Georgia, April 2025
Today was Red Friday (as I explained in my previous blog) and Tazo’s family were near by, so he spent the morning with them, and we had some free time to explore the town of Kutaisi, one of oldest cities in the world having been continuously inhabited since 1,400BC.
With a population of around 135,000, Kutaisi is Georgia’s 4th largest city, and it was an important political centre in the Middle Ages and the capital of Georgia from the 8th century BCE to the 11th century. Not only that, it was actually the seat of the Parliament of Georgia from October 2012 to December 2018 in an effort to decentralise the Georgian government. The move was not particularly popular and in January 2019, it was moved back to Tbilisi.
One of the main sites of the city is the Colchis fountain, so that was our first stop. It is basically on a roundabout, in amongst the business city traffic so it was good to go early when we could easily cross the road to get to it!
The fountain itself celebrates the ancient Kingdom of Colchis and has 30 large copies of famous gold jewellery, discovered at nearby Vani archaeological site. The figures include animals and ancient Georgian figures, including the lion that features on the Bank of Georgia logo and Tamada. Tamada is thought to be representative of the Georgian toastmaster tradition and the original little bronze statue dates back to the 7th century BC.
According to Greek mythology, Jason and his Argonauts visited the city, sailing down the Rioni river from the Black Sea to claim the Golden Fleece – today the river certainly does not look like a large ship could sail down it! As well as leaving with the gold, he also left with the King’s daughter Medea who became his wife!
From the fountain we wandered passed the Opera House and Theatre, down some of the beautiful tree lined boulevards and across one of the bridges to admire the view out to the snow-capped mountains. The old part of town was lovely and it was nice to have some free time just to wander.
Unfortunately our time was cut short as Ania, my travel companion, had a toothache and we needed to find a dentist for her. Despite being a public holiday, we found a 24 hour dentist just around the corner form our hotel and she could just walk in and see someone (although she did have to call Tazo for some translation services lol). Armed with some antibiotics and pain killers we went back to the hotel to check out and meet Tazo to continue our journey.
Before leaving Kutaisi, we visited a couple of local sites, just outside the city, the first being the Bagrati Cathedral. Originally built in 1003 by King Bagrat III, it is a symbol of a united Georgia and of the city itself. It was on the UNESCO World Heritage site list, but then removed as reconstruction work over the years did not meet with UNESCO standards to maintain the integrity of the original structure, most of which had been destroyed through battles and subsequent decay.
It is still an active church today, and so we could not take any photos inside but the main thing of note was some priests doing some DIY and some relics, including a human skull! Outside there was a beautiful view across the city and out to the mountains beyond.
I am also back on Lada watch, with some great examples of their longevity and sturdiness being seen around the city!!
As we drove along narrow, cobbled streets to our next destination, I noticed the above ground gas pipes, as previously seen in Kazakhstan. In some places they run about 30 centimetres of the ground but then go up to around 2-3 metres to allow for vehicles to pass under them. Most were installed during Soviet times, so not surprise you see them in other ex-Soviet countries.
The 8th century Motsameta monastery is not only beautiful, perched on a cliff overlooking the Tskaltsitela river, but it is also where Tazo was baptised so he was excited to show it to us. The name means the “Place of Martyrs” which relates to two brothers of a noble family who organised a rebellion against the occupying Arabs. When their rebellion failed, and they refused to convert to Islam, they were tortured, killed and their bodies thrown in the river. Subsequently they were recognised as saints and their remnants are kept in the nearby Gelati monastery.
Apparently, there is a secret (or perhaps not so secret) tunnel between Gelati and Motsameta monasteries used during wars and the crypts of both are said to hold relics such as bones of saints, including the brothers.
The monastery was beautiful inside and out, with purple flowers growing out of the rocks outside and lovely murals on the inside.
We were then back on the road to travel the 220km back to Tbilisi, and for a while we did not see the Easter holiday traffic that Tazo had predicted – but then we did! Thankfully it was all on the other side of the road, travelling away from Tbilisi and for some time it was at a complete stand still. Thankfully there was hardly anyone travelling towards the city so we were grateful to be going that way!
As it had been a busy day (since Tazo had picked us up) we had not had time for lunch, so we stopped on the road side to buy some Nazuki, a delicious, warm spicy sweet bread – there were lots of road side stalls selling it, advertising it with signs of brown oval blobs! The bread was not brown, but I guess it was oval shaped and it was definitely tasty!
Nazuki dates back centuries and its name translates from Persian as “exquisite”. Traditionally they are cooked in a tone oven (a clay tandoor oven where the bread is stuck to the side) and in this particular area (called Surami), is called Nazukebi, a 1 Km stretch of Nazuki sellers. Apparently a lot of these were set up during period of great economic struggles, allowing people to support their families by baking and selling nazuki.
Also along this stretch of motorway, we passed very close to the Russian occupied state of South Ossetia, and I mean really close. Tazo pointed to a village not far aware and noted that it was occupied by Russians! It is crazy to think that life goes on so close to the contentious “border”.
We arrived back in Tbilisi and Tazo dropped us back at our hotel just after 5pm and thankfully I had much nicer rooms than we did for our one night stay – I even had a little enclosed balcony. This time we are here for 3 nights so it was time to do some washing and realign the packing. As we have been constantly on the move, I tend to alternate the same two outfits (rather than unpack my bag) so it was good to remind myself what else I had packed and get those out to wear.
Ania was not feeling great so I went on the hunt for somewhere to have dinner and came across a lovely Italian restaurant. I felt a little guilty having Italian food in Georgia but made up for it by having a glass of Georgian wine.🍷
Cockneykiwi takes flight 