4-12 Rustaveli Street and Architecture Tour

Now this is a serendipitous story.  Our tour today was suppose to be a photo/walk around Tbilisi tour.  But we did not pay ahead of time and many tours meet at Freedom Square in front of the tourist office.  I head some people speaking English so I approached them and asked is this the Free Walking Tour - no it is over there was the answer.  What I forgot to mention was the word "Photo".  So we joined the other tour.  Our guide had a camera around his neck - so I thought all was good.  It soon became clear that we were getting a lot of history and architectural information.  Our tour guide never mentioned photography or took a picture.  Hum! 

We walked from our airbnb apartment along Rustaveli street to the meeting point at Freedom Square.  This photo is of "the Muse" which is across from the Opera House.

Georgeon food is very heavy - lots for bread and cheese - bread filled with cheese, maybe topped with an egg, bread willed with various food ingredients.  There are a ton of these small stores selling these products.

We saw a lot of used book sellers.

A McDonalds in Tbilisi.

Photos along the Rustaveli Boulivard.

A tavern.

 One thing I have noticed in Baku and especially in Tbilisi - is a different traffic pattern.  There are no stop signs at the end of side streets flowing into a main street.  Drivers on side streets know they have to stop and wait for the opportunity to meld into the main traffic. 

There are a lot of traffic circles.  But interestingly, when you want to go back the way you came - you don't go around the traffic circle.  See the markings below.  The grey car is making a u-turn just before the traffic circle. See the white line heading back the same way.  On busy 4 lane highways you cannot make a left turn.  You make a U-turn like this to get closer to where you want to turn.  Then you merge right across 4 traffic lanes in a short time.  Yes traffic is slow - but you don't have to stop and wait for 4 minutes.  Just a different way of handling traffic.

Outside of a restaurant.  The famous dumplings, menu, wind barrel and a hookah?

The Opera house.

We stopped for lunch at a random restaurant.  A lot of them are in basements. 

I don't have a picture here, but we started with a tomato, cucumber and walnut salad.  It is not light.  the walnut flavored dressing is thick with walnut paste.  We then had roasted vegetables.

And Fried Chicken per the menu - actually what we would call roast chicken.  But both were really good.

Then on down Rustaveli Street to see more statues of famous revolutionary men.

We passed Parliamentary Hall - where there was a protest going on.

 We came across this park.  I was confused by this at first.  Per our guide, Georgia first declared independence around 1918.  It did not last long - the Soviet Union attacked them and reclaimed Georgia as part of the Soviet Union.  They did not achieve independence until 1991.  In the meantime they were absorbed by the communists.  The rich elitists were send to reeducation camps or tortured to death.  There homes were confiscated and divided into two room apartments for local people.  A lot more people moved into the cities so the Communists added third or 4th stories to a lot of homes to house them.  They don't match what is below so they really stand out.  Some of these wealthy homes were occupied by the elite Russians - those homes escaped being destroyed.  All the others had  lovely paintings painted over with plain grey or white paint.  Georgia is in the process of restoring them as they can.  But the old Georgian elite have mostly died off so the people who were assigned to live in these lovely homes still live here.  The government is slowly trying to restore the old homes.

The Soviets changed a lot of the city landscape.  There used to be a lovely Opera house in the traffic circle above.  It had 4 dragons (one shown below) around it.  They have found two of them and restored them.

 The facad below was changed by the Soviets and a third floor added.  The original was considered to  bourgeois -it needed to be more for the common people.

Another building with an added third story.

But sometimes the elite of the Russians lived in these homes and so some things were saved.  This home was owned by a rich family who dealt in medicine.  So a lot of the furniture was saved and is still in use today.

 On this tour we went into a lot of homes that have been restored or are on the list to be restored.  This lovely ceiling painting was in one home.

The walls of the home below have been painted over with the Russian favorite colors - grey and white, but they did not destroy the lovely staircase in the original home.

A  balcony not doing well.

The rich man who owned the home below had a wife who was enamored with the opera house - so he copied that style.  And apparently someone rich in the Soviet government lived here as it has not been destroyed.

Some ceiling and wall paintings that have been restored.

Across the street - cute but not restored.

And inside this home:

lovely marble inlays in the hallways - not destroyed so had to have been occupied by Russian elites.

This tile floor is worth many millions of dollars.

Third story balconies.

In another building - these unrestored paintings.  Out of 4-5 paintings - this one represents  America.

Another unrestored, but still intact hallway paintings.

We also saw a few Medieval period homes.  These homes were destroyed by fire, but the basemens remained intact.  So the floor plans remain Medieval.  The homes are narrower.

We then went into a courtyard that illustrated the central courtyard surrounded by balconies of different homes. The next 8 photos are from this courtyard.

We stepped into the staircase of another unrestored home.  There were four paintings - we think of the four seasons.  Somehow they were not destroyed by the Communists.

And lastly we entered through a doorway where they were selling produce.  The original owner of this home was in the business of selling farm products.  On the stair case leading up is a statue of Guia the goddess of earth.  It is so interesting that some things have been saved.  The Soviets had one rule for the peasants - you will all be the same and have no money and no beauty.  The elite can keep it all.

Mike and were both happy that we chanced upon this tour.  It was lovely to be able to go into these old homes restored or unrestored to see the progress that is being made.