Tbilisi, Georgia (September 2019)

Tbilisi was a pleasant surprise in many ways. It was modern and well balanced between the old and the new. Credit cards worked well (Azerbaijan was not ready to accept international credit cards.) and people were friendly. Moreover, I found out that one of the Bethel Church members who participated in the training will come to Georgia to do a business. How wonderful! The sign "I love Tbilisi" was perfectly legitimate.

There were numerous monuments in Tbilisi. Perhaps too many to mention, let alone visit, them all. 

The most significant one would be Metekhi Church, built in the 13th century, which is overlooking the City of Tbilisi and the Mtkvari River, along with the statue of King Vakhtang Gorgasali who established Tbilisi as Georgia's capital. 

Also famous for Tbilisi is the statue of Mother of Georgia. This lady holds a sword and a bowl, symbolizing the spirit of fighting the enemy, if necessary, while feeding the family.

Georgia is a Christian nation following the Eastern Orthodox Christianity. Orthodox Christianity's formal name is Orthodox Catholic Christianity. In other words, Orthodox Christianity branched out of Roman Catholic when they could not agree on certain doctrines and religious practices. Along with Protestantism, Orthodox and Roman Catholics form the Christianity.

  

The most outstanding symbol for Georgian Christianity is the Holy Trinity Cathedral of Tbilisi standing on the hill above the government building.

We cross the Bridge of 100,000 Martyrs to commemorate Christians who were willing to die for their faith.

.We ate one of Georgian signatory dishes, Georgian dumplings. They looked a bit interesting and different from Asian dumplings, but they are famous.

After lunch, we saw the statue of a toast master or Tamada in Georgian who had to lead the drinking at a party by drinking wine on an animal horn.

We stopped over at Sioni Church, 

and passed through the restaurant row before crossing the river over the Glass Bridge. The view from the bridge was beautiful. 

We took a cable car to the top of the hill across the Metekhi Church. The view from the hill top was panoramic and breath-taking.  

From there, we walked the stairs down to the Bath District where many Azerbanis are living and working. There was a mosque where the Sunnis and the Shias worship their god together. 

Also, there were many bath houses, including the blue dome public bath house. Many bath houses operate 24/7. There were several bridges filled with the locks of love.

Georgia's national bird is falcon.

Some people chose to stay in town and strolled along the Rustaveli Avenue, a bustling commercial street filled with many brand name stores. We returned to the hotel and found a fabulous restaurant where everything was elegant, artistic and beautiful. The foods was also delicious. We ended up going over there two evenings in a row.

Tbilisi was a total surprise in a pleasant way. It was beautiful with the river, the hills and many greens. The city was vibrant with cafes and restaurants. People were friendly and the city has numerous places of interest. Surely, I would like to go back to this city. - Jeffrey