Georgia part 1: Exploring Tbilisi

 In June we took a family summer vacation to Georgia and Greece. We usually go back to the US to visit family, but because our families are both coming to Turkey, and we will be moving back to the US next summer for good, we wanted to stay abroad this year. We spent one week in Georgia and almost 2 weeks in Greece and had a wonderful time! This blog will be about our time in Tibisi, the capital of Georgia. A couple great benefits of traveling locally was no jet lag and short flights. We were either one hour ahead or in the same time zone the entire trip, and our longest flight was a little under 3 hours. We left Ankara on a mid-morning flight, transited Istanbul, and then flew next door to Tbilisi.

We arrived mid-afternoon, got our luggage, hopped in a cab and got to our hotel by late afternoon. Tbilisi is the capital and largest city in Georgia. There are only about 3 million people in the entire country and about half of them live in the capital. 

Tbilisi has been under the rule of many civilizations over the years, with a brief period of independence between 1918 -1921 following the fall of the Russian Empire, and then fell under Soviet rule until the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991. So it has only been truly free for the last 30 years, which is not long when you look at the course of its history. We enjoyed learning about the complex history of Georgia and got to see some really interesting places both in Tbilisi and around the country (more to come in another blog post). Here is a view from our hotel room over looking Freedom Square, formerly known as ‘Lenin Square.’ This square changed name to Freedom square in 1918, when Georgia had it’s first bout of independence following the fall of the Russian Empire. 

Since we traveled most of the day, we wanted to get out and explore the city that evening. Despite it’s smaller size, it was busy and people were out and about. The city had a very artsy and kind of grungy feel to it, lots of uniqueness in the people and places we saw.

The city is full of green space and we found this nice large park about a mile from the hotel. It felt so hot and humid compared to Turkey, where it was still in the 50’s in the morning and evenings!

There was a huge skate boarding park along the river that we stumbled across. Even though it was bout 8pm by then, there were kids of all ages skating and scootering around. 

Kura River that runs through the city center.

We walked along the river and found this neat out door workout park. And people were working out hard at this park.

The city has these underground passageways to get across the very wide main streets and traffic circles. Underneath are lots of shops, it’s a really great concept.

The next day we set out to explore and take advantage of the nice weather since rain was in the forecast throughout the week. Along the way, there were ladies at many street corners  making flower arrangements.  

We crossed over the Bridge of Peace into Rike Park to ride the cable car to the top of the city.

It was mid-morning and not many people were out and about at this time.

We had a great view of the city on thew way up.

We made it…it was hot that day!

This is the Mother of Georgia statue that sits at the top of the city, that you can see from the valley where we were staying.

We walked around the top for a bit, passed by the botanical gardens, passed the Narikala Foretress on the walk down, which sat alongside the hill. It was so hot and we all just wanted a cold drink, so we found a cafe in the old city to get some drinks and ice cream. Flavored ice-tea is popular in Georgia, especially pine-tree tea. It was interesting and refreshing on this hot day.

We wandered through different parts fo the city. 

To say Georgia was not a fan of Russia is an understatement. This was one of many graffiti slogans we saw…some were pretty vulgar.

Next, we took a small boat trip along the Kura River and saw some of the sites, government buildings, and palace.

We returned to the park from the first day we arrived. We loved all the green space and playgrounds scattered throughout the city. 

Eliza loves her daddy!

One afternoon Nathan took the boys for a haircut.

The support for Ukraine was really neat to see. Everywhere you went there. Were Ukrainian flags hanging in solidarity.

The graffiti in Tbilisi was very impressive and everywhere….our two tough guys. This was actually in one of the underpasses near our hotel. 

Another day we went to the city zoo….that sign says welcome to prison, haha! We laughed, but after going inside the zoo, we understood. Despite that, the kids loved it!

People lived in a building overlooking the buffalo cage of the zoo, lucky them.

This was a very sketchy ferris wheel that we decided not to ride!

We were one of the only people at the zoo, most of the entertainment things were not open, so we strolled the animal cages then decided to visit an amusement park at the top of one of the nearby mountains that is supposed to be famous in the city. 

This is Mtatsminda Park. There is a cable car to get to the top, but it was not open yet, so we took a windy taxi ride to the top of the mountain. The park was not quite open when we arrived (everything seemed to open a bit later in Tbilisi), and to be honest it felt like we were stuck in a weird horror film. It started raining shortly after so we decided we were not going to stay. The kids were a little disappointed, but we found other fun things to do that day.

Georgian food…this is khinkali, a very popular Georgian food that is delicious! It’s a huge dumpling stuffed with meat and spices and broth in a big twisted doughball. I thought of them like giant wontons, but even better. We had these just about every day :).

This is Rustaveli Avenue, the main artery through downtown Tbilisi. There are many government buildings, big hotels, museums, churches, and shopping along this road. Our hotel was right off of this road so it was easy to walk anywhere. I think this was some government building, but don’t remember what it was.

We went to the Tbilisi museum, which was very interesting. We learned more about Tbilisi’s reign under the Russian Empire and following Soviet rule, it was fascinating the learn about.

They also had a lot of random stuff from different places around the world. These were a bunch of skulls from thousands of years ago from different civilizations around the world.

Caleb loves ducks and has a duck club at school….so we was excited to have his picture taken here.

Next, we went to the Tbilisi Optical Illusion Museum, which was such a neat place, we all loved it!

Kaleidoscope kiddos

Experimenting with lighting and coloring

How many Benjamins are there?

Are we really all tilted?

There were so many cute small cobble stone roads with shops and restaurants and lots of trees. The climate felt very tropical.

Exploring downtown another morning.

We found this open air market on a bridge downtown. They were selling all kinds of knick knacks, and a lot of really neat old soviet era items such as knives, coins, pictures, old passports, all kinds of random stuff.

We ended up buying some old soviet coins from this man.

And this knife with USSR engraved in Russian.

So.much.graffiti.everywhere!

We all love Thai food and were thrilled to find this little Thai restaurant while walking home one day.

There were lots of parks scattered throughout the city. 

We all gave Tbilisi 2 thumbs up! 

Eliza Rose is 4

I have fallen several months behind on blogging for a number of reasons, and over the next month or so I hope to get caught up. Before going back to June, picking up from our summer vacation in Georgia and Greece, family visits, and other things, I wanted to first catch up on a special little girl. Today’s blog is about Eliza Rose turning 4! This girl brings so much sweetness to our family and everyone who knows her. She is a girly girl, but can hang with the big boys. She loves all things pink, baby dolls, baby animals, especially kittens and puppies, unicorns, playing outside, being with her brothers, singing and dancing, making people laugh, and the list goes on. 

Eliza is a great eater and will try just about anything. She eats all kinds of Turkish foods between Kadem’s cooking and her school food. She likes fresh fruits and veggies and she has quite the sweet tooth too. Eliza recently in the past few months moved to a twin bed, but she would have kept her crib for longer if we would have let her. She loves her sleep and will still nap on weekends and especially enjoys naps with daddy. She is wearing size 4/5 cloths, size 10/11 shoes, is around 44 inches tall and 38 lbs. Eliza has adapted very well to school, and everyday she is excited to see her friends and learn new things. Eliza is carefree and full of life, and we love her so much!

The night before her birthday, the boys helped us decorate after she went to bed, and she was so excited to see the kitchen decorated for her the next morning.

Starting the morning with pink birthday donuts.

At school, Eliza got to celebrate with her class. They don’t let parents in the school, but we were able to send in cupcakes and they sent us photos of the celebration. Did I mention she still loves Paw Patrol and her favorite pup is Skye.

Of course you need simit, a traditional Turkish sesame bagel (on the left), served with most meals!

Celebrating with friends in class.

That evening, we invited Kadem and her husband for dinner and cake. Eliza wanted macaroni and cheese with hot dogs and green beans, and this year she wanted an LOL cake,

We are lucky to have a nice bakery very close by to make us cakes, for about the equivalent of $30.

Eliza was a bit apprehensive about the firework candle, and asked if the cake could be at the end of the table.

Mid way she thought it was funny.

Make a wish sweet girl.

I promise Benjamin is not trying to strangle her in this picture!

Next we opened gifts. She got a new backpack and swimming towel from Kadem and baba (what Eliza calls Mustafa). And their daughter Ebru gave her the cute strawberry dress she is wearing. Ebru recently got a job at a bank and was not able to join us that evening. They are such a sweet family and they love the kids like their own.

Next Eliza opened gifts from us. The kids love celebrating each other and it’s fun to watch their excitement for one another on their birthdays. She has a special and unique bond with each of her brothers and we love watching them grow in their relationships.

Caleb is such a sweet and tolerant big brother, and he and Eliza have a very special bond. They both share the love of TV and many days I’ll find Caleb watching Barbie or Paw Patrol cartoons with her. Caleb helps Eliza a lot, from helping her get dressed, brush her teeth, and other things around the house, and she enjoys when he reads Dr. Seuss books her books and teaches her jokes. He is attentive to her and they have a very sweet bond. He got Eliza a Barbie doll as a gift and she loved it.

Benjamin is also a great big brother to Eliza and they have a lot of fun playing together. On any day, you can find them having a dance party in the living room, and she is attentively watching Benjamin and trying to follow his every dance move. They both love singing and he teaches her new songs. From playing hide-and-seek, to showing her about Pokemon, she adores spending time with Benjamin. He got Eliza a LOL doll as a gift and she loved it.

Eliza also received some new cute outfits and a unicorn bed spread from grandparents, both featured in this photo. She loves her bedspread and every night says how comfy her bed is:)

We had a great day celebrating Eliza turning 4 and are so thankful for this precious girl. Since turning 4, just about every day you can find her telling a complete stranger or reminding us that she is 4 and a big girl. Eliza Rose, we love you so much and are excited about what this next year has in store for you. Happy 4th birthday, little lady!