Batumi. Georgia. September 22

The resort city of Batumi, is Georgia's second largest city, sitting on the shores of the black sea, is an important tourist destination as well as a busy industrial port.

Gambling is strictly controlled in Turkey and legal casinos are banned. Batumi has several to cater for the needs of the Turkish gambler. Often referred to as "Las Vegas of the Black Sea". Several global hotel chains have also got in on the act.

Some impressive architecture

In the forefront is the Radisson Blu Hotel, masking the impressive Batumi Technological University Tower, 35 floors, 656ft high completed in 2012.

Impressive is perhaps the wrong word, maybe folly springs to mind.

Batumi does not have a technical university, it never got built, the ferris wheel has never been used, neither has the building, it remains empty to this day.

The Alphabetic Tower is 426ft tall, designed and built to replicate the double helix of DNA and is embedded with all 33 letters of the Georgian alphabet.

At the top is a restaurant that revolves once every hour.

A gentle stroll through the older parts of Batumi, on the edge of Europe Square stands a fairy tale castle?

No it is the former home of the National Bank of Georgia

Complete with still working Astronomical clock

On Europe Square stands a monument to a Greek princess; Medea, she is holding the Golden Fleece, which she helped Jason the Argonaut steal.

BAD GIRL

By now I was starting to feel the pangs of hunger, ( Georgian breakfasts leave a lot to be desired) I did not expect to come across, right in the corner of the square, an Oasis of fine dining, my go to comfort food, heaven in a cardboard box, food of the gods,

Be still my beating heart!

No language problem here, touch screen operation in English.

Double cheeseburger, LARGE fries, 6 chicken nuggets, a variety of dips (curry, ketchup and BBQ) and a large fanta, with ice.

Settling down outside

I'm loving it.

FFS!, I nearly choked on my burger, why stop there for to take your selfies! Can't you see a man is trying to concentrate on his nuggets.

Composure regained, no more near choking to death incidents to report, onwards we march, in a general direction of "fuck knows where I am going"

I ended up in Georgia's oldest public park, 6th may park as it is now known was founded in 1881

There was some excitement on the lake with some racing going on. Boats of some sort, probably a technical name that escapes me.

Minions.

People

In Soviet times, apartment blocks were functional for the masses

Modern times and apartment blocks are architectural works of art for the investor or the upwardly mobile, 1 bedroom flats in the Nurol Residence from $126,000.

My Batumi stroll is nearing the end, following the crazy paving back to where the bus was waiting

A sleepy little town in the late 1880's, now a playground for the well heeled and the gambler.