Back in Batumi or rain on the Black Sea

November 10 2011

There are some odd things about Georgia. One of them is change. Most merchants start the day without a ‘bank’, meaning a cash drawer with various denominations of coins and bills. They expect the customer to pay the correct amount. Does that seem backwards to you? Today I ate lunch at one of the hotel’s three restaurants. This is one of the larger hotels in Batumi. There are four floors of rooms, totaling 145 rooms. I had soup, bread and water for lunch. The soup was four lari, a steal, the bread was free and the water was three lari, ridiculous since the soup required more labor, ingredients, etc. My total bill was 7.70 lari as service is added to the bill here. I gave the waitress a 20 lari note and the cashier left the room and went into another restaurant to make change. OY! BTW a lari is about sixty cents.

We arrived Monday and it snowed overnight. Since then is has been raining. I got out for a walk the second morning here when there was a break in the weather but now rain is predicted everyday we are here. Fortunately there is a brief break everyday and I am able to get out for a walk. Otherwise I would get a severe case of cabin fever and go postal! 

I drew a name from the Salvation Army Angel Tree in TBS. The name I drew was a 77 yr old woman who requested warm clothes or food for her Christmas gift. I tried for two days to find a wool shawl for her. Since I don’t know her size it didn’t make sense to buy a sweater. After discovering I couldn’t communicate my need to store employees I asked Marika with whom Ron works to write out in Georgian what I needed. Bingo. I found it in the third shop I tried. I then continued the search and got wool gloves and socks, a knit hat and scarf. Shopping in developing countries is an adventure. You don’t have the luxury of a department store. Most shops are the size of a large closet with one sales person. The shops are often unlit and sometimes unheated. The stock is quite limited. It is hit or miss in terms of what you will find inside of the shop. I probably spent a couple of hours buying these few items. My feet were very tired by the end of the day.  

Batumi is under construction. Parts of town have lovely sidewalks. I don’t need to watch where I am walking as the sidewalks are new and level with no missing pavement. Most of these are actually quite lovely, made of pavers in various patterns with cut stone, mosaics with smooth river stones, etc. There are curb stones and no concrete. The sidewalks are made of cut stones and arranged in a variety of pleasing patterns using two or more colors. The streets are often the same. In other parts of town the sidewalks don’t exist. They have been torn up in anticipation of replacement. These areas I have to watch every step. There are rocks, gravel, mud, large holes for sewer access…well you get the picture.

 

Jason and the Golden Fleece

Ron finished up his first week of classes in time for us to have a brief outing. We went to lunch together, our first since arriving on Monday. Then we went to the art museum a few blocks away. It was a small provincial museum. When we exited it was pouring rain so we came back to the hotel. Ron read his book and I read the NY Times on line. We ventured out again for dinner. Being tired of Georgian cuisine we walked over to the Sheraton, a large, new hotel near by because the rain persisted. We went up to the 20^th floor and we were the only diners there. The menu was limited but we decided on pasta and were pleased with the decision. Half way through our meal a party of four arrived and joked about not having reservations. Ron quipped ‘I think you will be seated with no problems’.  The only English channel we can get in Batumi is CNN news so our viewing is limited. We read until bedtime. 

Today we have had a lot of rain, rain mixed with snow and then two healthy hail storms. Then we had a thunder storm with rain and now it is snowing to beat the band. Oy! I really need to get out daily but haven’t gotten out of the hotel yet today. It is cold here, in the high 30’s. Hopefully the rain will abate and I can get to the grocery store for more soy milk for tomorrow’s bowl of granola.

Nov 13 2011

We never got out on Saturday as Ron worked all day teaching, but we did today. We walked over to the ‘Dophinium’ at 11:00 and they had a show at 5:00 so we skipped that idea.. We continued our walk in the rain and went to the archeology museum. It was unheated and therefore cold as the temps are in the 40’s now. But it was dry and had a good exhibit of local area finds. The guard walked ahead of us and would turn the lights on the display case as we approached. When we finished viewing he would turn off the lights. It gives you an idea of how tight things are in this country. Afterwards we walked to the grocery store to get soy milk and some snacks for our room. We stopped on the way home in a small warm lovely café and had a light lunch. It was pouring rain for some of our walk and even with umbrellas we got soaked: our gloves, our pants below the knees and my backpack purse was wet inside and out. We stayed in our room for the rest of the day.  Ron worked some and I read and did e-mails. and ate dinner at the hotel.

November 14

Today the sun came out. Hooray! After seven days of rain I needed a break. I bundled up as it is still cold and took a long walk by the sea. Batumi’s fortune is its beach and it recognizes that fact. So there is a wonderful broad walkway along the sea that goes for miles. I walked for 40 minutes in one direction and still didn’t come to the end of the walkway. There are men out everyday cleaning the beaches of debris. Even though it is off season the beaches remain spotless. The beaches here are made of smooth, colorful rocks ranging from large stones the size of my foot to pebbles and occasionally mixed with coarse dark sand. For the most part they are mid sized stones making it difficult to walk and I would imagine very uncomfortable for sitting. Unfortunately this part of the world is way behind the curve when it comes to awareness about pollution so Batumi, a city of 122,000 (2002 census), puts all of its waste water (yes that does include raw sewerage) right into the ocean untreated so many people get sick when they swim here. No surprise there. Some how, no one seems to have made the connection between the various physical problems one has from swimming in polluted water. All the countries that border the Black Sea are polluters from industry as well as untreated waste water. We take a lot for granted in the US; things like clean air and water come to mind immediately.

Tuesday November 15th

We had another glorious day of sun until about 4:00. I took a walk after breakfast along the sea. After lunch I went on a photo expedition. There are some beautiful buildings here with some special features like the iron work on doors and balconies. Hopefully Ron will have time to post some. The temps are in the high 40’s to the high 30’s during the day. Many shops have their doors open because they aren’t heated. I doubt that many homes are either. So when the sun is out you can count on people flocking to the streets, sitting in the sun on benches, walls or stoops. They also come out because they live in such tight quarters. It is not unusual for families with children and perhaps a grandparent to live in one bedroom apartments. Again most of us have much to be grateful for in the US. On my walk I passed a street sweeper and asked if I could take his photo. He laughed and agreed. I wanted his photo because he is a city employee and his broom is made from branches from a tree or bush. It is not a manufactured item and this is all I have ever seen in Georgia.

 I just was reading about Batumi and learned it is the wettest place in Georgia, getting 107 inches a year. Well no wonder!

 Wednesday November 16th

The rain is back but I got in a short walk after breakfast before the rain came. I walked out onto the beach and never saw any sand, just stones. They were pretty with all the shapes, sizes and colors. I walked to a Ukrainian restaurant where Ron and I had dinner earlier this week. I was the only woman who was dining among about 12-15 men. As I sat at the table, I spied three holes in the curtains, just the size of a cigarette burn. We have one in the upholstered chair in our room the same size. We also have a burn in the carpet and two on the tub. We sit at the same place every morning in the breakfast dining room. There is a burn in the curtain there also.These Georgians love their cigarettes and their cars.