Alles Andere ist Fernsehen

Vergraben im hintersten Winkel der ZDF Mediathek versteckt sich völlig exhibitionistisch das 

Neo Magazin

ein Kessel Buntes aus verrückten Ideen, die das Zwerchfell streicheln. Nie vorhersehbar aber nicht unsichtbar werden wertvolle Diskussionen in Szene gesetzt

• Kann Uri Geller gar nicht zaubern?
• Ist Frei.Wild rechts?

und Tabuthemen angesprochen. Die unvermeidbaren Product Placements und Werbeeinblendungen sind dabei die wenigen peinlichen Momente. Das Magazin ist dabei ganz klar ein Trendsetter. So wird Vorratsdatenspeicherung bereits seit längerem praktiziert:

• Das Twitter-Hörbuch
• Ganz großes Kino

In dem investigativen Magazin kommt Kritik aber auch Selbstkritik, nicht zu kurz, wobei der Bildungsauftrag nicht zu kurz kommt.

Also Raus aus dem Alltag und rein ins Neo Magazin!

Tbilisi - in Avlabari part 2

This time we start with a reggae classic to chase the devil out of earth: Max Romeo - Chase The Devil

Walking along the cliff to the Metekhi church leads you through the oldest part of Avlabri. I was a bit shocked what I saw there. It is incredible that people have to live in such ruins! One problem might be that at least in the past Georgians didn't like Armenians very much. I heard that statements like "They should know that they are only guests here." were common in soviet times. I therefore investigated a bit and was astounded that in soviet times the different soviet republic (SSR) did not like each other very much. People from another SSR could not get high positions in companies or the administration. Houses and cultural buildings from other nations did not receive money etc. This was not the only time I stumbled over this issue. The result are for example that there is now only one old Armenian church in Tbilisi (as far as I know) of formerly more than 20. The other existing ones are close to collapse or in ruins. Here is a short and good film about this topic. (In the meantime the Saint Gevork of Mughni church and the Church of the Holy Seal are under reconstruction.)
It is good to hear that the Georgians now accept all their cultural heritage. It is nevertheless sad to hear that there are disputes which church owns a church, the Georgian Orthodox or the Armenian Apostolic.

I think in the Solomon Brdzeni street.
You can see that the houses once collapsed and were covered
with provisional roofs to be able to live in the ruins.

Yes, people live there.

 

The ruin of the Church of the Red Gospel.

Dito.

A building in the Metekhi street.
Note the crack in its wall.

In the Isani street.
 

A tip: Go to the Periszwaleba Monastery. This is a nice oasis with small garden from where you have a great view over the inner city.

In the monastery.

The house of the nuns.

Finally it was time to go to the Ejmiatsin Church:

The Armenian Ejmiatsin church in front and the
Georgian Sameba cathedral in the back. For an average tourist
the look very similar

While there are no seats in Georgian churches
the Armenian churches have them.
 

This house right beside the Ejmiatsin church
looked so beautiful from the other side.

From this small church you also have a nice view:

The courtyard of the church.
In the entrance building are some...

...colorful icons. In the church was a church service - with only men.

View up to this unknown church.

View down the Metekhi ascent.

The statue of Statue of King Vakhtang.

One of my favorite vies in Tbilisi from the Metekhi church.

The Metekhi church. There was a church service going on - this time only with woman.

All in all Avlabari is for me the most interesting quarter of Tbilisi. There are many things to discover, special buildings, great views and many secrets about history.

Tbilisi - in Avlabari part 1

Avlabari is the old Armenian quarter of Tbilisi. its name means "out of the walls" because it is located north of the Mtkvari river outside the old town. During the last decades the Armenian population decreased and the houses got bit by bit abandoned. During the last years larger housing areas were demolished to build the presidential palace and the the Sameba cathedral. Many houses in Avlabari are still in a bad shape. For example just walk from the Avlabari metro station to the Sameba Cathedral without using the Meskhishvili Street. The contrast between the cathedral and the surrounding streets is hard.

The song for the post is Hundreds - Our Past.

We start the exploration at the beautiful peace bridge. It seems that crossing it is a must have for freshly married couples. Every day there were many wedding parties shooting photos.

The bridge.

Looking from the bridge to the Metekhi church.

The walls below Avlabari.
 

The unfinished Music Theater and Exhibition Center,
the presidential palace and the Samebi cathedral.

A closeup.

"Under the bridge" ;-).

The wonderful Rike park.

Taking these stairs allow some nice views like this one.

Left is the Metekhi church, in the middle is the Narikala
fortress and the aerial tramway over the old town.

View to the skyscrapers around the Rustaveli avenue.
 

Look into the exhibition center.

Opposed to the entrance of the exhibition center is this spring.

 

The whole wall along the Baratishvili Rise is like a wide
spring with bryophytes - like a small nice oasis in the
concrete jungle.

In the middle of the wall are small stairs up to Avlabari.
The following image is very typical for Tbilisi: No matter how bad the streets and houses are, big and expensive cars are all around. Having a good car is obviously important for the people to show the status.

The car in the middle is an Infiniti. I have never seen Infiniti cars in
Germany but in Georgian they have a large market share.'

Typical street. One can see that the houses where a
bit larger than the houses in the Chughureti
neighborhood (see the previous post).

A big contrast: the presidential palace and the old houses.

The palace to the left and the Sameba cathedral.

Only about 100 m away from the palace you find houses like this one.

It is a bit shocking that people need to live in such houses. The Caucasus is plagued with earthquakes. To face the bitter reality - it is very probable that the people living here will be badly injured or even killed by the next earthquake.

The main attraction in Avlabari is the Sameba cathedral. This new church was build according to the architecture of old Georgian churches. It is together with the Svetitskhoveli cathedral in Mskheta the main church of the Georgian Orthodox Church. I don't have pictures from inside the cathedral because there was a church service and I respect that it is then not allowed to take pictures.

Inside the Sameba: the western wall with the entrance.

The clock tower.

The cathedral.

View from the cathedral.

The main door of the cathedral. It was closed.
A side door is used as normal entry.

The south side of the cathedral.

Some other chapels in the south east of the complex.

From the cathedral I went to the Sheraton hotel (which is currently the home of the German embassy) and then to the cliff over the Mtkvari.

In the K. Eristani street right below the cathedral.

 

View from the cliff to the old town.

A closeup of the cliff and the old part of Avlabari.

Another closeup - the Narikala fortress.

 

Below the point where I shot the photos is an abandoned
industrial hall with lots of these chimney-like structures
that have nice mosaics. If somebody know what this is please tell me.

Walking in Tbilisi - From the central train station via Chugureti to Avlabari

Tbilisi is a city with many contrasts. There are nice parks, clean streets and renovated houses but also kilometer long streets with ruins. For me it is important to see all sides of a place and of a country and therefore go there where tourists normally don't go.

You will now see some "ill streets" so Moonrock - Ill Street is the perfect soundtrack for this post.

I took the metro to the central train station to find out if there are some suitable connections. The building itself is a shopping mall with lots of large electronics stores. Even the entrance to the platforms hidden by doors without windows. So trains are no longer important in the station. The platforms and stairs are in a horrible state. The reason is that the railway tracks will soon be removed from the city. In future the trains will pass Tbilisi using this new track at the north.

There are many unused coaches and locomotives.

The train station.

This is the stair to the platform of track 2/3.

 

This is the local train to the airport.
It runs twice a day, at 8:00 and 17:20 which is is not very sensible
since most international flights start and arrive deep in the night.

I had a few hours until a meeting in the old town and used it therefore to walk there. This way I crossed the Chugureti district. This consists mostly of houses with only 2 floors. Especially in the northern part many of them are in a bad shape:

A typical street.

This is not an exception. Many houses here look like this.

Note the "pedestrian-friendly" construction of the downspouts.

One could now argue that it would be nice if they would be renovated. But one has to face the reality: more than one third (some say even a half) of the Georgians live in Tbilisi and therefore there is pressure to build apartment buildings. The existing houses are in this sense a waste of land. They are also not that beautiful that they are worth it to keep them. Personally, I would agree if they would be replaced by new apartment buildings.

In the southern part of  Chugureti the houses are a bit nicer with more decorations:

 In the Kiev street.

At the crossing Tsinamdzgvrishvili / Mazniashvili street

The few renovated houses look nice.
I noticed that especially the renovated houses are unused -
maybe they are simply too expensive to rent.

Down at the Mtkvari river the inner city looks like this:

The public service hall.

The Narikala fortress.

Just crossing the street and entering the inner city would have been too easy ;-). I therefore walked up to the presidential palace.

A nice small park close to the Baratshvili statue.

The statue and the view to the Mtatsminda hill.

In the Elene Akhvlediani Rise. The blue color was real -
the light close before the dawn was amazing

In the same street.

The presidential palace is the beginning of the Avlabari neighborhood. The houses around the palace are in a very bad shape. Even houses directly at the palace are more or less ruins.

In the Niko Lomauri street behind the presidential palace

The presidential palace from behind.