Upon landing in Batumi, Georgia, our first impressions were of what are we stepping into? Where’s the pretty we heard about? I don’t know the exact reason we decided to check out Batumi but we were getting to a little to comfortable in Quito, Ecuador & our time had run out. Two years in South America in near perfect year round warm weather was amazing but we were not ready to settle – yet! As the Big Guy would tell me repeatedly there are other countries we should check out. How about a country that has four seasons & easy on the pocket? Were we mistaken when we decided to jump across the water to the farthest point of Europe?
A Little History of Beautiful Georgia
BLACK SEA – Georgia is a small country that shares a border with Turkey, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Russia (shares the longest border to the north) & the gorgeous Black Sea. While you can swim along certain of the sea coasts it is noted to check safety precautions for that country. At depths below 150-200 meters the water is dangerous with hydrogen sulfide, pollution & strong undercurrents making it dangerous.
As dangerous as the Black Sea can be to swimmers it is beautiful to the eyes! We were amazed at the different colors & patterns on the rocks!
The beautiful New Batumi Boulevard boardwalk along the Black Sea is 7km long where you can see various sports areas, restaurants, workout equipment, etc lined with tall trees on one side & the Black Sea on the other. There is also another path for scooters, bikes, etc.
Walking along the board walk & side streets, you can see how fast the New Batumi is growing with tall apartment buildings, hotels, casinos – showing a stark difference between the old & the new.
A Little Back History: The Kingdom of Georgia (1008 AD) was wrecked with Mongol invasions (13th Century), followed by Persian & Ottoman empire invasions…so in 1801 Georgia annexed itself to Russia for protection. After the Russian revolution of 1917 Georgia declared independence May 5, 1918 but that didn’t last long. The Soviet Union invaded Georgia again in 1921 & became Georgia SSR. Independence Day was April of 1991. At one point Georgia’s name was the The Republic of Georgia but then became just Georgia with Tbilisi as its capital with a population presently of around 3.7 million people.
2008 RUSSIAN-GEORGIA WAR Here is a history lesson we received from a Batumi resident. In 2008 Russia & Georgia had a 5 day war & when all was said & done, Russia took 20% of the country without much of a argument from Georgia. Russia deployed an estimated 70,000 military personnel to Georgia, while Georgia’s army only totaled 10,000 total personnel, so you can see the reason for the shortness of this conflict. The Russian-Georgian war was short, because Georgia did not have western military support (they were only offered humanitarian assistance).
GEORGIAN WINE If you are into wine, then you probably should already know that Georgia can boast of a 8,000 year history of wine making using large clay jugs called gvevri. Many of the Georgians, such as our friend Giorgi, has his own personal wine cellar for making wine. The cherry on top? We were invited to taste his Georgian Amber Wine along with an authentic Georgian meal. but wait, I’m getting off track. We learned there are also over 500 types of grapes in this country but only a hand full are used for making Georgian wine – red & white.
Easy Passport Entry into Georgia!
Georgia allows 365 days on U.S. passport alone! What is not to like about that? At this point in time, country runs are allowed to renew your 365 day stay! There is a fine for overstaying though!
We watched videos & did our research deciding Georgia was a place we should look into. We knew there would more than likely be a definite communication gap but we didn’t let that scare us. Affordability, diversity, cultures were the top draws of why we should visit. Now to find out if it delivers!
Photos Of Our Adventure Thus Far!
Normally, we are excited about diving into learning the basic greeting of a new language, but the weather just took the thrill of learning anything about the Georgian language all out unwelcoming which made not knowing any Georgian or Russian greeting that much worse! BUT that soon changed.
During our research on Georgia, we were aware that this Eastern European country would have a very small population of black people. To-date, we have seen five (5)!! We were not just outsiders that could not speak the language, we added an extra layer by being an inter-racial (Black/White) couple so we anticipated receiving curious stares. We soon learned how to say “hello” in Georgian & the site of dark skin turned from curious stares into looks of surprise & huge smiles when we would greet them in Georgian or Russian. Eventually, the warm smiles turned into people we didn’t know waving & shouting “Hello” to us in either the Georgian or English language.
Once we made it toward the end of February, the weather changed to slightly warmer temps & we were able to wander the streets to actually see how beautiful Batumi really can be.
Now we were told ‘do not get to excited yet as the weather changes day to day’. But when sun was out so were we.
Yes it is chaotic at times – figuring out the lay of the town & how to communicate in a language we had never had any experience with – Georgian, Russian & Ukraine humbled us immediately! We stumbled but with the help of our favorite coffee cafes baristas (and some very sweet people we have met) all were extremely patient with us, we have slowly started to add words to our vocabulary. As a side note, Georgia has one of the oldest language that is specific to Georgia only! The Alphabet Tower celebrates the Georgian language.
Away from the sea we found different ethnic neighborhoods in our walking adventures. The buildings have a definite personality & its own history & we thoroughly enjoyed these walks just guessing the ethnicity of the neighborhood.
Almost every store has English along with language of the business.
By time March rolled around temperatures were definitely warming up but again we were told don’t get use to these warm days as it can be cold as heck tomorrow so again we took advantage of the sun to explore. The European Square in Old Batumi is a must see fi you enjoy neo-classical architecture.
Locals are definitely warming up to us & returning greetings which makes us feel like we are doing something right. We originally thought we would stay a couple months & fly to next stop but we are enjoying our time so we have decided to give it six months here in Batumi – three down, three to to! Lets see what the next three months brings us in Batumi?
