The Great Voyage across the Black Sea to Ukraine from Georgia

(John) We now consider ourselves the official experts on how to get on a UKR Ferry from Batumi to Illyichevsk, Ukraine. We got to Batumi on June 4th. The Griefswald was in port. We found the office - no easy feat as it is not marked - not even in Georgian. We just found the address from the web site. But it was an easy walk from our hotel, the Ilika. The UKR Ferry people were able to tell us that it was too late to get on the ship for the 5th (no problem, we had not seen Georgia yet), but we were to come back on the 10th to buy tickets for the 12th, or the 17th to buy for the 19th etc. We could not reserve, but they said there would be no problem; all of this conferred by sign language. They said the price would be $170 US and 1/2 price for under 12 years. So with hope in our hearts we went to see Georgia.

On the 17th we were back in Batumi, we had returned to the same hotel and were offered the same room for the same price. The toilet was still smelly and the shower still did not work, but it is hard to get a room for 60 GEL for 4 people in Georgia so we 'manned up' as my nephews in England would say and took it. Lesley and I got up at 7.30 and went to the office at 8.00am. It was shut so we waited until 8:30. Still shut, so we went back to the hotel, ate muesli in our room and tried again at 9:00. Still shut - Lesley gestured to a man across the street, pointed at the door to the office and her wrist. The man held up one finger on each hand to tell us that office opened at 11:00 am. So we went to buy some fruit. At 11:00 as we left our hotel, we bumped into Hannah whom we had met at Irina's guesthouse in Tbilisi. She had decided to go to Ukraine on the same ship as us. So the 5 of us wandered over to the shipping agents office to try our luck at getting on the ship. We arrived, announced our intention and were told “no problem”, we were shown upstairs where our passports were requested and all the names and information translated into Georgian and typed onto an invoice, which we were instructed to take to the Republic bank. The price was given in US dollars, but we could have paid in GEL. We decided to try and use U.S. travellers cheques. This was a mistake as it took 2 1/2 hours and two branches of the Republic bank, and a disagreement about commission fees to pay for the ticket. We got the commission fee down to $5 US from $35 because they had agreed to let us use the T.C.s but had not quoted the commission rate and I had signed $600 US worth. We felt a little sorry for the 5 or 6 female cashiers trying to complete the transaction for us. They had clearly not processed travellers cheques before and were struggling. We had submitted 7 cheques and I had to resign 3 of them as they were concerned that my signature did not look quite right. They knew I had signed them as they had watched me do it, and did not doubt me or the cheques but were worried that somebody further up the chain may question it. Once it was all over at the bank we went back to the shipping agent where the tickets were issued. They must have wondered what had happened to us, as getting the invoice paid should only have taken 20 minutes at most, even if we had stopped for cheese pie on the way. None of us really ever believed that the ship to Ukraine would ever happen and both Hannah and ourselves had researched the cost of flights from Batumi. So we celebrated our good fortune in the Lokanta next door to the agents office with a bowl of lentil soup.

We spent the rest of the day wandering around the town and looking for an Internet cafe that worked for us. We could not figure how to access email in the one next door to our hotel. We found a good one that allowed us to plug in the laptop, so Sam was able to post his blog. We also bumped into Hannah again. She joined us in the cafe and kept us company for the rest of the day. It was nice to have a different person in the group for Hannah is very easy going. We are happy that she decided to join us on the ship to the Ukraine.

For supper we found a tiny Russian restaurant that promised to be cheap. The food was good. Wholesome soup, dumplings and a whole deep fried chicken, that was so good. The highlight of the meal however was our waiter, who took it up himself to be our tourist information officer. We had a town map and he told us all the bus numbers and prices and times, he enthused about the botanical gardens, the musical fountains and when Hannah told him she lived in London his reaction was priceless as London was his dream destination. He was so pleasant that we gave him a Canada pin with a generous tip.

We returned the next day for more dumplings and soup. He was quite disappointed that Hannah was not with us but still managed to be pleasant and helpful.

Unfortunately, our spare day in Batumi was a washout. We managed to get to the beach and go for a swim in the Black Sea under dark cloudy skies, but by the time we had lunch and a nap, it was raining hard and any thoughts of trying to see more or do more in Batumi disappeared.

During a lull in the downpour, we went for supper and tried a place that was empty. This is rarely a good idea, but in Georgia an empty restaurant means a smoke free restaurant. Except this was more of a hard drinking beer and vodka parlour than a restaurant. Still, the lady standing at the door assured us that they had food. There was a menu in Georgian on the wall, from which we derived, with some help from Mhari, that they served Kebab and salad. So we ordered two of each. It came with a big basket of bread and a tankard of beer for me. The beer was poured from a tap that looked like any regular spigot you might find over an old sink. It was enough food for us and cost just 16 GEL (10 CAD) including the beer.

We woke up the day of our voyage and it was raining hard. It was still raining as we walked the short distance with our packs to the sea port building where we had to muster before boarding the ship. We arrived good and early but that was a mistake as the somewhat derelict bus that came to take us to the ship arrived good and late. The only thing that broke the tedium of the wait was two men who got really angry with a woman in a kiosk. There must have been some grave injustice as they were quite worked up, shouting and waving their arms. Lots of people got involved and all sorts of yelling was going on. It calmed down as quickly as it erupted but we still have no clue what it was all about. Eventually, the 40 people waiting all lined up and soon we had all passed our luggage through an x ray machine and got on the bus. Despite the rain that was still coming down at 2:00pm it was warm. Although the bus only had to take us 1 km to to the dock, by the time we had navigated the muddy potholes and badly parked cars and literally pulled onto the ship, I for one was hot and sweaty. It took a while for the bus load of passengers to gather in the ship. We were greeted by a burly policeman who checked our passports and our names off a list. Then, as we stood among rail cars in a massive cargo hold that served as the guest reception room, we must have looked like an impromptu union meeting or a group of refugees as a representative from the ship told us – something. Our new companion Hannah told us that we would be fined if we smoked in the non-smoking areas. Other than that though, important information was given and we had just had to hope it didn't matter. Then we were led along the wall, through the dimly lit cargo hold, past a long line of rail cars, all the time stepping over heavy metal chains until we reached an elevator that took 4 or 5 people and their luggage at a time up to the ships lobby, where we were to check in and receive our cabin assignments.

This was fine, except, having been prevented from smoking since boarding the bus at the sea port building roughly 20 minutes before, the predominantly male crowd had not had a cigarette. As the lobby was not a non-smoking area the air was very quickly unbreathable. This was annoying but it was a short distance to the outside deck where smoking was not allowed so I retreated there until it was our turn to check in. We were assigned a cabin with Hannah, our new family member, and were shown to a surprisingly spacious room with an attached toilet and shower, 4 large bunk beds and a couch that served as a 5^th berth. It was in the front of the ship, directly under the bridge, on the port side with two windows – sorry portholes. Later, a speaker in the wall requested all passengers to return to the lobby to be processed for leaving Georgia. Again the air was thick with cigarette smoke, so I ducked into the adjacent restaurant to breathe. While I did so Lesley, Hannah and Sam quickly got processed. Mhari somehow missed the cut and the two of us spent the next hour waiting outside for the queue to disappear so that we could get out of there. I refused to wait in line in the smoke so held up my passport to the immigration officers and indicated that they could find me outside. Eventually a crew member came and got me and asked me why I would not wait inside. I told him that it was too smoky and that it was disgusting and that my daughter and I did not smoke. He was defensive and said that there were only two places on board that smoking was allowed. Both were inside. For safety reasons, it was not permitted to smoke outside. So the two areas were the lobby, where I had to wait to be processed, and the TV/Games area just outside the cabin entrance. I complained that I had no choice but to be in a smoking area and that I would like to choose not to smoke. He pointed out that the restaurant was smoke free. I thanked him for that but decided that I would believe it when I saw it.

So that wasn't much fun. There are other issues on the ship. One is inappropriate sexual advances made to single woman travelling without male escorts. The other is drunk men getting into brawls. As we were nearing the end of lunch on the second day two big men starting fighting in the lobby. Fists, and chairs were thrown, kicks landed and the two culprits fell to the ground. Eight other men jumped in to stop them. Given that there is nothing to do on the ship other than watch fuzzy TV's, play backgammon, smoke and drink your face off, I suppose I shouldn't complain if some more exciting form of entertainment is offered.

Unless of course if it comes, as it did on the second night of the voyage, in the form of two very drunk Russian men banging on the door, rattling the handle, shouting and trying to get into the cabin while we were fast asleep. That really wasn't much fun. Judging from the subsequent noises, we think they had come to the wrong room, realized their mistake fairly quickly and then waited for their cabin mate to show up to let them in to the right room. They were chatting in the corridor for a long while before they finally entered their cabin.

The passengers on the ship generally start drinking right after breakfast. They are variously drunk by lunchtime, where after they sleep it off and then pick it up again after dinner. They also smoke all the time. We have called this voyage the Drunken Russian Smoking Cruise (DRSC). This most appropriately sums up the entertainment options and cultural focus of the cruise.

Our main focus was mealtimes.  Regular as clockwork three times a day and just enough to sustain a person so long as they were not too active until the next meal.  When the announcement came to come to the restaurant we almost ran to our seats.  We had been assigned a table on the first day and we shared table number two with two nice men from Azerbaijan.  One is a body guard for politicians and the other is the director of a construction company and owns two Karaoke clubs.  They were off to Yalta in the Crimea to have a good time.

We initially thought the DRSC would be for 2 nights and three days. We have heard different things about when we will arrive in Ukraine. The latest is that we will dock at 4am which means we will have been on board for most of three nights. We will pack our bags before we sleep and expect an early call.

Next morning – blessed relief. We were not woken up before the dawn. The ship sailed into the channel at Illyichevsk at 6:00am. At 7:00am it was still cruising slowly past docks while we ate breakfast: At 7:30am we were cleaning out our rooms and handing in our sheets and towels. At 8:00am we were called to be processed for immigration. At 9:00am we were given our passports. At 10:00am we were let off the ship and packed into a sweltering hot waiting bus. At 10:30 the bus left the side of the ship and drove 150 yards to a building. At 11:00 after waiting in the building for half an hour we were told to leave our bags in the building and leave the building. Then a cocker spaniel was sent in to the building and sniffed all our bags. At 11:15 we returned to the building and got into line to go through immigration and customs. This was yet another painstakingly slow process. At 12:15 our children entered the Ukraine - we had got separated from them in line.  At 12:30 Lesley and I joined them. There was a small money exchange at the building, but it did not change Georgian Lari. So we did not bother as we had enough UAH for a day or two. We figured we could get a taxi that we were told would cost 10 Euros into Odessa. But there were no taxis. There was a road though and we were told that buses went on this road and that some of them went to Odessa, so we lugged ourselves and our packs 500 metres, climbed an embankment, jumped a barrier, asked some kids which way to Odessa, dodged traffic and before long a bus arrived. Our new family Hannah had not quite managed to shake us yet and had some UAH in useful denominations, so she kindly paid our bus fare for us when we arrived in Odessa at around 1:00pm. We paid Hannah back in US dollars, said goodbye and went to McDonald's to open our email and eat ice cream so we could cool down and remember where our hotel was. That is the end of my story and that is how you get on a ship to the Ukraine from Georgia.  After you have looked at the pictures be sure to check the previous blog by Lesley.

Photos: Views of our ship as she came in to Batumi; Waiting in Sea Port Building; In the cargo hold and en route to the lobby; Our well appointed cabin; views from on board.

Another view. Note Lesley, German girls, Hannah and two leering men; A view from our porthole; Our dinner table; Arriving in Illyichevsk; Our table-mates from Azerbaijan; Waiting on the bus as we left the ship.