A Snap Decision

The train pulled into the station at 6:48.  I quickly gathered up my things, wiped the sleep from my eyes and alighted in Batumi after an eight hour journey from Tbilisi.  Although the Black Sea resort town had a reputation as a beautiful hotspot for Georgians looking to dip their toes in the water and get a taste of the Costa Del Sol, what I saw was a construction sight.  The whole city was being dug up and renovated; roads, parks, buildings.

The marshrutka into the city centre had to navigate pot-holes and tranches in order to get its passengers to their destinations.  I was tired, hot and of a troubled mind.  So far on the trip I had not been having the best of luck - though it could also be argued that my luck was actually pretty good.  Afterall, worse things could have occurred.

Little things kept happening that individually meant nothing, but collectively convinced me that the Travel Gods were not happy.  My messagenger bag had packed in 3 hours into the trip, just as I stepped on to the plane in Istanbul; I had misplaced my guide book for Amenian and Georgia on day two while hitchhiking; my sandals had fallen to pieces the day before; my Couchsurfing host in Batumi had cancelled the day before after breaking up with her boyfriend; and I had just discovered that I had left my Turkish SIM card back in Tblisi and I would need to buy another and subsequesntly a new phone as my current one would now be useless.  Sure, a 'rational' person would claim I was merely unfortunate and a little clumsy.  However, when the Travel Gods are displeased with you, even the most rational of minds cannot cope with their wrath.

And there I was in the middle of Batumi without a clue to where I was going to stay or what I was going to do.  The marshrutka turned along numerous back alleys to avoid the worst of the construction work and I gaze out at the rubble and the shops and information offices that were closed.  I needed to change things up a bit and get the Gods back onside, somehow.

In the centre, the driver looked at me; the last passenger on the bus.  Where did I want to go?  He seemed impatient with my lack of decisiveness and mistook it for not understanding his Russian.  I thought about my options and slipped him another coin.

Turkey.