The most dangerous thing you can do in Tbilisi is cross the street. Pedestrians have only nominal rights and you can expect Georgian drivers to blow through the crosswalk, horn blaring, foot on the gas, even when you have the green walk light. I have personally witnessed four pedestrians hit by cars in the four months or so I’ve lived in Tbilisi. 90 people died and 3,834 were injured as a result of road accidents in Tbilisi in 2015. Most were pedestrians.
Resources for learning Georgian
Printed material:
- Georgian Language for English Speakers (Shavtvaladze) — Books I–IV
This book and the accompanying reading materials and workbook are top-notch, but really only available in Georgia. You can order them online from Prospero’s Books in Tbilisi, but I don’t know if they ship internationally (and if they do, it will be expensive.) - Georgian Dialogues Reading Materials (Shavtvaldze) — Levels I–IV
- Workbook (Shavtvaladze) — Levels I–IV
- Beginner’s Georgian (Kiziria)
I own this book and it is a good start if you are coming to Georgia. - Georgian Dictionary and Phrasebook
- Georgian Language: 124 Georgian Verbs
- We Learn Georgian (Khvedelidze and Gabechava)
This book is mostly in Georgian. It would be hard to use it for a first book and it is probably not available outside of Georgia. - Learn to Read Georgian in Five Days
I learned to read Georgian in two days using the book. An excellent and inexpensive beginning.
There are many more books available on Amazon now, but I do not own them. Some look more useful than others…
Street dogs
A dog’s life is very different in Tbilisi than we are used to in the US or in Europe. Dogs live outside and rarely come in the house except when the weather is very cold. It is difficult to tell which dogs are “owned” and which dogs are free-roaming, so to speak, but almost all the dogs are socialized to people and in the city you will rarely see any aggression.
Why learn Georgian?
The Georgian language can be daunting. They have their very own alphabet and Georgian is one of the world’s oldest languages still spoken.
I am learning Georgian because I want to speak to everyone here. Young people almost universally speak some English, often quite fluently. Old people, like me, almost universally do not speak English, but usually speak very good Russian. I could learn Russian and switch back and forth, but the Georgians will universally love that you are learning to speak Georgian. Russian is not very popular here with the young folks; relations with Russia are spotty at best.
Grocery shopping
When you first move to Tbilisi you will spend a lot of time figuring out where to buy those elusive things (food and home) that you long for. While not everything is available here, most of it is hidden is different markets and stores around the city.
Getting around Tbilisi
Tbilisi has excellent public transportation and it is very inexpensive. There are buses, the subway, and the ubiquitous mashrutkas. All of them charge about 25 cents.
The best and most convenient way to pay is to purchase a metro card at the window at the entrance to any subway station. The cards cost 3 lari and you can load them with as many lari as you like. I keep two cards with me and put about 20 lari on each so that when one runs out, I can easily switch and then reload the other one the next time I think about it. You can pay for any subway, bus or mashrutka with these cards and you don’t have to worry about having small change with you. To avoid embarrassment, do either keep a spare card charged or remember to keep your card topped up. It will take you a long time to go through 20 lari though.
Money
If you are American ($) or European (€), then you are in luck. First, the exchange rate is very good today (January 2017). Second, you can get either dollars or euros from ATMs. Why would you want to do this?
When you get Georgian laris from the ATM, you get the bank exchange rate, and your home bank charges you up to 3% in “foreign transaction fees.” So, get dollars or euros from the ATM, then exchange your dollars or euros at one of the many currency exchange vendors who do this. They are very visible on the street, always with big neon, red exchange rate signs showing you the buying and selling price for various currencies.
Dezerter Bazaar
My favorite place to go shopping for food is Dezerter Bazaar, but as a new arrival to Tbilisi, it can be a bit daunting. It is SO big and you will seemingly find the same things for sale over and over and over again. However, there is a method to the madness.
Welcome to Tbilisi!
My life’s dream has been to plop myself down in a country where I did not have any friends or family, did not speak the language, did not know the culture and did not know the country. Welcome to Georgia!