July 24 - Do you see what I sea?
Well, the major attraction of this hotel was the amazing breakfast, with all kinds of juices, fruits, muesli, cold cuts and cheeses, etc, etc, in a very pleasant athmosphere. I could hardly stand up after the morning meal, let alone bike or walk.
Still, there was something to do - which was to head out to the port, to pick up the ticket for the ship. What ship? Well, I did decide to take a ferry from Odessa to Batumi, a port in Georgia (not US, Europe [depending of the definition of Europe]). It was quite far from the city, I rode about 2 hours, not on the paved roads, but close to the sea, the city and its satellites are quite densely populated (I believe Odessa has over a million inhabitants). Finally I made it to the building, where there was a huge mess of people also waiting to ger their tickets. After quite some nervous waiting and shoving, I was inside and was quickly handed over the ticket - it took less than 3 minutes. Not sure why it is even necessary to have those tickets.
Remembering World War II
As the scheduled departure was 11 pm, I decided to ride all the way back to the city, though I took a nice plunge in the Black Sea, the water was cooling and refreshing. As usual, I swam out quite far and had to struggle a bit to get back where I started from due to the strong current, but I made it just fine. I gave 10 Hrivna's to the guy that took care of my bike.
Life is a beach is Odessa - I've always wanted to live in a city next to the sea...
Back for a bit of sight-seeing in the city, I found out that there were more beaches very close to town, so I rode on the nicely paved bike path ride next to the sea and spent more time enjoying the salt water.
...just a nice building on the way to one of the beaches...
I treated myself to a Turkish dinner, with some goat meat salad and koefte, then it was time to check out from the hotel (I paid extra for a late departure) and around 8 pm, set off for the port.
Wouldn't you want to live here? I would...
This time I acted very naivly. I somehow thought there would be one port, clearly labeling the departure place of my ship. It started getting dark and it was close to 9:30 pm and I was still miles away from my unknown destination. I managed to haul a young driver and bribe him for 100 Hrivna to drive me to the port, which he happily accepted. The only problem was that he did not know either where to go to - he called and asked around then dropped me off in front of a big entrance labeled 'Commercial Port'. It was a bit dark, but I was convinced I was at the right place - soon I found out I wasn't. Two ladies barked at me, explaining in Ukrainian that I was at the wrong place and that the real port of departure was 2 km away. They sent me off to a dark street, it was getting close to 10 pm, just an hour before the scheduled departure. I did get to another port entrance, but was told it was about 10 km away. Somewhat in panic, I managed to grab a taxi which was just getting two passengers, and offered 10 Euros if the driver took me to the port of departure - which he did, alone, I doubt I would have ever found or reached it.
Our ship, Greifswald
It turned out I was still in time, the ship had a massive delay, so they cosily checked my papers and x-rayed my luggage. Then it was time to board the Greifswald, the ship to Batumi. There are many interesting fellow travelers, some also on their bikes, others plannign to go around Georgia on their cars or just by buses. I was given a two-person cabin with single occupancy, but decided to spend the night on the deck, waiting for the ship to depart. Instead of the planned 11 pm, we only set to sail around 6:30 am, but I was there to watch it live.