We’re off to see the sea (eventually)
In the morning, we head off to the travel agency on the bikes and weave our way through the crazy traffic. The agency is now open, and it is little more than a flat with a chair a desk and a couple of seats.
Good news then.. the door was open and we could go in. Yep not the best picture of the agency, but a pretty dingy place. Light bulbs it seems are not in the budget.
The agency fella was reasonably friendly. After a bit of to-ing and fro-ing, we’ve established that the ferry is leaving in the early hours of the morning tomorrow. We’ll need to come back to the agency tonight, at around 10pm, to collect our tickets, although they can’t be certain at what time; it’ll all depend how loading goes. When we’re called, we need to come back right away, immediately. And when we come back we need bring payment.
Cash.
In Euros.
No cards (don’t be daft).
We’ve a little more time to see Batumi so we wander. We stop for a traditional Georgian Breakfast of Khachapuri, which is a Cheese Bread with egg. Excellent stuff.
“Hanging around down by the quayside, where the men dress as ladies..”
There’s no MOT in Georgia, as I think I might have mentioned. If it rolls, you’re good to go. Huge numbers of cars roll around with bits missing, mostly front bumpers.
I’d had a cursory look at trying to find a dentist for my tooth but without success, decided to leave it for a bit.
Stopping for a rest. Where’s that smell coming from…?
Fill up your own keg at the Supermarket. The first thing there at the entrance. Inspired..
More MOT failures..
In the centre of Batumi, they’ve put a lot of resources into making the place tourist friendly. In my reading about the country there seems to be a lot of controversy on how funds have been spent; spending on towers and finery when most of the population struggle. The contrast between in and out of town is something else.
Georgia five-O runabout in the posh bit..
Interesting fair ground ride in the middle of that thing…
The mountains inland in the distance
More MOT failures..
Brian needs to get some local currency. In what we’ve read about trying to catch the ferry, they only take cash in Euro. Since we don’t have enough Euros it will have to be the local thing, changed up at a bank or one of the many change places here into Euro.
After a while stood at the machine, Brian returns. Its got my card, he says and he’s got no money. Ah. We then establish where the branch of the bank is, so Brian hurries off to find out what has gone on, leaving me by the ATM to ensure it isn’t some sort of card scam, and some bloke doesn’t turn up to empty his bank account.
Brian returns after half an hour or so. Whilst he goes to make his complaint, he finds his card, which it turns out hasn’t been taken by the machine. There is no elaborate scam, turns out the machine doesn’t take his card, so it just spat it out and harrumphed for a while, in which time Brian picked it out of the machine and forgot about it.
All’s well then and it is a relief as I’d used most of my limit on the card I had to get cash to change. It would have been interesting to sort. We eventually changed money and we wander back to HQ to get ready to pack and wait about a bit for our call.
In the morning, we head off to the travel agency on the bikes and weave our way through the crazy traffic. The agency is now open, and it is little more than a flat with a chair a desk and a couple of seats.
Good news then.. the door was open and we could go in. Yep not the best picture of the agency, but a pretty dingy place. Light bulbs it seems are not in the budget.
The agency fella was reasonably friendly. After a bit of to-ing and fro-ing, we’ve established that the ferry is leaving in the early hours of the morning tomorrow. We’ll need to come back to the agency tonight, at around 10pm, to collect our tickets, although they can’t be certain at what time; it’ll all depend how loading goes. When we’re called, we need to come back right away, immediately. And when we come back we need bring payment.
Cash.
In Euros.
No cards (don’t be daft).
We’ve a little more time to see Batumi so we wander. We stop for a traditional Georgian Breakfast of Khachapuri, which is a Cheese Bread with egg. Excellent stuff.
“Hanging around down by the quayside, where the men dress as ladies..”
There’s no MOT in Georgia, as I think I might have mentioned. If it rolls, you’re good to go. Huge numbers of cars roll around with bits missing, mostly front bumpers.
I’d had a cursory look at trying to find a dentist for my tooth but without success, decided to leave it for a bit.
Stopping for a rest. Where’s that smell coming from…?
Fill up your own keg at the Supermarket. The first thing there at the entrance. Inspired..
More MOT failures..
In the centre of Batumi, they’ve put a lot of resources into making the place tourist friendly. In my reading about the country there seems to be a lot of controversy on how funds have been spent; spending on towers and finery when most of the population struggle. The contrast between in and out of town is something else.
Georgia five-O runabout in the posh bit..
Interesting fair ground ride in the middle of that thing…
The mountains inland in the distance
More MOT failures..
Brian needs to get some local currency. In what we’ve read about trying to catch the ferry, they only take cash in Euro. Since we don’t have enough Euros it will have to be the local thing, changed up at a bank or one of the many change places here into Euro.
After a while stood at the machine, Brian returns. Its got my card, he says and he’s got no money. Ah. We then establish where the branch of the bank is, so Brian hurries off to find out what has gone on, leaving me by the ATM to ensure it isn’t some sort of card scam, and some bloke doesn’t turn up to empty his bank account.
Brian returns after half an hour or so. Whilst he goes to make his complaint, he finds his card, which it turns out hasn’t been taken by the machine. There is no elaborate scam, turns out the machine doesn’t take his card, so it just spat it out and harrumphed for a while, in which time Brian picked it out of the machine and forgot about it.
All’s well then and it is a relief as I’d used most of my limit on the card I had to get cash to change. It would have been interesting to sort. We eventually changed money and we wander back to HQ to get ready to pack and wait about a bit for our call.