July 14-16
Most of our travel day was spent in Athens on a long layover. We briefly thought about heading out into the city for the day. However, having visited Athens a few years ago, we instead chose to stay in the airport and work on travel plans for Asia.
There also was a small fiasco regarding Michael, security, and post cards. Since our layover in Athens was our very last stop in Europe, and we hadn’t mailed a single post card in the almost four months we were here, we had some major work to do. I had been buying post cards from all over Europe while we were here, but we just didn’t make time to write them out. And since we’re trying to get postcards from every continent to the kids back home, it was important to get them mailed today.
After we finished writing, Michael took charge of the stamping and mailing process. This took him out of security. Not a problem… except it was. We had paid for an all day pass to a lounge in the terminal that we had arrived in (food, drink, wifi and a place to plug in – totally worth it for a 12+ hour layover). However, our flight out was in a different terminal and security wouldn’t allow Michael to return to the original terminal where I was still hanging out with all of our stuff. This turned into an hour long process of Michael speaking with half dozen different people, going through several rounds of security and passport review and finally convincing someone to just turn a blind eye and let him back in.
We arrived late that evening to Tbilisi, Georgia.
Despite it being a full day of travel, it went surprising smooth. We were tired, but feeling pretty good – especially compared to our previous travel day.
We woke up slow the next morning, grabbed breakfast and then headed off to a free walking tour. For being an old city, and one that has been destroyed and rebuilt many times, Tbilisi seems to have done a great job of saving as much art as possible. Here’s a mosaic that was recovered from a monastery, created in the 12th century:
Tbilisi also has some great street art and street musicians.
God loves his children…
https://www.thatsonourlist.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/img_2716-1.mov https://www.thatsonourlist.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/img_2717.movWe arrived to Freedom Circle to meet up with Sev, our tour guide for the day. He first gave us some tips for wandering Tbilis:
1. The pedestrian crosswalks do not mean anything. Cars will not stop for you. Instead, you just need to walk with confidence, put your hand out to tell the car to stop and cross. Finally! This is something I can understand! I was always unnerved in places like Croatia and Scandinavia where the cars just stop for the crosswalks – even without stop signs or lights. I didn’t trust that they were really going to stop. But I can handle this. I just need to wait for a small break in traffic, start walking, stare down the driver and put my hand out. Although I’ll note that my extended hand looks more like a thank you wave then a stern STOP. They won’t hit you. No one wants that mess.
2. There are women and children begging. If you are going to give them something, that is great. Go for it. If you are not going to give them something, don’t make eye contact or they will never leave you. Sev had even seen children latching on to tourists’ legs, refusing to let go unless they give money. He swore the only way to get them off was to tickle them. Ridiculous.
3. You will get lost in Old Town. Don’t worry.
Having started the tour in Freedom Circle, Sev noted that all Soviet countries use to have a Lenin Square. Freedom Circle was called Lenin Square during the Soviet period and had a large statue of Lenin in the center. That statue was torn down in August of 1991. It was replaced in 2006 by this monument with St. George slaying the dragon on top. That’s right! Our old friend from the Stockholm Cathedral has made his way to the center of Tbilisi and he is still slaying dragons. If I could figure out how to link to prior posts, I would do that here. But I’m not going to pretend like I have the level of blogging knowledge.
It makes sense to have St. George here, since we are in Georgia, after all. Apparently 23% of all boys born in Georgia are named George. The only thing more amazing than this is that 24% of all girls are named Nino. More on that in a bit.
Here are the Freedom Circle griffins. Apparently these are two of the few things that have survived, nearly intact, throughout all of the destruction to this city over the centuries. However, people are known to remove their claws and fit them on necklaces. As they are removed from the statues, the city continues to replace them.
Our next stop was the Catholic Cathedral, Assumption of the Virgin.
Where the cathedral now stands, the first Catholics settled in the 13th century. First a Dominican monastery, it then became an Episcopal church in the 14th century dedicated to St. John the Baptist until the 16th century. In the 17th century, Catholic missionaries returned and built a new church dedicated to the Annunciation which is a very important date for all to remember – March 25th.
The current cathedral was built in the early 1800s. It was closed during Soviet times. Sev joked that communism was the only religion during Soviet times.
The cathedral was beautiful. It was pointed out that although it is a Catholic Cathedral, there were Russian Orthodox icons in the cathedral along with an orthodox cross. However, our parish back in Chicago, St. Teresa’s also has icons, so this didn’t surprise me very much.
My favorite part of this visit was the music. In the choir loft, someone was playing the Mozart Requiem on the organ with a woman singing along. How do we know it was the Requiem? Michael – which is a surprise to no one who has been paying attention. There is something to be said for silence, but absent complete silence (which is often hard to find), I believe beautiful music is just so moving when visiting a religious site.
Our next stop was two churches – an Georgian Orthodox Church directly next to an Armenian Orthodox Church. The Armenian Orthodox Church is currently being renovated, so we didn’t explore.
The Georgian Orthodox Church, however, we were able to enter. Called “Father Cross”, this church was built in the 16th century. Fun fact: the word mama in Georgian means father. Second fun fact: this church has very small windows because it was also used as a fortress.
With such little natural light, we were lucky that there was a religious ceremony while we were visiting so the lights were on.
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It was a really cool experience to be able to enter while they were praying.
On the left in this painting above you have St. Nino – who I previously mentioned.
St. Nino is called “Equal of the Apostles and Enlightener of Georgia” on the internet. That’s some title! Here’s her story:
The virgin Nino of Cappadocia was a relative of St. George, our dragon slayer. Her father was a Roman army chief and when she was 12, her parents sold all of their possessions and moved to Jerusalem where Nino’s father became a monk and left his family. At this time, Nino’s mother, Sosana, was ordained a deaconess. She left Nino in the care of an old woman who raised Nino in the Christian faith. Nino learned that Jesus’ robes were in Georgia, a country of pagans. Nino prayed to Mary for her blessing to travel to Georgia to venerate the Sacred Robes. Mary appeared to Nino in a dream and told her to go to Georgia and preach the Gospel. Mary gave Nino a cross of grapevines and told her to “Receive this cross as a shield against visible and invisible enemies”. When Nino awoke, she was holding the cross in her hands. She tied the vines securely with strands of her hair (the internet also said that the hair might have been that of the Virgin Mary).
There are quite a few stories associated with her travels to and in Georgia, but the main point is that everywhere she went miracles were performed and those who heard her preach were converted. Nino and George are the most venerated saints of the Georgian Orthodox Church. That grapevine cross that she is holding in the painting is the symbol of Georgian Christianity.
Here is a Jewish Temple, one of two in the city.
Mike asked Sev if all of these different religions get along in the city or if there is conflict. Sev noted that it is stated in Georgia that all religions get along because they have good wine. Now that is a great segue to the next part of the tour: Georgian wine.
Wine dates back to 800 years before Christ in Georgia.
Here is a statue of Tamada, the Georgian toastmaster. The horn comes from pagan times. The main idol in pagan times for the area was the moon, so people sacrificed bulls to the moon because their horns had a crescent shape. This made bulls sacred animals and people would drink special toasts from their horns.
In Georgian culture, the tamada, or toastmaker, was responsible for supervising the feast, organizing toasts, and telling jokes and stories. The entire mood of the feast was his responsibility.
The Georgian rule for toasts is that the first toast is always for God. Per the internet, this story is often told along with the first toast… After the creation of the world, God divided the Earth among the people. Georgians were late because on the road they had been drinking. When they arrived, the entire world had already been given to other people. But God had reserved a small plot for himself and decided to give this plot to the Georgians. This is why Georgia is Paradise. It is the best land in the world.
After spending time with our friend, Tamada, we popped into this traditional Georgian bakery.
This underground bakery was originally built to bake breads for the seminary above it. And this passage way originally was a direct passage to the church across the street.
I will say – Georgian breads are incredible. I could eat them all day.
This is the Eastern Orthodox Church which we didn’t enter. They were having service and, being more conservative than the other churches we visited, our guide thought it best we glance and keep walking.
Candle or sausage? Candle or sausage?
We had seen these items hanging around town. I was pretty confident they were candles. They are not. They are actually a traditional candy called churchkhelas. Almonds, walnuts, hazelnut and raisins are threaded onto a string and then dipped in thickened grape juice before being hung to dry. Since they are high in caloric value, Georgian warriors and travelers would carry churchkhelas along with them on journeys. They were delicious, but perhaps a bit waxy tasting.
Our final stop on the tour was the Bridge of Peace which crosses the Kura River.
This wasn’t suppose to be our final stop, but we were hit with torrential rains and we had to call it a day. Sev took this opportunity to note that from Soviet times until 2003, Tbilisi was a really dangerous city. In November 2003, there was a pro-Western peaceful change of power in Georgia called the Revolution of the Roses. This revolution consisted of widespread protests over disputed parliamentary elections which ultimately ousted the Soviet president at that time. After this, Georgia pursued pro-Western foreign policy and declared integration with Europe to be its main priority. This has led to tensions with Russia which we heard mentioned several times during our time in Georgia. This revolution also was the beginning of a revitalization in Tbilisi.
From the Bridge of Peace we could see Kartlis Deda which is a statue erected in 1958 to celebrate Tbilisi’s 1500th anniversary.
The name translates to Mother of a Georgian. She is in Georgian national dress and symbolizes the Georgian national character. In one hand she holds a bowl of wine to greet friends, while in the other a sword for enemies. Here is an up close shot that I borrowed from the internet.
Since our tour was ended a bit early, we made the best of it and continued our Georgian education with a trip to a wine cellar.
Tsangala’s wine shop and bar:
We let the guy there pick out a bottle for us. We went with dry red that is made in the traditional Georgian style. This traditional Georgian winemaking method using Kvevri clay jars is on the UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage List. The idea is that these clay pots are filled with wine and then buried in the ground, thus storing the wine at ground temperature. Some remain underground for 50 years.
The wine was great, plus we got some cheese and churchkhelas to pair with is. Michael wanted the sausage but the guy refused because it wouldn’t pair properly.
The next day we had just one job to do: watch the World Cup final! We found this great wine bar, arrived a bit early and secured great seats.
With wine and some delicious Georgian food, we had a great afternoon.
After watching Croatia beat England with a crowd cheering almost exclusively for England, it was interesting to be watching Croatia vs. France in a crowd cheering exclusively for Croatia. Apparently former Soviet countries stick together! I don’t think there is anyone who needs this information, but for posterity I will note that France won with a score of 4-2. But it was looking a lot closer the first half…
Here are few of our nieces and nephews along with my mom watching at home and sporting their Croatia jerseys!
On our last day in Georgia, we wandered around the city, had a great lunch at a place called Lolita’s and then celebrated our 7th wedding anniversary from a beautiful vantage spot at the top of the funicular.
Michael and I always take our anniversary as an opportunity for some reflection on the year behind us and the year ahead. This past year has obviously been a crazy one – with a lot of changes and new experiences. We are very excited for this next year which is looking like it is going to be just as insane. There are a lot of unknowns, especially as our travels are winding down, but we’re ready to figure out together what’s next.
