Batumi, Georgia: A Bit of a Bust

The Eastern European country of Georgia may not be on your radar – it certainly wasn’t on ours – but it frequently pops up as an “undiscovered gem.” Since we were revisiting Istanbul this year it worked well to hop over to this country bordering the Black Sea, and determine for ourselves whether that idiom proved accurate. We started in Batumi, a cheap, quick (1.5-hour) flight from Istanbul where we spent the previous three weeks.

Arriving in Batumi on our flight from Istanbul – lots of new towers line the shore, with new ones in the works

With a seaside location it’s obvious why tourism drives the economy, and proximity to Türkiye (where gambling is illegal) has led to its nickname, “The Las Vegas of the Black Sea.” It is also the main seaport in Georgia and an important transit point for oil refining in Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan.

Originally founded in the 5th century BCE as a Greek colony, under Roman rule in the second century CE it was converted into a fortified port known as Bathus. Much to our disappointment none of those ruins remain visible in the city. Its history after the Romans is so inconsequential that very little is recorded, other than to note it was part of the Kingdom of Georgia which collapsed at the end of the 15th century. The Ottomans added the region to their empire in the 17th century before relinquishing control of Batumi to the Russian Empire in 1878.

The Collonades - a new structure along the waterfront inspired by Batumi's Roman history — The Collonades – a new structure along the waterfront inspired by Batumi’s Roman history

Twenty years after gaining control of this port, the Russians would use it to rid themselves of the annoying Doukhobors, an ethnoreligious group who rejected Russian Orthodoxy in favour of personal revelation. For decades the Russian Empire had been struggling with these zealots, and their ill-treatment of this minority group had not gone unnoticed by the international community. External pressure forced the Russian government to agree to an unopposed exodus, provided several key conditions were met: the emigrants never return to Russian soil, and their emigration be entirely self-funded. In late 1898, 7,400 Doukhobors bound for religious freedom boarded ships in the Batumi harbour. While the international community was quick to condemn the actions of the Russians, very few were opening their arms to accept the refugees. Canada did, accepting 6,000 emigrants and settling them on government-granted land in Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and Alberta. A few short years later they had migrated into the interior of BC. They didn’t exactly assimilate with the local population and over the decades were repeatedly at odds with the Canadian government with the more militant groups often expressing their opposition through arson and nudism – Howard has very vivid memories of Doukhobor protests in Vancouver when he was an adolescent!

Something about Batumi must attract free-thinkers. It was a key battleground during socialist movements in the early 1900s, with native Georgian Joseph Stalin leading several protests in the city. In the fallout from WWI, Georgia experienced a short period of independence before the Soviets crushed those aspirations and it became one of the 15 Soviet Socialist Republics, with Batumi named as capital of the Adjara province.

The Batumi Octopus is a Soviet era sculpture and children's play area along the waterfront that now houses a Baskin Robbins — The Batumi Octopus is a Soviet era sculpture and children’s play area along the waterfront that now houses a Baskin Robbins

Dollars – Our basic living expenses in Batumi were certainly budget-friendly, especially considering this is a resort destination. Granted, from our perspective, there isn’t a whole lot of entertainment on which to spend money unless you’re a gambler. We did eat out on a few occasions and thought restaurant prices were quite reasonable.

	Cost/Day (2 people/7 nights)	What’s Included?
Basic living expenses	$96/day Canadian ($69 USD / €63)	Accommodation, groceries/wine, restaurants
All-inclusive nomadic expenses	$155/day Canadian ($112 USD / €102)	Expenses above plus: transportation expenses (flight/taxis) from Istanbul, subscriptions (Netflix and other streaming services, website hosting, Adobe Lightroom, VPN, misc apps, etc.), and health insurance

Our full expenses for 7 nights in Batumi, Georgia (Canadian$)

Environment – We had a very comfortable Airbnb on the 41st floor of a 50-story condo about a block from the seashore. Unfortunately, the building has approximately 3000 units serviced by only four elevator banks with a total of 12 lifts. It was painful waiting for an elevator, and not infrequently it would take upwards of 20 minutes to get from the lobby to our floor or vice versa. I will say, what the building lacked in people-moving apparatuses it more than made up for with its view over the Black Sea, especially after sundown when thunderstorms rolled in.

Watching a lightning storm from our balcony — Watching lightning from our balcony

Tips, Tricks & Transportation – We booked a mixture of Airbnbs and B&Bs for our seven week tour of Georgia. Payment for Airbnb rentals is done by credit card through their app; the B&Bs all wanted cash – Georgian Lari (GEL), roughly a two-to-one exchange rate with our Canadian dollar. Both the BasisBank and Liberty Bank financial institutions do not charge a service fee for ATM withdrawals, and given that Batumi is a gambling haven we had no trouble finding bank machines. If you were looking to simply exchange currency, money changers were readily available too – probably easier to find than banks!

Looking down a street in old town Batumi towards the Batumi Tower that has a ferris wheel built into the side of it

We had our first encounter with Georgian driving etiquette using Bolt, an Estonian ride-hailing service found throughout Europe, Africa, Western Asia, and Latin America. Patience is not a prerequisite for the job – drivers take any opening available to weave their way through traffic!

Out and About – While I wouldn’t describe us as beachy people who like to spend time lounging on the seashore, we do enjoy walking along either the beach or a nearby promenade, preferably one that might be somewhat shaded. The Batumi shoreline is rocky and not particularly inviting.

Sunbathers on the rocky Batumi shoreline

Walking along the boardwalk in early evening

The 8km long seafront promenade, set well back from the shore, offered very little respite from the blazing sun, but was full of interesting eye-catchers with the Ali and Nino kinetic sculpture being one of the most captivating. A Georgian take on Romeo and Juliette, Ali was an Azerbaijani Muslim who fell in love with Nino, a Georgian (Christian) princess. After finally overcoming familial objections, they were permitted to marry only to have Ali killed in WWI. The emotion of their story is captured by the continually moving metal lovers who are joined together for only the briefest of moments (click here to view our time-lapse video of the sculptures in action).

The Ali and Nino kinetic sculpture, where the two structures continually on the move — The Ali and Nino kinetic sculpture, where the two structures are continually on the move (click the link above to watch our time-lapse video)

The city is an eclectic mix of architecture, perhaps best exemplified by the McDonald’s housed in a glassy dome glinting in the sunshine juxtaposed with a Soviet-era concrete hulk that a first glance appears abandoned until you realize there is everyday laundry drying on the balconies.

Batumi is a strange mix of architecture, including this ultra-modern McDonalds with a drive-thru around a pond in front of an old run-down soviet style build — Batumi is a strange mix of architecture, including this ultra-modern McDonalds with a drive-thru around a pond in front of an old run-down Soviet-style build.

Us – If you haven’t picked up on it already, Batumi will not find a spot on my highlight reel of places to visit. I really didn’t care for it; Howard was slightly more favourably disposed. The city feels like it’s suffering from an identity crisis – glitzy high-rise condos and hotels line the seafront against the backdrop of a 19th-century historic town-center and mid-20th century Soviet architecture. Rather than feeling fun and quirky, I found the vibe weird and uncomfortable. Off on a 29-day road trip to explore the rest of the country – here’s hoping Batumi has not foreshadowed what is to come!

Whitney off to grocery shop in a modern area of Batumi near our apartment

Restaurants – Batumi introduced us to two of Georgia’s national dishes: khinkali and khachupuri. Khinkali are large dumplings traditionally filled with a beef and pork mixture seasoned with some or all of the following spices: coriander, garlic, caraway, cumin, savory, and onion. The dough encases the meat with the top of the dumpling pleated together to create a handle called a kudi (tail). These pleated pouches are then boiled to cook the meat inside. To eat a khinkali you take hold of the kudi, flip it over so the tail points down, and take a tiny bite of the dumpling skin to suck out the “soup” (the accumulated meat drippings) before enjoying the meaty/doughy remains – just don’t be so gauche as to eat the kudi, like some uneducated foreigner. In addition to meat khinkali, a yummy cheese and potato version very similar to a pierogi is popular too, although it doesn’t have any soup inside.

The proper way to eat a Khinkali ( I Googled it before trying): pick it up by the "kudi" tail, turn upside-down, bite a small hole in the top edge, then suck out the "soup" juices that are inside before eating the rest of the meat fille dumpling. The kudi dough lump is not eaten, and just left on the plate so you can count how many you consumed. — The proper way to eat a Khinkali (Howard Googled it before trying): pick it up by the “kudi” (tail), flip it upside-down, bite a small hole at the top edge, then suck out the “soup” that has accumulated inside during cooking, before eating the rest of the meat filled dumpling. The kudi dough handle is not eaten, and just left on the plate so you can easily keep track of how many you consume.

Khachapuri is a Georgian cheese bread, and the adjaruli version is a bit like a personal cheese fondue. Leavened bread dough is flattened to about the thickness of naan bread and then shaped into a shallow bowl by rolling the edges inward, creating slightly elongated knobs on each end. The dough boat is filled with a creamy mixture of imeruli (similar to mozzarella), sulguni (similar to feta), and crème fraiche (similar to sour cream), with a small indentation made in the middle to accommodate a subsequently added egg. The khachapuri is baked to a golden brown finish with the egg added just at the end to set the white, while leaving the yolk nice and runny. Once the piping hot bread bowl is delivered to your table, top it with a generous dollop of butter, mix that in with the melted cheese and egg, and then break off chunks of the bread to scoop up the gooey deliciousness. Soooo good, soooo filling – a dish best shared.

The Khachapuri, which is like a cheese fondue in it's own bread bowl. You stir the cheese, egg and butter together before pulling apart the bread to dip in the mixture. — The Khachapuri, which is like a cheese fondue in it’s own bread bowl. You stir the cheese, egg and butter together before pulling apart the bread to dip in the mixture.

Speech – Ქართველე (Georgian) is a Kartvelian language indigenous to the southern Caucasus region. Spoken and written by approximately five million people worldwide, most of whom are located in Georgia (with its population of 3.7M), Russia, Iran, northeastern Turkey, and Israel, it has no known relationship to any other language family. The oldest Kartvelian inscriptions (circa 430 CE) were discovered in a Georgian monastery near Bethlehem in 1952. Most Georgians also speak Russian having long been under Soviet control – English speakers are few and far between.

Attempting to use the local language often elicits a smile, but I must say the joy we saw exploding across faces in Batumi when we used “madloba” was unexpected and heartwarming.