Moving around Tbilisi

The introduction

Hello everyone, I hope that you are all doing just fine!

This is another one of my articles and I want to tell you about Georgia again. Well, I could tell you many things about some other countries or cities, where I’ve been so far, however, first of all, I want you to know things about my home country, which is Georgia and its capital _ Tbilisi.

Well, Georgia is not a large country, however, it’s pretty important to me, of course, because that’s where I was born and that’s where I grew up and my family lives there and my friends live there and my relatives are there and everything, you know. so that, this country is pretty important to me and I want other people to know about it, of course. It has so many traditions, which I like and it’s really historical place with many enemies throughout the centuries and stuff like that. You can’t just ignore it, you know. well, to be honest, no one really know the history, if you ask me, however, there are many things, that we still know and there are even more to be discovered, so that we will know many other things, too, soon, hopefully.

Anyways, I would like to tell you about my country a little bit.Of course, I can’t really tell you everything about it in this article, but, I will try to tell you some important stuff about my home country and give you some advices about it.

Life in Tbilisi

First of all, you may wonder what it’s like to live in Georgia. Well, it’s like average. Normally, people live somewhat in a calm environment and they just go with the life. You know , there are different kinds of people everywhere and that’s how it is in Georgia, too, of course. There are people, who have jobs and there are many people, who are in politics and stuff like that. It’s really popular these days to be a politician or do some things that concern the politics. Everyone knows things about politics and everyone have their opinions about it, if you want to know the truth. However, it’s not really going well in politics, if you ask me. There are many different opinions about things and there are two main groups in our parliament and things are not going very well, I guess.

Well, people are mainly living in the cities and towns, and the villages are kind of empty, because more and more people move to towns as they offer some jobs and, well, it’s easier to live in towns, because life is easier there, I guess, than living in the villages. You know, there still is not power in some villages,well, at least, there was none some time ago and I don’t really think, that something has changed during this time. There are some villages, where there are no schools and children walk some kilometres to other villages to get to school. There were some articles and TV shows about those stuff some time ago and it was pretty sad, if you ask me. Of course, there are situations like that in other countries, too, I guess. No country is perfect.

Transportation in Tbilisi

So, as there are more and more people coming to towns and cities, and, especially in the capital _ Tbilisi, there are many cars in the streets and that’s another problem. Every day is a bad day, if you drive in the city. There are traffic jams everywhere and you need much time to move around the city. It takes more than an hour to get from the center to the periphery or something like that, when in fact, you would only need 15 minutes without those traffic jams everywhere. It’s really a shocking experience, because those traffic jams just get on your nerves and no matter how hard you try not to get all nervous and stuff like that, it will still get to you and you will just get home pretty angry because of those traffic jams and all those drivers around, who do some stupid things , because they can’t stand being stuck there in those traffic jams for such a long time.

Well, my advice for you when moving in Tbilisi, would be, that try to avoid driving in the city center when it’s afternoon and when it’s the evening. I mean, the streets are crowded when it’s 1-2 p.m. and when it’s 7-8 p.m. That’s the times, when people have breaks in the afternoon and the time when they finish their works in the evening and they are going home. Those are the rush hours, if you want to know the truth. However, it’s not that different any times, because, there are traffic jams almost every time whenever you go outside. That’s why I like moving by metro, because I know exactly how much time it needs to get from one place to another and stuff like that, however, this metro doesn’t have stations everywhere and doesn’t really go everywhere, so that you still need to take some other public transport above the ground. There’s another thing, that you should know, the metro costs 50 Tetris and for that you need to have a card.It’s called Metroman and you can buy it in those metro stations and it costs 2 Laris to buy it, I think.

And the public transport yellow buses cost 50 Tetris, too and you can have coins for that to buy one ticket, however, if you don’t have the exact amount of 50 Tetris, you can’t get the ticket, I mean, if you have 1 Lari, it doesn’t give you the change and so that you will have to buy two tickets with it, of course. And if you have 3 20 coins, then you can’t get the ticket either. Well, there are people in the buses, who check your tickets and tell you to buy them and control the situation in the buses, so that you won’t travel by bus without taking a ticket and you can ask them for help to get those tickets, however, you can’t ask them to give you a change for your coins or something like that, because they are not obliged to do that, and, besides, they don’t have coins for you, I mean, it’s not their job, you know. well, to tell you the truth, it’s not that bad taking a yellow bus, besides, there are new blue buses in the line and, though I haven’t travelled by them yet, they look pretty beautiful. They are just on 61 route and, so that if you are on Chavchavadze ave or Rustaveli or somewhere nearby going through that route to Baratashvili Bridge or something like that, then you have the opportunity of travelling by those blue buses. They are pretty new and undamaged and everything. I really like them, I guess. Well, at least the pictures show, that they are beautiful and better than those yellow ones. So , if you want to travel by those buses public transport , then you should consider those things, that I’ve mentioned above.

However if you don’t want to be in a public bus, then you may take a microbus. It’s yellow, too, and it’s quite cozy and beautiful from the outside, though it costs 80 Tetris mostly. Well, I’m saying mostly, because some of them cost just 50 or 40 Tetris, it all depends on the route they are moving and things like that, you know. though, you can stop them wherever you want comparing to those yellow buses, which have their stops and they don’t stop anywhere else besides those stops, if you want to know the truth. Well, I guess, that’s how it is everywhere and that’s how it is here in Georgia, too. There are some stops, where they don’t stop until you tell them to. And there are some funny moments, because sometimes people don’t see whether the stop is closer or not and when they tell the driver to stop, he just gets angry, because they didn’t tell them to stop some time earlier.

Sometimes, when people tell the driver to stop they say it so quietly that even a person nearby them don’t hear them, so that nor does the driver and that’s when the problem occurs, because no one heard that person and he/she is waiting for the driver to stop and when he misses the stop then this person is like “stop, stop” and then the other people repeat it and then the whole bus is screaming to the driver to stop the bus and it all just gets crazy, if you want to know the truth. Sometimes those moments are pretty funny and sometimes they are annoying, of course, you know. it all depends on the situation, I guess. Personally, if you ask me, travelling by bus is not that comfortable and nor it is to travel by microbus, because you may don’t get a seat and you may stand in there the whole road, which is not that comfortable at all, while , in fact, you are paying for your transportation and it’s supposed to be kind of comfortable for you, if you ask me. Despite the fact, there’s nothing really that you can do and you just have to get on the public transport and pay for your transportation no matter which condition you are travelling. There are even moments, when you can’t even get on those public transport because there are already so many people in it, that there’s no space there and there’s no place for you to get on it. that’s pretty bad, too, especially in the mornings, when everyone’s in a hurry and everyone’s going to work or school or university or whatever and everyone wants to catch a bus or a microbus to get to their destination, however, it’s not that comforting, seeing those buses crowded with people and no place for others there. There was this one time recently, when I was waiting for a bus for a really long time and finally it got to this bus stop and there were so many people, that you couldn’t get there, but people outside would just go on those stairs and were willing to get inside with force and when they saw, that they couldn’t get in, they didn’t even get out, they were just standing on those stairs waiting for some kind of a miracle or whatever to happen and them to magically get inside the bus. Then the driver got mad and just stopped the bus and turned it off and was like that, until the people got off. Well, I didn’t see the ending to all of this, because it was a bad weather and it was windy and I just walked towards my home, however, while I walked, that bus never came to any other bus stops, so I guess, there was a big problem over there and they couldn’t solve that problem right away.

Anyways, there are always so many taxes moving around the city, that if you don’t want to travel by buses or metro or microbuses, you can always catch a taxi and tell them where you want to go. However, there are some taxi drivers, who don’t really know every street exactly and they need to ask people about them and things like that, you know, but don’t worry, at last you will get to your destination. You can also bargain to the taxi drivers to low the prices and if you are good at bargaining, you will get them to low the prices. If they don’t agree with you, then you can send them away and catch another one, because, as I’ve already mentioned, there are plenty of taxis moving around the city and there is not a second, when you won’t see one nearby. So that, you need no worries about that stuff. There will always be something to get you a lift. Or you can just walk into the streets of Tbilisi and ask people the directions and stuff like that. Most of them speak pretty well in English and they know Russian, too, because the language is taught at schools. Youngsters know other languages, too, so that they can speak to you freely, or they can tell you some things for you to understand what they are talking about. Some people may even offer you some help or take you to the place that you want to get to or something like that and don’t be surprised, because there are kind people like that in Georgia, too. And they love to be hosts, if you want to know the truth.

You don’t need to bother renting a car for moving around the city, because it’s really silly, especially if you don’t know the roads and you want to move into the city. If you want to go out of the city, then it’s not a bad idea of renting a car, however, that’s not that good either, because it’s better if you take a taxi or catch a microbus, which goes to that direction to which you want to get to and stuff like that, you know. there’s always something going somewhere and the prices are not expensive, as I know. however, renting a car and then moving around is not that good and maybe you will even need more money in that than you can actually spend while catching a microbus or taking a taxi. Though, taxis are often expensive compared to other ways of transportation, because when the taxi drivers see tourists from other countries, they just think, that those tourists may not know the prices in there and they tell them expensive prices and they just pay them those prices, of course. Well, I mean, those ones, who don’t know anything about bargaining and stuff like that and the prices and the life in Georgia or whatever and who haven’t done anything else like reading about the countryor the capital or people or roads or anything, you know. this is just the fault of theirs and not the taxi drivers, of course. It’s not a surprise those taxi drivers to behave like that, because usually people just bargain with them and get them to low the prices, however, if no one bargains with them, then the price will stay high and they will have to pay that and not whine about it.

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