DAY 12
Botanical Garden Waterfall
Made a visit down to Georgia botanic garden. The waterfall was so pretty and it was densely planted with many self-set trees.
The view was breath-taking
That was probably the highlight of the day. The rest was me exploring around the city. Moving on to Day 13!
DAY 13
Tbilisi Art Gallery
Niko Pirosmanashvili (1862-1918) was an autodidact Georgian painter who hold a special place in the nations’s culture heritage. His art is both modern and national. He painted people in festive surroundings or everyday life, animals, rural, urban scenes and still lives.
Painting of the food they consumed.
Overall, I did not enjoy the museum fully as I wanted to see more than just paintings. Nonetheless, those paintings were amazing without a doubt. After the museum, I came across many locals giving this golden “secret book” (that’s what they called it) a kiss.
The Georgian do this once per year to show respect by giving the “secret book” a kiss. They did invite me to kiss the book as well but due to covid I did not want to risk 😅
Georgian National Museum (Second visit)
Went back to the Georgian National Museum again because I was so intrigued by their artefacts and I love it so much.
Ended my Day 13 here.
DAY 14 (1)
Stalin Museum
Kicking off my Day 14 with my tour guide to the next museum. (p.s. if you don’t already know I love history…)
While driving, came across this area. It was so beautiful I had to stop by to take a photo.
—Arrived at the museum —
As the name suggests, Stalin museum is dedicated to the life of Joseph Stalin, leader of the soviet union. It is located in Gori which is his birth place. The complex museum was open in 1957 in the house where he was born. According to a source from Stalin Museum, “The complex of the museum includes the memorial house, Stalin’s carriage, and the two-storeyed exhibition building. In front of the building Stalin statue is situated (picture above) (sculptor Silovan Kakabadze)” (Source: stalinmuseum, n.d.).
Due to Stalin’s step father beating during his early age, he had an uneven arm length. He would often hold his hands in this posture to cover up his “disability”.
Based on a source from Wikipedia, “In 1950, Mao and Stalin safeguarded the national interests of China and the Soviet Union with the Treaty of Friendship, Alliance and Mutual Assistance. The treaty improved the two countries’ geopolitical relationship on political, military and economic levels” (Source: Wikipedia, 2022) Therefore, Chinese scrolls can be seen here as Stalin often received gift from China for their alliance.
Stalin lived in this old man place where he would usually collect water from the well. One day, Stalin was curious and went down to the well. He started to carved out a secret chamber 15 meters below a nondescript wooden house in Avlabari district which then became his underground printing house. He started using the room to print off pamphlets to remove Tsar (Source: Lush, 2022).
This is a real train cabin that depicts the room and guest cabin of Stalin’s