I’m going to switch it up and try something a little different with this post. Let me first say that I have no delusions of grandeur that I am some Ansel Adams in the making, but I think my photography skills have improved over the course of my travels and I thought it could be interesting to feature some of these shots in a post devoted to the image rather than the written word.
The former capital of Georgia sits at the confluence of the Mtkvari and Aragvi Rivers, a mere 20 km north of Tbilisi; despite the short distance, it still takes between 35-45 minutes to travel there by marshrutka. From Central Tbilisi you’ll first need to hop on the Metro and head toward the Didube stop. Didube is one of the central transit hubs in Tbilisi; not only can you find the Metro and numerous bus lines, but there’s a train station, marshrutka terminal and a massive market. It wouldn’t hurt to pick up some food at one of the fruit stands before making the journey to Mtskheta. (Also, make sure you can pronounce Mtskheta correctly or you won’t know which marshrutka to take as all the signage is only written in the Georgian alphabet.)
Avlabari is the neighborhood on the east side of the Mtkvari River, directly across from Old Town and Meidan Square. The area has traditionally been home to Tbilisi’s sizable Armenian population, though this has been changing over the last decade as rents rise and the community gentrifies.
Northwest of both Old Town and Central Tbilisi lies the leafy area of Vake, famous for its large park and every growing culinary scene. During the Soviet era, Vake was a popular residential neighborhood for politicians and scientists dedicated to the cause. After Georgian independence, Vake slowly transformed itself into the trendiest spot in town; the only time I ever felt underdressed in all of Tbilisi was when I went to a hip new restaurant in the area.
I always attempt to learn some basic phrases of the local language before traveling to a foreign country, but Georgian was a particularly tough nut to crack. The Georgian alphabet (one of the most beautiful in the world) leaves translators with the tough task of creating Latin-alphabet equivalents, none of which really do the language any justice. There are also many glottal sounds in Georgian that have no English counterparts, making mastering pronunciation as difficult as finding a good phonetic rendering.
After circling the block of the Georgian National Museum three times because google maps swore the Museum of Soviet Occupation was in a separate building/location, I finally popped into the massive museum to ask for directions. It turns out the Museum of Soviet Occupation occupies the top floor of the National Museum and everything is included in one joint ticket. (Essentially it is not a separate museum, but an entire wing of the National Museum devoted to life during Soviet times, but to label it as such would just be too easy!)
As the name would suggest, the area stretching roughly from Freedom Square to Meidan Square and lying below the Sololaki Ridge upon which Narikala Fortress is perched, is the oldest part of Tbilisi and the most common place for travelers to begin their exploration of the Georgian capital.