On the Road with Julie

Time to Read:

Not that Georgia, though.

Georgia, the country, has it’s own rich musical traditions. The song, “Georgia on My Mind” is not about them and not a song they relate to. But as an American traveling to this remarkable country, and already finding myself remembering it fondly and having it float through my mind, it is the perfect tune to sum up how I feel at the moment.

As I mentioned in my previous post, my time in Tbilisi, Georgia was fantastic.

I realize I might be starting to sound like a broken record. But, it turns out, time spent in other places, getting to benefit from other cultures has been pretty consistently wonderful. 

I have already written about the symphony of smells I found myself swimming through in the streets of Tbilisi.  

And, I’ve already written about how, I could sum up the entire experience by simply saying, “It was good”, and that would cover it.

But, Tbilisi deserves a bit more than that.

This is the first stop on my trip where I’ve included intensive language study in a place that I was only in for a week. The result of this is that I left Tbilisi with so much left on the table to see, learn, try and discover. 

But, I got enough of a taste of it to know that I want more.

I am writing this post from an AirBnB in Istanbul, Turkey. Through a series of unexpected twists and turns, I ended up trading my second weekend in Tbilisi in for a chance to make a quick stop in Istanbul. I can’t say I regret the chance to see Istanbul. But, I can say, I already miss Tbilisi.

Once classes started on Monday, I didn’t have much time to do anything other than go to class, do homework, eat and sleep.

After a weekend wandering through the wonders of Tbilisi, one of them that caught my attention the most, was all of the signs written in Georgian. It is a tremendous alphabet to see. I lasted three days in Morocco before I couldn’t help doing a few Duolingo lessons in Arabic. I just had to. I somehow got through 2 weeks in Latvia and resisted any temptation to take on Latvian. Georgian? With that alphabet? I found out that the alphabet itself is actually listed on UNESCO’s Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. I couldn’t resist. On top of an already packed week of intensive Russian classes, I added on a few Georgian lessons. I plead linguistic insanity.

My week in Tbilisi, in terms of Russian studies and my school schedule at the NovaMova ended up being crazy intense. I like intense. I’m not complaining, but it was definitely more than I expected. I signed up for the intensive class to bump up the level from what I had experienced at schools that only gave me 3 hours of schooling a day. I got to have a 1.5 hour private lesson in the morning, followed by a 2.5 hour “group” lesson in the afternoon. There was only 1 other student in the “group” class. So, the classes were great. What I did not expect, was the hours and hours (and hours) of homework that we would get assigned every night. It was no big deal if we didn’t do it. But, if you’ve met me, you know, I take an assignment as a challenge – so I did everything I could (except stay up late) to get them done. My days consisted of waking up, doing homework for the 3-4 hours I had before I needed to go to class (squeezing a shower in there somewhere), then 1.5 hours of class. Then walk the 3 minutes back to my heavenly apartment to grab lunch while doing more homework for the next hour. Then walk the 3 minutes back to school for the 2.5 hour group lesson. Then, because I’m insane and found myself so curious about the beautiful Georgian alphabet that I saw written everywhere in Tbilisi, for Tuesday and Wednesday, I added some Georgian lessons that went for the next 1.5. By the time I got home, I desperately needed a break…but there was more homework to do. I would take a short break to take care of travel logistics or just let my brain do a lot of nothing for an hour or two before, you guessed it, trying to fit in another hour of homework before bed. Then, a nice early bedtime by 9PM, asleep by 10, sleep for 8 hours and wash, rinse, repeat. 

It was like a linguistic jackhammer experience.

I definitely left Tbilisi feeling like this was a place I would have enjoyed settling in for an entire month. 

And, not just because I felt right at home there. I also absolutely felt like I needed way more time to make the kind of progress in Russian that I had hoped to make during my 3 weeks during this trip. I am leaving happy with the progress I made and feeling like I need another 2 solid weeks to get all the way to really be at a new level. That said, before my 3 weeks of Russian, when I was speaking Russian it was an absolute crap shoot if I would use the correct verb of motion or not while speaking. It was throwing spaghetti at a wall. Now, the spaghetti is neatly in the bowl. It’s still a delicious tangled mess, but it is contained. I might use the wrong verb of motion, but I can now guarantee that I at least made a respectable guess before failing. And, sometimes, now, I might even use the right one! Even better, when I am getting them correct, I KNOW that what I just said was right! This is definite progress. 

But, I still wouldn’t feel I could just settle into any conversation with someone in Russian. If it was on a topic that I’ve talked about many times before where I know that I know the grammar and the vocabulary, yes. Outside of that realm, it’s a big solid “maybe”. 

But, progress is progress. So, hurray for that. I’m just greedy for more.

The weekend before classes began, Ryan and I put our tourist hats on and went all out.

Saturday, we took to the streets to do all the wandering we could manage. We crossed the peace bridge. We said hello to Ronnie Reagan and enjoyed a few moments of 80s nostalgia.

We got an appreciation for Tbilisi’s system of community dogs . Tbilisi has about 10,000 community dogs that are just wandering everywhere. They have yellow tags on their ears to indicate that they’ve been vaccinated and taken care of medically. They are super chill and super adorable.

We saw the clock tower. We wandered through the Old Town. We gawked at the Georgian alphabet on all of the signs.

Neither of us drink alcohol. Not for any particular reason other than neither of us really likes it all that much. But Georgia is a place for wine. Historically speaking, it has the oldest evidence of wine production anywhere in the world. And, one of their traditions is to serve hot wine. Yes, you heard that correctly. And, yes, it is as good as it sounds. Of course, we had to try it. I don’t usually like wine, but MAN, if I had had more time in Georgia, after trying a little bit of that hot wine, I was definitely ready for all of those cheeky wine magnets and t-shirts you find throughout the US. It was delicious! Unfortunately, thanks to my stupid allergy to dairy (yea, allergy, you heard me, I called you stupid), I could not partake of the wine flavored ice cream. Ryan took one for the team and gave it a try. It didn’t actually sound that appealing to him, so he was quite surprised when he tried it and found out it was delicious. Talking with my Russian teacher later in the week about it, she told me that she never has it. It doesn’t really exist anywhere accept the tourist areas. Wine is Georgian. Wine ice cream, that’s a novelty for tourists. And, we were tourists. As predicted, we were excited by the novelty of it.

As we trekked throughout the city, we got to see the Mother of Georgia statue from a million different angles, including a fantastic view of it right from the porch of our apartment. It is definitely a sight worth beholding, and one you can see from just about anywhere in central Tbilisi. 

If there is one thing that must be mentioned to describe Tbilisi, it is how the presence of nature infuses this large city in every possible way. It is a city in a valley, so it is embraced by the arms of the mountains and ridges that you can see from anywhere in it. Even when you are down in the thick of it, no matter how many cars or 5 or 6 lane roads you pass, your field of vision includes greenery. Trees, bushes, flowers, grasses. It changes the feeling of the pace of the city. And, in terms of pace goes, for all of the ways that Tbilisi felt relaxing, I have never experienced a car culture that felt more chaotic. And I have been to NYC and Boston many times. I’m sure there are others in my future travels and in travels I have no plans to make that would beat out Tbilisi for maximum traffic chaos, but Ryan and I both agreed we would never want to drive there. My Russian teacher even told me that she didn’t know how to drive because, why would she want to there.

But, the madness of the traffic was so easily counterbalanced by the peace lent by so many draping vines. Nature has a way of taming noise into music. And, that’s what I saw her doing all through Tbilisi.

I knew that Tbilisi was surrounded by tremendous natural wonders. I REALLY wanted to go on a full day excursion into the Caucasus mountains that surround the city during my time there. But, Ryan and I knew that if we gave a whole day to that, there wouldn’t be much time for anything else. I was only able to give it up if we managed to get some hiking in. Turns out, there was a great hiking trail that led us into the beautiful nature that surrounds Tbilisi pretty much right across the street from our apartment.

On Sunday, we started the day, by my request, with a visit to a breakfast place I’d found that was a 20 minute walk from the apartment that had gluten free pancakes. Boy did they have gluten free pancakes. These things were a work of art. Big, thick and fluffy, covered in syrup, fruit and granola, there was probably enough calories in this one meal to cover an entire days worth of energy. We were heading straight from there on a five mile hike, so I did everything in my power to show the proper respect to these pancakes. I ate as much as I physically could handle, then a few bites more, before I raised the white flag. Man were those good.

The Funicular train station was right next to our place and we rode it up to the top of a ridge to get to the beginning of our hiking trail.

At the top of that ridge, there was an amusement park!

And when we got to the top, we arrived to the familiar sounds of a running race coming to a close! There was a big finish line, all the accompanying music and Garmin booths and people walking around with finisher medals on their necks. We set out on our 5 mile hike to Turtle lake and got to cheer on the remaining racers on those hilly rocky trails. We even ended up walking past an aid station that was overflowing with yummy food and the race volunteers enthusiastically encouraged us to pillage the table. It was pretty great.

We hiked about 5 beautiful miles and finished our hike at Turtle Lake surrounded by the lovely sight of people enjoying a beautiful Saturday with their friends and family. Teens were skateboarding, families were enjoying quality time, kids were playing, a pickleball tournament (or some sport that looked a lot like it) was in full swing, outdoor ping pong tables were being enjoyed and there was all manner of people out enjoying a beautiful day in a beautiful place.

There was still a good 4 hours of daylight left and we intended to squeeze every bit of experience that we could out of it.

We called a Bolt (the Georgian version of Uber) and made our way on the 45 minute drive to the Chronicles of Georgia.

All I can say is, wow. 

It is, up to this point in my travels, the most impressive physical monument I’ve yet seen. At first, it seems like something that must be ancient. It was actually built in the 1980’s as a tribute to 3000 years of Georgian history. They never finished it, but it is finished enough to leave quite an impression.

I had gotten a chance to speak with our driver in Russian a bit, and he asked us if we were going go to Mtskheta. I didn’t know what it was. He explained it a bit more. It is the former capital of Georgia, also a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It is the spiritual center of Georgia and it was just another 45 minutes away from where we were. 

Of course we had to go.

After we were done at the Chronicles, we called another Bolt and were on our way for another 45 minute drive. 

This was one of my trip highlights as I found out that my Russian was good enough to have a pretty great conversation with our driver, Khaka, in Russian. We discussed world events, we discussed languages, we discussed war and why neither one of us is a fan. It was neat to see that I could manage to have a conversation with a Russian person that was out of my normal sphere of things I’m used to saying. Sometimes, someone says something to me in Russian, and I’ve got nothing to say back, not that I can find the words for anyways. But, I lasted the full 45 minutes. Not bad.

Mtskheta was such a trip highlight. I don’t even know how to begin to describe how wonderful it was. I’ll let the pictures do most of the talking.

The churches there were pulsating with a sacred feeling in a way that was different than I had felt before. And, mind you, I have seen some mind blowing cathedrals. There was just something special about these ones. The people that were visiting were not just tourists. There were clearly people in pilgrimage. Reverence was being displayed in myriad nooks, crannies and corners. It was so sacred feeling that I felt intrusive being there as an onlooker. I did my best to make my presence small and out of the way. When I put on my salmon-colored jogging pants in the morning for the hike, I was not thinking ahead to how I might feel inside such a sacred place. I just hope I wasn’t in the way and I am so grateful I got to witness such a place and steep in such a feeling.

We were in churches that were built in the 10th century, that stood next to other buildings built in the 5th century. That means, when the 10th century churches were being built, they were looking at those other buildings next to them with awe going, “Wow, those are old.” Now they all stand up as a testament to the breadth and depth of human history.

And, of course, outside of the church, there was a string of stands set up to cater to tourists like us. Ryan got his wine ice cream. I bought some dried persimmons that I didn’t stop thinking about all week. They were sold in 1 kilogram batches. I was trying to use moderation and asked for just three of them, rather than the full string. I spent the rest of the week regretting that decision, wishing I had another one to nosh on. Man, were they good. 

We ordered our final Bolt to head back to our apartment and were quite satisfied with a day extremely well-used. We reflected back on how much we managed to squeeze into one day, surprised that neither of was exhausted or really even that tired. The day before, all we had done was wander around the city and I came home exhausted. Sunday, we packed in four different activities, each worthy of being the feature of a day, and we were as relaxed as can be.

I think it was the pancakes.

But, also, there was just something about Tbilisi that just relaxed me. I felt it the whole rest of the week. I slept great every night and I felt relaxed every day. It could have had something to do with our apartment that was off the charts amazing. It was expensive for Georgia, but, for that same apartment in any other place I’ve visited, it would have been completely out of reach, so we decided to go for it. Boy am I glad we did. 

There wasn’t a ton of gluten free options in Tbilisi that I found. I did find a place called “Gluten Free Zone”. Interestingly, most of what they offered was not gluten free, but, they did give me the chance to get to try Georgian Khinkali! There was so much delicious looking gluten free food that I couldn’t eat. So, I was pretty grateful. They were delicious!

And, after spending the first 4 or 5 days trying to hunt down dairy free yogurt for my breakfast in various grocery stores, on Wednesday, 2 days before my departure, I finally stepped into the gelato shop across the street from our apartment. I don’t know why I had just assumed there would not be dairy free options as I had grown accustomed to finding in Italy. After all of that city-wide searching, it was a Dorothy situation all along – right in my own backyard. Not only were there multiple flavors of delicious dairy free gelato, there were cooler cases filled with dairy free puddings and smoked salmon salads and all of the things that not only can I eat, but I love to eat. I tried this delicious cherry flavored delight called Pelamushi. Gosh, it was good. I had 2 days left to exploit the riches out my front door. I did my best.

Before I started planning this trip, I had never heard of Tbilisi. It had never crossed my mind that I would ever visit Georgia. I don’t know that Georgia, as a place, had ever really been on my radar at all. I’m not bragging about this. This is an admission about the sad state of my global and geographical awareness before I set out on this adventure. And it is such a perfect example of how much enrichment is available to be had when one ventures beyond their front door. I have such an appreciation now for the Georgian people, the Georgian language, the Georgian culture, the Georgian history – even though I know so little about any of it. I know enough to know that I’m better for having expanded my world to include it and grateful that Georgia welcomed me so warmly to benefit from it for a short time. I know enough to know that there is so much more to know and that, if I ever get a chance to partake of and participate in it again, I would be fortunate. Thank you, Georgia, for your warm welcome. I do hope I get to see you again, someday.