Feeling rather worse for wear after the previous late night drinking, we planned to have a lazy, easy day of wandering around Tbilisi's Botanical Gardens. Unfortunately, they proved unexpectedly elusive.
After our usual Georgian breakfast of khachapuri (cheesy bread) we made caught the subway to Liberty Square and walked down to the dry bridge market, the place to buy all kinds of random things including Soviet memorabilia, old musical instruments, jewelry and stuffed animals. I bought a replacement my Russian hat after the original badge had been tragically lost at a music festival a few years ago.
Jewelry and handmade rugs for sale at Tbilisi's dry bridge market.
There was lots of Soviet memorabilia at the market including medals, hats, belts and even gas masks.
Georgian daggers and knives for sale. Don't think I'd get those back through customs somehow!
A mace - also a non transportable souvenir.
Another terrifying looking Georgian weapon available for purchase.
Traditional Georgian stringed instruments and some dead animals for sale.
A wolf skin laid out on the road at the market.
This was the weirdest dead animal display of the lot - a grinning warthog skin laid on top of a van.
In a small grassy park to the side of the main market, there were a lot of paintings hung up for sale. Some of them were really pretty good.
A couple of market vendors were taking some timeout to play chess, a popular street pastime here it seems.
As we walked away form the market we saw lots of guys sitting in the shade playing backgammon, an even more popular pastime than playing chess.
After spending a little time browsing at the dry bridge market we started our hunt for the Botanical Gardens, unaware at how difficult it would be to find them. Our guidebook is nicely written with lots of interesting background information but the maps often leave a lot to be desired and we couldn't really tell where the entrance to the damn gardens were. We spent what seemed like hours wandering around the back streets of Tbilisi, choked by concrete dust from the ubiquitous building works and wilting in the heat.
While searching for the gardens, we spotted this old synagogue, one of only two in the city.
A run down looking building on the backstreets of Tbilisi.
We ended up walking through loads of building works while trying to find the stupid gardens. We spotted these two guys apparently throwing rocks at a wall to demolish it!
Eventually we found our way up to the Narikala Fortress which overlooks Tbilisi and gives great views of the city. Narikala is an ancient fortress, first built in the 4th century AD, on a very steep cliff behind the sulfur baths. Inside the lower court there stands a recently restored church called St Nicholas. It was very very windy when we visited the fortress and we had to hold on tight to the handrails while climbing around the fortress walls so we didn't get blown off the sides.
View of the mosque next to the sulfur baths seen from the fortress cliff.
St Nicholas church in the lower court of the Narikala fortress.
View over Tbilisi city.
Me trying to look casual while standing on the edge of a sheer ledge with no barriers and the wind doing its best to blow me over the cliff. The fortress had a lot of unprotected steep drops so you had to watch your step.
A view of the sulfur bath houses.
Grape vines like these seem to grow everywhere in Georgia like weeds! In fact, Georgia is alleged to be the birthplace of wine making.
Walls of the fortress.
As we were looking down from the fortress we noticed the fabled Botanical Gardens below us behind the fort! We had found them by accident. So we wandered down and took a look around them. They weren't like the image of botanical gardens we have in the West, you know nicely laid out beds of plants with a woide variety of species and maybe an indoor greenhouse area. Tbilisi's version was more like a park with very few labels on the plants and no paths marked out at all really. Still it was nice and shady and there was a waterfall at one end with lots of Georgian teenagers playing in it to cool off. As usual, there was a lot of rubbish strewn around which was a shame but which seems to be a common sight in Georgia.
Waterfall at the Botanical Gardens.
Rowan relaxing and cooling his feet after a long day of wandering through building sites.
Next we walked back into town and had a beer at an overpriced cafe. Then we investigated the various bathhouses and found out the prices for a private room. Tbilisi has a lot of hot springs and so there has been a long tradition of bath houses in the area. Some of them are quite ornate.
The pretty facade of the most elaborate bath house that was sadly closed for reconstruction when we visited.
Detail of the bath house
Building works around the bath houses. Note the rather unstable looking scaffolding. Workmen don't wear any protective gear here and there are often empty bottles of beer strewn around on the building site.
Domed roofs of the sulfur baths.
We rounded off the day with a khachapuri feast at a chain restaurant and then headed back to the hostel to bed.
This meat covered flat bread was quite like Turkish pide.
Amazingly cheesy khachapuri at the chain restaurant.
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