Georgia

Georgia is cheap, charming, beautiful and criminally underrated, with snowy mountains, Black Sea resorts, vineyards, ancient cities, and lots and lots of history, myths and legends.  Go and visit before everyone else finds out how lovely it is and spoils it. Here are some photos, fun facts and history …

I spent most of my holiday in a cheese coma! Every meal is a wonderful cheese feast – Khachapuri (cheese boats), cheese pizza, mushrooms with cheese, cheese dumplings, eggplant with cheese, cheesy spinach. If you love cheese, you’ll love Georgia. But you will need a nap after lunch.

View of Tbilisi from the Narikala Fortress. Actually Georgia’s not called Georgia at all, the locals call it Sakartvelo, and no one’s entirely sure where the English name came from, but it’s probably not from St George.

And they do love St George (he of dragon slaying fame). But despite this statue in the capital, 365 churches dedicated to him and this flag 🇬🇪, St George isn’t even the patron saint of Georgia.

And they also love drinking – particularly wine (often out of ram horns) and chacha, a brandy usually homemade and warming you up from the inside out at about 65% proof. This is a statue of a Tamada – a toastmaster. It’s a copy of a much smaller bronze statue dating back to the 7th century BC, and everyone seemed very proud to have evidence they’ve been getting pissed for this long 🤣

Georgia claims to have evidence of the oldest wine production in the world dating back 8000 years (but don’t tell the Armenians who are also claiming that record!). Here is a wine vessel from the third millennium BC, and on the right some Qvevri, which are the clay pots that are still used in traditional Georgian wine making.

Memorial in the walled city of Sighnaghi to Georgian soldiers who lost their lives in World War II. Georgia contributed 700,000 soldiers (from a population of 3 million) to the Red Army. Around 40% of them were killed.

The Georgian language is unique and has it’s own alphabet. 33 letters and only 5 vowels, which is why it’s a bit of a mouthful.

The countryside is beautiful – and there are wolves and bears in them there woods. Actually, now I think about it, this might well be a photo of the Botanical Gardens, and there probably aren’t any bears or wolves there! But there are bears and wolves, as well as deer, wild ox and and wild boar in the Georgian countryside.

But there are also friendly stray dogs everywhere having a kip 💤 . They’re well fed and healthy looking, and there seems to be an excellent trap, vaccinate, neuter and release programme.

The old capital of Mtskheta, dating back around 3000 years – a UNESCO world heritage site. Svetitskhoveli Cathedral is situated here, along with a ton of legends – a chick named Sidonia died after hugging the Tunic of Christ (don’t ask) and the priests couldn’t prise it from her arms, so they buried it and her under a cedar tree. The cedar tree was later cut down to build pillars for the original church on the site, and one of the pillars began hovering in mid air (yes, hovering). The Patron Saint of Georgia, St Nino was on hand, and she prayed all night, after which the pillar started to secrete a holy ointment which miraculously cured a bunch a people, hence Svetitskhoveli, or “life giving pillar”, so it’s a pretty religious site in the Georgian Orthodox Church. There were no hovering pillars on the day I went to Mtskheta.

No Caucasian holiday is complete without an accordion player in a car park.

They take their religion pretty seriously – here is the cathedral in Tbilisi, that floating pillar we met earlier, an ancient mural and a piece of the true cross. Yes that’s right, a piece of the true cross. In the 4th century, the King of Georgia converted to Christianity after the sky inexplicably went dark while he was out on a hunting trip. Now this could have been due to an interventionist god, or the total solar eclipse of 6th May 319 AD. You decide.

The Leaning Tower of Tbilisi. It’s an absolutely splendid and unique modern piece designed by Rezo Gabriadze.

The Tree of Life in Rike Park in Tbilisi – a beautiful metal sculpture from recycled materials including old ovens forming the trunk. In fact there are a lot of great statues and sculptures all over Tbilisi.

Georgia is one of the highest countries on the European continent, so there are plenty of opportunities for skiing, and it’s much cheaper than the Alps. The temperature dropped about 12 degrees when I arrived, so it was actually snowing when we drove over the Gombori Pass. Brrr ❄️ – pass the chacha, my good man, I need warming up from the inside out 🥃

The Chavchavadze Estate in Tsingandali for more wine tasting, nature, and stories of kidnap and ransoms. But that’s it from me now because if you want to know more about the beautiful country and people of Sakartvelo, then you’ll just have to go and see it for yourself. It’s so worth it.