First impression of Georgia, August 2016
We wanted to visit sunny Turkey this August. But, having appreciated the restless nature of the ISIS terrorists, they smoothly left their thoughts in the direction of no less sunny Georgia. That's what they decided on. Moreover, the governor of the Odessa region, Mikho Saakashvili, announced his former homeland in Ukraine as an example of reforms that turned Georgia into a flowering garden.
So, the tour has been paid for, the further route seems to be clear, and now - we are driving along the highway in the direction of the Zhuliany airport in Kyiv. The airport made me happy. It turned out that the free time spent on the territory of the airport is 10 minutes. We didn’t meet it, we had 11 minutes on the check-pass issued upon arrival by an impudent cashier, we had to part with 20 UAH. After the standard baggage check-in procedures, (straight from the classics: “.... the lady checked in the luggage: a sofa, a suitcase, a bag, a picture, a basket, a cardboard box . . , and a small dog . .
”))), check-in and passport control, which are not particularly different at all airports, finally boarded the UIA Bravo airliner. The plane was completely full, as it was on a charter flight to Georgia. We flew for 2 hours and 30 minutes, nothing unexpected happened. Friendly flight attendants served refreshments and sandwiches. We arrived at Batumi airport at 6-30 am (the time is one hour ahead compared to Ukraine in summer and 2 hours ahead in winter). At the airport, we were already met by a representative of the company - the tour operator "CPJ" - a guy about 30 years old, a Georgian who spoke Russian tolerably, who directed us to a waiting minibus. Near the car, we were met by a guide named Madeleine, a Georgian woman, who explained that we would be taken to the hotel, and we can also book all the excursions that interest us.
As it turned out later, ordering excursions from her, as well as from “hotel and company” guides everywhere, costs about twice as much as from local ones. The car was a new Mercedes Sprinter with leather interior and air conditioning. Upon arrival in the country, I involuntarily drew attention to the temperature - it was 25 degrees, it seemed a little, but the high humidity of the air was felt even for us, who had lived all our lives near the sea. Surprisingly, at the airport, they connected to the free Wi-Fi network without any problems and informed their relatives about the safe arrival at the place of rest. From the airport to our hotel "AQUARIUS", (three stars), we drove about half an hour, it is not very far, but it took time to transport tourists to other hotels.
From the information about the hotel, obtained before the trip from the Internet, it seemed that it was an old building, almost a hut of Soviet times, a little plastered and trimmed, but in reality everything turned out to be not so deplorable: there are some differences, both in a positive sense, and and in the negative. The hotel itself is not bad, better than on the pictures of the site, however, in its description there are, to put it mildly, inaccuracies. One of which: the site indicates the distance to the sea is 400 m, in fact, about 2 km, and you can swim in the sea, having previously made a journey away from the hotel for 15-20 minutes. We stayed at the hotel for 8 days and 7 nights. A little about the settlement. We arrived at 7 in the morning and, in principle, according to the rules of hotels, we had to wait 14 hours for a settlement, but we were sent immediately for breakfast, which was a pleasant surprise, and settled in a room around 10 in the morning. Move on. What can I say about the room itself.
Absolutely unremarkable, the TV is old, there is satellite TV, almost all channels are tuned in Russian, relatively clean. Separately, I want to say about breakfasts (according to the terms of the tour, we only included breakfasts): during the seven days of our stay at the hotel, the chefs did not differ in a special variety of breakfasts served. A standard breakfast consisted of: two boiled hard-boiled eggs, a plate with several pieces of bread on the table, sliced boiled sausage, sliced tomatoes and cucumbers, tea, a small bowl with bitter, probably goat's curd, a bowl with sour cream and a bowl replacing the sugar bowl. A day or two later, the chefs decided to treat the guests to a variety and replaced the bread with pita bread, which they did every two days, thinking, probably, that they bring zest to our holiday.
Sometimes in the dining room we met a man who introduced himself as the owner of the hotel (whether he was or not, I don’t know), drives an old BMW X5, who treated all tourists with a glass of Kinzmarauli wine. I can’t say anything more bad and especially good about the hotel - a very average hotel for tourists-travelers who appear in it just to relax and sleep after a busy sightseeing day.
After resting for a few hours from the flight, we independently went on a tour of the city of Batumi. A small remark - if you are traveling with your companion (girlfriend, girlfriend, wife, etc. ), then be prepared for the playful attention of the temperamental male population of Georgia to her. For some, this causes a negative attitude towards Georgians. In Georgia, payment for everything is made in the local currency - Georgian lari, while at every step there are many exchange offices and the price is the same everywhere.
During our stay, one hundred dollars cost 223 lari, the rate was stable, and after a couple of days we were tolerably oriented in prices. First of all, we studied all the sights that deserve our attention in the area where the hotel is located, which is located almost in the center of Batumi, not far from the embankment. Naturally, the first place we visited was the Batumi embankment.
On the way to it, in order to prevent your death from hunger and for a better perception of the upcoming impressions and views of Georgia on a full stomach, as well as to exclude knee tremors when walking, in a small restaurant that met near the hotel, in which the price of food turned out to be quite democratic, ordered lunch: assorted barbecue (pork, veal, chicken), khinkali 6 pieces (similar to our dumplings, do not take much, they turned out to be very large and satisfying), salad, two glasses of Kinzmarauli wine, Georgian lemonade (a very worthy thing , costs 2 lari (12-13 UAH) for 0.5 liters of a glass bottle, it reminds me of the taste from childhood, I recommend it). In general, we barely ate everything, did not expect such portions. We paid 30 GEL for everything, about 350 UAH. (there were two). After eating, refreshed and emboldened, they finally headed to the Batumi Embankment. It's a 15 minute walk from the hotel.
Along the way, we inspected local buildings and structures, and what we saw evoked mixed feelings: on the one hand, glitter - on the embankment, and on the other hand, complete poverty, and there is more poverty - old Soviet-built houses, metal roofs that have not seen paint for many years, peeled and polluted yards and entrances, leaking roofs. It is worth noting that the population is also visually dressed modestly, if not more harshly. Basically, everyone wears jeans and sneakers, some simple T-shirts made from inexpensive fabrics. Also, in any case, I got the impression, which was later repeatedly confirmed in conversations with local residents and taxi drivers, that any self-respecting Georgian should drive a Mercedes car, and the year of manufacture of the car is not at all important, its technical condition and appearance - "Mercedes" and all.
And all "self-respecting Georgians" tend to drive a Mercedes, because in their eyes, its owner immediately acquires a different, very high status compared to other residents of the country. In general, there are a lot of Mercedes in Georgia, of which there are a lot of very old cars. Beauty on the embankment: bike paths, all in paving slabs, colorful lighting, many different restaurants and shops for tourists, beautiful outrageous buildings, a sculpture of love, a swarm of tourists who are ready to see all this and spend their money on souvenirs and entertainment. The composition of the tourist beau monde is very colorful: there are residents of the countries of the former CIS, and tourists because of the large puddle - Americans, a lot of Ukrainians, Belarusians, Russians, Kazakhs, many Europeans - everyone wants to look at the ancient and gray-haired Caucasus. There are also many bike and moped rentals on the waterfront, from single to quadruple.
There is a feeling of a holiday on the embankment, all the tourists are joyful, they take pictures, walk, have a snack. After walking a little and breathing in the air of beautiful and wonderful Georgia, filled with the aroma of roasted meat, tangerines, the sea, we went to the hotel to relax.
In the morning of the next day, after a “rich” and “varied” breakfast (see above for breakfast), we headed to the embankment, as yesterday we noticed a lot of places for the provision of excursion services by local operators. Walking along the embankment, everyone was asked about the cost of the excursion - along the embankment there are cars with signs about the name of the excursion, you can come up, bargain, but the price is reduced very reluctantly.
The price for a tour of several places, the first one we wanted to: waterfalls, the bridge of Queen Tamara in mountainous Adjara, the house of wine customs on the border of Georgia and Turkey and the old fortress, as we moved away from the embankment, fell and, from 250 lari (120 US dollars) initially for a car, after bidding it was 70 lari ($35) for two. The two of us were the only passengers in a white Mercedes 124. Our driver-guide was called Miho and he was a real Georgian, and even with a Mercedes. The whole excursion took about 4-5 hours, while Miho asked to be hired for the next excursions, since, according to him, there is practically no work in Georgia, only serving tourists in summer, and in winter supplying and selling tangerines to the markets of the hero city Odessa. We liked the tour with Miho. All these attractions are located in the region of mountainous Adjara. The nature there is amazing and beautiful. (the confluence of two rivers - https://www.youtube.com/watch? v=VpOrD5PyFhY).
Representatives of the local domestic fauna caused considerable surprise. These are miniature local cows that are found almost everywhere - on serpentines, in bushes, lying in the middle of the road. And they are so small that you can compare them with ponies. Their ability to give milk, in the absence of an udder, is surprising (as they say: the spool is small, but expensive). According to the locals, this is a special ancient breed that can move freely in the mountains. Also, during the entire trip, we did not see a single shepherd. According to the guide, the cows graze themselves, they come home by themselves and they are not stolen.
The next day we decided to ride the Argo funicular in Batumi, which we noticed the previous day. It is located at the end of the embankment, about half an hour walk from the hotel. The cost of rides on the funicular is 10 lari (4-5 dollars) per person. The price includes ascent and descent.
Surprisingly, the queue for him is constantly present, but not critically long. The funicular operates in automatic mode, the human employee only monitors the safety of tourists. The cabin goes up, you get out there yourself and, at the end of the inspection of the summit, you get into the cabin yourself and go down. The height of the hill is 260 meters, the length is 2600 m, the speed of movement is 5 meters per second. It is considered the longest cable car in Europe. At the top, as elsewhere, there are many souvenir shops and a restaurant. The view from the top is of course excellent, the whole of Batumi is in full view. If you wish, you can use a viewing telescope for 1 lari. Every day during the tourist season on the top of the mountain from 20:00 to 24:00 there are concerts of Georgian dances and songs, but we did not get to them. This all took about an hour. On the way down, one woman began to vomit, but there were no packages in the booths.
Thanks to caring tourists, she was given a simple package to meet the need to cleanse the body, a trifle and unpleasant, in my opinion, at a height they could provide for the presence of packages.
After riding the funicular and seeing Batumi from a bird's eye view, we spent the rest of the time on the beach). Briefly about the beach - it consists of pebbles, smaller than Crimean, when entering the water there are no inconveniences from the presence of large stones, all the stones are small, the sea is clean, after 3-4 meters a sharp deepening of the bottom begins. A sunbed on the beach costs 5 lari (about 2 dollars or 50 hryvnias) On the beach, just like here in Ukraine, sellers with water, pies, apples, kiwi, khachapuri constantly walk around and unobtrusively offer their products, constantly shouting over each other - friend, once in Russian, the second time in Georgian. It is difficult to talk about the presence of a queue for them, but someone will buy something.
The hotel guide offered us this trip for $ 25 per person and additional payments for entrance on the spot, etc. We used the minibus number 31 and for 60 Georgian kopecks (about $ 0.25) we reached its final: "Botanical Garden" . Entrance costs 8 lari. There are a lot of people, but what we saw did not leave us indifferent. Garden area - 113 hectares, founded in 1880, opened in 1912, a collection of about 5.000 plants. Planted with all sorts of compositions, plants cannot but rejoice. The garden is located in a mountainous area and I also liked the views from the rocks to the sea. The plants are different: palm trees, flowers, bamboo, spruces, trees of various shapes and sizes (those who have been to the botanical gardens understand that it is difficult to describe in words). The visit to the garden took almost the whole day. For those who do not like or are not able to move independently, there are excursions on an electric car, but we did not use it.
The next day, we, succumbing to the persuasion of local residents, visited a settlement called Ureki, located 60 km from Batumi. Their attraction is a 15 km beach with black magnetic sand, the village is called Magnetiti, practically the same as Ureki. Sand allegedly has a healing effect on the human musculoskeletal system and the cardiovascular system. We went by minibus for 5 GEL per person. Arriving at the place, we saw a lot of people on the beach, dirt everywhere, a paid crap toilet for 1 lari, a shower for cold water 1.5 lari, for hot 2.5 lari - if you want, wash yourself after the dirty sand, but if you want - no, go yourself dirty and black back home. There are no changing rooms on the beach, I had to pay for the toilet and there to carry out the procedure of changing into bathing suits. Considering that the sea is dirty (garbage, bags, algae, there are a lot of gobies from cigarettes in the sand, etc. ), there is a decent queue for the beach shower.
In this regard, we had to rent a sunbed for 3 GEL. Even in spite of this, we didn’t have enough for a long time and, after about an hour, we decided that the “sand treatment” had already brought us an indelible positive result: the musculoskeletal system and cardiovascular affairs had already stabilized, and also, what- In order not to pick up some incurable disease, perhaps even a venereal disease, brought from some country in the world, it's time for us to finish taking the procedures. We turned around, heading back to Batumi. It is hard to say whether or not this black sand has a healing effect, but I do not advise anyone, purely for hygienic reasons, to waste their time visiting Ureki. In general, we did not like it. Dirty, dirty and once again dirty - that's probably all the sensations left to us by the impression of Ureks.
The next day we were pleased with the sunny weather, and we decided to take a break from moving - we went to the sea, where we spent almost the whole day, and in the evening we went shopping to buy local souvenirs as a keepsake. We rented a bicycle for two (5 GEL per person) and rode along the embankment. The rest of the time they took solar and water procedures on the shores of the warm Black Sea on the city's embankment.
And then came the day of farewell to Georgia, the day of departure. What can I say about this trip: in principle, we liked it, but nothing special, what we expected to see from the words of other people, well, just WOW!! ! ! we didn't see. The country is in crisis, there is no work, the population drags out a miserable existence, aimed at survival in today's conditions, poverty is everywhere.
What we are told from TV screens through the lips of Ukrainian-Georgians: about Georgia's unprecedented breakthrough somewhere forward, about their simple, easy and wonderful life, we did not feel and did not feel. The people are friendly, the sea is good, the sun is available, tangerines too. If someone has not been, you can go see it, but it’s nothing special. All the best and happy travels.
