A Song Of You

October 2024

Georgia. Oh Georgia.

Here I am, resting in the well-used and dirtied working hands of yet another beautiful culture.

The people really do work hard here.

Life feels a little rougher, a little free-er, here. It's definitely more open and independent than the highly state-controlled country from which I've just come, Azerbaijan.

People here get to vote, and they can actually vote for whomever they want.

People can speak their minds. They can openly express their political opinions, and criticise the government.

But they're also left to fend for themselves, as there's little in the way of a European-style social system.

So individual enterprise is everywhere you look. Everyone's tryin' to make a lari, trying to be as happy as one.

Steeped In History (And Hills)

I spent another full day and eve strolling the beautifully cobblestoned steep streets of this ancient town of Sighnaghi.

I can't believe the breakfast Manana and her husband Gollam whipped up for us guests. A huge amount of food, and lots of veggie options. There was so much I could easily have saved it for mañana. Precious.

The potato salad is just like the one my mum used to make. I told Manana that, and she said no, it's her own recipe. Or, resip, as she put it.

A Christian family

Another country, more flags

After sorting out my SIM needs, I strolled the 3 or so clicks up and down hills to a famous church, convent and and monastery.

This guy was heading to work as I passed.

His wife, child and dog weren't far behind.

Heading up the gorgeous and quite village streets.

The beautiful Sighnaghi, from an adjoining ridgetop.

Someone always has to grow our food.

She refused to smile

The beautiful Georgian Orthodox Tsminde Ninos Monasteri is a collection of churches, chapels, shrines and ancient buildings tucked away in the forest, some distance from any local villages or settlements.

The complex was originally built in the 9th Century, but was significantly remodelled in the 17th Century. Whilst originally built as a monastery, it now functions as a convent, and is one of the major pilgrimage sites in Georgia, due to its association with St Nino, the 4th Century female evangelist of Georgians, whose relics are kept in shrines here.

The main chapel is small, but plastered with the most beautiful frescoes. No pics are allowed, but there's always the web.

Further up the hill there's a larger church

And the complex is becoming more complex. Stonemasons were working on new additions.

Diagonal stone paths to walk along for reflection. Basically walking meditation paths.

Old graves

I followed a classful of kids and their teachers to an ancient spring, way way down the hill. The waters apparently have healing properties.

There were beautiful shrines down there too, but the small bathing area was swamped by teens, and I couldn't be bothered waiting ages to get in.

This isn't a still from Monty Python's Life of Brian, but a still from a YouTube vid of a bunch of Christian nuns from the monastery. Their clobber looks exactly like the clothing many Muslim women get around in in some quite conservative Muslim countries, and in some places in the West.

But you don't hear any Islamaphobes going on about how these Christian nuns shouldn't be allowed to walk down the street in their blacks.

Smells like racism to me.

Eventually I strolled back up the hill.

These signs are everywhere around the country. They're election advertising for the Georgian Dream voting bloc, the current ruling populist government of Georgia. They're definitely using public money to plaster these everywhere, including on many government buildings.

Although it was founded as a pro-Europe democratic party, the current ruling bloc has evolved into quite a conservative, pro-Russian coalition, recently passing legislation stemming press freedom, and increasing the governing party's control over state institutions.

This has led to criticism from the EU. Concerns over the Georgian government's electoral process has now led the EU to freeze the country's EU membership candidate status, which it was granted in December of last year. There's a national election coming up in a couple of weeks.

I passed a zipline. Loads of tourists were taking pics of the zippers, so I took a pic of them.

Wow. Some people have no shame. I left this guy in the privacy of his own hand.

Medieval prisoner torture zone

My street

Chacha is basically a Georgian grape brandy, sorta their own version of the Italian-style grappa. Deadly.

I walked along the old city walls at dusk

The ancient walls are extensive.

Wall to wall tourists

Solomon Dodashvili, a famous Georgian philosopher

Many Georgians come to Sighnaghi to get married, so they can take pretty photos and then live happily ever after. I saw lots of weddings.

I had a meal at a really traditional little restaurant, the owner was a beautiful round friendly man who was also a superb cook.

He fetched a peck of pickled peppers for me. And pickled gherkins and garlic and green and red tomatoes too.

The red wine is called Saperavi, a Georgian drop made from the common Saperavi grapes, of all things. The round man made the wine himself, it was actually super delicious.

And he made a killer mushroom soup too, but not in the poisonous, or magic, sense.

Up, Then Down The Hill

The next morning I packed up my bike, as our guard dog, Uno, did what he does best.

Eventually I headed off, and needed to climb a long way up, over the other side of the range, before I could descend down into the valley towards the Georgian capital of Tbilisi.

Eventually down I went

The settlements were tiny. The dogs weren't though. A few chased me, but luckily none tried to have me for brunch.

Drying grapevines

A local roadside bar

It's grape harvest time. There were loads and loads of trucks like this, full to the brim with green grapes. Roadside stalls were selling them everywhere.

And local cheese

Pumpkin patch

The dodgy road down the valley. Sunday arvo brought way too much traffic for my liking, and there was no shoulder to cry on.

All puffed up. Poor dog. RIPPPUD.

This stuff is called churchkela, it's basically nuts (and sometimes raisins) wrapped in a skin made from grape must (crushed grapes, including the juice and all the other bits, stems, seeds etc), and fruit juice. It's delicious.

Eventually I reached the town of Sagarejo.

The run down outskirts.

The sexier inskirts.

I couldn't find a place to stay, so I asked some taxi drivers, one of whom pointed to a local family home up a laneway. The old woman there put me up. Upstairs in fact. She gave me the whole flat up there.

View from the back upstairs balcony, my entrance

Their beautiful Christian gallery. Looks like they're big Madonna fans.

This ripper was parked outside

The discreet house entrance gate

This is my dinner, a type of khachapuri. Its full of beans, which is what I was after devouring it in about 5 seconds. Khachapuri is basically a stuffed pastry, and surprisingly (deliciously), there's actually loads of vegetarian stuffing options around in this country, including spinach, cheese and potato varieties. This bean one is also called lobiani.

The main square. It's circular.

My bedroom. There were five beds, for me and all my imaginary friends.

Georgian version of the other Georgian (Orwell) classic, Animal Farm. Yes, some are more equal than others.

The original Tondi.

But they're nowhere near as good as the other one, that irreplaceable and way more delicious real one.

My host gave me these grapes.

My kitchen and dining room

I opened the fridge. It was so grape in there. And the green things are actually green tomatoes, which are popular in the cuisine here, especially pickled, marinated or in nut recipes.

My host said I could have anything I wanted.

People are so generous! It's so good to be here! I can't get Georgia off my mind.

https://youtu.be/vY8Y211pf8g?si=xyOMYuVWRMmZT5HL

(Don't miss the last chorus).

On To Another Capital

The next morning I headed towards Tbilisi, the capital, and by far the biggest city in the country.

The things you see

You've gotta be kidding

You've gotta be kidding kidding. Where am I?

The nicer part of the ride towards the city centre. The not-so-nice part was full of bumpy roads and dodgy trucks and way too many vehicles, and I was too busy avoiding them all to take pics.

First glimpse of the city centre

My street, in a really cool, rundown district

I checked into a guest house, and headed off to explore.

This bread was so fresh I could hardly hold it, it was too hot. It was the bomb. For the price of about 30c.

These guys made it

Pics from my hood

I wandered towards the river. It ritzed up as I got closer.

I made my way over to the old town.

Wish I hadn't missed these guys

They serve their dogs huge around here.

Famous old clock tower.

City Boy

Today I wandered. It turned out to be a big day, and an even bigger night.

Georgian political history inscribed on subway walls

This guy was pretty wonky.

But this guy was good! I came and farted around on there for ages.

The beautiful Rike Park

The Bridge of Peace, a walkway across the Kura River

The State Palace of Ceremonies

The Mother of Georgia statue, Kartlis Deda, on top of the hill. I decided to walk up there, of course.

The beautiful Merkheti Church. I went in for a look.

The view from outside, looking north

The ancient Narikala Fortress up on the hill. Yeah, I'm going up there too.

See, Jesus makes everyone happy.

I headed across the river to the old town, and then climbed the hill. It was super steep.

The beautiful restored St Nicholas church lies within the Narikala fortress grounds. The frescoes and artwork inside are stunning.

Tbilisi was settled as way back as the fourth Milennium BC. That's over 6,000 years ago. That's what you call old.

Narikala Fortress was built in the 300s, and was conquered by all sorts of riff raff, including the Persians and the Monghols.

Most of the visible fortifications date from the 16th and 17th Centuries, but in 1827 a massive earthquake destroyed most of the fortress, unfortunately. And they haven't just completely rebuilt it for the tourists, like, say, the Chinese government might do, but are currently renovating it in a less obtrusive way. The main fortress area was closed.

Then I went for a nice long stroll in the botanical gardens. It was cool and delicious in there.

I felt right at home amongst these tall skinny creatures.

Eventually I reached the Big Mama, and the views from her spot were amazing.

Then I wandered back down the steep hill.

This little girl fell asleep on my lap. Eventually I had to wake her up because I got cold, and am such a busy man. She was so annoyed she wouldn't look at me anymore.

It's true

Liberty Square. Another round square.

Parliament building, with protestors outside. I'm not sure what they were protesting about, but there's plenty of possibilities with the current Georgian government, such as their anti-LGBTQ legislation, or their legislation to stop important and effective foreign-based NGOs from operating in the country, by cutting their ability to receive funding from outside Georgia.

Diving into the bowels of the city

Museum of Georgian Fine Arts. I didn't make it in there, unfortunately.

Another place with a cone culture

Thought I might get one of these to stop random men grabbing my balls while I'm cycling.

Only $150 and all your problems are over.

The most tasteless socks ever. Having Stalin on your socks is akin to having magnets of Hitler on your gas oven. Grotesque, in my view. But people buy them I guess, otherwise they wouldn't sell them.

I found a spot to drink coffee and listen to a really amazing guitarist, who unfortunately couldn't really sing. But that didn't stop him.

Then I wandered off to meet Wolf and Christian, my lovely Germaniacal friends whom I'd met in Sighnaghi.

That'll be the day (when a casino is Shangri-La).

This guy was ripping out amazing Georgian songs, including punk. He was great.

We chatted with these friendly Georgians, one of whom could speak German. They were super friendly, even inviting me to go fishing with them the next day.

We drank beer. Quite a lot of it. Washed down with Jägermeisters at the end of the night. Who's idea that was I have no clue, it definitely wasn't mine. Wolf and Christian paid for pretty much everything, again. So generous.

Christian and Wolf being held up by a statue.

I fell into bed at about 5am.

And, what a great thing, I could sleep as long as I wanted the next morning, which I missed completely.

I had an easy day of wandering and sitting, and pondering the meaning of drinking beer.

Random street pics

This is right next door to my hostel.

Tbilisi is jam packed full of great street art, sculptures, old buildings, humans, and countless other photogenii.

I had bike parts to buy in the city - brake pads and new tubes - so I went wandering off on foot again, as usual. I notice that when I'm cycling so much I often let my bike rest when I get to cities or large towns. Unless I'm way out of town, of course.

Bikes and their riders' legs need to rest too.

Yes, I really should. I'm vegan-ish, but sometimes find it hard to find non-dairy protein, especially in Central Asia. It's pretty easy to be vegan in places like China, Vietnam or Thailand, but not so easy around here.

There's absolutely no doubt about that.

Long lanky and Leonine. I know exactly how that feels.

A leafier part of town

School Uniforms of the World #0. Most schools in Tbilisi are public, and the kids don't wear uniforms at all. It's basically the first country I've ever been to where you pretty much never see school uniforms.

These stalls are right outside the school. Kids walked past them asking each other what the hell those square things on the shelves were.

Electioneering. The numbers designate the party's ballot number on the voting form.

Simplistic and misleading electioneering by the ruling populist party. This says "Stop The War." They're talking about the Russian/Ukraine war.

And this says "Choose Peace." Because the party has become pro-Russian, their idea of peace means Ukraine surrending their occupied land to Putin's Russian invaders. But of course the local Ukrainians in those areas overwhelmingly don't want that.

The party's political stance could have something to do with the fact that its billionaire founder (the richest man in Georgia) is making gazillions from Russian business contracts.

Nah, he'd never do that. It must be a coincidence.

Around my corner

Around my other corner. I really tried to get a genuine darling there, but it was complicated, and I got confused and scared.

But luckily, Andrew Darling is a very dear and amazingly lovable friend of mine, so at least I've got one of them.

Short Term Leave

Well, as usual I'm a lucky lucky boy. My friends Brad and Rich are coming here to Tbilisi from the UK in a couple of weeks with their bicycles. Yay! More real friends. And real good ones at that.

I'm so looking forward to hanging out with these two lovingly degenerate amazing pommy bastards.

The term pommy, by the way, is not at all derogatory, if used by an Aussie or Kiwi, but rather a term of very affectionate pisstaking.

The term derives from the word 'pomegranate,' which was Aussie slang for 'immigrant' after World War II, and the fruit's red colour also happens to be the colour that English faces of Anglo Saxon descent become after about 5 minutes in the Australian sun. Some people also say that "pommy" derives from POM (Prisoner of Her Majesty), but other people, who think they know what they're talking about, disagree.

But they're all just whinging (and often heavily wining) Poms to me.

Brad, Rich and I plan to spend a couple of weeks cycling around somewhere nice in Georgia. We're not sure where yet.

But in the meantime I'm gonna explore another country. I've decided to head south to Armenia, a landlocked country squeezed between Georgia, Turkey, Iran and Azerbaijan.

Because of the icy relations between Azerbaijan and Armenia (they're basically at war), their shared border is closed. Armenia has a similar relationship with Turkey, related to the Armenian genocide, which involved the brutal killing of up to 1.5 million Armenians at the hands of the Ottoman Turks during World War I. I'll tell you that horrible, horrible story later.

So the only way into Armenia for me is from here in Georgia. My plan is to explore that amazing country a little, and then return here to Tbilisi in time to shindig with Brad and Rich.

Honestly, life couldn't get any better.

Well, it can always get better I guess, but if it does I'll have to watch out.

I might explode❤️

http://buymeacoffee.com/krolesh9