First Days in Tbilisi

Last night was my second one in Tbilisi and so far it has been wonderful. Last night eight of us new volunteers went to see the old fort that used to be used to defend the city. One of the TLG leaders was really awesome and saved us the money of buying two taxis by talking to a Marshruka driver for us and letting him know where to drop us off.

We weren’t sure how to get to the fortress, and the first very steep road we climbed ended up being the wrong one. No one knew enough Georgian to really ask directions, and the few people we did ask all told us very different things (some blatantly wrong). WE ended up climbing through an alley filled with construction trash to get to the right road.

The fortress was closed by the time we got there, but the view was amazing.

Once we got back to ground level, we stopped at a bar with a lot of outside seating for a beer solely because we were told we weren’t allowed to drink at all during orientation.

Last night’s adventure was even better than the first one though. There were only four of us who hadn’t been to the church yet, so we decided to brave the impending storm and go take a look. We didn’t get far at all before we were being poured on. The rain was fairly warm though, and since we only have a limited amount of time in the city, we decided press on toward the church. We were in the old part of the city, so the streets were narrow and winding and the sidewalks were cobblestone. The shops were very small but quite amazing. There were little bakeries and there was a vegetable shop, some convenient stores, and stores that sold candles to take up to the church.

The church was nice, but I was hoping for a little more from it. Nothing about it really struck me as being completely amazing. At least nothing when compared with the Vatican, which is the only other tour-worthy church I have ever been in. When we left the church, it was no longer raining, but that didn’t last long, and we were soon completely soaked walking through the streets of Old Tbilisi in the rain. When we got back to where the Marshruka dropped us off,  none of us were quite ready to go back for the night, so we found a nearby restaurant and went in for some drinks.

There was a singer/DJ and a woman playing an electric violin. A group of Georgian men were dancing to it, and provided our entertainment. Their dancing was nothing at all like anything I’ve ever seen. First of all, you’d never see a group of guys dancing together in the states, but even the movements they did were not anything I’d seen before, and at one point two of the guys were dancing side by side with their arms around each other’s shoulders.

While we watched the dance, we decided to split a khachapori since it’s about the most famous Georgian food and we all had yet to try it. It’s like a shallow bread bowl with really salty cheese baked into it, and once it comes out of the oven an egg is cracked on top. I can’t say I loved it as much as I thought I might. The saltiness of the cheese really threw me off, but it was still good.

While we were enjoying our second dinner, we met some veteran TLG volunteers and they talked with us and told us about their experiences and then took us to their favorite bar, which ended up being one of the coolest places I’d ever been. About half the people in there were TLG, but they were from all over the country and just spending their weekend in Tbilisi. I tried chacha, Georgian moonshine, for the first time. The particular batch we had wasn’t very strong; the stuff is rumored to sometimes be as much as 70% alcohol. One of the Georgian guys, Erik (I’m sure he Americanized it for us,) told us about a music festival we’re all planning on checking out tonight.

At this point, I don’t want our training week to end. My group is only fifteen people and everyone gets along really well, and although we’ve been incredibly busy doing the training during the day and trying to explore the city at night, it’s just been an amazing time so far.