The following is a letter my dad wrote and filed at the Canadian embassy in Moscow to advise new residents about traveling to the resort city of Batumi (Georgia). I have reformatted it for the web and added some footnotes, but I kept the grammar and punctuation as it was.
TRAVEL TO BATUMI
To let the new arrivals know a little bit of information on travels to Batumi from Moscow, let me share the experiences of the weekend 13 – 16 Apr 1979:
Itinerary
| Depart K13* | 0630 |
| Arrive Domodedovo* | 0730 |
| Depart Domodedovo | 0830 |
| Arrive Batumi | 1130 |
| Advance watch 1 hour & then wind back watch 1 hour | |
| Depart Batumi | 1300 |
| Arrive Domodedovo | 1605 |
| Depart Domodedovo | 1730 |
| Arrive K13 | 1830 |
Baggage
In the Intourist section of Domodedovo we surrendered our baggage when obtaining boarding passes & showing of tickets and passports. At Batumi airport you receive your baggage off of the wagon (not in the terminal such as it is). On departing Batumi the baggage is surrendered inside of the terminal and at Domodedovo the baggage was found in the main terminal at one of the conveyor belts. Our driver said that the baggage would be delivered to the Intourist** lounge and it was not so I went hunting and found it all upstairs.
** Intourist was the travel agency for foreign tourists in the Soviet Union.
Funds
The air fare is quoted at R72.00***. Aeroflot has a R.50 charge for writing the ticket out so add another Rouble.
- Hotel – R25.00 a night regardless if there is one or two people in the room.
- Intourist tour – the 10 of us hired a 30 passenger bus (then added 5 West Germans) and an English speaking guide for 3 hours. It cost R30.00. Incidentally the tour took us to an aquarium, a tea plantation, a bamboo grove and the Botanica gardens.
*** R=Ruble, the Soviet currency. Unofficially the exchange rate in the 1970s was around 4 rubles = 1 US dollar.
Telephone
There is a “fast” telephone if you wish to call Moscow in a hurry. This is located at the end of Joseph Stalin Street where it joins the seaside park. It cost R.90 to talk 5 minutes and believe it or not I gave the girl my number to call in Moscow, lit a cigarette and then she told me to get into cabin 14 (telephone booth 14) and I was talking to the Embassy.
Hotel
It’s the Intourist Hotel (only one for foreigners). It’s old but has its charm. There is a cafe and a restaurant. The Intourist Bureau for Batumi is located inside and if there is such a thing as perpetual remont****, the hotel has been infected. Most of the rooms have balconies which have separators on them giving you a little bit of privacy.
**** “remont” is Polish for “renovation”
Shopping
Not too much. The big attraction is the market (bazaar) where fruit / vegetables / odds and ends are sold.
Beach
Rocky but clean. Lots of room for everybody. There is a long park that is between the water and the road. Very nice and has a ferris wheel that goes very slow and for R.20 gives one a very nice view of the city.
That’s all I would like to say at the moment. If anybody has any questions feel free to drop around for a chat. Thank you for your time.
GL Boyko
I had no idea you lived in Russia for a time. Must have been very interesting at some time, not so much now. You really should consider an autobiography at one point. Lots of people with less interesting lives have done so, I’d be intrigued to know how you ended up a railfan.
Hi Steve, we lived there for two years from 1977 to 1979, and in Yugoslavia earlier in the 1970s. I’ve been writing these articles with the intent of collecting them together into a book about our travels overseas. I’m not so sure about the wider scope of an autobiography, though!