First Day in Tbilisi
At 4:00 in the afternoon, it’s snack time on the streets of Tblisi. Men, women, and children are walking and eating—puffs of golden brioche, large disks of cheese-filled khatchapuri, foot-long sausages wrapped in pastry like oversized pigs-in-blankets. It is my first day here and I’ve been wandering the city center, taking care not to go too far from the Marriott Courtyard on Freedom Square.
In the high-rent neighborhood of our hotel, the shops are mainly of the Cartier and Versace kind and not unusual or particularly interesting. On the other hand, informal shopping malls in underground pedestrian cross-walks beneath the broad, tree-lined avenues offer a fascinating variety of goods from hand-knit mittens, socks, and vests to bananas and persimmons (eaten hard and crunchy here), and from used books in Russian, French, and Georgian to original art to hair scrunchies in neon hues. Most vendors sit beside their offerings, which are laid out on a low table or on the ground in boxes, but there are a few shops too, and that is where I find my first purchase—a Georgian-English phrasebook for 15 lari (just under $10 at 1.6 lari to $1 USD). I conclude the transaction by consulting the book and using my first word of Georgian: gmadlobt (“thank you”). The Georgian alphabet (5 vowels, 28 consonants) resembles the Elvish script of JRR Tolkien’s Middle Earth: strange, curvilinear letters, quite beautiful.
I think I’ve never seen more public art than here in Tbilisi, especially sculpture. This varies from the monumental gilded statue of St George–as always, on horseback, slaying the dragon—atop a great pillar in a vast fountain at the center of Freedom Square; to a series of whimsical figures seated on pedestals set in the sidewalk; to a jazz saxophonist in bronze, his head, hat, hands and horn protruding from the marble-clad façade of a building, along with his right knee and the tips of his shoes.
Flower sellers along Rustaveli Avenue display dahlias the size of salad plates in gorgeous bright colors—fuschia, orange, flame-tinged yellow. The scent of frankincense wafts from the shops of icon sellers along Leselidze Street. Devout Georgians cross themselves three times when passing a church or the statue of St George. Orthodox Christian priests wear long grey hassocks, their untrimmed beards flowing to the waist.
In the Eastern way, pairs of men and women here walk hand-in-hand or arm-in-arm.
My first day in Tbilisi was cool and dry, with pale sunlight and crisp air. I walked all afternoon until I realized I was very tired. I bought a new mobile phone, a phrasebook, lunch in a hotel restaurant, and a banana. I hated to go indoors, but I returned to the Marriott for a 20-minute nap before meeting Jim for dinner. I’m looking forward to more exploring tomorrow.
