I consider myself a well-traveled person but the list of places I still want to visit is quite long. When planning my next overseas trip I came across a tour in the country of Georgia. Not knowing much about the country I started reading about the country that was once part of the Soviet Union. This particular tour is an all women group I am part of online; I have been intrigued with joining one of their tours for a few years now. I quickly booked the tour last fall, putting a deposit down on a single room – I don’t mind touring with strangers but sharing a room with someone I don’t know is just not what I am willing to do anymore (with the exception of a dorm thing that might be required on some hikes). The tour is short and concentrates only in a small part of the country so my intent is to tour other cities on my own. I start a list of all the other places I am interested in visiting and gathering logistic information. Originally I set off on planning a road trip for the solo portion of my trip. Meanwhile a friend inquires on joining me on part of my trip. She’ll travel with me before my scheduled tour.

I continue building the itinerary, filling in more details but it seems like the activities I have planned at best will leave us very exhausted. We devise a new plan to limit our stays to two cities and use day trips to visit locations outside the cities. In this plan we no longer need a car rental. Our new plan works out well for the most part with a couple exceptions that I’ll describe later.

There are two flights to get to Georgia and that includes an eight hour layover in Munich. Both of us have been to Munich before but eight hours seems to long to lounge at the airport. We make a plan to travel into Munich for our long break. The airport has other plans for us, everything we estimated takes twice as long. We wait for over an hour to pass through passport control in order to be able to exit the airport. They have us wait in a long line for the machines to complete our first steps and then are told to move to a “faster” line on a different floor but that line ends up being even longer. By the time we get past passport control it only makes sense go with our backup plan – take a bus to the even closer Bräustüberl Weihenstephan in the town of Freising. Weihenstephan is the oldest brewery in the world. Even though I don’t drink beer anymore I order a flight to sample some of them but eventually switch to a good riesling, I do miss the dry German rieslings. We don’t have too much time left to waste so we return to the bus station for our return trip to the airport. We pick up our checked bags and go find our gate for the next leg of our trip, Tiblisi.

We arrive at our hotel around at 5:30 am. Luckily we book the room for the previous evening so the key is waiting for us when we arrive. We shower and take a long nap; neither one of us slept much on our flights. Our alarm is set for ten in the morning. We will still be sleep deprived but we are determined to get on a normal schedule – we have a walking tour scheduled at noon. I wake up but I am having a hard time getting ready for the day. We are very jet lagged.

We meet up at Freedom Square and a local guide starts our walking tour around the city. During introductions a dog joins us and makes his presence known by barking and approaching everyone in the group. He is one of many Tbilisi street dogs, the large group of unhoused dogs that roam the streets. The dogs are homeless but are vaccinated and somehow well cared for, at least most are. He protects us periodically running into the streets and barking at suspicious cars on the road. He stays with us a little while but eventually wanders off and we are joined by other dogs in our tour. It seems to be a common theme in Georgia.

We are told about the history of the city that has historically been on the Silk Road trading route. The land here has been sought after or fought for by Russia (and Soviet Union) but also the Ottoman Empire, Persians, Greeks and other invaders. Even after many different occupations they still maintain their unique language and culture. Their language is formed using a 33 character alphabet with unique sounds only heard here. The language has three different versions and to simplify it they can be referred to as the old version, the religious text version, and the current version. There is no gender in the language but there are words to describe people and some seem to be reversed to what is normal in Latin languages – mama means dad, and dada means mom. They also claim to have some of the oldest bread due to types of wheat that only exist here.

We see the remnants of the old city wall and we walk through old town and learn about the courtyard life. Many of these houses with the distinct courtyards used to be single family homes but now are often divided into different aparments or set up as a hotel for tourism.

We walk through old town and see the clock but it is not operational today due to a power outage. Luckily we are in town for multiple days so we have more opportunities to see the clock perform. It is right next door to a popular puppet theater. Unfortunately it is one of those tickets that have to be booked in advance so we probably won’t see a show during our stay in Tbilisi.

We walk over to the bridge of peace, the bridge that connects old Tblisi with the new.

We wander around a few other areas in old town then end up by the sulphur baths. The city was literally founded because of the sulphur spring. King Vakhtang I Gorgasali hunted in the area with a falcon and the story is the falcon is lost and later found dead in the sulphur spring. The king decided to create a town and name it after springs. If we have time we may come back for a massage or time in the spa rooms. I’ve heard it is a unique spa experience.

We leave the tour group and eat at a khinkali restaurant recommended by our guide. Khinkali is a similar to a soup dumpling, it’s usually filled with beef, beef and pork, mushroom, cheese or potatoes. Some have juice or a soup like liquid inside. We try two different khinkalis, one meat and one mushroom. I would have like to try more types but each order is a minimum of five and khinkali are already very filling. We also order one khachapuri and the waiter warns us it is very small and only enough for one person. Not sure how much he thinks we can eat but is more than enough food for the two of us. This is not my first khachapuri, my first experience is at a restaurant in Brooklyn, New York. There are different variations of this dish but my favorite is when it is shaped like a boat filled with melted cheese. A raw egg is put on top. You are to mix in the egg right away with the hot cheese to give a rich cheesy bread dip.

We are very tired and jet lagged but we decide it is best to keep going so we adjust to the time change. We pick a destination on the other side of the river to resume our sightseeing. We once again cross the peace bridge and spend a moment at Rike park on the way. We view a Ronald Reagan memorial statue, a group making a TikTok video, the now unused futuristic music theater, and some other interesting architecture on the way.

We arrive at Fabrika Tbilisi, a repurposed former clothing factory that is now a hip hotel and hangout area. There are clothing stores and hip cafes around. Seems like a good time to stop for a rest and a pick me up drink. Espresso martinis are a great idea right now. We spend some time enjoying the mild temperatures, people watching and observing the behavior of the street dogs that have seemed to make themselves comfortable in this district. This part of town also has the interesting courtyard and balcony architecture.

We cross the dry bridge and glance at the dry bridge market, vowing to come back to this area on our full free day. We now are aiming for the Atoneli Wine Window, a window that has a man waiting at the lower level for you to ring a bell to request a glass of wine for purchase. The first wine we order is tossed away for being inadequate after the host smells the wine poured and declares it bad. Not sure we would know the difference not being wine experts but we are impressed that he cared to make sure he was serving us quality wine. We drink our newly poured wine on the street outside and return our glasses back to the window.

Our next plan is to take the cable car up to to see Mother of Georgia, the large statute, up close but we navigate to the wrong cable car and end up by a large amusement park at the top called Mtatsminda Park. After watching the sunset from above we tour the lit up amusement park by foot, hoping to find a path to Mother of Georgia from here. We are unsuccessful so we admire the views some more and then take the cable car back down for our return trip.

We walk back towards our hotel which seems to be a long walk from here but we make a shopping detour as well and buy some chacha (Georgian homemade vodka) and homemade wine from a van on the street served out of reused plastic bottles. We are aiming for the authentic experience here.

We have a morning tour booked tomorrow so no late night adventures for us tonight.