Living in a Georgia Paradise

This past weekend I explored the beautiful beach town of Batumi. It is located right on the Black Sea and has started to become a new and exotic vacation spot over the past few years. During the summer months people flock from all over the world to enjoy Batumi's beaches, cafes on the water, and night life! It was great to go off season and get a real taste of the this Georgian city's life. 

I took the train by myself from Samtredia and met up with all my friends from Tblisi. My Georgian father works on for the rail roads so he made sure I was taken care of. I not only did I not have to pay for my train ticket, but he arranged a conductor to escort me to my hotel. I love how protective he is, yet having to ride the train into the train yard with only 5 Georgian men and myself left on the train didn't make me feel that safe. 

The city was beautiful and my friends enjoyed what we could of it considering it was raining all day Saturday. The beach was no Jersey shore thats for sure. It was covered with huge colorful rocks that can feel quite painful if you happen to take your shoes off. My friend Melissa and I wanted to put our feet in the Black Sea and just as we stood there to take a picture the waves came crashing up on us and soaked us to our hips. It really didn't matter too much since I was already wet from the rain! Afterwards, we walked around more of the city and checked out the local art museum.

That night a bunch of TLG volunteers and I went to a free Coolio concert. For those of you not familiar with this washed up rapper from the 1990's, your not missing much. His greatest hits consists of "Gangsters Paradise" and ummm thats about it. The concert was fun because the Georgians were sooo into it, and for a second I felt like I was 22 years old in 1995. We ended up going to the after party at the club and since were in Georgia, Coolio actually showed up. 

A few of my friends and I went over to say hello, and soon we were sipping champagne and being spoon fed fruit by none other than Coolio himself. I asked him why he didn't sing "Rollin' with my Homies" (my favorite Coolio song) and he responded by slurring, "I forgot." Oh Coolio. Such a disappointment. 

He eventually pulled me off the couch and started to dance with me and as I turned away he said, "Are you afraid of me?" I said, "No." (Scared look on my face). "Are you afraid of the dark?" I replied, "No." (Starting to nervously laugh). And before I knew what was coming he dipped me back and gave me a huge smacker on the lips! My friend Melissa came to the rescue and pulled him off of me, and he gave her the look of death. We quickly tried to exit the scene and ran to the coat area to regroup. As we chatted with a few of our friends, Coolio and his crew came sweeping by us. It seemed like he was being escorted out. As he walked by me and tried to grab my arm and said, "Come onnn!!" Oh yeah Coolio, like I would really go anywhere with you! So lesson of the night is, stay away from crazy rappers unless you want a great story and want to totally rock Six Degrees of Separation. 


The next day my friends and I had a lovely lunch at a restaurant right on the water. We even saw a huge ship from Ukraine come into the port. Then, a few of us hit up the Stalin Museum. The real Stalin Museum is located in Gori where he grew up, but the museum in Batumi is located in the house he lived in for two years from the age of 20-22. He started some underground illegal political groups in Batumi during this time. It was really interesting to learn about Stalin since I'm not too familiar with Soviet history. As my Georgian gets better I hope to have conversations with my family about life during the Soviet era. I find it all so fascinating! I felt a bit strange at the museum because the tour guide kept making us take pictures with Stalin and the former Soviet Union flag. I swear I'm not a Communist!