Tbilisi: A Heartening First Meeting with Georgia, Tbilisi, Georgia

Ever since my trip to Azerbaijan in the winter of 2018, I’d been wanting to return to the Caucasus region, so when Covid-19 finally slowed down over the autumn and I’d received my two vaccines on top of a recovery, I felt it was finally safe to go. I chose to fly into Tbilisi, the capital of Georgia, and out of Yerevan, the capital of Armenia. With 2,5 weeks to spare for the trip, I knew it wasn’t going to be enough to see everything these two magnificent countries have to offer, but at least I’d get a good taste of both – or so I thought. Because I actually ended up spending most of my time in Georgia and had just one afternoon to spare for Yerevan. The reason for that lies in Tbilisi and the amazing people I met there, but also in how gorgeous Georgia is. I just couldn’t get myself to rush through it.

I arrived at 4 AM in Tbilisi International Airport, exhausted after a most uncomfortable sleep in the plane (seriously, it’s so hard to breathe when sleeping with a mask!). I’d also had hardly any food as both Frankfurt Airport and Munich Airport where I had layovers had run out of vegan food, so I had to survive on pretzels which I don’t really like (sorry, Germans!). And in Tbilisi Airport nothing was open (thanks, Covid!). I took out some cash in the local currency (Georgian lari) and tried to find some info on the public bus. I was told that it wouldn’t be running until the morning (again, thanks to Covid), so I looked around for a fellow backpacker to share a cab with, and that’s how I met Yente from Belgium. ...... (follow the instructions below for accessing the rest of this article).