The Georgian Series: The Capital

View from the Metekhi Church over the Mtkvari River

As I am not quite sure where to begin - I think I will just go chronologically and break it down into places, peoples, things to eat and perhaps another category or two. So let us begin at the beginning, shall we? Our story begins in the Georgian capital, Tbilisi.

Old Soviet-style murals peeking out behind the overwhelming Coca-Cola billboard. Glasnost! Perestroyka! 

Tbilisi literally means "warm" referring to the hot springs that the area was known for. There are different versions of a similar story about King Vakhtang Gorgasali of Kartli who was hunting in what is now the capital when he came upon the hot springs - one story has it that a pheasant he was hunting fell into the springs and was instantly cooked for dinner; another has it that a wounded dear fell into the springs and was miraculously healed. In any case, all of the explanations transmit a sense of the wondrous powers of the springs, honored in the capital's name.

The sulfur baths 

And what's a spring city with out baaaaaths. Tbilisi's famous sulfur baths, the Abanotubani, are centered around a loved little park that sits underneath the botanical garden and the Narikala Fortress. Alexander Dumas and Alexander Pushkin both bathed here and the latter apparently raved about his bath as the best he'd ever had. With such a recommendation, I had to check it out. I stole an hour on my last day after returning to the capital following a 6 hour bus ride from the southern state of Samtskhe-Javakheti where I had been observing. A bath would be a perfect way to remove four days of dirt, SMOKE (so. much. smoke.), alcohol and general griminess from my skin. A friend of mine called ahead for me and I indulged in a private room complete with a sauna, hot pool and cold pool and it was diiivine even though the faint smell of an egg salad sandwiches wafted through the tiled room. I skipped the scrub and opted to use the last 20 minutes before the final briefing to buy a carpet because, well, I have a carpet addiction. That and I love the look on my husbands face when I bring home ANOTHER carpet. ("NOT ANOTHER ONE!!! They smell like dead camels and they hide the wooden floors!!! Ughhhh!)

Inside the bath

Ok, maybe this isn't going chronologically after all. Because the bath and carpet came at the end and what came first was Independence Day. As I mentioned before, flights in and out of Tbilisi come and go in the middle of the night. So by the time my head hit the pillow, the sun was coming up. Still, a few other observers I met in the hotel lobby and I decided to meet at 10:30 to head into town for the Independence Day parade. 

 On the way to the Independence Day parade at Freedom Square

We arrived at Freedom Square and were instantly absorbed into the mob jockeying for position. Babies sitting atop their fathers' shoulders, kids climbing up lampposts and grown men jostling for space on park benches. I stopped to take a few photos and promptly lost the entire group. Suddenly completely on my own, with no idea where I was or how to get back, I decided rather than panic I would let myself get swept up in it. The families enjoying a gorgeous spring day, the pomp and circumstance of the parade, the soldiers - rifles cast over shoulders, fatigues flawlessly pressed - running in perfect time. And then came the humvies and the tanks. And then the fighter planes and helicopters. And then the ice cream lady.

A tank rolls through Freedom Square...

After the parade wound up, I had an hour to kill before meeting Jacob for dumplings. Just me and my camera strolling through the old city.

Slowly crumbling but still reminiscent of what it once was

Although slowly crumbling in that post-Soviet way, it was still easy to see how gorgeous this city had once been - not that it isn't any more, but there is a desperate need for major restoration. In fact, a number of NGOs, and specifically the Norwegians have put a great deal of money into restoring crumbling facades and rebuilding damaged homes and buildings in the old city. And the results are stunning. Technicolor houses that jump out from the hillside next to a sagging shack.

Religious art and artifact stores on every corner in the old city

Christianity is the dominant religion here and most Georgians adhere to the Georgian Orthodox Church. In the predominantly Armenian south where I was observing elections, I was constantly reminded by proud Armenians that they were the first people in the world to convert to Christianity - or so they liked to tell me. The Armenian Apostolic Church dates back to 301 AD. 

Shops like the one picture above selling elaborate gold portraits of Jesus were quite common place. Especially near one of the numerous churches in the city.

Campaign posters plaster the walkways

The campaign was in full throttle when we arrived as mayoral candidates were to be directly elected for the first time on Sunday. Lots of shaking hands and kissing babies, cries of foul and threats to disrupt the parade from one of the main opposition parties and of course the ubiquitous campaign posters plaster every free wall and billboard in town.

Love these wooden balconies and the courtyards in between them

Tbilisi is an architecturally stunning, historically fascinating and geographically challenging city that is easy to get absorbed in as one wanders the streets of the old town. Winding up narrow alleyways toward the fortress, one is impressed by the skillfully carved wooden balconies, the 4th century Zoroastrian temple, the crumbling courtyards decked with lines of laundry. It's so charming, I was charmed. Pleased to meet you, Tbilisi. And after all this wandering up winding walking ways, serious sustenance is in order. Next in the Georgia series: the Fare. Monday! I promise!

The Georgian Series: An Introduction

The Narikala Fortress presiding over Tbilisi

After receiving word that I had been selected as a Short Term Observer (STO) with the OSCE (Organization for Security and Co-Operation in Europe) Election Observation Mission (EOM - so many acronyms, it's like a whole new language) to Georgia for the May 30th municipal elections, I beelined to the bookstore. I know there are people who prefer to go to a new country for the first time without any information, no preconceived notions, no "Best Of.." short list from the favorite guide book. But I am not one of them. I would only have a week in Georgia, a country I knew little to nothing about before this trip, and much of that time would be spent at pre-election briefings, mapping out an election day polling station route, observing voting, counting and the tabulation activities at the District Election Committee (DEC) and then sleeping at least a couple of hours after spending the entire election night (until 8 am) at the DEC. So, in order to maximize any free time we would be allotted, I picked up a guide book to alert me to Tbilisi's historic points of interests, a brief and incomplete primer on a few key words in Georgian and of course, information on what to eat and where.

A polling station in Samtshke Javakheti

And that is where my Georgian education began. Not with the guidebook. But with the search for the guidebook. Scanning the book store's shelves, which were divided into continents and then broken down again into smaller specialties, my eyes quickly passed over Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Hungary, .... wait.... Denmark, Fraaaannnnce aaaannnnd.... Hungary. A B C D E.... singing the song in my head... no, Georgia should be sitting between France and Hungary. A helpful sales woman noticed my perplexed stare and asked if she could help. "I am looking for a guide on Georgia," I explained. "Come with me," she replied. And then she lead me past "Europe", past "North" and "South America" and stopped in the "Asia" section. "Here it is," she pulled the last copy of the "Georgia, Armenia & Azerbaijan" Lonely Planet off the shelf. I smiled sheepishly and thanked her. Riiiiiiiiiiggghhhht. WRONG CONTINENT. First lesson: Georgia is in Asia. NOT EUROPE.

The Independence Day Military Parade coming down Rustaveli to Freedom Square

Or is it? According to Wikipedia (I know, the arbiter of truth), Georgia is in "Eurasia" straddling eastern Europe and western Asia. Current president Mikheil Saakashvilli is vying for entry into the European Union and NATO. But what's more, Georgia is a regular competitor in the EUROVISION SONG CONTEST - I mean, hello? Forget geopolitical issues and let EUROVISION be your guide. That MUST be why I looked in the Europe section at the bookstore. I guess the saleswoman is not a Eurovision fan otherwise DUH she would have stuck that guide firmly on another continent's shelf. In any case, tracking down the guide book was a humbling reminder of how little I know about Georgia and the Causcasus region in general.

Gorgeous carved wooden balconies in Tbilisi

We arrived at Tbilisi airport at 4 am. For some reason which no one has been able to explain to me, most international flights into and out of Tbilisi arrive and take off in the middle of the night. Our flight out of Munich arrived an hour later than scheduled which meant that by the time we got through customs, picked up our luggage and herded everyone onto the shuttles, it was nearly 5 am. It was still dark as we drove to our hotel and I relished that feeling of arriving in a new country for the first time. Everything being completely unfamiliar from the language and its script to the city landscape, the Soviet and Georgian architecture, and knowing that a week from right now I would be heading back to the airport on the same road but with the feeling that my surroundings had become somehow more commonplace.

"Beer Free on Weekends"

As this is a series and this post only the introduction, I will leave you hanging here with a promise of more on Thursday. More on the divine Georgian cuisine, the unparalleled Georgian and Armenian hospitality, the severe and striking scenery and tumultuous history of this fascinating country.

Wednesday Snapshot: Memorable Meal - Prelude to the Georgian Series

This is Jacob. He is Joseph Stalin's great grandson. And he's teaching me how to eat khinkali without spilling all of the juice down my shirt. I just got back from a week in Georgia, the country. I spent the majority of the week in the predominantly Armenian south observing preparation, voting, counting and tabulation of the vote in the municipal elections that were held throughout the country on Sunday. And this snapshot is a prelude to a series - can't wait to tell you all about Georgia!