Miles Driven: 60 miles
Time in Car: 2 hours
Borders Crossed: 1
Our longest border crossing of the trip thus far was had Thursday morning at the Turkish border with Georgia. While Mike, Joe, and Dan walked through customs, Tanner had to man the vehicle through the Turkish-Georgian car crossing protocol. After roughly an hour or so though, we were in Georgia and only had a short ride to Batumi, our destination for the day.
The Golden Arches
Batumi is Georgia’s resort city on the Black Sea. It’s often referred to as “The Las Vegas of the Black Sea” due to it’s economy being driven primarily by gambling. While it doesn’t hold a candle to Vegas, Batumi may be more appropriately named “Bonvoy” as Marriott properties dominate the skyline. Batumi in general is currently in process of an architectural facelift. All around Batumi, a number of modern hotels and condo buildings are under development replacing the 1980s Soviet eye sores scattered throughout the city. Not too far from our Airbnb was likely the coolest McDonald’s we’d ever seen - it resembles a glass spaceship.
Find a Georgian restaurant and eat this.
In Georgia, we had two preconceived notions confirmed: 1) the food is cheap and amazing and 2) the drivers are crazy. The former we discovered in a $15 lunch in which we ordered three Khachapuris (cheese filled bread boat topped with a fried egg), two orders of Khinkali (dumplings), and six beers. The latter we discovered soon after the Turkish border. Drivers interpret two lane roads as three lane roads. Passing is always allowed. Traffic laws are suggestive in nature. We’ll be eating lots of carbs in Georgia but we’ll also be practicing our defensive driving skills.
With our day in Georgia, we checked out one of the many rock beaches to escape the summer heat. Afterwards we walked the famous boardwalk along the sea to downtown before taking a gondola up to a bar that overlooked the city landscape. There we enjoyed beers, the sunset, and traditional Georgian dancing complete with Mike learning some moves to bring back to the states and try out at the bars. Dinner brought more Khachapuri (to the displeasure of no one) and Georgian wine. At 10 bucks a bottle, it was our duty to get two and it was a nice change up from the lager beer we had drinking all trip. Today, we head to Tbilisi, a city with a lot of hype from this team. It’s the birthplace of wine, a bustling party town, and full of restaurants worth visiting. Until then - FWY
Batumi skyline at sunset