Last days in Georgia (Sam)

(Sam) We took a Marshrutka from Borjomi to some other town, and from there to Batumi. The bus to Batumi was very squished seeing as most people were either coming home from shopping sprees in Tbilisi or going to Batumi for a vacation and bringing a different outfit for each day. The rest of the family had a great ride except I was stuck beside an extremely fat guy whose thigh is now imprinted into my leg. The ride only got worse when the driver started playing Justin Bieber tunes, boy was I glad to get off.

The area of Batumi that borders the coast is full of renovated old buildings, fountains and posh hotels whereas about 500 metres back crumbling old apartments and horribly potholed roads are the norm. There is a great park called “Batumis Bulvari” that runs along the beach. It has cafes, restaurants, dancing fountains and lots of sculptures. We found a great restaurant that serves these little Russian dumplings and a really good soup, we ate here quite a bit. The reason we came to Batumi was to catch a ship to Odessa, we are on this ship as I write but we are letting my Dad write that blog so you can check it out there.

Observations on Georgia

• Many grey Soviet apartments  have been repainted in bright colours
• Cigarettes cost between 1 and 2 dollars a pack
• Vodka can be bought for as cheap as 3.50$ for 500 ml
• Kachipuri (cheese pies or pastries) are really good and cost about 1 dollar
• The bus stations are nearly as bad as the Indian ones
• People lose their temper a lot, a shock coming from the Middle East where it is unheard of to raise your voice
• Restaurants are much harder to come by here than they were in most other countries we visited, but they're worth the effort
• I smoke at least 2 packs a day just from second hand smoke
• Georgian men smoke at least two packs a day, and that's just the first hand stuff
• I wish we brought trekking equipment because the hiking opportunities are amazing
• There are Soviet era statues and monuments all over the place
• The roads are either unpaved, paved or used to be paved but now only half the paving remains
  
  By the way it was not my choice to have the bullets as flowers, 
  I just don't know how to change it.