We ventured forth from the Marani Boutique Hotel in Tbilisi, Georgia and explored our environs for the first time. The hotel's sign is another clue at how hardcore the owner Mikhail was about wine. "Marani" means wine cellar in the Georgian language and there's even a big wine jug and some grapes up there. Dude is thirsty.
We definitely chose the hotel on price rather than location. We were pretty far from the action and we were also up a pretty big hill with lots of switchbacks. Even when a taxi had our address they would often get lost trying to navigate the maze.
We found a nearby restaurant that seemed pretty authentic called Restaurant Ortachala. I was questioning its authenticity when we got there and there was a bunch of wax people eating at a table.
Mike is British and he likes tea. Apparently this is fad over there at the moment.
I went a little overboard with ordering in my excitement to try all of the things. This was listed as "eggplant with walnuts". I felt like the English menu was not giving me the whole story but fine.
We also secured our very first khachapuri. I think it means "cheesy bread" but there are lots of different types and shapes. This one was Adjarian khachapuri and is named after a region of Georgia. It featured a raw egg and a friggin cold stick of butter. I asked how the heck to eat this thing and the waiter made a mixing motion so I did my best.
The khinkali kalakuri were a treat. They are big mushroom shaped dumplings with beef and pork and spices inside along with a nice bit of soup. You're supposed to nibble them, suck out the soup, then continue eating. But you don't eat the stem! What are you, an animal? I did a little search as to why and it said that those parts stick out of the water while boiling so maybe they are sort of raw. Our guide said later on in the day said that whoever has the cleanest plate after dumplings is the best kisser.
We got all of that magic for about $21. Not too shabby.
I could see Mtatsminda Park's giant ferris wheel up on top of a mountain from the city below. I obviously needed to investigate.
We started off with a nice funicular ride up to the top.
Wikipedia says that "The park was founded by the Soviet government in the 1930s and was once noted as the 3rd most visited public park in the USSR."
I thought that this area was really well done. Most of the rides and carnival games were apparently closed and unmanned. The ferris wheel as well was not running. It was kind of strange and I wondered why they were open at all. There weren't a ton of guests around either.
Mike wanted to ride this roller coaster. I wasn't crazy about what the safety record of a coaster no one is riding in a park no one is at might possibly be. I was happy, therefore, when the person running it said that they needed a minimum of 4 people to turn it on.
We did ride the Ghost Castle ride though. It was quite an ordeal securing passage. We walked up and said "two rides please" and they told us we needed to go to this particular booth that was quite far away to buy the tickets then return with them. Ok fair enough. So we hiked over there and bought our tickets. When we showed up with the tickets the operator said that the ride was experiencing electrical issues and that we should come back later. I would expect no less at a Soviet theme park so ok cool. We wandered around a bit then came back. A man and his son were sitting on a bench near the ride and both stood up when they saw us. I imagine that they got the ride working and were making these other people wait until we returned to run the ride.
We got into these little cage things and even then sat for a while because the first door to enter the ride wasn't working. It was a real journey. The ride itself was weird in a fun way. There were lots of haunted house style monsters and dead people and such inside.
Next we had a nice walking tour of the city with David the tour guide. That big pole in the middle of that traffic circle used to have a statue of Lenin on top but they've replaced it with one of St. George, Georgia's namesake. David told us that 22% of babies last year were named George (Giorgi). I think it's a traditional first born son name.
Many of the residential areas we passed through were a beautiful hodgepodge.
Our guide taught us some words in Georgian and said the language sometimes "sounds like two rocks fighting." He said that the names of the days of the week are just Saturday plus how ever many days it's been.
There are a ton of shops selling churchkhela in Tblisi. It looks like a candle but its actually a type of sweet comprised of nuts and grape juice that's thickened then dried until it become this thick and chewy thing. I believe it was Mike who described the texture as trying to chew through an umbilical cord. That bothered me because was both unpleasant and accurate. They taste pretty good though, I will say, and it seemed like a pretty healthy snack. Nuts and juice never hurt nobody.
We got to sample a few. I bought some for Lydia that was just the gummified juice that ended up being kind of like sour fruit leather.
Toasting is a big deal at Georgian parties and there is a designated toastmaster called a tamada. This is a statue of one.
Tblisi's name means "warm" due to the hot springs in the area. There was a cool little hot springs district that we checked out.
We popped in to Chreli Abano and looked at some prices. It was a classy place.
We had a bottle of local wine back at the hotel and Mikhail genuinely seemed sad that we weren't drinking his homemade stuff.
Fabrika Tbilisi is a hip hostel made out of an old factory. There was a whole cool kid area surrounding it with fun bars and restaurants.
