Batumi, Republic of Georgia

The hardest things to say in life are “I love you”, “I was wrong”, and “Worcestershire sauce”.

Anyway, I have to admit that I was wrong the first time I went to Georgia because I didn’t have any interest in going to Batumi. I am the type of person who will always choose mountains over seasides, so I didn’t give it much thought. I brushed off my friends in Prague who said I should visit but while I was in Tbilisi even the locals said I needed to go and when I found out there is a high-speed train direct from Tbilisi I was sold (I love trains almost as much as mountains). I boarded the train late at 00:35 night with a little extra bounce in my step because of the whisky (sorry mom, it was a goodby party), and sat in a very nice and comfy seat… then promptly fell asleep. I woke up to sunlight at about 5 a.m., just 40 minutes or so before we pulled into Georgia’s second-largest city and capital of the autonomous region of Adjara - Batumi.

It was going to be a looong while before I could check into my hotel, so I strapped on my backpack, looked at the map, and mosied from the train station over to a park to hang out with the pensioners who sell individual cigarettes on the corner. After breakfast, I was able to drop off my bag, enjoy a plethora of Art Novou and indefinable architecture, and continue exploring along the shoreline. The Black Sea is beautiful, and despite being shorter than me in hight, it loomed. I will admit, I did get told off by a disgruntled fisherman, not necessarily for taking pictures, but because my proximity to him and his buddy prevented them from arching their poles all the way backward, limiting the forward whip of the lure that creates a great arch far over the ripples of the sea. I do regret to inform, that 63.82% of words in the Georgian language are harder to pronounce than “Worcestershire sauce”.