After almost two days here I have decided this city is actually two cities. There is a modern city which boasts designer buildings usually festooned with some form of computerised light animation. (Georgia likes Illumination, I have seen computerised lights on everything from Bridges to Fountain from TV masts to park benches). There are numerous grand monuments and a fantastic range of select stores. This city points the visitor to its important buildings like the parliament and the grand churches.
However, only a few streets a way, where tourists are discouraged from exploration, there is a city that tells a more interesting but less optomistic tale. These streets are lined with some grand buildings that date back to the 19th Century and beyond. Sadly they now stand in various states of decay. Some, still in use despite entire walls missing, their open fronted rooms still in use, looking for all the world like giant dolls houses opened for inspection. Huge, once grand doors lead into darkened hallways that, when entered, smell of stale cabbages. Away from the main roads the road surface is often pitted with pot holes and often collapsed to open trenches below. Still the cars and people pick their way through the chaos with such acceptance it is clear they expect no better.
These two cities seem to have little or no contact. However, despite all its problems Tbilisi has a real charm but the Georgian hospitality oft mentioned in the guide books seems to have worn a bit thin in the capital.
No comments:
Post a Comment