New Year Celebration In Georgia

Hello everyone.

It's been almost ages since I've written a post here in Erasmusu. So today I thought I would share my experience and the fun that I had this new year in Tbilisi, the capital of Georgia.

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New year is one of the festivals that is celebrated all over the world and no New Year starts without purchases. And indeed here in Tbilisi New Year's period is the right time for shopping. Almost all shopping centres have great offers around the season of Christmas and New Year. Like anyone else I was not willing to miss this chance to get some stuff for myself, so I started to roam around the city streets without any concrete plan, hoping to find something really cool to buy.

According to me the best spot to start the shopping is down the streets of Marjanishvili. To get there a variety of transportation means are available, although - as it saves time and money - it is always advisable to take the metro. There are other local transportations such as buses, mini vans or masruthka's [as locals call it] and of course plenty of taxis are available.

For both - metro and buses - you would only need to pay 0. 20 GEL [Georgian Lari], for mini vans it would be 0. 80GEL and for the taxis it would vary depending on the distance travelled. As I got out of the metro station I could see that every shop had it's discount signs hanging on their doors and I was a bit perplexed what to buy and where to buy. So I just walked down the lane and went into a clothing shop, had a glance at all those new collections that have arrived for winter, but nothing was really appealing enough and I left the store without buying anything.

Since I was on vacation, I was not keen on ending my shopping earlier and turning back home sooner. Therefore I went from Marjanishvili to Vukzhal, which is only a five minutes walk down the lane.

Vukzhal is a good place to buy cheaper things but it doesn't offer any brands. It is simply a big market place, run by locals. There are no glass doors or display racks but just rows and rows of crowdy shops where you can bargain about the prices. Anyways you need to have these skills if you want to strike a good bargain and unfortunately I don't. After purchasing a small gift from Vukzhal I was about to leave to Carrefour, yep the same famous shopping mall that is present throughout Europe and which has just recently opened here in Tbilisi at Tbilisi mall. [I would also like to write a brief article about Tbilisi mall here very soon]. It was quite a long travel and I'm really uncomfortable with long travels. I reached Carrefour in 25 minutes from Vukzhal.

Rather than buying, walking around and exploring new things, kills most of the time at Carrefour, but as New Year celebrations start only in the evening, I was supposed to kill some time anyway. Walking around the market I purchased some new varieties of chocolates and drinks. Moving down to the electronic section where I usually spend most of the time, I had a look at all those new gadgets arrived for New Year. Something that attracted me was a mp3 cum video player that was incredibly cool and cheap, unfortunately more people must have felt the same way, so all of them were sold out and I couldn't get the one kept for display. When it was almost evening I headed back home to get ready to go to the public concert that would be held in Liberty Square or Marjanishvili like every year.

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Tbilisi "The city of lights" is called like that because during the month of december each and every street in the city is decorated with lights of different patterns. The decorations are hung across every street, notifing the arrival of christmas and New Year. It feels really nice to walk down the streets filled with lights, especially during festive season. The New Year concert is said to be great and a good way to spend New Year's Eve. Every year the government sets up a stage at the centre of the town where popular singers and stage artists keep entertaining the visitors the whole night. Allegedly even the famous pop singer Shakira adorned the stage of Tbilisi once on a New Year's Eve and no, I was not in Georgia at that time. Anyway, the stage filled with lights and the people dancing all along with the music promised to be a great way of starting into a new year.

On the street sides funny stuff like face painting, zorro hats, masks and all such things are sold and it's up to yourself to chose what you fancy. I did a face painting for the last year and yeah that was pretty amusing. Alcohol is one among the things most people can't be without on a New Year's Eve, but turns out to be a matter to be careful about, especially when you are a foreigner. Moreover, someone might throw a cracker right beneath your feet like a serious lunatic and - although they consider it fun - this can be quite dangerous, so you should be aware of this when you are out and about on the streets of Tbilisi during this time of the year.

Standing in a place filled with music and people dancing around evokes a natural feeling of enthusiasm and cheer, making us dance as well. As the clock starts ticking people join in the countdown. When the clock strikes twelve, fireworks fill the sky. They emerge not only from the stage, but each and every home sends off some fireworks to colour the sky. Of course it's not as amazing as the fireworks at the Big Ben or the Times Square, but it feels really great to stand together with other people and to wish each other a happy New Year. The fun keeps going until two or three in the morning. Metro's are open round the clock on New Year's Eve so there is no need to worry about transportation.

At least that's how we pictured ourselves New Year's Eve when me and my colleagues planned to go to Liberty Square at 11pm for this New Year. However, plans usually change and so did ours. We were late and when we gathered at the metro station it was almost twelve. Fireworks started and we were seeing all these people standing outside the metro near our home. As we didn't want to miss the show, we really hurried ourselves to get to the square. All the more were we disappointed as we arrived and there was no sign of a concert. People told us that due to a change in the government the concert was cancelled this year. At that moment we were deeply disenchanted, but we didn't want to let us being dragged down and did our best to get over it. We took some nice pictures and decided to walk our way down to what we call a Glass Bridge which is an artistically beautiful bridge illuminated by lights, with a lovely garden and a musical fountain. I've added a picture of the bridge in one of my previous articles about Tbilisi. Over there, we played some games, talked and enjoyed ourselves. Unfortunately the weather turned worse as the hours went by and starting to become freezing cold, we decided to head back home and enjoy the rest of the night there.

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We hired two taxis and on our way back we stopped at a shop to get a New Year's cake, drinks and some snacks. Unlike other New Years, this time we have only had ourselves to spread our wishes. Nonetheless we cut the cake, ate it and enjoyed ourselves till three in the morning. Telling ourselves that whatever happens is for good we wished each other a happy New Year once again and my friends hit the road back to their home, whereas I jumped into bed to get my first sleep in 2013!

I guess you've enjoyed this New Year - which has overcome the rumors about the end of the world - in a much better way than me. Although belated, I would like to wish you all a happy New Year!