Before the president's wife, Sandra, brought big yellow city buses to Tbilisi, the marshrutka ruled the road. This mini-bus could carry travelers, haul goods, and deliver packages in one fell swoop. They would easily maneuver the streets, going along their designated routes. However, since the arrival of the city buses, marshrutkas are no longer allowed along the main avenues. Even with this semi-new rule, they are still the main form of transportation all over the city for Georgians.
Besides the one I take to and from school each day (which picks us up and drops us off directly outside of our apartment and waits for us if we happen to be running a few minutes late), I have not braved traveling in true Georgian style because I simply can't read the sign on the front of the marshrutka to figure out where it is going.
If you can read the sign or figure out where the mini-bus is going, it is simple enough to use: you open the sliding door, climb over the other passengers, squeeze into a seat that may be rear facing, and pay the driver 50 tetri (about 30 cents) at some point along your journey. When you are ready to jump off, you catch the driver's attention and begin crawling over the passengers to ready yourself for a speedy exit. It's as easy as that!
Marshrutkas come in all colors. It was a challenge to get good pictures because they were either speeding past me or I was standing in the middle of the road aiming my camera at the oncoming vehicle. Crazy foreigner.
2 comments:
Looks like they are riding in style. Those are Mercedes! lol
Such a funny mental picture to think about how a passenger would get into and out of one of these. I noticed the Mercedes, too!
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