Tbilisi

Tbilisi, the capital city is saturated with churches. We took a walking tour to learn about the basics.

There is a foundation myth that the king was out hunting and his eagle caught a pheasant. The pheasant was covered in warm water. The explanation was that there are thermal springs. So the king took a bath and decided to site the capital at that spot.

Thermal bath houses

There is a very artistic clock tower. An angel comes out an chimes the bell every hour. Twice a day, there is an automated puppet show also.

The clock tower also has a very small clock

The Toastmaster statue highlights a big Georgian tradition. At parties, someone adopts the position of Toastmaster and makes repeated toasts. At each toast everyone has to down their glass of wine in one go. That way helps to get through the allocation of 3 litres of wine per person. One traditional wine cup is a horn. That way you can’t put your cup down so you just have to empty it.

Many of the oldest buildings were destroyed during the Soviet period, but a few still remain. This one is one of the oldest and shows very interesting social design where the families all share balconies. This creates a very integrated community.