Day 2 – Tbilisi – tired as hell

Koto the driver from Irena’s guest house (Ninoshvili 19 , +995-322954716) met us in the airport and for 30Lari (17$) took us to the hostel at 4 am. We came to the same great guest house I remembered from 3 years ago , with the same lovely Irina.

We went to sleep until about 1pm and woke up hungry as hell. We went to a restaurant on Marjenashvili and a corner of Aghmaneshelebei called Plekhanova. 

Plehanova

really big Hachipuri

We ordered a salad, badrijani and Hachipuri , the Hachipuri looked like a HUGE pizza which we didn’t really manage to handle  (10 Lari) , so we took half of it home and had a great dinner.

The food made us very tired so we went back to the guest house for another few hours of sleep, which ended us with a need for going a bit out so we won’t feel like we have wasted the day.

Ira offered to go and have some wine so we went to Majahela restaurant and took a 1.5 liter of draft wine , and a plate of churchela. We got to write a bit and drunk as hell. Drunk and happy we returned back home.

Ira is happy after few glasses of 

Day 3 – Tbilisi – awake

We woke up in a reasonable time, but took it slowly, enjoying each other for a bit longer and just lying in bed.

At about 12pm we went to eat tones of different Hinkali in Majahela. Strangely we both agreed that the one filled with mushrooms was the best one and we tried their entire menu.

Lots of Khinkali

war results

majahela

The sign

We started walking on our way to Rustaveli Avenue in order to see the city. On the way we stopped to fix our sim which I bought the day before from Geocell (2 Lari – 1 Lari credit).             

In the shop one of the representatives started talking with us in Russian, so I asked him if he knows Hebrew and unbelievably he replied with a modest yes.

This was my first meeting with Givi . Apparently Givi lived in Israel for 4 years and he traveled all over the country installing water heating systems. We exchanged numbers and decided to have a drink a day after.

Walking on Rustaveli I introduced Ira to the amazing Entrée bakery, we had 2 Ily’s coffees and an amazing Tart with an fresh and great eclere .

Nyam Nyam

After taking our regular photo on liberty square , 

our pose :)

we continued to the old part of Tbilisi the Lesalidze street. Ira saw some really nice small street going out from the main one so we decided that we can go lost for a bit in the old magical streets of Tbilisi. In one of the turns a young man asked if we are looking for something because we looked like we are lost. When we replied that we actually want to get lost he smiled one of the biggest smiles I saw and said this you can do easily here. I asked for his name and got one of the most ancient names Irakli. We started having a conversation in a corner of a street  which became really interesting, we didn't had any plans so I offered to continue that conversation in a wine bar .

Irakli looked at the watch and said you know what it will be my pleasure. After a four hours private interesting tour in the old part of Tbilisi , with a lot of stories about each house especially the ones where the Jews of Tbilisi lived , worked and created,
we got to a wine Bar. One Liter of Saperavi allowed our conversation to continue for another two hours with great Georgian Toasts and an amazing conversation. When we went on a metro we hugged for about 5 times before we actually left – a new friend in our journey :)

old fasade

lady in red pants

Ira & Irakli

A Church

Jewish otelie

old street 

old court

Gabriadze puppet theather

renovated street 

Tbilisi Life

Wine :0) - Saperavi

At the evening we met Guga the best climber in Georgia and apparently one of the sport founders and leaders in Georgia . He bolted most of the routes and maintains the only boulder which exists in Tbilisi , we got a short training session and his advises regarding the crags .

Great night ….

Day 4 – touching the rock

In the morning we woke up and went to climb in the botanic gardens. We took a cab to the entrance of the botanic gardens (4 Lari)  and reached the huge castle of Ivinashvili . The entrance we took was wrong , but luckily we met a security guy who took us to the right trail , after 400m and a small climb we got to the crag.

The crag is nice , a small river passes nearby . The routes are under graded and there are only about  8 routes from the marked 20+ which are bolted. The routes are nice and interesting, the rock is nice , none of the routes has a standard station (usual chain with two screws) , we belayed using a prusik like abandoning the route on a millon.

Ira insisted on taking a bus back to the freedom square (0.5 Lari) and from there we went by foot to the Margenashvili  branch of welcome Ginatsvali restaurant for a very earned cold beer and shashlik .

The food and the 40 degrees outside made us quite tired and we decided to have a small sleep break, with an nice air-conditioned room.

In the evening we meet Givi and his wife Kate for a really nice conversation over 2 liters of wine which we drank almost alone because they didn't drink, just had a glass for the toasts.

When I tried to pay, Givi told me that I don’t want to insult an Georgian man in Georgia and paid the bill.

New friends, Great night.