Georgia: From Amazing Batumi To The Magic Portal Of Kobulet (Part One)

The moment arrives and I move from Hopa to the border. I'm standing next to an administrative building entirely built from metal and plastic. There are a lot of people willing to cross the border and I start suffering from lack of enough air. After 40 minutes it's finally my turn. My documents are checked and I'm allowed to continue to the Georgian border line. After 10 minutes of walking I reach the Georgian border checkpoint.

I walk through an impressive arch that marks my entry into Georgian territory, but I am stopped very soon by the end of a huge queue of people. It is obvious that the open border counters do not fill the load, and the queue extends more and more. People push each other and sometimes even hit each other with elbows and swear. The more I move forward, the more I'm pressed by the crowd, but I'm not the only one. Many are in the same situation, but they have no choice - it will have to be more enduring and patient as we get out of this situation. After almost an hour, I have crossed the border control and headed to the central square, where hundreds of people were sitting in the cafes waiting for their vehicles.

Two cows are walking around calmly and enjoying the humans attention.

The noise around me is thunderous and I feel distracted all the time, but I managed to find a bus stop, catch the city bus and get to Batumi. My ticket costs only 0.80 lari, which is equivalent to 0.55 lv. or about $0.35. I am surprised how cheap public transport is compared to the cost of food or accommodation in Georgia.

The walk in Batumi is pretty refreshing. The city on the Black Sea coast is crowded with tourists and I see a tremendous resemblance to some of our major seaside resorts in Bulgaria. The long beaches are full of people, but here the beaches are covered with small pebbles and the sand is hardly visible. Seems like no one is paying to much attention to the lack of sand and tourists enjoy the variety of places to visit in Batumi. There is a dolphinarium, a botanical garden, parks, water slides, organized helicopter flights, a parachute, a large harbor, and beautiful tall skyscraper like buildings.

Take a look at my collection here:

I really enjoy time spent here. I sit on a bench in the harbor for hours, staring at the sea and the mist high in the mountain folds that rise above the rocky shore. From here I can trace the ships, dream and think about the future of this journey.

On my second day in Batumi, I'm busy exploring the transport system and how can I reach different locations in the country. When I find myself in a new place for a long time, I always follow the same strategy that has never hindered me. Usually I begin with providing myself with meals and accommodation, and then I spend time exploring know where I can go. As always, I completely improvise. I wonder if a train trip would be my better option than riding a small, ripped minibus.

Walking outside of the center shows the other side of the modern city. Here the streets are under all criticism. The tiles are broken, the buildings - with hulled paint and mold, and people are dressed casually. I have fallen into the urban part, which seems to be rarely visited by tourists and does not shine with anything modern. I'm looking for the train station, but the only thing I go through is a square with multiple minibuses parked and a large group of men arguing ardently about something in Georgian. Shouting do not grow into anything more, but it is definitely impressive to see it from the side. Although I can not find the station, I find myself in other interesting places and I don't miss to make a couple of photos.

On the third day I already feel I've seen a lot of Batumi and it's time to go to my next destination. This time I manage to find the train station and felt a bit disappointed to find out that I missed the early train for Kutaisi. In fact, rail transport is the cheapest in Georgia. On short stretches, so-called "electrics" are used (most likely because the train is driven by electricity) and the ticket is purchased by a machine (similar to what we have in trams in Bulgaria) and it costs the phenomenal 1 lari (about 45 cents) no matter where are you going. At this price, I traveled 130 km from Kobuleti to Kutaisi (more about it later). At the same time the expressway from Batumi to Tbilisi is much more modern, with a ticket price of about 20 lari.

I don't want to wait and leave and walking on the beach lane I soon found myself at the botanical garfen, which is one of the most famous and visited tourist spots in the Batumi area. I'm not in the mood for a look, I rest for a short while, and continue to a small street that turned out to be a real gold mine for discoverers. Walking on it as if I were in a different world. The street is broken, the houses past me are old and completely abandoned. They seem a little ominous, as if they're taken out of a horror movie. Vegetation has captured this place. I even discovered a rusty and abandoned lift that has driven people from the highest point of the hill to the bottom of the sea.