Take a walk in Tbilisi, fall in love with khinkali and be exhausted from satsivi
“If Tbilisi takes you, it will never let you go,” locals say, and they are right. This city is hard to describe but easy to feel: it consists of mountains on the horizon, evening lights in creeping twilight, beautiful women with straight backs who at 80 no one would think to call old ladies, intricate courtyards with homemade clotheslines, a waterfall where teenage lovers run to kiss. Of shops with earrings and brooches, the scent of spices on winding streets, galleries of the Old Town, ancient legends told like fresh news, and keen love of life.
And of course, the feast. On your very first trip, you can't gauge your strength: fresh vegetables tasting of vegetables, not import substitution, eggplant rolls, lobio of red and black beans, satsivi of chicken or better – salmon, pkhali from the chef's imagination with walnuts, fried suluguni or rather gebzhalia, greens-greens-greens, khachapuri with cheese, other cheese, that cheese over there, with egg – Adjarian style. Khinkali – what are you doing, put down the utensils immediately, khinkali must be eaten with your hands, first biting and drinking the meat juice – boiled, and now let's try fried ones.
Where are you going – to get some air? Wait, we haven't even started eating yet! Chakhokhbili with mushrooms, veal with spices, a meat platter – just to warm up; chicken under eggplants in pots – today's special, the chef's pride – shashlik, no, it's a whole shashlik! What, a vegetarian? Long time? You don't eat? Poor thing. Can't take any more? Maybe some sweets? How weak you are.
What else: take the funicular up Mount Mtatsminda – you can have dinner with a view of the starry sky over evening Tbilisi. Or go to the restaurant “Tabla”, where traditional cuisine is accompanied by equally authentic tunes and dances. In the morning, steam in the famous sulfur baths of the Old Town, in the afternoon – to the “Dry Bridge”, where you can buy a Georgian horn, or even your own memories: among the antique deposits, porcelain figurines are especially surprising (similar to those your grandmother had).
Go to Borjomi, take a selfie on a hill and drink a lot of healthy stuff
It happened in a beautiful green valley: a young and fleet-footed deer was slightly shot by hunters, who arrogantly decided that before them was not a noble animal but a potential dinner. The deer disagreed with this concept and, dashing to a nearby spring, instantly healed.
Casting a disapproving look from his sad eyes at the hunters, he galloped off on his deer business, and the hunters rushed to the living water, which turned out to be a mineral spring, much later coming not only to all local feasts but also into Soviet folklore (spoiler: it's never too late).
There is much truth in this legend: in Borjomi, a resort town in southwestern Georgia, literally everything is healing. The beneficial, surprisingly warm water that you can drink even from a park fountain. The purest air, which, like the local water, a city dweller unaccustomed to such ecology wants to bottle up immediately. A breathtaking view of the valley with scarlet and white roofs, which opens up to those brave enough to go into the mountains by cable car.
In the town, concentrated around sanatorium tourism and the famous factory – this year Borjomi turns 125 – about 8,000 people live, and of course, everyone more or less knows each other. It would not be surprising if by evening you become friends with half of Borjomi's residents and even with the chief hydrologist, and in the morning you are convinced of his absolute rightness: what kind of morning is it without mineral water.
What else: take a photo against the backdrop of Prometheus, who just brought fire to people, in the National Park and walk along the river gorge. If you plan to go to the local mountains, be sure to take a guide with you. Local guides love to tell thrilling stories about tourist hermits who they interestingly helped down from the mountains.
See Kakheti, visit a winery and drink from a horn
“Wine is like sex: the main thing is that it exists,” Georgian sommeliers will tell you straight if they understand you can be trusted. Details, however, are also important: in the Alazani Valley (70% of all Georgian vineyards are here), hundreds of grape varieties grow, the most famous being Saperavi, which will one day turn into Kindzmarauli, Mukuzani and other red wines, and Rkatsiteli, which makes an excellent dry white.
Listen to the wine master in the cellar of the wineries and taste everything – then he will tell you (a sudden life hack) how to properly look at a glass with the expression of a person deeply knowledgeable in the nuances of the bouquet. Georgian wine, which you will anyway take as a gift, no matter how large the excess weight seems, is better to buy right here – while you remember the aftertaste.
In season, in the fields of Kakheti, you can even learn to skillfully cut vines (yes, the work of some people often becomes entertainment for others), and in the towns – learn to bake “shotis puri”, a stunning peasant bread, in a tone – a stone oven, on the walls of which local craftsmen, or rather craftswomen, deftly slap salted dough. Or learn how grape juice turns into churchkhela, hardening in the sun.
What else: everything incredible you've ever heard about the Georgian feast will turn out to be true. No matter what city you are visiting, there will come a moment when you feel like Shurik, toasting to a tiny little bird high up in the mountains. Yes, you will also have to drink from a horn. No, there is no way not to drink from a horn in these parts. And if you are a traveling girl of indifferent age, you will be called a bride many times and promised to be kidnapped. And yes, the only way to cool this ardor is to say that you completely agree.