Tbilisi — The Great Sojourn — theNOSTOMANIAC.com

142 - Scenes From Tiflis (Tbilisi, Georgia)

I spent the next nine days exploring Georgia’s capital, Tbilisi, a street photographer’s wet dream. I clocked a good fifty miles on foot, met a hostel owner named Dodo, ate a shit ton of pork and cheese pie (Khachapuri), had a few alcoholic dalliances, was denied casino entry for wearing “sporting clothes and slippers,” instigated another heated altercation, and was mesmerized by the Georgian National Ballet.

Georgia likes tourists. A lot. U.S. and E.U. citizens don’t require a visa to reside, work, or study for 365 days…

Georgia, Batch 24by Mr. Nos T. O'maniacDecember 29, 2019Georgia, Tbilisi

143 - Independence Day (Tbilisi, Georgia)

May 26th is Georgia's Independence Day celebration, though it doesn’t commemorate the event you might think, i.e. the country's liberation from the Soviet Union on April 9th, 1991. Instead, it celebrates the first liberation from Russia in 1918, a result of the Russian Civil War. Freedom was short-lived. The Red Army marched on Tbilisi in 1921. The U.S.S.R is no more. The Cold War is dead. Someone should’ve told the Kremlin.

I’m no geopolitical wonk, but allow me to summarize. After the U.S.S.R fell, Georgia, along with the Soviet republics under Russia’s control, declared independence in 1991…

Georgia, Batch 25by Mr. Nos T. O'maniacDecember 28, 2019Georgia, Tbilisi, Russo-Georgian War

144 - Roei, Frode, & Dodo (Tbilisi, Georgia)

Roei was three years into a four-year, 66,000 km, bicycle expedition across the globe. He began in Alaska, heading to the tip of Patagonia where he hopped a plane to South Africa, made his way to Europe via East Africa, and then onto Asia. He concluded his trip in Australia before returning to Israel. As the only Israeli to attempt such a thing, he was a celebrity back in the homeland and had been featured on news broadcasts worldwide. He made the local news in San Diego when he was robbed at gunpoint in Baja California and then given a lift back to the US by American surfers to replenish his stolen equipment…

Georgia, Batch 25by Mr. Nos T. O'maniacDecember 27, 2019Georgia, Tbilisi, Roei Sadan

147 - Random Tidbits and David Gareja Monastery (Tbilisi, Georgia)

Want to make a statement in Georgia? Go on a hunger strike. In a land where the supra reigns supreme and counting plates after an obnoxious celebratory feast is considered a barometer for familial wealth, refusing to eat is like refusing to breathe. Tsotne Gamsakhurdia, a man arrested for espionage and the son of the former president Zviad Gamsakhurdia, gave it a go. He claimed to eat or drink nothing for 120 days. Sure, that’s impossible (at least as far as water goes), but he got his point across… I think. Not sure what his point was. I can lie about eating? People are serious about food. And drinking. Burp…

Georgia, Batch 25by Mr. Nos T. O'maniacDecember 24, 2019Georgia, Tbilisi, David Gareja monastery complex, Udabno Monastery

149 - Rough Patch… continued (Tbilisi, Georgia)

Drugs. Alcohol. Gambling. Money. Fame. (Insert personal vice here.) We all have a path to self-destruction, a dependency waiting to be realized. We’re all addicted to something. Some compulsions are more acceptable than others, but all can lead to perdition. My obsession was a feature, not a bug, of a quest to live unencumbered by convention… right? I’ll go out there, paint myself into a corner, and force a reckoning. I’ll figure it out. Fuck yeah. I’m a not-so-recovered travel-holic. My addiction was (is) wanderlust. (Or is it novel encounters?) It consumed me. Had I channeled it…

Georgia, Batch 26by Mr. Nos T. O'maniacDecember 19, 2019Georgia, Tbilisi