Don Curry and the City of Benches

Don Curry has already visited many different cities on his numerous travels. Some he liked immediately, such as Lublin, Pskov, Madurai, or Mardin. Others, like Konya or Oyonax, he found unsympathetic almost from the first moment. Despite the increasing globalization of our world with its culture-leveling effects, there are still thankfully enough cities with a distinct personality and a special character.

In Tbilisi, Don Curry noticed yesterday an enormous abundance of excellent historic buildings from various epochs, but at the same time he noticed the enormous need for restoration and building maintenance. The resigned crumbling charm of a time characterized by Soviet slogans instead of real action dominates too much. No wonder that the pursuit of a better future for Georgia far away from Russia is visible everywhere. Already on his first day, Don Curry saw numerous Ukrainian flags and almost even more graffiti with slogans like 'Fuck Russia' and 'Fuck Putin'. Directly behind the town hall is a large information center on the subject of 'NATO and EU'. Is that the essence of Tbilisi? This in-between of decaying past and long-awaited future?

Far away from such complex issues, Don Curry initially treated himself to a real lie-in. After all, the body's energy reserves urgently needed to be replenished. When he opened his eyes relaxed, his watch already showed 10:00 AM, in his home time zone it is 8:00 AM. Don Curry still has to adjust to the local time conditions, but now it was time for breakfast, which the hotel kindly offered until 11:00 AM. The small buffet offered a mixture of typical oriental, Russian, and typical Georgian components: various vegetable and cheese varieties, a few variations of jam, various pickled herbs and vegetables, the sour and spicy wild plum paste Tkemali, and as the highlight, white borscht; the only type of bread served was a coarse flatbread. Don Curry didn't spend much time on breakfast, but he did discover that he didn't like pickled green tomatoes at all.

Feeling refreshed, he set off for new explorations. The weather forecast announced regular showers with a permanently cloudy sky - actually just the right thing for the planned museum day, but when Don Curry started, a blazing hot sun shone in the cloudless sky, promising another sweaty day. Tbilisi's most important museums present themselves very tourist-friendly, lined up like an exclusive string of pearls on a magnificent street beyond Freedom Square. The Kashveti Church, which is also worth seeing, is located between the museums.

After his somewhat extended walk in the emerging midday heat, Don Curry entered the cool rooms of the Georgian National Museum with particular pleasure. Here, in large halls, there were exhibitions on the astonishingly diverse finds from early humans and on Georgian wildlife with an almost bizarre Panopticon of stuffed representatives of all relevant species. A treasure chamber showcases jewelry from the semi-legendary Kingdom of Colchis to Greco-Roman antiquity. The documentation on the Soviet era with photos of numerous Georgian cultural figures and churchmen who were killed during this time is oppressive.

Just 100 meters away, in the peaceful atmosphere of the large Kashveti Church, Don Curry allowed the diverse impressions he had just collected to sink in. Instead, he observed the busy life in a Georgian church. Believers streamed in from various entrances, lighting candles, kissing certain icons, briefly staying for prayer at other icons, and rushing out again. However, it also doesn't seem to be a problem if a mobile phone rings in the middle of the church. Even the priest can easily have loud conversations.

Right next to the church is a true place of tranquility, the National Gallery. Here, Don Curry often found himself alone with the artworks in the various rooms. Apart from Niko Pirosmani, who has gradually become popular in the West as well, Don Curry found only works by completely unknown Georgian artists of the 20th and 21st centuries. But even these 'unknowns' had wonderfully pleasing, sometimes even humorous paintings and sculptures that were quite to Don Curry's taste. The gallery came to life in the Pirosmani hall, where an elementary school class was busy copying a picture by the most famous Georgian artist. Pirosmani would probably have been delighted to see how his deliberately naive style was still being naively imitated. Smiling, Don Curry left this educationally valuable temple of culture, sat on a bench in the park behind the gallery, and watched the children, just recently so serious while painting, now playing around. And suddenly he knew what was really special about Tbilisi...

He noticed it repeatedly yesterday, and he gladly took advantage of it several times. And now the same thing happened to him: In Tbilisi's city center, there is an enormous number of park benches and similar seating facilities. Wherever possible, Tbilisi's city planners have created small or large green areas, and these green areas offer rows upon rows of park benches spaced two meters apart. These benches are used very willingly, but because there are so incredibly many of them, Don Curry always found a little spot to take a few minutes of rest in the scorching city. The inhabitants do the same. Sometimes, there is only a single tree on a small square. But around the tree, there are certainly a dozen benches placed. What an incredibly sympathetic characteristic of this city with millions of people!

Don Curry remembered that when leaving the arrival gate at the airport, the following saying was engraved in the ground: 'Tbilisi - The City, That Loves You'. Indeed, the city lovingly takes care of everyone who needs a moment to catch their breath, has time for a little chat, or has to wait for someone - the next bench is guaranteed to be ready.

And a bench was already waiting for Don Curry. He found it when he tried Café Littera again. This time it was actually open, and several waiters hurried between the well-filled tables. Don Curry had, as usual, found a place on his own but was soon kindly reminded that he couldn't sit alone at a table for four. Instead, he was led to a table for two and placed on a bench seat! At the same time, he had a wonderful view over the almost enchanted garden of Café Littera with its old trees and fresh garden flowers on all the tables.

He ordered an asparagus soup with the Georgian seasoning adzhika, followed by the tartare trio, along with a bottle of water and a glass of his first Georgian white wine. Everything was of extraordinary quality. The wine was not aged in barrels but in a huge qvevri clay jug, and it sparkled in a rich dark yellow color that almost turned orange; it had a full, almost red wine-like aroma that still retained a certain freshness. The soup was served in a coffee pot-like container, along with a deep plate whose bottom was covered with the green seasoning and some fried green asparagus heads. Now Don Curry could determine for himself how much soup he wanted to combine with the seasoning. In the end, he didn't leave a drop in the pot.

The tartare trio, actually another appetizer, turned out to be a side-by-side arrangement of three lush strips of tartare of different colors and origins, each of which was further enhanced culinarily: the veal tartare was crowned with a raw quail egg yolk and fine shavings of white truffle; the avocado tartare was completed with plenty of black caviar, and the trout tartare was given its final finesse by trout caviar. A visual and aromatic masterpiece! This restaurant truly deserved its Michelin recommendation. After an espresso and a digestif (chacha), Don Curry paid - without any regrets - 40 € for this comprehensive enjoyment.

Satisfied, he climbed back up to his Viennese room, took a break, and began documenting his experiences. Heavy rain set in again in the evening. Don Curry waited until 8:00 PM, then equipped with a rain jacket, he set off towards the old town. In the meantime, the rain had turned into a strong drizzle, but the locals were not bothered by it in any way. Even in the street cafes, the outdoor tables remained occupied, and the guests continued to eat undeterred, while it steadily dripped into their wine and beer glasses - and everywhere else too. Don Curry didn't see umbrellas or rain jackets anywhere. The water from above seemed to be generally accepted as a welcome refreshment.

Don Curry is not that cool. He doesn't mind a short shower, but getting permanently soaked is not really his thing. Yesterday, he saw where there are enough street cafes with cover: in the 'Food Street'. So he headed straight there, overcoming his reservations about this form of overtourism, and found a small free table for two. He had learned his lesson at lunchtime. Immediately, a waiter rushed towards him and asked him to take a seat at a large table for five. Don Curry can't explain why. After his sumptuous lunch, he only wanted a small snack and opted for the Ossetian khachapuri variation: a flatbread filled with mashed potatoes, two creamy Ossetian cheese varieties, and tarragon. The bread is then briefly fried so that it is crispy on the outside but by no means saturated with fat. The entire flatbread was the size of a full pizza. Don Curry also ordered a glass of the famous red wine Saperavi. In contrast to the flavorful wine, the bread seemed rather bland, but it quickly created a growing feeling of satiety. Don Curry later read that the Ossetian cheese is particularly fatty. After half of it, Don Curry had to give up and leave the bland flatbread behind. He also declined the offer of a takeaway. In order to burn off some of the calories he had just consumed, Don Curry went for an extensive walk through Tbilisi, discovering almost all the sights of the previous day now wonderfully illuminated.

In the slightly cooler evening air, he didn't need a bench to catch his breath - there would have been an abundance of them...