He walks down a dimly lit street, until he reaches what feels like a city center. It's a brightly lit street lined with beautiful baroque, Victorian style buildings, each one beautifully restored and painted. It feels almost a little too perfect--like Main Street Disneyland or something. he looks down the side street and notices that this is the only street that is like this. Seems typical here in Georgia: one area of towns is completely revitalized, and other areas are completely left as is.

A well dressed fellow approaches him and invites him to check out a Middle Easter cafe/hookah lounge .

"I'm Iranian." he tells the Traveler "but I like America much more... I'm here in Georgia hoping to immigrate to Europe or America--there are many Iranians like me here"

They chat for a bit then the Traveler continues, wishing him luck in his venture, thinking, I'd definitely like to learn more about this not-so-stereotypical Iranian subculture here in Georgia.

He reaches a square with a couple grand hotels, and then... the city center abrupt fades into darkness... Or maybe this wasn't the city center at all! Which way do I go now? Gotta find something soon, as it's getting late. HE can see a cathedral here, a ferris wheel there... perched on different high spots around the city, but nothing to give him bearings as to where the heart of Tbilisi is.

He heads downhill hoping he'll have better luck on the other side of the river. Yep, here he finds an area of lively clubs and bars that seem to cater to the backpacker type crowd . Finally he finds a hostel he'd looked up earlier... but it's closed. He asks a couple backpacker types nearby if they knew of another place. They pointed him down a side alley.

"If that place doesn't work out, call me and you can stay at my place for the night"

Good to have a back up plan. He heads down the alley looking for this hostel... walk up and down a couple times... nothing. Finally he decides to check out a graffiti covered building with no sign or even a number on it.

Sure enough, it's the hostel....

Next Morning.

Tbilisi is built in narrow river valley, so it actually doesn't have a large urban center (explains his confusion last night). The embassy district is a bit north and then in another side valley. Still, a lot of creative and interesting architecture scattered about.

he continues on a little further to a majestic Soviet era park--in a bit of disrepair, but still impressive . There's a large statue of a woman high on the wooded hillside, and a series of stairs reaching to the top. At the base is a monument to the fallen soldiers. As Georgia continues to embrace its new identity, hopefully reminders like this of the Soviet Era won't be completely abandoned.

Down the main boulevard heading south, He reaches a big circle and what seems is the closest thing to the "heart" of Tbilisi. Behind it are some narrow streets with some more hostels, cybercafes and businesses catering to the backpacker crowd, but not really an old city.

One building that catches his attention is a synagogue that's being restored. He's been in places of worship of all the major faiths--except a synagogue so he figures he should see if he can go inside, to where the walls are painted in bright blue and gold in decorative designs. The workers, who probably aren't Jewish, ask him to sit down and play a couple songs for them, and he happily obliges ...

It takes him a little while to find a way up to the castle and monastery on the mountaintop, with so much construction going on, but finally he gets there where he's greeted with a grand view of Tbilisi. Here he makes a couple of interesting encounters with folks as they offer to take pictures of each other. One is a Polish fellow who is here doing history research. The other is a rather unusual couple: a Ecuadorian fellow and his Ukrainian girlfriend. The Traveler mentions how friendly Georgians have been. The look at him skeptically.

"Maybe that's because you're American. They're not very friendly to us" The girl says.

"But you're Ukrainian--why would Georgians have problems with Ukrainians?"

"As soon as I speak to them in Russian, they get cold towards us"

So I guess this jolly warm welcome I've received here isn't experienced by everyone ...

He finds a stairway down to the city, and cross to the other side to more of a working class neighborhood where I head to check out the main cathedral. It's a very tall structure, built in the typical Georgian Orthodox style with a somewhat circular tower with serrated conical roof. Inside it's also different from your Catholic church in that there are no pews inside. Instead people come stand, pray and then leave. A significant difference from the more structured feel of a Catholic mass. He also notices a lot of young people, unlike Catholic churches which are generally full of gray haired folks.

Some more interesting encounters as he continues wandering through town... a couple of taxi drivers insist he pull out his six string again... They don't speak English, but they do manage to converse a little, as they rave about how much better things used to be during the Soviet era...

Finally he head back to the Disneyland-esque Main Street of yesterday to take some pictures ... opts for a Turkish cafeteria restaurant for supper (full of Turks)...

It's getting late, but the part is just getting started. Next he stops in the beautiful park right along the river, one of the few flat areas in the city which includes another dancing musical fountain and a beautifully lit up steel and glass pedestrian bridge over the river...

Suddenly he hears someone call his name. What the--?! Wait, wait, nobody knows me here!

Turns out it's one of the girls he'd serenaded a few days earlier....

Then, back at his hostel, he decides to check out the nightclub scene, heading down a shifty looking alley to where there are multiple clubs hidden away under the city.

There's an Iranian nightclub (sounds like an oxymoron) that catches his eye so he heads inside... and sees no Iranian flag--but instead a Georgian and an American flag in the front! Cool! This must be the Iranian counterculture that I encountered a couple days ago.

Young Iranian guys and girls dance to the beat of Farsi techno music (which is probably illegal in Iran)... he joins in the fun...

An American and a bunch of Iranians dancing together in the underbelly of Tbilisi. Ah... this is a night to be remembered.