By Nikola Marinko · Project Manager, WSS Bulancak, Türkiye, 2016-2017 · Updated October 2026 · 7 min read

This is the least planned story on the site. I was Project Manager on the water supply system for Bulancak, on Türkiye's Black Sea coast, when a 3:00 AM call from our Belgrade office told my colleague RJ and me to leave at once: unpaid workers from a subcontractor were said to be heading for our office, armed. We packed in thirty minutes and drove through the night, six hours, to the Georgian border.

It was my first time in Georgia. We stayed at the Piazza Boutique Hotel in Batumi and spent the first day on the phone with head office and the owner, sorting out problems that should never have landed on site staff. After that the city took over: an old centre that reminded me of Prague, the seaside Boulevard running for more than 10 km, the 55 m Ferris wheel, the moving statue of Ali and Nino, the Alphabet Tower with its revolving restaurant, and the Ferris wheel built into the facade of the Technological University tower.

When word came that it was safe, we drove back to Bulancak and finished the project. I returned to Georgia later and stayed for years, which is why the second Batumi page reads so differently from this one.

WSS Bulancak project · Bulancak · Batumi · WWTP Anaklia project · Field stories

Escape to Batumi - A Night Drive From Türkiye to My First Georgian Morning

FIELD STORY