Thinking About Georgia? Consider These 10 Oddities Before You Go

My first week in Georgia was spent in an outlying neighborhood of Tbilisi, Georgia’s capital city.

Knowing little about my latest destination, I booked a hotel room in a section of the city called Isani.

My plan was to stay wherever this hotel was, while learning a little more about Tbilisi, this city of a little more than a million people, then rent an apartment I could actually inspect first to reside in for the next three months.

I was aware that Georgia has a refreshingly liberal tourist visa policy, just one of the reasons I chose this former Soviet Republic state as my next stop after a brief stay in Barcelona. A tourist like me can stay in Georgia for up to a year without a visa.

Sight unseen, I booked a comfortable room in the pleasantly named Hotel Melody with a friendly young owner-manager who picked me up at the airport at 5:30 a.m.

Isani has its own lively commercial district and metro stop as neighborhoods do in most large cities.

However I was three-to-five kilometers from most attractions of the city center, and the city’s buses and trains were still not running for another week due to Covid restrictions.

So I had a healthy amount of exercise that week, walking 10 to 15 kilometers a day exploring Tbilisi and getting to know my Isani neighborhood pretty well during my first week here.

As I’m finding Tbilisi a beautiful and fascinating city, I found a few oddities, quirks and interesting bits of information since arriving a little more than three weeks ago.

You May Not Get A Receipt For Some Transactions

When I received no receipt for the hotel bill that I paid for in cash, I questioned Roma, my friendly, English-speaking hotel owner-manager about it, who ended our discussion by flashing his handsome smile and telling me simply that, “It is not the Georgian way.”

A week later I met with my new landlord, a sweet senior lady at the apartment I am now renting in Tbilisi. I paid cash there, too, for the first month and security deposit and waited but again, no receipt, thus confirming my first lesson in the “Georgian way.”

Sometimes Store Clerks Balk At Giving Change

In another financial situation, giving change for cash transactions was a real pain for some of the retail clerks in the small shops and markets of Isani.

They make a huffy display of disdain for those like me who frown and feign taking back their money and walking away from the purchase, which is when the clerks relent and hand over the change with a sour face. Supposedly it’s a custom left over from the surly days of the Communist regime’s hold on Georgia.

A Major Street Is Named After A U.S. President

One of the first and more amusing things I noted in my new neighborhood was that I was living just off George Bush Street, a highly trafficked thoroughfare that was renamed for the former U.S. president who visited Tbilisi in 2005 — the first time a U.S. president had ever been to Georgia.

Bush delivered a rousing speech to tens of thousands of jubilant Georgians in Tbilisi’s Freedom Square, just after arriving from talks with Russian president Vladimir Putin in Moscow.

President Bush then was only too happy to put his thumb squarely in Putin’s eye by extolling the virtues and values of democracy, promising U.S. aid and friendship, and congratulating Georgians on achieving their long-sought independence from neighboring Russia in 1991.

They Drive On The Right, But Where’s The Driver Sit?

While motorists all drive in the right lane, where I’m most comfortable seeing them as a pedestrian, the steering wheels in vehicles on Georgian roads are almost equally distributed on either the right or left sides of vehicles. Seeing cars in the right lane, but with their drivers sitting on the right side, which to me should be the passenger seat, can also be unsettling.

Don’t Think Georgian Is An Easy Language To Learn

I thought Turkish was a difficult language to learn but I picked up basic Turkish phrases like “thank you,” “good morning,” “how are you?” and “sorry, I don’t understand,” all helpful in being polite to the locals in the country you are visiting and demonstrating that you are interested in learning about them and their culture. Local people are often pleased that at least you are trying.

But Georgians take their language to a new level. They even have their own separate alphabet, unique in the world, and not even the Google Translate app tries to pronounce it.

For example? Here’s “Thank you” in Georgian, written in the Roman-style (English) letters: “Gmadlobt.”

Don’t Be Surprised By Line Jumpers

Some Georgians will cut in line, right in front of you, without hesitation or shame. Supposedly that, too, goes back to Soviet days when those who hesitated didn’t get bread when the store ran out.

This Georgian Learned English From American TV

Roma, my new Georgian friend, spoke English very well. When I complimented him and asked where he learned it, he said, “Cartoon Network.”

Book Sellers Thrive In Streets And Shops Of Tbilisi

Lots of used books are for sale in second hand stores and many by street vendors, and they are actively selling them, not collecting cobwebs. To me, it’s a sign of a literate and stimulating society, even though people seem to be just as obsessed with their cell phones on the streets as people are in any other major city in the world.

Look Both Ways, But Don’t Fear Georgian Drivers

I’m pleased to report that drivers in Tbilisi tend to be courteous to pedestrians, almost always stopping to give them the right of way even if they driver is annoyed, unlike the drivers in places like Lima and Istanbul, who often seem to be gunning with glee for pedestrians whenever given the opportunity.

Yogurt And Kefir Reverse Roles in Georgian Markets

Yogurt, of all things, is difficult to find in grocery stores, except for the sweet, flavored varieties in small cups (one major grocer I recently found, Carrefour, does have plain yogurt, though not in large containers, only in small cups). Kefir, however, is widely available, which is unusual among the countries I’ve visited. Good thing I also like kefir, which is a fermented probiotic product like yogurt but usually stronger, tangier, and not as thick and creamy.