Day 1: The City Tour
Whoa! This was fun,
Em and I decided to go on a trip….then Em derailed Barbz and I derailed Niyi, and our trip was made of four young, exuberant humans…
The moment the idea of travelling to Tbilisi was aired, I knew I was going to enjoy my trip. What I didn’t anticipate is that I will fall in love with everything I encountered. Our trip began on Monday 12th, our flight was scheduled for 8.45 pm but for some reason there was a 1 hour delay. We landed in Tbilisi on 13th at 2 am Georgian Time and were picked by our amazing tour guide Davit (highly recommended if plan on visiting Tblisi. You can find him here). Our hotel was at the base of Mother Georgia in the heart of old Tbilisi where everything shouts beautiful history-thumbs up Em for finding us this gem. We had a few hours of sleep and by 2pm we were out for a city tour.
Right from the architecture, the wineries, the food, weather and landscape, the city radiated its own charm.
City Tour Highlights
The Bridge of Peace
Our tour officially started here on this beautifully bow-shaped erect bridge along the Kura River which connects Old Tbilisi and the new district. The Bridge of Peace which leads to the newly constructed Rike Park has a contemporary design and colour that gives a warm contrast to the old architectures of the city. The glass and steel bridge is fitted with thousands of LED lights that are switched on 90 minutes before sunset, illuminating the Kura River and the buildings on both banks.
Tbilisi_ Bridge of peace
Tbilisi_ Bridge of peace
Rike Park
Our journey to fame began here…lol….well you know being black is the new cool! As we were trying to marvel at the city’s beauty from the park, people kept approaching us requesting for photos, and a little chit chat about where we were from and what not. Turns out the country does not receive a lot of visitors from Africa…eem let’s just say black visitors. Therefore, in honour of the three African celebs (us) a song was presented by two amazing guitarist’s right before we were snatched for another photo shoot, okay not photo shoot but the photographer was a professional-does that qualify?!
Rike Park
The Mother Georgia Statue
For the first time I went on a cable car. Don’t dare ask where I am from. In Africa we climb hills by foot and in Doha hehe we go up the dunes in dune buggies. So hey! It’s a big deal.
The excitement of being on a cable car paired with the great views and the anticipation to get up the Sololaki Hill where we would meet Mother Georgia ,explore Narikala Fortress and take pictures of the beautiful Tbilisi was just beyond our world.
Mother of Georgia is a statue of Kartlis Deda, erected on Sololaki hill in 1958 . The statue which is dressed in the Georgian national dress holds a cup of wine in one hand and a sword in the other. The wine is a representation of the Georgian hospitality while the sword signifies their love of freedom.
According to what we learnt from Davit, Mother Georgia is perhaps the most important woman in Georgia: she is their protector, a standing definition to visitors like us of what Georgia is, has been and will be.
Tbilisi_Mother Georgia
Narikala Fortress
Down to the right of Mother Georgia is this ancient fortress that dominates the Old Town’s skyline. We only got to see the fortress from a far as it was getting rainy and late. I was however keen to learn why the fortress looked damaged-yes it is ancient but….According to Davit, the Narikala Fortress suffered major damages during the 1827 earthquake, and what we were now looking at were some of the old leftover parts of the wall. The St. Nicholas Church, which was standing in this fortress, was also destroyed but was restored in 1996.
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Tbilisi_fortress Narikala
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Old Town
We were anxious to go down the hill by zip lining but unfortunately the facility was already closed, so we opted to walk down the hill to old town. Here, the buildings seemed very old (most buildings in Tbilisi are over 200 years old) but with eye-catching balconies and colours. Most of them were being renovated but with the same concept retained. We were all drawn to the Love Lock Bridge (similar to the one in Paris) though we didn’t have any locks to lock, then we proceeded to the b.e.a.u.t.i.f.u.l waterfall Leghvtakhevi before we headed to the Sulphur baths locally known as Hamamms where we encountered a beautiful performance from two natives playing on an accordion –they instantly elevated our journey to fame by happily posing for a spontaneous photo with us. By now we were all starving, Davit was kind enough to take us to Tiflis restaurant where we had a lovely meal and wrapped it all up with the most refreshing red sweet wine ever! Okay so far that’s the most delicious wine I have tasted!
Lookout for our day 2 adrenaline filled escapades in my next post.
Lots of Love
XX
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Tbilisi_Old Town love lock bridge
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Tbilisi_Old town water fall
Tbilisi_ Bridge of peace
Tbilisi_Rike park light moment
Tbilisi_view from Sololaki
Tbilisi_Hammams
Tbilisi_ hammams
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Tbilisi_Kura River
Love Lock Bridge
waterfall Leghvtakhevi
waterfall Leghvtakhevi
Tbilisi_Old town _ Em and I serving that Kisii Pose…