Almost like in Berlin in the nineties: bar in the old town of Tbilisi
Bild: Bloomberg
Georgia is a coveted destination, not only for Russian expansionist desires. There are many good reasons for a trip to the Caucasus, to Stalin’s cradle and one of the trendiest capitals in the world.
DThe journey is supposed to take three hours, in the end it will be five, but unlike the Deutsche Bahn, the mood in the minibus improves with every kilometer. No sooner has the first driver handed over the wheel to his colleague than he sits back and generously distributes his own brandy chacha, Georgian grappa, from a plastic bottle to his passengers and not too tightly to himself, which requires some skill on the winding road into the mountains. Everyone grabs while the gorge next to the road gets deeper and deeper: the couple from Belarus, the family from New York, the tourists from Germany. During the rest at the side of the road, young Israelis with yarmulkes join them from the second bus, and there is plenty of rest, three times on the quite manageable journey of less than 140 kilometers. At the third stop, the Americans’ adult children begin to nag, the father moderates, please don’t get excited, “that’s the culture”.
The jolly travel company was initially brought together by the myth of the Greater Caucasus, which at more than five thousand meters is not only higher than the Alps, but is also considered to be wilder and more primeval. For a long time, Svaneti was the epitome of this unspoiled state, the mountainous region just before the Russian border, which has had reasonable road connections (and a small airport) for just over a decade, where, despite all modernization, medieval fortified towers still dominate the townscape and domestic pigs are free walking around in the streets and on the other hand even the small children in the village school speak fluent English.