9/3: Delightful Dolphinarium Show & Batumi Boulevard at Night!

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After spending several hours at the Batumi Botanical Gardens, we had reserved tickets to go to the city's number one attraction, the Dolphinarium, that night so got a bite to eat on the way. My chicken Kiev and fries were good, much better, Steven said, than his hamburger, fries and glass of Georgian wine! I like red wine and Georgia is known for its wines but it was always served chilled which I didn't like. Again, we didn't pay much for dinner, less than $10 and that was in a resort city where prices are normally pretty inflated. Ketchup in this part of the world doesn't come with fries; you have to pay extra for it. I think we got our money's worth with all the ketchup we were given!  

We weren't quite sure what to expect seeing a dolphin show in Batumi, Georgia, of all places but it sounded like it would be something totally different from what we normally do, the facility was a short walk away from our hotel, the tickets were very reasonable and the performance came highly recommended! As advised, we got there well before the show started so we could watch the dolphins' antics in the pool.

I have read pretty extensively about the controversy with animal treatment at Sea World so I had reservations about whether I/we should be supporting a similar show overseas. It was a little hard to watch the dolphins because their tank was so small, and they had so many dolphins living in it. But, it was impossible to see how much more space the dolphins also had to swim on the other side of the divider. In the States this would probably be considered animal cruelty and wouldn't be allowed. However, the trainers appeared to genuinely care for their animals and love their jobs, and the facility was modern and we just hoped that the animals were well cared for. 

Even before the show began at 7, the crowd got pretty revved up with loud music playing. I especially loved hearing Santana's Black Magic Woman although that may have been incongruous music at a dolphin show!

We had brought along ponchos thinking (hoping?!) we might get wet but we never did!

This was all still the pre-show! I couldn't wait to see the real deal start when we'd already been treated to a great performance.

The announcer/emcee was key to the show's success as he introduced the four trainers and each of the eight dolphins by name, going effortlessly back and forth for the next 40 minutes from Georgian to Russian to English. 

I am thinking that many of you have likely already seen a dolphin show either live or on TV, but for those of you who haven't, watching the interactions and communication between the trainers and their dolphins was compelling. 

Each time the dolphins performed as commanded, via hand signals, the respective trainers would reward their dolphins.

What a sight seeing them take turns race around the small pool at a high rate of speed. They swam so fast, they were like a blur!

My cheek was still pretty bruised from when I fell while hiking with family and friends six weeks earlier in New Hampshire. Luckily, it's no longer painful; it just looks like I was in a fight and the other person won!

The emcee talked about how the dolphins communicate or talk to each other. Once we were all quiet, the dolphins 'talked' to the crowd! What a hoot it was.

When the emcee asked everyone in the audience to clap, two of the dolphins joined in, too! You might have thought that the children would have the most fun watching the show but the adults, myself included, were also hugely entertained. Steven, a little less so, though!

Then another trainer asked his two dolphins to jump high in the air! I think that act, done to the soundtrack of the Chariots of Fire movie, garnered the most oohs and aahs.

The only female trainer then commanded her two dolphins to dance.

Then they all did!

As with any of the photos, just click on one to make it bigger!

After reading about the Sea World trainer who lost her life when she was attacked by a whale, I held my breath when one of the trainers joined the dolphins in the pool.

But I was just as excited as everyone else when he was safely tossed onto the deck by two of them!

The dolphins showed how they could perfectly balance on their tails for the width of the pool.

Four people from the audience were picked to work with the trainers for a few minutes and to show off some more tricks. One of them initially was only an English speaker but she had to give up her spot when the emcee said that wouldn't work as the trainers wouldn't be able to convey what they needed her to do.

The tasks were pretty elementary like twirling a hoola hoop, having the dolphins roll over, etc and then having the dolphins mimic the same activity.

One of the funniest things was watching the lucky volunteers play catch with the dolphins as often the volunteers couldn't quite catch the ball thrown at them!

Then, four dolphins played ball with the rest of the audience by tossing it a good distance into the crowd!

After the volunteers left, the audience and the dolphins all clapped in appreciation!

We could tell the fast paced show was nearing an end when the emcee asked everyone how much we liked the show and the dolphins then began dancing to a Georgian folk song first.

What a delight it was when they then 'danced' in pairs to 'It's a Wonderful World!'

I could feel myself tear up when two year old baby dolphins began dancing to Leonard Cohen's song Alleluia, one of all my all-time favorites.

Afterward, the adult dolphins clapped with their flippers - now, how sweet was that!

The emcee then encouraged everyone to clap their hands and not stop.

That prompted the dolphins to follow each other closely together around the pool as if they were taking their final bow!

The emcee talked about the "philosophy of the show is all about love, trust and friendship" but of course it would be great to see positive feedback on Dophinarium's Facebook page, too!

One of the show's other emotional moments was observing the trainers and dolphins interact while Whitney Houston's 'I'll Always Love You' song played.

Moments later, each of the dolphins put on its final individual show like a grand finale at a fireworks show to huge applause as the emcee called them one by one. One jumped high in the air, one raced around thee pool at breakneck speed, one balanced its body, etc!

We were 'thanked' dolphin style!

Then, as we all counted down from four to one, the last acrobatic show took place!

As you can tell from my 'play by play,' I really enjoyed the show from the moment we entered and just began watching the animals at play and not yet performing. It was touching observing the apparent close bonds between the animals and trainers and how they both obviously trusted each other, the key to the show's success. 

The Dolphinarium was located at the edge of a lovely park that looked like it was set up for movies later. 

We don't often go out at night on our trips but figured since we were out already, we would walk again along Batumi Boulevard  all the way to the very moving Ali & Nino sculpture to see how different it would be all lit up in the evening.

Somehow we had missed seeing this endearing sculpture the day before when we strolled along the Boulevard that paralleled the shore of the Black Sea.

The well lit and well maintained Boulevard was a fun place to be in the evening with lots of people out enjoying the spontaneous musical and dance performances, the sculptures, the interesting buildings all lit up, and munching ears of boiled corn or, my favorite, ice cream cones.

This sculpture should be made into a Hallmark card!

The Alphabet Tower in Miracle Park, often called the DNA Tower by foreigners, combined the structural design of DNA in its familiar double helix pattern, and the language of Georgia, with each rung on the ladder of the double helix displaying one of the 33 letters of the Georgian alphabet. I read that a lot of Georgians look at it with disdain because it cost a lot of money and doesn't 'do' anything. It did look pretty at night, though!

If you read my first post about Batumi, you know how much we loved seeing the literally moving and emotionally moving sculpture of Ali & Nino we had watched the previous day. Many people have written how spectacular the 30 minute 'show' was at night so that was why we wanted to return to see if we also felt the same.

More than just figures of a man and a woman, Al & Nino was a "story of love, friendship, betrayal, fight for independence, and a spirit of anti-imperialism" as one reviewer on Trip Advisor wrote.

Unlike during the daytime, there was a huge throng of people gathered to watch Ali & Nino and entertainers hoping to capitalize on the crowd's presence.

Steven and I both felt we would have missed not seeing Ali & Nino at night after reading all the hype but we thought the 'performance' was more moving during the day when there was less of a carnival atmosphere and we could better see it.

Batumi had two  sets of so-called Dancing Fountains, I say so-called because, unlike the fabulous ones we'd seen in Yerevan, Armenia about two weeks previously, there was no orchestrated music with these fountains. We hadn't realized then how truly spoiled we had been seeing those!

I took this photo of the Adjara Art Museum as we had planned to visit it before we left Batumi but the beach proved to be a greater lure for us than seeing more Georgian art and some 19th and 20th century European and Russian painting.

Next post: Bumming it on the beach!

Posted on September 10th, 2018, from Almaty, Kazakhstan.