So, now Tbilisi. The capital of Georgia (in German called Tiflis) is currently considered the coolest tourist destination. Place to visit, whisper social media: fantastic city, fascinating architecture, friendly people, good food. The spirit of a breakthrough in the “future Berlin” recently admired newspaper Zeit.
Such odes would be no wonder of the Georgian lips. The Georgians, with all their inherent modesty are convinced that they live in the cradle of civilization, which the Lord will give them the best food and the best wine. Therefore, it is obvious that their capital they perceive how great the gift of God.
However, someone who didn’t grow up with this belief, for example, came from abroad, have to wear glasses with very thick pink glasses, not to notice the decline and depression. It is best to wear those glasses immediately when you exit the airport. Because the trip to the center is a trip back in time. First, dizzying rush of monumental shopping centers 2000 years, then the villas of the oligarchs of the ‘ 90s, prefab houses of 70-80-ies, and finally the gray of the building-“anthills” of the Khrushchev era. People here also seem a relic of bygone days: hunched, with a look of despair on her face.
Demonstration of the failure of
Perhaps at night, Tbilisi is becoming a haven for hipsters in the Caucasus. But in the light of day the city looks like a Museum of the Soviet era under the open sky. Metro trains are old and musty, stations shall radiate the charm of socialist realism. Wide magnificent boulevards belong only to cars, pedestrians are forced to move through tight underground passages, where sleeping homeless and selling flowers grandmother. A large number of cars and low-lying area contribute to the rapid emergence of clubs of smog, which makes breathing difficult and makes walking around the city in torture.
Relief brings the funicular ride to the statue of “Mother Georgia.” Smog, which obscures the view of the city, it interferes less. Because it is a view of the ruins.
Tbilisi is a manifestation of failure. The rich and the powerful need to perpetuate itself in its own architectural style allowed to occur in such architectural monstrosities as the presidential Palace or the concert hall, consisting of two glass tubes. He was inaugurated four years ago, since then it’s been empty. Its glass coating, which has a cost of 40 million francs, was covered with a layer of dirt and cracks.
A huge pile of rubble
When Tbilisi residents proudly talk about their city, I’m not talking about the failures of modern and ancient sulfur baths, old buildings in Oriental style with Bay Windows and picturesque courtyards. Sounds very romantic. And it seems very far from reality.
In fact, the old town in a few years will disappear. Today he looks like an Eastern Mosul after his release from LIH (banned organization in Russia — approx. ed.). But in old Tbilisi no fighting, neglect and abandonment. The fact that the guidebooks described as “unimaginably fascinating city” is a huge pile of rubble. On some streets the walls of the houses are held from collapsing due to steel beams only. The fact that for skewed wooden partitions still are people who think some miracle. These homes can not be saved.
To calculate this devastation charming one after a stormy night with dancing and alcohol will rise to the surface of the basement club. But for reliability you need more quickly wear thick rose-colored glasses. That was not so painful from the surrounding reality.
