Day 7 Eggs and Ferris Wheels

Day 7 June 3, 2007

Yusefeli-Hopa-Sarpi-Batumi

We crawled out of our tree house around 7:30 and went on the hunt for some breakfast. We didn’t have to go too far as the campground provided this meal as well. We ordered more eggs along with some bread and cheese items. The eggs came back a little less than hard-boiled. Not my favorite way to eat an egg but it was better than nothing-or so I thought. Mike was also not a big fan of soft boiled eggs but he slurped his down as well. Then we settled up with the owner and went into town to catch our bus.
We bumped down and up windy roads on our way to Hopa. I enjoyed the scenery while Mike took a little nap. It was pretty hot in the bus despite the attempts at air conditioning but Mike was sweating and looking paler than normal. He clearly wasn’t up to his chipper self. I hoped it was just travel fatigue but after a bit it was clear he was getting worse. Glad I had saved many of our plastic bags I was ready for the inevitable. Once Mike’s stomach had been purged of the egg, he began to feel much better. And the rest of the journey to Hopa was pretty uneventful. We climbed into a densely forested mountain range that runs all along the Black Sea Coast of Turkey. It was apparent that the mountains received quite a lot of rain and indeed it began to precipitate as we gained elevation.
At around 1:00 the bus dropped us off in Hopa. It was a pretty large city so we figured it would be pretty easy to get to the border. We started to walk along the main street in what we hoped was the direction to Georgia. Since we had no more maps or guidebooks we were just guessing. Luckily we guessed correctly and pretty soon a mini-bus stopped and asked us if we were on our way to the border. As we were, we hopped in and continued on.
In sharp contrast to Posof, there were tons of people and all sorts of vehicles trying to cross at Sarpi (or Sarp- depending on if you are speaking Turkish or Georgian-and I can’t remember which one is which!). It seemed that getting to Georgia would be no problem. After being checked and stamped in Turkey, we moved on to Georgia where we were checked and stamped again. We had purchased some Turkish wine for a friend and hoped that it wouldn’t be a problem brining it in. At the baggage searching station we hauled our backpacks onto the table- a little nervous about perhaps having to pay duty on the alcohol. We weren’t really sure about the rules, not being experts in contraband. But we had no need to worry as the bag search was pretty lame. I unzipped my back pack and she didn’t even really look inside. So the wine smuggling was no problem. We gathered up our stuff and made our way to the parking lot where there were several mini-buses waiting too take us to Batumi, a large city part of a semi-autonomous region of Georgia, on the Black Sea. We crammed into the next bus waiting to leave and we were pretty happy with how well our luck was going. Mike was sitting in a seat in front of me and about 10 minutes into the bus-ride he turned around and asks me if I have his camera. A giant wave of panic washed over me!! SHIT!! I didn’t have it and I couldn’t remember if I was supposed to have it. We had been so careful for the whole trip making sure we always had the camera but we had slacked off! This is of course nor ordinary photo taking device! Mike’s camera is probably his most important possession. And this is his second one since coming to Azerbaijan. The first one broke in a freak dropping accident and he had been cameraless for months until he bought this new- 10.4 mega pixel who knows what other bells and whistles it has-off of E-bay- at a not so cheap price- those megapixels cost a bundle! Photography is his hobby and he had taken some incredible pictures from our trip. So the situation was bad, really bad. We discussed our predicament, and no, I wasn’t supposed to have it, but he didn’t have it either. It was not in the bus hiding between seets. Once we were sure that it was not in our possession we knew we had to go back and try to find it. Mike was pretty sure that he had it at the border crossing but may have left it on the bag search table.
We got off at the first stop, walked across the road and waited for a bus going back the other way. We were pretty desperate so we started flagging down anyone we saw going by. Luckily in a few minutes a mini-van with Turkish plates stopped and the guy gave us a lift back to the border. I waited in agony while Mike talked his way back into the border area.
Words cannot express the relief I felt when I saw him five minutes later, walking towards me with a big smile and his camera. I don’t know if I could have picked up the pieces of Mike if he had lost his precious camera!!!
Batumi ho take 2! Back in a crowded mini-bus we were on our way again. The first thing we did once we got into the city was go to the train station and get tickets for that evening’s overnight to Tbilisi. The train didn’t leave until 10 PM (and this time we remembered to set our clocks ahead- so we wouldn'te miss our train!)
We went back into town to get something to eat and walk along the Sea. We gorged ourselves on pizza and khajapuri (A Georgian cheese and bread specialty) and then strolled along the boardwalk. We saw a ferris wheel in the distance and decided to head for that and have a ride to take in the views from above. Along the way we came across a large children’s presentation of sorts. There were pictures children had created hung around this Greek-style performance area and it was clear that they were preparing for some sort of theatrical performance. We hung around for a bit waiting for the show to start. When it became clear they were still a ways away from the opening act we continued on to the Ferris wheel. A pretty long line waited us but it seemed to be moving fairly quickly. We also were delighted to see that it appeared to be for free! There was not a ticket booth in sight! The giant wheel was clearly a new addition to the boardwalk area. It was one of the really slow ones that never stops so you have to time it right and jump in as the other people are jumping out. We sprung in and had a cute little car/bench to ourselves. We were about an hour early for the sunset but we still had amazing views of the Black Sea and Batumi.
After our ride we walked back along the beach (which was pretty rocky) I dipped my feet in the water, there were several people swimming-and we had our swimsuits with us but it wasn’t hot enough to be that inviting. Then we sat and watched the sun sink into the clouds and then the Black Sea.
Once the sun was gone we went back to the stage, where the performance was in full swing. Each of the kids walked out and spoke a little speech into the microphone. I think they were all supposed to be dressed up as various famous people. One guy even brought his German Sheppard and tried to do a little dance routine with him. Another guy was dressed as Elvis and spoke in English. It was very cute. We both agreed that although we had seen many interesting sights during our travels, Batumi was the coolest city we had visited. It was getting late so we decided to make our way to the train station. When we arrived we were very pleased to see a much newer version of the Soviet style trains that we are used to in Azerbaijan.
It was still big and clunky but the compartments were all new and outfitted with T.V.s- which also had a CCTV station so we could see if someone was coming to our room. We also had fun poking our heads out of our little room, trying to see ourselves on camera. Simple minds simple pleasures!
At the second stop we were joined in our compartment by two middle-aged Georgian women- both of whom snored pretty loudly. So we didn’t get much sleep on that night either.