Batumi is a larger town on Georgian’s black sea-coast and I arrived just between two rain showers, giving me enough time to get my stuff dry to the next hostel. The hostel wasn’t the best one, but cheap and it did the trick. Given that I still felt a bit travel tired I booked three nights and intended to stay most of the time in the city and at the beach.
I gotta say, Batumi is lovely. The old town is charming with lots of nice old style architectures while the new skyscrapers at the seaside still fit perfectly in the scene.
As soon as the weather permitted it (so as soon as the rain stopped) I went to the beach and watched the sea or the sky (depending if I lied down or sat up) for a good two or three hours. Water always calms me down, and soon I forgot about the mashrutka, the weather, and the other travellers from the day before.
The day got even better when I found a coffee shop with a good coffee machine, a nice coffee dealer, and delicious coffee. It was 100% Arabic he proudly told me, after grinding, weighing, and pressing it. It was the best Espresso I had in four months. Consequently, the shop became my second home for the next three days.
Given that I needed to do some sort of sightseeing during my stay, I decided to hike up a hill to a close by monastery. I wasn’t really there for the monastery, but my coffee dealer told me about the amazing view of Batumi’s skyline, which piqued my interest. I could have taken a bus, but decided to walk all the, giving me the chance to discover the outskirts of Batumi, where the locals live. I passed by multiple small fruit and tobacco markets, and multiple large trucks full of watermelons. I’ve never seen so many watermelons at once. Once I got to the top of the hill a guard stopped me to hand me a long skirt and a scarf to cover my hair, before he allowed me to get to the monastery. Once more I thought that Christians and Muslims are really just the same thing. You switch a few prophets and the language and call it either bible or Quran, depending on your taste, and you are good to go. It doesn’t really matter in the end. In the few months I travelled through Iran and the two more conservative Christian countries I learned that both religions really have the same traditions and values (or non-values). We are just lucky that in the western world, religion is a little less strict these days.
The view from the top was worth it though, my coffee dealer was right. Since it was Sunday I could also witness a couple of baptisms and weddings. The dress taste of Georgian women clashed directly with the dress code given by the monastery, but they managed impressively well to show off as much skin as possible and use the headscarf to match their dresses perfectly.
I finished the day with my book and two coffee (an espresso and a cappuccino) and later went to the beach to see the sun set behind the sea. Beautiful. I couldn’t end my stay better and headed to Tbilisi with the early morning train the next day.
Getting to Sameba church and monastery
The church and monastery are well visible already from the city center, though the road up is a bit undiscovered on google maps and maps.me. I found google maps giving the better and more accurate information, but it was good to have some locals around who pointed me to the right way.
Bus number 1 and 1a are going to the bottom of the hill from where you can start walking. I also saw bus number 4 going a bit further up than number one, and the mashrutka number 34 passed by multiple times. I’m not sure where exactly it stops, but it will get you further up the hill than the two buses. I’m sure if you tell the driver where you want to go they will know where to drop you off best.
