Our cultural adventure in Tbilisi, Georgia

There are many theaters, puppet show, mime show, concert and frequent dance performances in Tbilisi. However, the promotion posters are always very last minutes. We could find performance schedules from the tourist information center or poster in the street. Sometimes, they just have attractive posters and only announce “coming soon” without any details of when it is showing. We were in time for the film festival but it’s only one week ahead that they start telling you what movies they are showing and tickets sales starts 5 days ahead. I also found a contemporary dance festival online without details. I emailed them and they said it’s delayed for one month and no further information yet. Another time, we get a traditional Georgian music concert tickets and only when arriving the concert hall that night, they accounted that the concert is postponed. The show starts at 8pm and the staff are writing an English announcement at the door at 8:10pm! We faced problem in finding entrance of the theater and concert hall too. As they are under renovation, it’s covered by construction panels and the main door open only 15mins before the show starts.

As for house museums, some are free, while others are not. They belong to famous Georgian artists, including painter, choreographer, poet, writer and musicians. It’s cozy and homey. We found a brochure about the opening time but they are not usually accurate. We have a hard time finding the place. Once we find a museum with a sign at the entrance but we cannot find the museum itself. Our language barrier makes it difficult to ask direction and the opening time seems a bit random, it might take a second visit to find it open. We feel like visiting these artists without an appointment and it’s like an adventure.

After all, we stayed one month in Georgia and it’s a dynamic country with beautiful nature and friendly people. It is pushing its modernization in high speed, looking forward to become part of EU and to separate itself from Russian influence. We expect that it would be very different in a few years time.

Top five attraction in Katowice, Poland

We love exploring cities without tourists and Katowice is a place skipped by most guidebook. Our couchsurfing friends took us around during our 3 days' stay and we are happy to explore something special about this small city.

1) Miners Quarter

There is a small town called Nikiszowiec where miners used to live and the windows are distinguished by a yellow frame. You will then know, they are miners. In the residential complex itself, they are all brick buildings with red frames, where artists move in, and brides take pictures with.

 

2) gallery near miners quarter - Galeria Szyb Wilson

The miners are actually talented artists. The gallery displayed artwork by amateur artists, including talented miners. 

3) stadium that played third encounter music at 7pm every evening

In the city centre, there is a stadium playing "the five notes" of the movie "Close encounter of the third kind" every evening. My friend didn't realized what it was until they talked about this familiar tune.

 

4) horrible Le Corbuersier high rise complex for 2000 residence

I am a big fans of organic design, like Gaudi, Hunderwasser. Le Corbuersier had this aweful high rise complex built in the middle of the city to suffocate individualism, this kind of compacted high rise apartment is also a characteristic of the once communistic society and a mark of horror to me.

5) bar area - 

drinking in the street is illegal but there are bar area which is popular to this university town. youngsters would be sitting near the square for a drink and hide their bottle if a police pass by. Polices are known to prosecute those who drink in the street and deliberately avoid big guys street fighting on the other end!

Tango@Fruto Dulce

Due to Salon Canning the night before, when we went to bed at 4am in the morning, we woke up (unexpectedly) at 1pm in the afternoon. We have planned to wake up early as the nearby museum of contemporary art has free admission on Wednesday (even on other days it is only 1 peso). It has been very hot these days. It was a very good occasion to enjoy cheap air-conditioning and hang out in the whole afternoon. Some collections stimulated good thoughts, for example, the series of photos by Ajeno about street corners, grounds, entrances showing how a city expects boundaries between indoor and outdoor, pavements and roads, vertical and horizontal planes, among different tiles etc.

After a hearty homemake dinner we went to Fruto Dulce@Club Villa Malcom (only 25 peso each), we were tricked by the bus again (the same number could give different routes). We had to walk around 20 blocks to get there and we were late for the class by Adrian. We then waited an hour enjoying the beer and the tango magazine before the milonga began. Without reservation we could still take a corner table overseeing the dance floor. As we had the show by Sebastian Achaval y Roxana Suarez in mind, we were glad that there was only one table in front of us. The dance floor was packed. With luck I could invite a local Argentine tanguera to dance but the dance only ended in one song of the tanda. (I did not bump to anyone, but I felt a bit difficult leader her because my body was not strong on the lead). She expressed thank for my invitation but my heart was broken... Later I invited a mature woman in red dress who had been walking around but had no chance to be invited. In fact she did not dance badly but it was the cruel reality that younger women got higher chance of being invited. The sound that night was not good with several technical errors. On the whole the atmosphere was good, with good show by Sebastian y Roxana.

We were lucky to catch a bus (168) home, it was 5am (again) when we got home. How can we have a healthy schedule with tango like that ?