Back from the seaside. Part 1

The introduction

Hello people, I hope you are doing all fine, now  I want to tell you about our trip back to Tbilisi from the seaside.

Well, yes, we went there another time, too, just this time my sister was not there and my father and mother were there with us, too, finally. You know, they were supposed to be there at the seaside at the first time we went there with my sister, but some things didn’t work out and they couldn’t come and they were pretty sad about it, because, of course, they wanted to spend some time with us at the beach and stuff like that, however, they couldn’t come with us, so that they decided that, maybe, they could somehow manage to have some free time to go to the seaside with us some other time and that  other time came in the beginning of September and we all _ well, excluding my sister, who had to return to Germany somewhere at the end of August _ went to the seaside. It was my brother’s car that we went with and, of course, my brother was driving it the whole time, he didn’t want anyone else to drive the car. And he says, that he can’t stand sitting next to the driver and not doing anything at all, I mean, not driving and stuff like that, you know. He just can’t do that. It’s he who should be driving the car!

Well, there are two birthdays in September in our family, if you want to know the truth and it’s my mother’s and my father’s birthdays, so that we celebrate them, of course, and it’s been some years that we celebrate my mother’s birthday somewhere in Batumi or Sarpi and stuff like that. It’s on the 3-rd of September and we usually go to the seaside that time, I mean , in the beginning of September, you know, so that we can go to Batumi and then to Sarpi and have some celebrating dinner with Georgian wine and stuff like that. Sarpi is on the border of Georgia and Turkey, if you want to know the truth, so that people who want to cross the border have to go there and go through that control and stuff. Well, you can cross the border just with your ID card and people  usually go there and then there’s this huge marketplace as I know (I haven’t been there for shopping or anything) and people go there and buy some stuff and those stuff are sold pretty cheap and then they come back and some sell those items, some just buys them for themselves as the market is really cheap and you can buy so many things there and you can buy anything there, you know. So, it’s a place where you can find many Georgians as the border crossing is not hard and it’s pretty simplified and one doesn’t need many things to cross it, so that people just decide to go there and do some shopping and so that they go and buy some stuff. It’s pretty cool, if you want to know the truth, because they sell things so cheaply, that one should definitely go and buy some stuff there. However, if you just want one or two things and you are in Tbilisi and you don’t really have any business in western Georgia, you won’t go specifically for those two things in Sarpi on that long road and cross the border and go to that marketplace and buy those two things and come back to Tbilisi, you know. Well, if those things are not there in Tbilisi and you know that you can definitely buy them in Turkey, then, of course, you will hit the road and go there, but I’m saying that people go there to buy many things and not just one or two, you know.

Anyways, we were getting ready for our trip to the seaside. It was planned to stay there for a week or ten days or so. And my parents wanted to go to that sandy beach, not the ones that have stones there and it’s kind of better, if you want to know the truth, because it’s really hard to walk on those stones and stuff like that. I struggled pretty much with walking on those stones while going into the sea and coming out, you know, it’s pretty hard. Well, you can have your flip flops or whatever it is, so that it can help you walk on those stones and not feel that pain in your feet, however, it’s not that comfortable wearing some things on your feet while swimming in the sea, I guess, well, it’s not that comfortable for me, if you want to know the truth. I saw this woman the other day, she was wearing some transparent maybe silicon things on her feet,they were kind of around her feet, I mean, it was like they were wrapped into them and she was walking just fine and without any discomfort, I guess, well, I haven’t asked her, of course . Then I wondered where she got them and then I saw someone selling some stuff that were kind of the same as those ones that the woman was wearing. Perhaps it didn’t cost much, well, at least they wouldn’t have been more than 10 Laris, I guess. I thought that I would ask the price, but I wasn’t going to buy them, so that I didn’t bother the seller about that. You know , they walk on the beach with all those stuff on their shoulders and in their hands and they just shout what they are selling and walk on the beach and walk and walk and they do that all day, I mean, from the early in the morning till the sunset until the people leave the beach and stuff like that and it’s really hard, I guess, walking all day long with all that stuff and it’s really annoying when someone calls you and asks you what something costs and is not going to buy anything. I mean, of course, I was interested in what those things cost, but imagine yourself in that man’s place and fell what he feels at that time and you’re still calling him and asking him some silly questions. That’s just not right. So that I didn’t ask him anything, though I really wanted to know what the price for those things was.

The hotel

Well, about that trip to the seaside and back. It was in Ureki that we were the last day, and it was a four storey hotel, pretty large, I can say, and almost all of the rooms were taken and there were only some small rooms vacant. We were on the second floor in a room that was like two rooms in one and it had everything in it, except for kitchen. Well, the kitchen was on the fourth floor, I mean, it was kind of a café, but you could use some things for yourself if you wanted to cook something or whatever and you could just go there and ask those staff what you needed and they would give some things to you or let you use them or things like that. There were these people with children and, I guess, those children wanted some fried potatoes _ you know, how children love fried potatoes _ and they went upstairs and used those things and fried those potatoes and took them into their room and ate them, I guess. So that , everything was just alright. We even had three balconies: two of them were for those two rooms and one was connected to another room, where other people were residing.  They were Armenians, if you want to know the truth and this one guy was always in the hall talking on the phone and walking. Or he was just sitting on a couch in the hallway and waiting for a call, I guess. We were really near the beach and the sea, I mean, it was just a couple of steps until we got to the boulevard and that boulevard was something like two meters wide and then there was this sandy beach and the sea, of course, so that we were on a good place and it was pretty cool. I mean, we could see the sea from those three balconies and we could control everything, you could say. It was pretty cool inside our rooms, while it was hot and sunny outside. And , of course, there was the air-conditioning, too, however, it was not really necessary most of the times. So, everything was just great.

The staff were pretty nice. There was this guy _ the owner, he was really hilarious, I mean, it was really funny how he talked and he was kind of creepy , too, if you want to know the truth , and he used to walk strangely. He said that he had some myocardial infarction some time ago and as my father is a doctor he was asking all those questions about his health and medicine and stuff like that, you know. He just talked about his whole medical history and what he did where and stuff like that and he just wouldn’t stop talking. Well, finally he got tired, I guess, and went out, but until that, he talked too much. That day, when it was our time to leave, I was on a beach and then went to take a shower and get ready for leaving and he was there in the hallway and he saw me and stopped me to ask when we were leaving and I said that we would leave soon, however he continued talking and telling me that there were other people waiting for the room to get vacant and if we weren’t going to leave soon, then we could have taken our bags in another room and stay there for as long as we needed and those people were waiting for the room for a couple of hours and that they were tired, too, and that he was sorry for them and stuff like that. Well, of course, I got what he wanted and I nodded him and told him that I didn’t know anything, because I was just coming from the beach and I would go upstairs and talk to my parents and ask them when we were leaving, but he just continued talking and seemed like he didn’t really understand what I was saying or he wasn’t interested in listening to me. It was pretty annoying and at last, he kind of stopped talking and I got upstairs to take some shower.

The last of the swimming

The day started pretty awesome, I mean, it was early when I woke up and the sun was shining and everything was great and it was time to go to the beach and swim in the sea as the water seemed nice and the weather was fine, too. So that, I got up and changed and got ready and I had this Bachlava bought the night before and I was going to eat it that morning, however, I didn’t really want to spend time eating it while it was so shiny outside and decided to take it with me on the beach and eat it there. Bachlava is not something that I liked some time ago, if you want to know the truth, however, my mother loved it and they used to buy it and eat it and they would suggest eating it , too, but I didn’t eat it. However, some things change throughout the life and I kind of like Bachlava now, so I just wanted to eat it the other day and when I saw it in some supermarket I told my mother to buy it. We bought one for each of us and went home. Those pieces of Bachlava were pretty large, if you want to know the truth and they had raisins and marshmallows and nuts and honey and other stuff in them, so that they were pretty delicious, I can say, and nourishing, at the same time. So, I went into the sea and swam a little, well, not a little, I swam for some time as the sea was really calm and stuff, and then I went out and collected some shells and then I just sat on the sand and ate my Bachlava. There were many people on the beach, I mean, there were plenty of them when we came there on the first day and stuff, but then more people came, I guess, because the beach was full of them and there were many umbrellas in different colours and people from many other countries, you know. There were many Russians, too, and Armenians , if you want to know the truth. The children were pretty amusing, too. There were all different kind of children and they were all with their toys and stuff and some of them would play together and some of them would want another’s toys and they would argue and then they would cry and stuff like that. It was pretty funny. There was this Armenian guy and he went to play with two other Georgians, they wouldn’t talk to each other, because they were like 2 years old or something like that and, besides, they wouldn’t have known each other’s language, so that they just played with those toys and then this one wanted to take their toys and play with them , but this one Georgian didn’t want him to have his toys and he cried and then got angry and would go to this Armenian and take his toys with that angry face of his and the other Georgian wanted to play with this Armenian guy, however, at the end this Armenian got angry, too, and he would take their toys and throw them away and things got pretty messy and then the parents got into the business and somehow it all ended quietly and okay. You should have seen it!

Well, there were many small shells on the beach nearby the water and there were plenty of them in the water, of course. So that you could collect as much of them as you wanted, however, they were small and not very beautiful, I must say. Though I still collected some of them, I mean, I collected some larger ones that I could find and some of them were pretty beautiful. There were some which were not opened yet, I mean , they were closed and perhaps there was something inside of them. Well, I don’t know, I took them and I have them in my purse and I haven’t seen them since we came, so maybe, this something came out of those shells, I must see them…

You know, the beach in Ureki is not bad, I mean, the water depth is not much and people going into the water are like walking in the water or something like that, because it’s not deep and everyone just likes that, well, not everyone, I guess, because it’s impossible to swim in that kind of depth and so that you are forced to look for a place where it’s kind of deep and swim there. Fortunately, there are places like that in some areas and you can find them and swim there, while others enjoy that not so deep places, where they can touch the ground and be in the water at the same time. And the children play in the water near the beach and parents are calmer than they would be in other place, because they know, that the water is not very deep and the children can get less harm than in other places, where the sea gets deeper in some steps into the water. To be honest, many people with families go there because of that , so that they know that the sea is not so deep at once and they can be relaxed and stuff like that . and the children love that sand and they build castles and bury themselves in the sand and stuff like that, you know . So , it’s actually good. And, it’s known that there’s some kind of magnetit in that sand and people go there to treat arthritis and they say that it’s good for joints and stuff like that, so that people go there and walk in that sand and roll in it and everything, you know.

Anyways, my grandmother has some problems with joints, well, who doesn’t?! and I thought that I might take some sand with me and bring it to my grandmother, so that I took some bags and put some sand in them, so that it became really heavy. Well, I wanted to take it with me, so I had to try hard. And, I didn’t take it to the car, my mother did. So that it seemed like I hadn’t done anything, but the idea was mine and I collected the sand, so I did some thing, too.

Well, I went upstairs, took a shower and packed some things, you know, I don’t really love packing and I just put my stuff in my bag and didn’t really care much about how they would be put there. We took our stuff to the car and put them into it. There were some things that we put in between the seats and stuff like that. We said goodbyes to the hotel staff and got into the car. Well, there was this dilemma with me, the other day I saw these cute deliciously looking cakes in a supermarket and they looked just the way I like some cakes and it had been a long time since I last ate a cake and I just really wanted to have some of them. I thought I would buy them on the day we were going to leave and I could eat them then, however, I thought for some time and then at last I decided not to buy those cakes. First of all, I had already eaten that Bachlava and it was many calories, and besides, it was already time to leave and I didn’t want to go to that supermarket and buy those cakes and come back, besides, I didn’t know whether they would have those cakes that day too or not. So that I decided not to follow my stomach and got into the car. Until leaving Ureki, we had decided to go into this marketplace, where we bought some peaches the other day and we liked them a lot, so that we wanted to buy some for ourselves and take them with us. So we did that. We bought some peaches and also some lemon, and then we hit the road!

There’s this superstition that when you are leaving the seaside, there’s this river Supsa and if you throw some change in it, you will definitely come back there the other time. So, we usually throw five changes into it, because we are five in our family. So, we didn’t change that so called “tradition” and took five changes of five Tetris and when we got near the bridge that crosses river Supsa, I threw those changes into it. We saw how they went into the water, well, maybe one of them couldn’t get into the water or something like that. And that was it! Now we could travel relaxed and so on and so forth. The road was alright, there was just usual traffic and everything was just fine. We talked a little and remembered some stories of us travelling to the seaside and stuff like that. And we were near that first railway cross, when there was this car and it was going somewhat strange and my brother decided to pass it and suddenly a dog came out of nowhere and he stopped the car, but it was too late and we hit that dog and it died, I guess, at least, it was not moving or something like that. So, this whole thing was sad , but then it was hilarious, because I remembered this cartoon called “Open Season”, where there’s this deer running near the road and this hunter just hits his car and stuff like that, I guess, you have seen it.

Anyways, it was all sad and stuff, however, we had to continue our road. 

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