Sealed borders, a ban on private vehicles, and a lot of Dettol. This is my personal experience of living in Georgia under lockdown during the COVID-19 pandemic.
2020 escalated pretty quickly didn’t it?
My boyfriend and I travelled to Georgia-the-country-not-the-state from Indonesia in mid-February. Right as COVID-19 was rearing its grimy little spores in Europe.
We initially planned to stay in Georgia for a couple of months before travelling across Europe for the rest of the summer. This would eventually culminate with a visit to England to see my family and friends after three years of nomadic life overseas. Oh, how little we knew. Almost a year later, we are still here.
Looking back over the past eight or so months, I feel extremely fortunate to call Georgia my home during these peculiar pandemic days.
Table of Contents
Denpasar to Tbilisi:
Travelling during COVID-19
So how did I end up in Georgia this year?
Whilst we celebrated Christmas house sitting in Bali, my boyfriend and I started chatting about where to head in the New Year. After spending 14 of the past 24 months in South East Asia (the other 10 in New Zealand), I felt eager for a change of scenery.
We each jotted down a list of countries to which we’d like to relocate, tossed these into a pot, and compared which places came up twice. Georgia was one of those. After some light research we decided that a tiny country stuffed with cheesy breads, tasty wine and gigantic mountains sounded like our kind of place.
When we booked the cheapest possible flight, the virus that would later become better known as Come on Eileen was only in its infancy. We assumed that by the following month it would be contained.
As the date of out flight approached, the virus was spreading at a concerning rate and I was apprehensive about boarding all those planes. Especially when our flight path from Denpasar to Tbilisi looked like this:
- Singapore (18-hour layover)
- Krabi (3-night layover)
- Yangon (quick stop to pick up additional masked passengers)
- Dubai (6-hour layover… oh, and a £££ airport breakfast)
But, slathered in hand sanitiser as we passed through deserted airports, we made it. And so, over to what it was actually like living in Georgia under lockdown.
Phase I: Georgia Shuts Down
Around one week after we arrived Georgia announced their first transmission, on 26 February. After this, reports of single cases trickled their way into the news over the coming weeks. We could tell Georgians were taking it seriously from the start.
A number of people in the streets were already wearing masks despite it not being mandatory at that stage. Cafes, restaurants, shops and museums remained open but staff commented that the streets were much quieter than usual. Air traffic slowed, with flights to neighbouring countries with high transmissions, such as Iran, being cancelled.
Over the coming weeks, more and more limitations came into play. Schools in Georgia closed by 3 March followed by museums shortly after.
Even though there wasn’t a catastrophic spread of cases, the government acted swiftly to stop the tables from turning.
11 March: Global Pandemic
On 11 March, we took the monorail up to Mtatsminda Park and rode on the famous Ferris wheel. We posed for photos whilst gnawing on giant casts of khinkali and khachapuri (maybe you had to be there). Most of the fairground rides were closed and the area felt on the verge of abandonment but we optimistically discussed our tentative plans to visit Armenia and Azerbaijan.
Arriving home, we saw that the pandemic had been officially announced. As a result, Georgia planned to close its land borders with both Armenia and Azerbaijan immediately for 10 days.
21 March: State of Emergency
The day after Georgia closed its borders and halted air travel, Prime Minister Giorgi Gakharia announced a State of Emergency.
This sounded scary at first, like a military coup. But actually, the main outcome was the ban on gatherings of over ten people. Not a problem for us being a lonesome pair of nomads with no friends in Tbilisi!
A halt on public transport was also planned – meaning no more Metro, bus, or marshrutka (Soviet-style shared transport). Only essential stores remained open, with stringent hygiene measures in place. All shops instigated a cap on how many people they would admit at a given time. And, each shop assigned a doorman to hose shoppers down with Dettol.
Certainly, I never felt any sense of panic in Tbilisi. The Georgian government made it clear that there was no risk of food shortages and no reason to pile up.
In my local supermarket, customers neatly waited in line until they were to enter. They would accept sanitiser and don the mandatory plastic gloves before collecting a freshly disinfected trolley and get what they needed. I never saw a single item out of stock nor a single brawl over tinned goods in the months I spent living in Georgia under lockdown.
Reading news articles of depleted supermarket shelves elsewhere and a national loo roll shortage sounded like a dystopian novel.
Ten days after we shifted over to a state of emergency, the government announced a curfew. Between 9 pm and 6 pm, we all had to tuck ourselves up in our homes. No more night wandering for us!
7 April: Happy Birthday!
On the 7th, I celebrated my first lockdown birthday by watching Our Planet, eating home-cooked Mexican food, and sipping Georgian Saperavi.
This was the day that all open-air markets were closed to further cull the spread.
At the time I lived in the neighbourhood of Samgori, which is essentially a hub of farmer’s markets and one of the largest of its kind in the city. The entire area was shut down with only a few stores remaining open to sell fresh produce. Plus a few stubborn street vendors who packed a few handfuls of veggies into a bucket and loitered on street corners.
15 April: Private vehicles banned
As an Orthodox nation, Easter in Georgia is celebrated a week later than in other places around the world. As the Orthodox Church so far had not cooperated with the social distancing rules, the government was under increased pressure to stop gatherings.
Private transportation was banned leading up to the holiday which meant people were forbidden to drive their cars and all taxis were cancelled.
The ban went down reasonably well among the Georgians, (I think, that might be a generalisation), and it was extended until the end of April. Obviously, exceptions were made for healthcare workers, essential services workers and farmers. For two blissful weeks, we could do our daily walks without the endless tooting and screeching of vehicles.
May: Another month of lockdown…
May was a blur really. Originally planned for one month, the State of Emergency stayed until late May. With all but essential shops closed, restaurants only offering takeaway and no public transport, I remained at home most of the time. Luckily, whilst my work took a dip, it never dried up and I had plenty of assignments to keep me busy and fed.
In fairness, whilst we did have what felt like a strict lockdown in Tbilisi, it wasn’t that bad. Apart from the evening curfew, I could leave my house whenever I liked. Providing, of course, I practised social distancing, hand hygiene and didn’t hang out with over nine people. Which wasn’t a problem; moving to Georgia during a pandemic didn’t exactly make it easy to make friends.
For me personally, living Georgia under lockdown wasn’t bad at all. Besides working, I had plenty of things to do during with my time. And actually, it was the first proper downtime I’d had in… a very long time.
I feel grateful that both my boyfriend and I have a lot of interests that we can enjoy from home. Whilst I love to go outdoors and explore (a bit of a given, what with this being a travel blog and all!), it wasn’t a big deal to hang around home for a few months.
Also, we’d started feeding some stray cats who lived on our roof. Their routine efforts to steal khinkali from our countertops kept me busy.
Phase II: The Safe Destination
By June, Georgia received recognition for its quick response and containment of the coronavirus. With 260 times fewer cases of the virus than the most affected European countries, Georgia planned to reopen summer tourists to this ‘safe destination.’
1 June: Georgia reopens
Intercity transport reopened, whilst cafes, bars and restaurants with outdoor seating were granted permission to reopen. All customers needed to pass a temperature check and spritz their hands with sanitiser. And obviously, we needed to wear a mask in order to use the bathroom. A lot of places switched to digital menus – accessible via QR code. Although my boyfriend and I are a pair of dinosaurs who can never figure out how to use these, it’s a clever alternative to printed menus.
On 1 June, we headed into town for a wander and found Tbilisi transformed into its summer. I was used to seeing Georgians swathed in chunky jumpers, windbreakers and beanies. But the Georgian summer is hot enough to rival Thailand. Meanwhile, our local markets in Samgori were back in full swing. Ladies wafted around in floral print dresses bearing pungent herbs, fresh spring potatoes, and sweet Georgian strawberries.
For the rest of the month, we enjoyed exploring the various things to do in Tbilisi including its lakes and museums. We even managed to squeeze in a day trip to Sighnaghi.
13 July: Farewell Tbilisi
Domestic travel in Georgia had gradually resumed over the past month with marshrutka and train services resuming and hotels granted permission to reopen. Originally, international tourism was slated to resume early in July but it this ended up being pushed back to August as the country invested in safety and hygiene.
For my boyfriend and I, after almost five months, it was time to pack up the backpack and head north to the mountain town of Kazbegi.
My thoughts on Georgia’s reaction to COVID-19
I spent just shy of five months living in Tbilisi during the initial outbreak of COVID-19 and have now been in Georgia for nine months.
In my opinion, Georgia responded incredibly well to the outbreak. I’m relieved to have been living in Georgia under lockdown instead of anywhere else. The government acted quickly and closed borders, schools and public gatherings whilst cases were still in their infancy. This swift, proactive response captured the attention of national press around the world.
There were no anti-mask marches, no protests about ‘human rights’ and no politicians pointing fingers and ‘blaming’ other nations. There was however ample compassion for families and businesses who were affected by the lockdown and especially for the most vulnerable members of society.
As a non-Georgian, I can’t comment with any authority on the inner workings of the government. But as an outsider who currently calls Georgia home, it feels to me like the government put their people over the economy. When rising cases threatened the Georgians, plans to relaunch summer tourism were pushed back.
“The priority now is the health of our population and the epidemiological situation in Georgia,”
Said Natia Turnava, economy and sustainable development minister.
Unfortunately, Georgia has seen a recent spike in cases, perhaps in connection with summer movements and the recent parliamentary election. At the time of writing, Georgia has exceeded 50,000 cases of the virus and it is rising rapidly now. Although, there doesn’t seem to be any concern at present about the strain on the healthcare services and fatality rates are low.
What next?
At the moment, our plan is to stay put in Georgia. The country is handling the situation a heck of a lot better than my passport country and I have no desire to take a plane right now.
Sadly, I have seen some cafes, restaurants and shops remain closed since restrictions were lifted – and I do worry for the future of Georgian businesses.
Now back in Tbilisi, we will stay put for winter and see where the coming months take us. The way things are looking, it looks like we’ll have a second round of living in Georgia under lockdown.
After that, who knows.
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