Quirky Batumi
My meeting finished early, it wasn't raining and I had instructions to get more money after the blowout last night. If you are a woman boss, Georgian male dignity does not allow you to pay for anything, so I go round rather like royalty, cashless, with the male office manager paying for everything. Since the account is in my name, we normally go to the bank together, and I hand over the cash to run the office.
I found the bank, but it was hardly possible to get in the door. The queues were 5 deep at every counter, even if I could work out which counter I needed to go to. So I gave up and went for a walk down the street looking for a cafe. Here are some of the quirky things I found just in 50 yards of K Gamsakurdia St.
A rather neat Georgian church on the main street (most seem to be on the top of a hill).
This plaque on a wall looks pretty much like the normal plaque for a writer or a poet. Reading the Russian, I realised it was actually dedicated to a midwife and gynaecologist: Iosif Ilich Charkviani 1888-1959. I don't think I've seen many plaques dedicated to a midwife.
Here we have a notice marking "The Consulate of the Estonian Republic was located here from 1920 to 1921" in Georgian, English and Estonian. The Democratic Republic of Georgia existed briefly between 1918–1921, and presumably needed consulates immediately.
The signpost is in a rather nice wrought iron design like a weathercock.
Here's a relic of the Soviet Union: a truck selling kvas, a beer-like drink made from fermented bread, which appeared on the streets every summer. This truck has been tarted up with flowers and yellow paint. No kvas seems available though. It seems to have gone the way of the gassy water coin-operated machines which also operated in the summer on every street.
I didn't manage to find the Cafe Europa (which I look for in each town). but if I can't go to Literatu Svetaine in Vilnius any more (it's closed down) I can go here: Literaturuli: a very nice cafe with delicious cakes, good coffee, free wifi, friendly staff and a book shop. What more could you want? (Well, maybe sun, to sit outside?).
I went back to the bank but the queues were still 3 deep. I hoped it was not a run on the bank.
Later I discovered that the cafe is part of a small chain, with some in Tbilisi as well. They are owned by the wife of Zurab Zhvania, the Georgian Prime Minister mysteriously found dead in 2005, from carbon monoxide poisoning from a faulty space heater while his bodyguards outside noticed nothing.
