After leaving Rome I flew to Tbilisi, Georgia by way of Istanbul on Turkish Airlines. The timing of the flight was not ideal as I arrived in Tbilisi at 3:30 am. It wasn’t really worth getting a hotel at that time of the morning so I decided to wait in the airport until the sun came up. Not the most comfortable of airport seating but I did manage to doze a little until it was daylight. I got a little money out of an ATM at the airport (1 Georgian Lari = $2.5) and found a taxi dropping someone off at the airport to take me back into town. He started with a price of 10 Lari but by the time we had got to my hotel he wanted 25 Lari. Since the guide book indicated 35 Lari was a good price I didn’t complain too much.
I dropped off my bags at the hotel and set off for a look around the town. It was quite cold and very windy in the early morning as I walked around the old city. Lots of coffee shops but they were all closed. It appears that they don’t start the day too early in Tbilisi. There were several Orthodox Churches and some shabby housing in the old part of town but then lots of renovated old buildings and some spectacular modern architecture. It looked like the town was just coming out from the thaw after a cold snowy winter - dusty and dirty and decaying a little.
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| Mother of Georgia Statue above the old town |
I finally found a coffee shop where I could get a hot drink and warm up. I wandered around some more until 12:00 when I could get into my room at the hotel (the Old Tiflis Boutique Hotel). I was pretty tired after the night of travel so I took a little nap.
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| The Peace Bridge |
Later in the afternoon I set off again to explore the city. Lots of restaurants and bars and signs of renovation of the old part of town. There were also several very modern buildings and a very modern bridge across the River Mtkvari (the Peace Bridge). The modern structures looked interesting juxtaposed with the old parts of town but getting up close to them showed that the new materials don’t always hold up so well over time. Already there were signs of wear and damage.
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| Tbilisi = view from the Cable Car |
I took the cable car up the hill to the Narikala Fortress and the statue of the Mother of Georgia. Wonderful views of the city on the way up. It is a very windy day and the people holding the hawks, peacocks and monkeys for photo opportunities are having a bit of trouble with their animals - particularly the peacock, the poor thing was getting severe buffeting from the wind. The Mother Georgia statue or Kurtlis Deda as it is known locally has a sword in one hand and a glass of wine in the other - sending very mixed messages.
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| Trinity Cathedral |
Back down the hill again, I walked up the other side of the river to the largest Georgian Orthodox Church, the Trinity Cathedral (Sameba to the locals). It’s an impressive church but quite modern (Post-Soviet - 1995 - 2004 apparently).
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| Pay Box |
All throughout the city there were lots of “Pay Boxes” - wifi enabled terminals where you could perform all sorts of transactions - pay bills, transfer money, top up phones, place bets. There were even references to Bit Coins on one of the screens. We have no equivalent in the USA but they were everywhere in Tbilisi.
In the evening I found a restaurant that looked good and the food was indeed good but it looked really nasty - pigs cheeks and potatoes in some sort of black sauce. Tasted great, but looked awful.
Next day, Thursday, was not so windy and cold, so the whole town felt much more pleasant. I walked again through the old town which was now becoming quite familiar to me. I visited the oldest Orthodox Church in the region and inside the priest was chanting prayers. Then four women started singing - what a beautiful sound. I stayed for the duration of their recital in awe of what a wonderful sound they were making in this old church with shafts of sunlight coming down through the windows. The only problem with Orthodox Churches is that there is no seating - you have to stand the whole time. I prefer Catholic Churches where at least I can sit in a pew and rest my feet.
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| The Choir in the old Orthodox Church |
I walked further north out to the Dry Bridge where there is a flea market selling all manner of things. Lots of Soviet Era memorabilia and military stuff and lots of total junk that you couldn't imagine anyone buying. Nothing caught my eye. I never did find out why they called it the Dry Bridge - there was certainly lots of water.
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| St. George slaying the Dragon |
Back in the center of town I walked up Rustaveli Avenue to Rustaveli Square. Here there were lots of fine buildings - theaters, concert halls, government buildings, and hotels. Rustaveli is the preeminent Georgian poet from the 12th Century and they are obviously quite proud of him. At the other end of Rustaveli Avenue, in Freedom Square, I realized whose golden statue is on top of the column - it is Saint George slaying the Dragon. That makes sense in Georgia.
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| Khachapuri |
I had lunch and tried something called a Khachapuri - a kind of cheese pie. And what a pie it was - huge, I could barely consume half of it.
In the mid afternoon I took a taxi out to the train station for my overnight train to Baku. The train station was very disappointing - quite disheveled and run down. There were only 3 or 4 platforms and they didn’t even seem to be numbered. I found my train and got installed in my compartment. It was quite comfortable though not a particularly modern carriage but at least I had the compartment to myself.
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| Overnight Train to Baku, Azerbaijan |
As we pulled out of town, I realized I had only seen fraction of Tbilisi, the old part. There was a lot of the city I had not experienced - not particularly attractive but certainly different to the historic center.
Within a couple of hours we were at the Azerbaijan border. The border proceedings took an hour or so on each side. On the Azerbaijan side the Customs officials came through the carriage and collected passports and then one by one we were called into a compartment for processing which included being photographed. There was a rudimentary bag check in my compartment. Interestingly all vents and panels in the carriage were sealed with a customs label and the customs people checked all of them to see they were intact.
I had a good night’s sleep and awoke to us traveling across a featureless plain with few signs of habitation. As we neared Baku we skirted the edge of the Caspian Sea before coming into the city. The station in Baku was very modern, very clean, and quite the contrast with Tbilisi. We arrived around 7:30, again too early for my hotel. I walked around until I found an ATM where I got a little money (the Azerbaijani Manat - 1 Manat = $0.6). Then I got a cab to my hotel so I could get rid of my bags. They have a lot of purple London cabs in Baku.
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| Maiden Tower, Baku |
Walking around town it was obvious that Baku has a lot of money, presumably from their oil resources. Everything is clean and tidy and perfect, too clean and tidy and too perfect perhaps. The old part of town has been renovated extensively and while they have tried to keep the flavor of the old city it just doesn’t have a lot of character anymore. I walked around the old town and took in the sights of the Maiden Tower and Shirvanshah’s Palace but I found it all a bit lacking. Starbucks are there and I did get a caffeine fix as well as warming up and using their wifi.
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| The Flame Towers from the Old City |
The city is dominated by the Flame Towers, three immense modern structures that are visible all across the city. They are truly impressive modern buildings but although the guide book says at night they are illuminated by 10,000 LED lights, while I was there, they were dark.
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| The Carpet Museum |
The Carpet Museum is also an impressive new building. I didn’t go inside where there are apparently 10,000 carpets, but from the outside it is quite wonderful being built in the shape of a carpet - very novel.
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| The Flame Towers |
From the Carpet Museum I took the funicular up the hill to the base of the Flame Towers and the war graves cemetery. The Flame Towers look even more impressive when you get near to them. In the cemetery I was looking for a British War Memorial commemorating the dead in World War 1. I didn’t find it. There is also supposed to be a memorial to the Turkish dead from that same war but I never found that one either but it’s nice of them to commemorate both sides in the conflict. There was a memorial to the dead from the 20 January 1990 Black January massacre when the Soviets suppressed an uprising against the Azerbaijan Government. The memorial contains markers for each of the dead in along avenue known as Martyrs Lane.
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| Martyrs Lane |
After the morning’s walking I went to my hotel to recuperate. The Shah Palace Hotel had a great location just inside the old city walls, but alas the room did have an odd smell.
Later in the afternoon I explored the town to the north of the hotel. This was again all very clean and tidy. I believe most of the buildings would have been Soviet era buildings and they now have been re-skinned with new sandstone facades. Amazing what a little oil money can do. There was a fine Soviet era Government Building whose best side was masked by a construction project. It took me a while to figure out it was the construction of the pit facilities for the upcoming Formula 1 event in Baku which takes place on the streets of the city.
Dinner for the evening was at the not very typical but very nice Cafe de Paris. Salad and Onion Soup - just perfect.
The next morning (Saturday) the weather was so much better - no wind and not as cold. It made for a pleasant walk around many of the same areas as the previous day. There was a lot of traffic in town and some of the roads are difficult to cross. Fortunately there are quite a few subways for pedestrians - marble floors and walls, all very clean and tidy, some of them even had escalators. This is a prosperous city.
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| The Caspian Sea in Baku |
I was not overly aware that Azerbaijan is a moslem country. There were a few mosques in the old part of town but I didn’t notice them elsewhere and you didn’t see much of the veil. This contrasts with Georgia where in Tbilisi you were very aware that it was an Orthodox Christian country.
I went back to the hotel around 11:00 and took a cab to the airport. A very modern and busy and yet high speed freeway out to the very modern airport. At the airport there was an extensive security check including a device you stood in that presumably checked your shoes for suspicious substances. I had never seen such a device before.
The flight to Tashkent was not really very direct, I flew back to Istanbul and then flew out from Istanbul to Tashkent. I have flown through Istanbul a few times now and they have the most wonderful lounge with an outstanding selection of food and drink. Many thanks to my United Gold Status.
There was another security check in Istanbul too and I realized that in both Baku and Istanbul I had forgotten to remove my penknife (Swiss Army type) from my carry on bag. Neither of the checks discovered it. That’s not particularly comforting.
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