusty. Plus there was nothing on the menu I recognised, so the waitress had to explain all the dishes.
We went for a starter of beetroot, a beef thingy and a potato and pork dish. I had a glass of red wine (served chilled). Georgian wine used to be the largest export to Russia until they had a few political differences and Russia banned the import of it, so is pretty good quality.
The beetroot dish was cold, with some paprika on it, very nice. The beef dish was very finely shredded, on a bed of something like polenta, cooked with some spices and was really good. The pork and potato dish was pieces of pork cut into small squares, the potatoes were like wedges and there was also onion and coriander, with spices, and was also really good. The wine was also good. We nearly ordered another 2 dishes but it was just as well we didn’t, there was more than enough. It was very good, and cost 69 Lari ($36) – amazing value.
We were both very full and weary (a combination of jet lag and being boiled alive) so went back to the hotel.
I popped out in the evening to take some photos – they’re now uploaded.
We have all day tomorrow, then fly to Minsk the following morning at 03:45!! So we need to be at the airport at 01:45. We might book the hotel for the night and just leave at 01:00, or maybe eat late and go to the airport early (although it’s small and I suspect everything will be closed). We’ll decide tomorrow.
