EXPLORING BATUMI IN ALL ITS COLOURS

Georgian Black Sea resort town of Batumi is often referred to as the Paris of the Caucasus countries and it attracts the rich and famous from all over the world, bewitching them with its multiple shades and hues.

- Varsha Singh

What is the first thing that comes to your mind when you think of the Black Sea? Beaches? And what comes to your mind when you imagine Black Sea in midOctober? Cold, windy beaches? That is precisely what I had expected and what I experienced as soon as I reached the city that is also called the Black Sea Capital of Georgia.

It was early in the morning in mid-October when we reached Batumi. Just like our imagination of the Black Sea, the weather too was dark and gloomy on the day of our arrival. However, this was just one of the many hues of Batumi that I was about to experience within the short span of four days that I was going to spend in the resort town that leaves visitors captivated with its culture, cuisine and charm.

I was part of a group of journalists invited by Department of Tourism and Resorts of Ajara. Barely a day before we were to depart for Batumi from India, we were told that it was unseasonably cold and wet in Batumi and knowing what cold and wet meant in Europe, I was prepared for it. But neither we nor our hosts, and I can say with certainty even the Weather Bureau, expected that Batumi would bedazzle us with a variety of different shades of its beauty!

Gloomy Grey

As soon as we checked into our hotel, Hyatt Centric, we were treated with beautiful views of the Black Sea as the hotel towered over the beach. It was day one and the colour grey was the theme of the day. As it was raining intermittently, but rather heavily, our hosts decided to give us tour of places that were not too outdoorsy. Therefore, the first stop on our discovery of Batumi was the Ethnographic Museum Borjgalo, the first private museum in Georgia. The museum was a good start for us as a short visit gave us in-depth information about the culture, their food habits, lifestyle, agrarian economy and the woodcarvings of Ajara, the region of which Batumi is the capital.