{"id":11,"date":"2022-02-11T07:51:48","date_gmt":"2022-02-11T07:51:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mepublic.ch\/?p=11"},"modified":"2022-02-13T13:51:27","modified_gmt":"2022-02-13T13:51:27","slug":"demigods","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mepublic.ch\/?p=11","title":{"rendered":"Demigods"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

“Italians are emotional, Georgians too, they are emotional like Italians but on top they are crazy” Irakli explained to me. He was peering over his steering wheel and scanning the traffic of Rustaveli avenue before cutting sharply into a narrow alley. Cars flashed by, some honked timidly like they were approving the bold move; nothing else happened.
I stopped pushing the imaginary brake pedal on the passenger seat and tried to relax.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My driver Irakli had picked me up a minute ago. The taxi app had misplaced me on the opposite side of the Rustaveli avenue. Four lanes of insane traffic and a do not cross double solid line in the middle separated Irakli with his car and me. 20 seconds later I jumped into his car wondering how he had managed to take the detour of 900m including the roundabout at Liberty square in so short time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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This is where the Italians and their passion came in. I had remarked that I would never dare driving a car in Tbilisi – at least not at peak times. I told him that I had driven in Sicily and had even started to feel at ease with the chaotic yet considerate driving style of the Sicilians, but Tbilisi was beyond that, simply at an other level. I failed to recognize any pattern in the traffic on which I could be holding on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Main streets in Tbilisi have double track traffic, an invitation for Georgians to switch back and forth between the two lanes, be it to avoid potholes and manhole covers or to adjust to the erratic behavior of the front driver, or maybe just because one can switch.
As everybody is in a hurry nobody slows down; and to spice things up, throw in the casual car poser that zick-zacks his Mercedes or BMW SUV like he is on the run.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The suspense of being driven from A to B isn’t limited to main streets. The moment you leave them and enter the network of alleys and lanes that spread like capillary vessels and interconnect residential areas, entertainment districts and commercial quarters, a new sensation grabs hold on you. Your worries of being hit by a madman are substituted by occasional claustrophobia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Parked cars on both sides flank your passage and you hope the remaining space suffices
to sneak through, only to see your faith put to the test by the Toyota pickup that comes around the corner in the opposite direction.
As my feet search the imaginary brakes, Irakli does not even falter or interrupt the flow of our conversation. The two cars cross without touching each other and without slowing down. Georgian drivers may be emotional and crazy, for sure they are some cold-blooded demigods when it comes to driving.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Of course, even in Georgia the path to mastery and semi-deity is paved with failure. Every day you spot cars with missing frontal mudguards. These cars seem to be wearing a maniacal expression, a bit like the joker in batman. They look scary and funny at the same time and they seem to display an attitude that there is nothing to lose anymore. I then silently mumble to myself: “Thou shall not drive a car in Tblisi at peak times, never ever!”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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“Italians are emotional, Georgians too, they are emotional like Italians but on top they are crazy” Irakli explained to me. He was peering over his steering wheel and scanning the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1,7],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mepublic.ch\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mepublic.ch\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mepublic.ch\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mepublic.ch\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mepublic.ch\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/mepublic.ch\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":35,"href":"https:\/\/mepublic.ch\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11\/revisions\/35"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mepublic.ch\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mepublic.ch\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mepublic.ch\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}