A few minutes along the river from the centre, near a small park, runs an open-air market unlike any other in the city. The Dry Bridge market is where Tbilisi sells its past: spread on tables, hung on railings, and laid out on cloths along the pavement is the accumulated stuff of a century.
Soviet cameras and wristwatches, military medals and badges, porcelain and silver, oil paintings by the dozen, old daggers and carpets, jewellery, coins, and bric-a-brac whose purpose no one can quite explain. Some of it is genuinely fine; much of it is junk; all of it has a history, and the sellers — many of them there for decades — are happy to invent one for you if the real one is dull.
It is half flea market, half accidental museum, and it rewards an unhurried browse far more than a quick look. Haggling is expected and good-natured; settle in, take your time, and you will leave with something you didn't know you wanted.
Mornings, especially at weekends, are busiest and best stocked. Bring cash in small notes, be ready to bargain, and don't go looking for anything in particular — the pleasure of the place is in what finds you.
