I can’t remember what day it was – maybe after the Old Town tour? – but one of my planned trips was viewpoint photography. I thought it would be good to get to a viewpoint, to take photos of the view, maybe to learn about photography but on the other hand, I knew that I am neither a photographer nor aspire to be one, that the Tuesday Chronicle photoshoot was just being let loose for a couple of hours, and that when the goal is to specifically create content, I feel very out of place. So I was nervous about this tour.
It didn’t start great. I wasn’t sure how much internet access I’d have or how much sense my Google Calendar would make when there are multiple timezones on it, so a day or two before I left, I wrote out every tour, every time and every meeting place so I’d have it all in my bag any time I wanted it. The trouble was, in the several days between me writing “meet at the Big Bicycle Statue” and me turning up at the Big Bicycle Statue, the meeting place was changed. I stood there at 4:50pm, going “Huh, no one else here yet. Hang on, no bus… How are we getting to wherever we’re going? What does everyone else know that I don’t?” What they knew was that the itinerary had changed to meet at the bottom station of the funicular. Luckily, there’s “Tbilisi Loves You” free wifi in Rose Revolution Square (and in the metro stations and at bus stops, as far as I can tell – well done, Tbilisi, that was really handy!) so I checked the itinerary, checked the route and concluded that if there were buses going to the funicular, between the distance, the lack of a direct bus and the evening traffic, it would be quicker to walk. So off I went. I thought I had an idea of how narrow Tbilisi is, wedged in between mountains but the incline began pretty much right on the other side of the road and then it was just an endless climb up to the road that runs along the so-called foot of Mount Mtatsminda. Back streets with stray dogs pointing the way for me, washing, large cars blocking narrow roads in a way that made me wonder about assassinations going on in the houses (because I’ve watched too much Killing Eve), walking up between garages and houses, in places tourists probably aren’t really meant to be, watching the timer on the satnav the whole way, watching my watch and thinking “Guess I’ll just have to find them at the top”.
I arrived, breathless and sweaty, to see a line of people going through the turnstile. Train’s about to go. I grabbed my transport card – which doesn’t actually cover this funi – and then realised the man ushering everyone else through was holding an enormous camera. Blessed be, I haven’t missed them! I was late, by nearly 15 minutes, but they’d apparently given latecomers 15 minutes. I was the last, yes, but there were a couple who just didn’t turn up. This session was a rare one run and operated by Traverse and the man with the enormous camera was Michal Tomas, aka @londonviewpoints, who was the trip leader. He added another return journey to the group card and we all hopped on board. The train was quite full. Ideally, we’d have all had room to press ourselves against a window for photos, since that’s what we’re here for but in reality, unless we waited twenty minutes for the next train, some of us didn’t even manage a seat or something to hold onto.
At the top, we went straight to the nearest viewpoint over the city. It’s a good view but it’s not great one. Actually, the ridge of mountain with the TV tower on it where we were standing frames Tbilisi really well and if you’re after views over the city, I really found that the Narikala cable car did that better. It also overlooks the Old Town rather than the less picturesque new town. But what really didn’t help was that instead of a brilliant sunset, all we had was a pinkish-grey haze that gradually got darker without providing any prettiness in the sky. It would be a push to do a timelapse up here anyway – Michal specialises in timelapses and hyperlapses but you need something that moves. The sunset would have done the trick for a long timelapse if the sky had been cooperating but we were too high for traffic and too far away for a sweep of city lights.
So we took a few perfunctory pictures and then moved along. There’s a fairground up here and you pay for your rides by using the same card you came up the funicular on – buy fairground credits at the same time as the return journey. Of course, at this time of the evening, most of it was closed or being closed up but you could see that this really is a funfair. We slipped and slid past – it was a little chilly down in the city but up here, there were remnants of snow and ice on the path. I had my scarf and coat and I kind of wished I had my mittens too. Past the funfair was the big wheel. It’s surprisingly easy not to see the wheel from the valley in daylight, perhaps because it’s just that bit further round the mountain, but at night it lights up and its spokes flash all sorts of colours. We thought that might be a good place for photos – there are oversized wooden sunloungers painted in rainbow colours which might be good for those of us who wanted Instagram photos. There were more hazy city views. And there were stray dogs, even up here. Sentries, perhaps. They certainly barked furiously at any car that came past, especially the police and security ones. I sat down on one of the loungers and rustled through my Ikea foldable day bag for my film camera. The precise bag is relevant because it really does rustle and it turns out a rustling bag will attract a dog even if it’s minding its own business. I had no food for it but next thing I knew, the dog was sitting there on my feet, quite comfortably. Those dogs are good models. There were about ten of us up there and there must have been the thick end of five hundred photos taken of those dogs with the view and the seats and each other.
The wheel itself didn’t make such a good subject. What you really want is to see through it. We climbed up through the 4×4 adventure track to an old VW van raised up on poles and a group of them climbed up into that for photos with the wheel behind them. I lost interest and wandered into the woods between the van and the road. This seemed like somewhere between a picnic area and an open-air ethnographic museum. There was a barbecue complete with tools, apparently for the public use of any passer-by and there were hammocks and rope swing seats nearby. So I sat in a rope swing seat and entertained myself. The hammock was too much of a risk with other people in the vicinity. I’d definitely fall out of that or get stuck in it and with half the group returned to the cafe to keep warm with coffee and cakes, if I got stuck, I might not be found until the next day, each assuming I was with the other or had left early.
When van photos had been taken and drone footage had been filmed, we continued up and over to the entrance of the park – that is, the entrance if you arrive by bus. It slightly astonished me that you could get up here by bus. Looking at a map, it seems likely to be a really long and roundabout journey from the city but apparently it’s only 15-20 minutes. Now it was getting dark and even colder and there were spectacular views into the snowy mountains hidden from view in Tbilisi by Mtatsminda. I’d seen the city from the bus a couple of days ago and it looked like a city filtered into a steep valley heading for a pass. Seems that’s pretty accurate because from here, we were looking up into the mountains, with no Tbilisi-depth valleys apparently between them. Unfortunately, the best view from here was spoiled by a huge illuminated WC sign in the car park and there’s no way of framing your picture unless you’ve got a really wide lens. I kind of liked the tree-top adventure park and viewing platforms as a foreground but it was a bit too dark to also get the snowy mountains behind them. I like Tbilisi, especially the Old Town, but if you get a chance to get up above it, you really should do that. I wish I’d had time to come back up here on my own in daylight.
After that, we strolled back to the restaurant at the top station. This is one of Tbilisi’s top-rated restaurants, I think. We sat in the big cafe to warm up, to talk, and to appreciate the view in proper darkness. There was room in the trip budget for drinks and cake so I had a hot chocolate so thick the spoon almost stood up in it. You couldn’t drink it. You had to eat it off the spoon. The only thing I’ve ever had that even nearly compares is the hot chocolate we had in Italy when I was fourteen and even that was probably thin compared to this. Michal ordered a cake, I think a Napoleon, which is a kind of fluffy pastry confection – and which turned out to be the size of a full-size birthday cake, when he was expecting a single portion. It took most of the group to get through that thing.
While everyone else was finishing up coffee and cake, I ran outside for photos. I wish I’d gone outside earlier when Jen (I think it was Jen) had done because she could take her time whereas I panicked that they were about to go without me. This was a better view, pointing towards the Old Town and with everything lit up and the haze invisible. A major night-time landmark is the Holy Trinity Cathedral over towards Avlabari, which is supposed to be the third-tallest Eastern Orthodox church in the world – despite the Wikipedia page linked in those very words listing it as ninth but perhaps they’re not counting the six in Russia – and “one of the largest” religious buildings in the world. It’s certainly a massive light in the Tbilisi nightscape, a giant yellow glow apparently visible from just about the entire city and probably beyond.
Then it was time to descend. The train was already waiting for us so we piled into the front and all pressed our cameras against the glass. Michal hastily set up suckers and skirt to stick his big timelapse camera but we were already moving before he was ready and the skirt wasn’t properly sealed, and neither was one of the suckers – he was very lucky that big camera didn’t crash onto the floor halfway down. My own video is not a timelapse but it’s not terrible. One thing I’ve learned about videos like that is that you have to literally press the lens against the window, otherwise you’ll get reflections – unless you have a camera skirt. I know a lot of these people are professional photographers, professional TikTokkers and Instagrammers and whatnot but it still astonishes me how many things you can get and need for various types of photo. I thought I was overloaded with a superzoom, a GoPro and a 35mm film camera besides my phone. Yes, I’ve considered a drone. But the bulk of it, the amount of time it takes to charge vs the flight time you get and most of all, the regulations around flying it – it all put me off. Besides, as one vlogger said – “I’m filming my trip as I experience it and I don’t see it from above”. I’m not quite as set as “this is how I film a trip” yet but I think she was right.
That wasn’t quite it for the night. There were drinks and everyone was going to that. I didn’t particularly want to but it seemed easier to get swept into the fleet of Bolts that arrived and be taken with everyone else than try to figure out how to get home with no free wifi at the funi station. So off we went to the drinks venue. I only stayed about ten minutes. I talked to a few people from the Old Town tour in the morning and then I began to panic about how to get home. It was already dark and as far as I could see, I was in a back street on the wrong side of the river, with no wifi. A Bolt would be the obvious answer but I didn’t really know how ridesharing apps worked and anyway, I didn’t have the app or the wifi to use it. Well, it was better to figure this sort of thing out at 8.30pm than at midnight, so I escaped. I followed the dot on my map down to a bigger road and kept going until I was out of a one-way system and into an area where a bus going in the right direction might pass. Mercifully, once I reached a bus stop, there was wifi there and I was able to pick a bus and jump on. Well, I picked a bus but the bus didn’t stop. I thought the other dozen people at the stop would signal to it or it would drop off a passenger but no. Ok, seven minutes later, give it another go.
I’d planned to get to one of the metro stations and take the train home as I usually did but this particular bus went to Europe Square, a short but sharp walk from my hotel. But even better, it made a big circle around the roundabout and then went up to Avlabari, where it’s a shorter and flat walk to the hotel. It wasn’t the best decision I made that evening but I will say that although I felt apprehensive about what I was doing, I never felt scared or unsafe and once I’d found a bus stop and a suitable bus, it wasn’t a particularly difficult journey home. I kind of wish I’d stayed and socialised longer but I hardly knew anyone and I don’t regret not trying to figure it all out much later at night. (The wise thing to do would have been to download the Bolt app the moment I got back to the hotel ready for the next drinks evening! But I didn’t.)