Tbilisi; 11th-17th August

Tbilisi

After a morning coffee with Tjallen and David we got a flight from Almaty to Tbilisi. The plan had originally been to cycle from Almaty to Aqtau, and (hopefully) have gotten the ferry across to Azerbaijan to continue cycling west. (Azerbaijan did not open it's surface borders in 2024, so this route would not have been possible without flying over the Caspian Sea anyway)

However, we realised doing it this way round would mean missing out on some of the Kyrgyzstan high passes (Tosor) due to snow and cycling in the desert during the height of summer. So we switched it round to cycle the desert when it was cooler and the mountains during the summer when all the passes were open.

In Tbilisi we met up with Julian, who we had met one day out of Khalai Khumb in Tajikistan, on that every difficult day. He had started his trip in Almaty, cycled down into Tajikistan (it snowed on him between Alichur and Langar, at which point he got a puncture. He hands were so cold it was a struggle changing the inner tube), through Uzbekistan, Kazhakstan, through Russia and into Georgia via Grozny. Was like meeting an old friend catching up with him, despite having only met for about an hour or so at the side of the road months before.

Tbilisi is a wonderful city. We spent a few days just wondering about. A city with a very politically active young population as the graffitti showed:

Pro-Ukraine, EU; Anti-Russia graffiti

Also a significent amount of pro-Palestine graffiti.

The graffitti is in the same colours as the Ukrainain flag. Perhaps the graffitiers see parallels between the Russian invasion and occupation of Ukraine and the Israeli occupation of Palestine.

Anti capitalist graffiti

Many, many streetdogs. very sweet and know how to beg very well

Stalin 'museum'

On one of the walking tours, we visited an old printing factory which is now a shrine and homage to Stalin, who was born in Georgia. From what I remember of the tour (writing this a few months after), Stalin never actually worked at the press, but was happy to be associated with it once he rose to power.

I say it's a shrine rather than a museum as it does not offer an iota of insight into the horrors of his regime sush as the famine of the early 1930s.

Not sure what this is about but placed prominently

Food

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