Dateline: Poti, Georgia—12 Mar. 2017

These reports are much easier to write earlier in the day. This one is being written at 11:30 p.m. because I took a nap for most of the early evening.

Today was the first day in a week where the weather cleared up. It was bright sun and blue skies over Poti. The wind even let up for a better part of the day. This got me out exploring.

I started with two goals, to get a photo of the Black Sea and to buy another box of band-aids. The first was the reason for coming to Poti. The second was because my first box was used up (they are sold in little boxes of ten).

I really had no other plan than to walk to towards the Sea until I found it.

One thing most all of the Georgian towns have in common are the ubiquitous Soviet-era apartment blocks. They’re ugly, but they weren’t built to win design awards. Some have had some renovations done, with varying levels of success. Some sit empty after having been stripped of anything valuable.

The old Soviet apartments are everywhere. No matter what else you can say, they were built to last.

Others are still occupied. The best way I’ve found to tell the difference is the laundry. If there’s clothes hung out to dry from the lines on the balconies, someone lives there. Clothes dryers are almost non-existent here. I don’t know if its the cost of buying one, or if they’re seen as a waste of electricity, but I’ve not seen one yet.

The funny part is that at home in the apartment we have both washer and dryer and the dryer never gets used. I bought a drying rack about a year ago and stopped using the dryer. This was purely to save money on electricity. It’s an older, less efficient model and since we have a pre-pay electric meter in the house with a digital readout, I can see the exact cost of drying a load of wash. Which was around a dollar each. The IKEA rack paid for itself after seven washes. So I can see why most people here don’t bother with even owning a dryer.

I kept walking towards the water, passing through several residential neighborhoods. Finally I could see just a thin dark line on the horizon telling me I was close. But it was still quite a walk, since the path I took led me through a seaside cow pasture. There was one beat up two wheel track “road” that I followed that ended where the beach sand started.

All around a herd of cows grazed.

A cow. With the Black Sea in the background.

The Black Sea truly earned its name. The water is dark, much like the Pacific Ocean when a storm rolls in.

As I walked back I passed by the main Poti police station. Much like in Tbilisi the police have some of the newest and nicest looking buildings around.

No matter where you go, the police seem to have the nicest stuff.

I crossed over the river and meandered my way towards the dockyards. This part of the walk really started to do me in. I had bought a bottle of water on my way to the Sea, but by this point it’d been empty for a while. Near the docks I saw a small restaurant with the cook sitting on the porch having a coffee with a taxi driver. I asked if she could fill up my bottle, as I didn’t want to buy a new one. At first there was a misunderstanding and she pulled a new bottle out of the fridge. I made a pouring motion while pointing to my bottle and she understood. I tried to give her a 20 Tetri coin for the trouble buy she wouldn’t take it. If I get over that way again, I’ll make sure to stop in to get a bite to eat there.

A statue at the entrance to the Poti harbor.

I only brought my camera in a small bag, and didn’t have my iPad for the city map on this walk. So I was navigating by feel and eventually made a large loop that brought me back to the bridge I originally crossed. Then it was just a matter of walking back through the open-air market and to the hotel.

I also happened to finally see some thick socks at one of the street vendors. I had given up even looking because every other place I looked only had thin dress socks. So those were an insta-buy. The last stop was the pharmacy across from the hotel and I was able to get another box of band-aids.

Once back in my room, I found out how much I had overdressed for the weather. My tank-top undershirt was soaked through, front and back. My long-sleeved tee shirt wasn’t quite as bad, but close. At this point I’m not sure my fleece jacket is as fresh as it was. Hopefully, a nights worth of airing out will help. If the weather is as nice tomorrow I’m skipping the jacket. The locals can stay bundled up if they want, but I’m not going to sweat to death again.

What's next?

More wandering around Poti. This time I’ll pick a different direction.

Use the MVW Travel tag to see all the posts in this series.