Thanks and goodbye from Georgia

This post is for all people who made this trip possible. Many thanks Zaira for a nice city tour, background information and help with logistics.

Thanks for showing me cool locations like this one.

Zaira - always busy ;)

Many thanks also to the other ladies from the office of the  Deutsche Wirtschaftsvereinigung (DWV) in Tbilisi. Zaira and their team made it possible to meet business people working in Tbilisi. This was a very interesting insight.They amde it also possible to watch the game of the German national football team in the impressive Boris Paichadze National Stadium stadium for only 10 Lari.

Just to prove that I was there.

  

The talks with the business men were more interesting than the football match because the Germans were too strong. The funny thing is that I ended up in a bar with French diplomats. Many thanks to the 2 ladies from the French embassy for 2 cool evenings!

Many thanks also to Keti from Batumi (I met so many Ketis ;-) ). It was a lot of fun to explore the student life in Tbilisi. I also enjoyed the interesting talks about the society, art and politics.

Keti and her boyfriend.

Georgia was the first country I visited for the first time in 2015. Armenia, Karabakh, Ukraine, Transnistria, Moldova and Cuba followed. So I had an incredible input. It is not fair to rank countries. All I want to say that it impressed me the most. The people are friendly and the landscape is absolutely incredible. (And I even missed the high mountain part.) Georgia is a small country and its diverse landscapes remind me of the beautiful Albania.

It impressed me a lot that it was possible to turn one of the most corrupt countries into a country without visible corruption that quickly. There is still a long way to go but the Georgians can be proud of what they already achieved.
The Georgian society still needs more time to modernize in my opinion. The patriarchy society is a outdated and I had the feeling that the younger people don't want this anymore. What scared me is the religiosity because it felt so unreal. I have seen a lot of priests in expensive cars while there is still poverty. That the catholicos-patriarch is treated like a saint despite he held this position also in soviet times is hard to understand.

Tbilisi is one of the foreign cities where I can imagine to live. It has everything: mountains, a lot of culture, many parks an acceptable transport system, great architecture. It is also not far away from the sea and the plane connections are cheap and good. Of course life there is not that easy with an average Georgian salary and the Georgian language is difficult to learn. Reading the Georgian script was unexpectedly easy - as easy as Cyrillic.
Tbilisi is a very good place to go out and get connected. I met a lot of foreigners in the many bars and pubs.

In Tbilisi you can even buy flowers at a rainy day at midnight.

Fun with people from Italy, USA, England and Germany.

All in all Georgia is one of my top countries and I would like to come back!

Riding around Tbilisi - part 2

Here we are, at the "History of  Georgia" monument at the mount Kenisi.

Stairway to "Stonehenge".

While enjoying the view from there one might listen to Dimitri from Paris - La Vie

The monument is massive - 20 meters high pillars with reliefs and also large bronze statues of Georgian saints. The monument was built from 1985 until 2005 and was not completely finished. The artwork is from the famous sculptor Zurab Tsereteli who also created the mosaic at the bus station from my previous post, the monument "St. Nino" at this position, the monument "Man and Sun" at the entrance of the airport and some smaller ones in Tbilisi. Here is a list of all the many sculptures and monuments Tsereteli created.
Here is a nice slideshow with images of sculptures and monuments in Tbilisi.

There was almost nobody at the monument and also the Tbilisians I asked were never there nor did they know what this monument is about. I asked the bored policemen at the stair up to the monument but even he did not know anything (or said that he does not).

The unfinished part.

Besides the pillars is this group of saints.

Some scenes are from the Georgian Chronicles, some are from the bible.

This church is part of the monument complex.

The mount Kenisi is more than 200 meters above Kura river so that one can enjoy interesting views:
 

The huge Gldani neighborhood.

View over the Kura towards Mtskheta.

The Tbilisi sea.

The Tbilisi sea might look nice here but when you go closer it is disappointing. Its coast is as bald as the surrounding hills. I miss vegetation.

Back in the inner town I relaxed a bit in the Garden of the Democratic Republic of Georgia:

The spring began.

The Freedom Square around the corner.