1618 At Gold Fish restaurant, 3km out of town opposite the Nobel Technological Museum (not the right name). I walked out here to see that; moderately interesting. There is a small village-type settlement here, the road between here and Batumi is relatively unoccupied but it's a nice-ish walk along the coast. Restaurant is virtually deserted but there is a group outside. I am getting a seafood pizza and a coke zero; the menu is rather sea-food oriented so I thought I'd play it safe-ish. I hope they don't put fucking tartare sauce on the pizza, I am not sure if that would even make sense but you never know.
I am sat inside and it is slightly stuffy, but wasn't sure sitting outside would be a great idea.
Got up about 1315 and left 1415 to walk over here; much same story as yesterday in terms of getting up.
1651 Pizza not bad. Will get bill shortly and walk back; it took about an hour to get here from the hotel. Sun will be in my eyes on way back I think but can't be helped. Weather warm with hardly any clouds today.
Feel at bit of a loose end; somehow the idea of just passing the night at the hotel rankles, but I think it's probably for the best and the reality is I'm not exactly beating off exciting nightlife with a stick here. I need to pack and book some accomodation for Tbilisi - fingers crossed I can get *something*, I guess that shouldn't be a problem. I can also upload some more photos and it's an easy alcohol-free day. I am sure I will struggle to get to sleep before 3am anyway but at least I can try. I think I need to be up almost ridiculously early to allow for possible problems getting a taxi to the station. Plan is to buy some snacks/water for train on the way back, I may also get some extra stuff to eat tonight though ideally I don't want to eat too much crap. I would go out to eat tonight but it seems such a struggle to find somewhere that I may not bother. Guess I will see how I feel.
Pissed off about some fucking correspondence back and forth with HMRC about a few hundred quid's worth of expenses and my accountants forgetting to put my NI number on a form and it all has to be done the 19th century way by post so I will have to use some of my precious time back in London farting around writing letters and buying stamps and I can't just resolve it now by e-mail. This has been ticking over for weeks if not months - HMRC's response times can be measured on a geological time scale - but suddenly it is worrying me.
GEL16.60 and they don't seem to have included a tip. Am taking the opportunity to change a 50. (Made it 19, which I hope is OK. Off.
1705 Fucking hell. I am stone cold sober and I just walked into the glass door on the way out. I dislodged some metal bits holding it in. I apologised and sloped out, I'm not fucking paying for the damage. I can only put this down to looking at the staff hanging around the entrance to acknowledge their presence instead of looking where I was going. Meh. No major harm done. So so so glad I only had a coke with the meal, otherwise I'd worry it looked like an alcohol-induced thing.
1756 At cable car station where got dropped off on arrival. Going to take a round trip.
1928 Back at hotel. View quite nice. Brief attempt at chat in car up with an (I think) Italian chap. Uncertainty over getting train and not having accommodation booked was gnawing at me, alas. Anyway, let's see what I can sort out. Clothes washed last night still annoyingly damp.
2050 OK, just been out and bought 6.60 worth of groceries and changed my 100 note. Couldn't get any decent sized bag/tin of peanuts but thanks to online dictionary did ask and they pointed at some rather unappetising and small looking bags, so got couple of those. Before went out, booked a dormitory bed for the three nights in Tbilisi; the cost saving alone means I have to try it, I will obviously have a private room when I'm briefly back in London to 'recuperate' and if I really despise it and leave after one night I'm financially not much worse off than if I'd just paid for a private room for three nights. In reality I think I make a bigger deal out of it than necessary, I have done it before and doing it occasionally will save me a lot of money in the long run. I doubt it will be any more sociable but that still leaves the other advantages.
Am uploading some photos of Batumi. Was dithering earlier about going out or maybe getting a bottle of beer to drink at the hotel. The latter is worth bearing in mind in future as a possibility but tonight the point is kind of to have a quiet night and so on so I resisted temptation.
Didn't get any fruit, they had a rack but it didn't look very appetising and I think they mostly had cooking vegetables, so to speak. Will have to maybe make a bit of an effort to at least buy a few bananas in Tbilisi.
0115 Finally gone to bed. Dull if sort of pleasant evening's web surfing. Not looking forward to getting up tomorrow (well, today) but doubt it would have helped to go to bed any earlier. Clothes still damp, leaving them out overnight and just have to shove them in bag anyhow in morning. It's going to be dark when I leave the hotel and try to get a taxi, adding that extra bit of joy. Why oh why must all Georgian trains leave at arse o'clock in the morning?
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