02 Jun 2015

Batumi

The third country of my trip was Georgia. I crossed the border at Sarpi and took a minibus from there to Batumi. The whole ride lasted about half an hour and cost me a single Lari (about 0.40 Euro). As we drove up the coast, I enjoyed the view of the empty beaches and the hilly countryside. Much of the scenery reminded me of a slightly more summer-y Poland.

The sun broke through the morning haze eventually and the streets become more and more lively as we reached Batumi. The city is a famous holiday destination and especially popular with tourists from Poland and the Ukraine. As we drove into the city centre, I noticed the fairly typical shape tourism has given Batumi: The outskirts looked pleasantly post-apocalyptic, the way former soviet-territories do. Rusty cars, about-to-collapse buildings and entire neighbourhoods which looked like they were held together only by duct tape and stubborn optimism. Or at least a shared confidence that things were not likely to get much worse in the immediate future.

But as we neared the city’s port, the influence of tourist money became very visible: Newer buildings, well-maintained facades and roads, lots of hotels and restaurants.

The port

I got off the bus there and grabbed an early coffee at a cafe on the promenade. There, I also tried my first Adjarian Khachapuri. This entire country seems to survive on various kinds of Khachapuri (cheesy dough baked goods). Case in point: Beggars will approach you repeating “Khachapuri, Khachapuri”. The Adjarian is baked dough in an open boat shape and has a raw egg on top of the feta-like cheese. Yes, most dishes here are very hearty.

Main square

Afterwards I found myself a decent hostel (for 6 EUR/night) and took a nap which lasted for most of the day. My afternoon exploration was cut short by the onset of torrential rain, so I stayed in. In the evening, another hostel-guest from Poland and I went out to grab dinner, before calling it an early night.

The obligatory seaside shot

The next morning the rain had stopped and I took a long walk around town and along the promenade. Since tourist season here does not start before July, most places were very empty and I struggled to find a place for breakfast. While I got increasingly frustrated at people telling me they didn’t serve coffee, I really appreciated the fact that most people seemed to speak English willingly. It’s nice to be denied in english!

Along the promenade you get plenty of hotels and casinos, many of them either new or still in the process of construction. And then you get this thing, which apparently belongs to the university:

Yeah, that building in the distance has a built-in ferris wheel. Does yours not have that?

Yet, circling back to the harbor, I came across this fine example of sturdy Cold War engineering:

A semi-submersible...semi-submersed.

Batumi is marked by these strong contrasts: In front of the hotels and casinos you find plenty of Bentleys and Ferraris, other parts of town are just casually rotting to pieces. Besides this absurdity, Batumi did not really hold much of interest. To me, it seemed like a typical tourist town - at that point, minus the tourists - who would come there to swim, drink, eat and gamble.

The old part of town

Another square and a fountain with lots of boobs

Consequently, I decided that I was going to leave Batumi the next day. I ended up going out for dinner with my Polish aquaintance and enjoying a relaxing beer on the promenade.

I really need to stop posting these...

The next day I got up nice and early and walked to the coach station on the other side of town. There, I got on a coach to Tlbl…Tblbl…the capital.

Until next time,
Arne