I started my day with going for a swim alone again. I didn’t want to loose time I had here, so when Damian and Gosia was still sleeping and my mom slowly waking up, I informed her that I will return soon. Water was pleasant, not very warm, but not cool either. There were already quite a lot of people at the beach at this time, but it wasn’t crowded yet.
Our first agenda for the day was paragliding. We went to the port and started to look for best offers. At this point my mom was still insisting that she won’t go flying, but she entered the boat, imagining that she will get on a ride while only we go up. But deal was already for two pairs. Gosia and Damian went first. It looked almost like being pulled up by elevator. Slow, steady movement, nothing to be afraid of, as I negotiated with mom. In the meantime, boat crew dressed up us in gear so I knew that mom couldn’t back away now. She was telling me to say that she won’t go, but I just was replying not to worry. When Damian and Gosia returned down, they were excited. Mom was saying to us again to tell boat crew that she won’t go, upon which Damian replied smirking, “Tell them yourself”. Mom didn’t know what to do, she was probably too embarrassed to attempt any communication with boat crew, who wouldn’t probably understand her either as they were too young to know Russian perhaps (although working with tourists, maybe it wasn’t true). Me and mom were connected to paraglider. It felt like wind was blowing strongly into parachute (but it was boat moving, relative movement), but there were no sudden haul, just gently elevation. We climbed very quickly to the top and were dragged by the boat for a while. Mom said with surprise that it’s actually not scary at all. I could only say that it was what we were trying to say to her all along. From above, I felt that I properly saw Batumi’s landscape for the first time. Eclectic architecture of city skyline. Mountains circling around the coast and towering above the water. I never saw mountains and sea landscape blending so seamlessly into each other. My Polish brain was screaming that those two ecosystems don’t belong together, but for that it was only more striking and beautiful for me. Probably the biggest highlight though was when we spotted dolphins effortlessly swimming in swarm just under the surface and jumping out of water without loosing momentum.
We got hungry after it so we started to look for food. We went to familiar streets, we even passed by Indian restaurant, but she wasn’t working there in the morning. I tried to brush aside glimmers of hope and just move on. We went further than previously into other streets and we found actually Georgian restaurant. I ordered for myself variety of colorful pkhali and lobio (beans) which came in clay pot, it was generous with coriander as I already got used to it. After eating we returned to the port and from there to the beach. We weren’t on the beach of this side of Batumi before. It was same rock beach as elsewhere and just there we found few sunbeds. Family wanted to lay on them. Nobody was using them, in fact people around were just sitting and laying on the rocks. No restaurant or any other establishment wasn’t in proximity so they didn’t seem to belong anywhere. Yet, I wondered if it’s some Goldilocks situation and Three Bears will come soon to reclaim their belonging. Damian tried to stop me worrying and insisted it looks like publicly available. They lay down on them and I did too. I decided I will be going to swim for the most of the time either way. As I predicted some muscle man came claiming it’s private. Damian unbothered and half-sleepily started to negotiate and the guy allowed to stay on it for two hours. I have no doubt that the sunbeds were set up here exactly for such situations, tempting tourists to use them instead of rocks of the beach. Situation being clear now, I relaxed for a bit, but after a while I was just too tired of resting and went to swim. Sea bed was very steep here just few steps to the water, so I had to quickly overcome initial chill of water and submerge quickly. There were Indian family around and I tried to discern what language they use, but I couldn’t. My family went to swim for a little bit too, but they returned to sunbeds quickly and went to sleep. I didn’t want to follow in their footsteps so besides more swimming I went for a longer walk along the coast. At some point I decided it is enough time here and we loose too much of our last full day in Georgia so I waken them up.
Next on our agenda was to look for souvenirs. Among other things, the family looked for alcohol and things I wasn’t particularly interested in, but for once I was pretty clear what I wanted in souvenirs department. My friend Emilia wanted ugliest fridge magnet I could find and I just had one in mind - praise for Stalin. I bought one and thought about buying also pair of socks with Stalin (she’s also fan of colorful socks), but disapproving words from my mom, saying that one such thing is enough, discouraged me. Besides I bought some fridge magnets about Batumi and Georgia generally for myself. I wanted also some sweets and spices, but spices around this area were overpriced for tourists, so I decided I will wait with spices at least for more regular shops, but I bought some churchkhela. Obviously I wanted to buy some books too. We split and I went with mom (I didn’t have network on my phone so I couldn’t go on my own). First bookstore was too small and didn’t have much of translated books. Fortunately second one was just right and I found what I came for. I knew quite well what I want. I wanted Shota Rustaveli’s “The Knight in the Panther’s Skin”, which is medieval national epic of Georgia. I had specific English edition in mind, with illustrations and translation by Lyn Coffin that preserve poetic structure of original. For good measure I wanted to add some contemporary novel and I found “The Literature Express” by Lasha Bugadze which is about romance between Georgian man and Polish woman. Perhaps I would prefer reversed situation, but strong Polish accent in Georgian novel was reason enough to take it without hesitation.
When we all were done with souvenirs and gifts, we went for walk around. It came out that so close to the port there were still so much we didn’t see. We stumbled upon Statue of Medea, huge monument of Greek myth character associated with ancient Colchis, one of early ancient Georgian states. It was standing on Freedom Square circled by beautiful building. When we were looking around the Square and then walking even further away, I was really flabbergasted by how beautiful and creative architecture was here. Every building seems very different from others, but they somehow all manage to fit together. It really felt like just every building was interesting in some way. When it started to get dark and we were tired we decided to return to hotel.
I couldn’t rest in hotel too much though. Others wanted to stay for longer in hotel, but I was too restless and I also wanted to buy some spices. I went then to look around shops and I found nice basket with collection of spices, which was just perfect as a souvenir. After that I went to walk along the coast. It filled me with melancholia which was like distant echo of that other night, at the other coast, far away in another part of the world, in Kochi, when I was saying my goodbyes to India. It wasn’t as strong emotion as back then, but similarity of now reminisced me of then and feelings were amplified. I wanted to bask in this atmosphere of the coast at early night for longer and stretched it for a little bit, but eventually decided to return to the hotel. At the hotel, Gosia and Damian said that they wanted to go out to promenade too, although my mom was tired so she stayed in the hotel. We went around to buy some food and snacks and then went to promenade. We spent some time at the beach, but they taken some interest in entering club with guards outside. I felt that guards looked at us with suspicion and that we don’t look particularly fitting to the place, but they fixed their minds and we eventually entered. We sat at some place and they went to dance. They returned soon and said that one guard said them that they need to buy something first. Just after some young guy came and said that we are sitting at his place. We felt so unwelcome that we just left. Gosia was a little drunk and upset about the situation, she pontificated about morality and what kind of people they think they are, feeling superior. We spent some time at the water, small tides brought calmness before we returned to the hotel.