In the morning mom wanted to prepare some breakfast so we decided to go for grocery shopping. It took surprisingly long. Whenever I found some bigger grocery store on the map or just in the distance, it came out it was still closed at this time in the morning or was in general renovation. We ended up in just regular small shop where mom could communicate to limited degree in Russian with old lady working there. We did quite a distance around in the end so my mom was tired when we finally returned to the hotel. When everyone finally got prepared and we ate something, we went out for the beach. We went in opposite direction and settled in some spot for a while close to the water. I tried to enter the water and to my chagrin, I discovered that small stone cover was going far to the sea so it was uncomfortable to walk to the water. I didn’t understand how some people around seemed to be not bothered at all, children running around as if it is just regular sandy beach. I was comforted that I wasn’t alone in this and Damian was also limping while trying to get deeper to the water. After a short while, Gosia checked point of interests on the map and told us that from there it is not reasonable for us to go somewhere on foot and we should take taxi and go to Old Town and places around.
Taxi dropped us just close to some Orthodox church so we decided to enter. From experience I felt that again there will be some tension with how mom and Gosia are dressed or if we behave appropriately. Almost whole floor of the church was covered by hay for some reason. Taking photographs were forbidden, but they tried to sneakily take some. Just after leaving church, we went to so-called Piazza which was just few steps away. It was like public square taken directly out of Italy’s town. It wasn’t wrong impression, because as we read, it is officially called Piazza and was inspired by Italian architecture. Mosaic art in the center of the square was circled by shops, cafes and hotels. They wanted to drink coffee so it was place just perfect for that. After sipping through our coffees, we headed into direction of the sea. The street that lead us was cozy and picturesque, fitting for Mediterranean climate. Despite of just finishing one coffee, Damian and Gosia taken interest in one cafe that were doing coffee out of “sand” which is, as I learned later, Turkish style of preparing coffee. I was tempted with taking one as well, because they had vegan cappuccino. It was particularly artsy type of cafe with beautiful painted wall evoking sense of wetland ecosystem. At the back of it there was handcraft workshop where young woman was selling her own handcraft. Fittingly to the name of workshop - Lovecrafts - it was mostly mix of cute and grotesque, plush toys and small figurines.
When we arrived at the port, we were haggled by people on the boats offering various activities at the sea, like paragliding while being dragged by motorboat. Damian and Gosia were interested so they wanted to get to know price ranges. My instinct was to avoid such offers after traveling solo, but being in a group makes things more affordable. We decided on paragliding in pairs, but leaving it for the next day. Damian and Gosia would obviously go together so it would force mom to go with me. She was scared, but we had whole day to change her mind. At the port we found Ali and Nino dynamic metal sculpture. It’s a relatively new artwork, created only in 2010, but it already become iconic landmark for Batumi, its likeness reproduced everywhere from billboards to tourist souvenirs like fridge magnets, t-shirts and mugs. It’s inspired by old romance novel telling the tragic tale of two lovers. Ali, Azerbaijani Muslim man and Nino, Georgian Christian woman. Reminder that inter-communal love beyond barriers happen everywhere in the world and reach tragic end more than it should. It is artwork of two silhouettes made out of stacked metal plates that move in circle on trails to and from each other in a matter of around half an hour. When they approach each other, most resonant moment for me is when they seem to tenderly lean into each other, find brief respite on each other shoulders, just before they blend into themselves however briefly, to be separated in the end.
The port is very tourist oriented place and one of attractions that got Damian and Gosia attention was spinning wheel. Mom was hesitant to get onto it, but we convinced her. It was quite tall spinning wheel, but it’s very slow moving which my mom commented about that while we were already on the top. Damian joked about mom that she was so panicking about it, but she don’t find it scary anymore. He pointed that it is exactly same with paragliding and she should give it a shot. Mom said that she’s adamant about that and paragliding is much scarier. We still have little more work on her to convince her. After strolling around the port for a little bit more, we were hungry. We went back to the direction of Old Town, looking for place to eat. We ended up in streets cramped by Turkish halal restaurants and we entered one such restaurant. I was tad worried that nothing on the menu look like potentially vegan so we decided to change the place. Among Turkish restaurants we found one Indian so we entered there.
Menu was more North Indian in style, but I was convinced that waitress is South Indian. They didn’t have other clients at the moment so I didn’t feel hesitant to talk to her a little bit. When I learned that she’s from Kerala, my family exchanged knowing looks. I told her briefly about my visit to India, the wedding and which places I visited in Kerala. I learned that her name is Riba, she’s from around Alappuzha and studies medicine in Georgia (like Sai Pallavi, I mentioned), working part time only as waitress. She was adorable and seemed to be genuinely nice. I wished to just talk with her more, but I didn’t want to push it too much. Family teased me about her relentlessly, but they seemed to like her immediately too. They were happy and filled with food as well. We promised that we will come here again. Of course, they wanted to encourage me to get to know her better.
After eating, we returned to the hotel via taxi. We all went for a nap, but after short one for me, I didn’t want to waste my limited time at the vacation in the hotel. I informed mom that I’m going for a swim. I didn’t have SIM card with network here, we shared WiFi here from two phones that had it, so I had to return before they wake up and decide to leave, because at this point we wouldn’t have way to communicate. Despite of that, I taken my time and get to swim long enough that I was satisfied. Waves were very minuscule so it was easy relaxing time. I swam along the coast back and forth and then looked for my clothes. When I returned to the hotel they were still chilling. At least I didn’t have to feel guilty that they waited for me. It started to get late and I watched sunset from the balcony. Soon afterwards we left to the city again.
In many ways we were retracing our morning path, but the city felt different at night. Old Town bustled with life, especially the streets with Turkish restaurants. The family taken their time to sit and drink tea while call to prayer from the mosque engulfed area. We went to the Indian restaurant for late evening snacks, they had ulterior motive of giving me opportunity and push to talk to Riba again. Of course I had few exchanges with her when we were ordering, but Gosia tried to encourage me to take her contact. She asked if she should take contact from Riba, if that would be more appropriate. Gosia said that I should go and pay, which would give me another opportunity for talk. I sheepishly went, paid for us, smiled, but didn’t have courage to say anything. I always had some doubts about attempting to get too familiar with waitresses, because it’s their job to be nice. Additionally, what could follow up with getting contact? I didn’t plan to return to Georgia any time soon. When we left restaurant, I immediately felt regret. I noticed certain disappointment on Gosia and Damian too. Afterwards we strolled around Old Town for a bit. My mood diminished significantly, but I tried to keep straight face and not spoil evening to others. I felt it’s silly, but perhaps I had some glimmer of hope that such contact could fill gaping hole in my heart. After some more time of wondering around we returned to the hotel.