The City’s infinite

Walking yet another what feels like the hundreds time up and down in the streets of Tbilisi, I feel this curiosity inside of me, this urge to explore more and more. Having wandered the tiny alleys and vast roads for weeks now it seems this city is never ending in its charming magic. The wild mixture of old Georgian houses with their beautifully decorated balconies, hundreds of years old in the midst of Soviet monuments, classical buildings, mosaics, street art, renovated houses, large backyards across the city hosting the ever changing galleries of drying laundry, museums, hidden cafés, bars, restaurants offering stylish modern Western high class cuisine from Italian pizzapasta  over French Macarons to Japanese Ramen, frozen yogurt and chimney cake soft ice cream caramel brownie Oreo ice cream shops so colorful it’s impossible for me to look away, crossing over to the traditional rustic Georgian cuisine cellars and shops where you can find anything from fresh vegetables, fruits, cheese, meat, Churchkhela, honey, nuts, wine and Khinikali stands to tiny puri holes in every other wall where the warm scent of fresh bread is taking into a world from another time. One little pastry shop after another as far as the eye can see, selling countless irresistible forms of fresh dough pastries filled with meats, cheese, beans, mushrooms and potatoes sitting next to the cake shops that vent any kind of layered cream cakes that you could ever think in your wildest dreams. As I keep walking for hours in astonishment I don’t get tired of the variety of homemade wines, fancy boutiques, Georgian restaurants that serve all these delicious foods from Khachapuri, Lobiani, Phkali, eggplant dishes, salads, Mtchadi, Chvichtari (cornbreads), Elargi, beer and chacha you name it. In every supermarket long rows of fridges filled with colorful Georgian lemonades, healing mineral spring waters from all regions across the country and endless little jars filled with Russian chocolates. Clearly my mind’s got dreamclouded from four days of fasting longing for Georgia’s most delicious treats drinking a healing water instead.

Despite my hungry mind the vastness of culture, art, architecture, wellness and culinary pleasures these streets have to offer is never to be found elsewhere in the world. The beautiful almost tropical looking gardens in front of old abandoned factory buildings that make you wanna crawl into them and make them shine again next to majestic Soviet buildings representing a different aspect of the same time. All the hidden places once you start walking up and down the never ending tiny stairs leading to unexpected treasures, the tunnels that you can get lost in for hours entangled between numerous stands, navigating throughout the entire city like a maze that catches you every time; selling anything from old clothes, foods, jewelry, antique books from ancient times to church candles, Tbilisi’s eternal underground bazaars. Indescribable in their energy, dark, grey, dirty, loud yet colorful in their own unique Charme. 

The creative street arts to be found from old town throughout all other districts decorating large walls of the houses or on little metal doors. Looking up the mountains to both sides of the river your eyes are blessed with the view on breathtaking majestic Trinity church, the old fortresses, holy monasteries so many you lose count. Taking one of the cable cards up the mountain you will feel bliss over the view of river Mtkvari dividing the city in two and the different bridges reuniting it. From famous glass bridge of peace to dry bridge which is famous for its antique market where could find ancient treasures or things you will never need strolling across it in the beautiful winter sunshine. Symbolism wherever you look you will find the separation of the two worlds as well as the unification.

The waterfalls splashing out of the rocks not only in the Botanical Garden or down below the old Sulfur bathes; growing out the ground with their round domes next to the turquoise royal Tbilisi mosque. 

Even after such a long time discovering this exhilarating city I don’t get tired of it but in opposite. I find more and more tiny alleys with hidden treasures from old wooden staircases that lead into galleries, cafés or antique shops, fragile old Georgian balconies slowly crumbling down the rocks but still hanging tight as relics from different times into now. sculptures, monuments, official buildings decorated in gold, parks presenting pieces of art, tropical plants, fountains and benches from another time, not to mention the erotic Apple of Love just across the street from my home that I’ve only discovered a few days ago, just a few steps away from the impressive opera house and art gallery of the famous Rustaveli Avenue. Such a vibrant city melting together the best of East and West, both worlds, marking precisely the middle, cultures, foods, traditions, art, night and day life, never waking up before noon.

Now that it’s becoming time to open new doors all sorts of sentiments uncover in front of me every gobble stone I step on, every fresh bread baking in the oven I smell, every stairway I walk. All this never wanting to end beauty giving me the feeling that I want to be back, I want to see more, taste more, smell more, explore more. So much space to grow to integrate, to make ideas and wishes come true. All my experiences especially throughout the last weeks, my emotions slowly able to emerge out of my system, creating a bright future for another time here. Coming to an end the realization returning of how deeply I love this country, how much I feel home here, how it has provided for me, the people sharing their safe space for whenever I needed it until my last day. I can never enough express my gratitude and the deep bond that I’m feeling towards this one of a kind place on earth, my caregiver, where friendships arouse and broke, homes were built, hearts connected, families found. “So beautiful you are, chemi Gogo, so good, your heart. You’re family, we love you, you may stay however long you want.” 

My favorite labyrinth that hides more treasures than I will ever be able to explore.

~ Didi Madloba Sakartvelo! 

Chemi Lamazi! ~