We entered the cargo ship at around 10pm, ready to meet our cabin companions. From the beginning, people were insisting that we will be with 2 truck drivers in the cabin. When pushing the door or our cabin, it was a surprise to meet again the Austrian cyclist! (Monika is her name) One hour later, Oliver, a German traveling with its camper van entered to the cabin as well (we had already met him couple of hours ago during the boat check in). No truck drivers then!

On the boat, there were 4 of us, 2 young ladies from Ukraine, a family from Ukraine, and 50 truck drivers. The cabins were comfy (we even had a shower in the cabin), the food was acceptable (even if the menu was not very diverse: potatoes and chicken for every meal). We got super lucky with the weather, the sea could not be calmer. The boat was not moving at all.

Not much to do for these 3 days, but the time passed quite fast! A bit of reading, a bit of movie watching, drinking vodka with the truck drivers, a half day of fighting against the hangover, yoga class with Monika (the truck drivers did not want to join unfortunately...), and we already arrived in Batumi! 

The drinking part was quite funny actually. It was with a group of drivers from Georgia that knew each other from before. They invited us to their table on the deck of the boat, and we drunk 4 hours straight, a happy mix of vodka, beers, the red wine Manloi and me bought in Burgas, and Oliver's Kirsch. They tested our Russian level (that was quite lame, I must admit...), told us about their hard life of truck drivers, months away from their families, on the road, dragging 30 tons behind them. Monika was in the middle of the attention of course, a single 60-year-old lady cycling around the world... We tried to invite the Ukrainians to our little party, but their mood was really not into celebration.

We arrived quite early in Batumi. After a 4am breakfast, the custom entered the boat, changed the "smoking room" into a custom control office, and checked our passports one after the other before we could leave the boat.

We did not stay long in Batumi. This city, weird mix of casinos, rich hotels, skyline and poor area around is not really our cup of tea. We took the first bus for Mestia.