I found peace, ‘healing’ sand & an abandoned SOVIET sanatorium in the land of Colchis / Ureki, 🇬🇪
0Hi, guys, welcome to my new video
from the Black Sea coast, Ureki, Georgia. It’s my first time here, and I’m
going to tell you — I love it here. Especially, I love its unique black sand, look at this: Have you ever seen it? So, in this video, I want to share my experience
of visiting a Russian activist camp; We’ll explore this coastal town. We’ll visit some abandoned Soviet sanatoriums. I will tell you what I learned about the unique properties
of this black sand, which is Ureki is famous for. This video is going to be very interesting, I’m
so excited to be here, and yeah, let’s start. I came here, actually, for a camp, it’s called “Territory
of Freedom” or “Территория свободы” in Russian. For many years, it was an activist camp
held somewhere near St. Petersburg. But since 2022, it was forced to move
to other countries because the organization that held this event is considered
“undesirable”, “foreign agent” and stuff, in Russia. So this year, they decided to locate the camp in Ureki, here. And the idea, actually, because it’s a camp,
people are supposed to live in tents. But this time they said that if
you don’t want to live in a camp, you can actually rent a guest house, that’s what I did. So, some other participants and I
lived in comfort, in the guest house. But you know what? I think I found the
perfect balance between the comfort and still enjoying this camping
life, sitting by the campfire and so on. So I have no regrets about my choice, but what
is more, then the weather worsened a lot, and there was a windstorm, and
the tents basically flew away, and people had to move to the guest house anyway. So the guys who spent the night in a tent told me
that there basically were puddles in their tents. They had to move to the guest house, and there
was such a pile of different tents and backpacks. But we still managed to hang out in the camp. There was a projector where we watched presentations
and listened to lectures, and now I’ll tell you about the event. So this camp was for political activists
and just active citizens like myself. Also, there was a quiz about the Roman
Empire, a lecture about different waves of Russian immigration — I am in the eighth wave, by the way. Another lecture was about gender and homosexuality
in the Soviet Union, also very very interesting. We also participated in a role-playing
game called Stolen Sun. According to the legend, a big black crocodile ate the sun,
and we had to fight him and return the sun. The whole game took place at night,
it was very dark and scary. And you know what? Indeed,the sun was
eaten, because the weather worsened. It started raining, and we could
not continue playing the game. We only spent two hours learning the rules,
and then we had to stop it. We will continue playing in Tbilisi, but even the
two hours that we used for learning the rules was enough for me to immerse
myself into the lore of this game. This is the entrance to our camp, cows — so cute. I like how they used this thick rope as a speed bump: Although it doesn’t stop the cows, hi! Gamarjoba! I don’t have anything for you. I wonder why it has its, like, chain. Bye. *Wine, vodka, chacha* The funniest thing is that when I arrived at
this event, I didn’t start it as normal as others. I firstly wanted to get some food in the city center. I decided to make a shortcut because on the maps it
showed a convenient route, you just had to cross the river. But the shortest way was located on a territory
surrounded by a fence, you cannot go there. Apparently there is some construction,
it is a private property. But what I did — I just climbed under it, because there was some space between
the edge of the fence and the ground. I just climbed down that fence to
find a shortcut to cross the river. Yes, and here it is — the bridge.
I saved myself 20 minutes. So I did that and almost successfully crossed the bridge. But then I was stopped by a security guard and his dog. I didn’t think that it was a big deal,
but he said that I should not be there. He asked, like, “How did you do that?” I said, “I climbed under the fence”. And he laughed. Then we walked through the territory,
and he released me through this gate. I was embarrassed because for the event I
arrived to, it wasn’t such a good beginning. I decided to go to the center anyway by this road. And, by a coincidence, a car was passing by, in that car there were three guys, and one
of them was the organizer of our event I knew one of them, and he was like,
“Oh, Natasha, where are you going? Join us.” It turned out they were going to the city
center as well, because they needed a store. But it turned out that they didn’t only want to
visit one store — so we happened to visit other towns across the whole coast, because
they specifically needed canned food for the fire. So, we got acquainted and after that returned to the camp. It was a very unusual beginning, because
instead of just arriving at the event, I climbed under the fence, spoke to the
security guard, randomly met the guys I knew, visited a couple of other towns,
and finally arrived at the camp. Now I’m going to the center again. I want to eat in the cafe and explore it a little bit more. This store is empty as well. Currently, Ureki is empty because the
tourist season hasn’t started yet. It’s only Russians and people from other post-private
countries who don’t know that they should not come here. Because locals will come here the next month,
and these streets will be more lively. It’s interesting that here it’s
spelled in Georgian and Armenian. Probably for tourists from Armenia
who don’t know Georgian. And somewhere else you can see Russian letters. *Hot corn* As usual, lots of dogs. Hi, dogs. Honestly, it’s so sad, because actually
there is a governmental program, they sterilize them and put a tag on their ear. But I saw such dogs only in big cities like Tbilisi and Batumi. But here, in Ureki, every dog I see — it’s not tagged,
which means they will continue to reproduce. Of course, they are cute, feedable and touchable
but also it might be dangerous, because even in the capital sometimes they bite
people, and there is a threat to get a disease, I forgot its name in English, rabies or something. I see one dog with a chip, but that’s the only one, hi! For all the days I spent here, I’ve been seeing this
dangerous cord just descending from the tree, and it seems that the local authorities
are not bothered with that. But honestly, I’m scared every time
when I pass this sidewalk. It says, “Patriots sort the waste.” And this claim is questionable for me
because like, what is patriotism? But maybe it works, I don’t know. Local football championship: Let’s study some local advertisements. “Meskhuri puri”, “khachapuri”, “belki”?… “bulki” Ha! Okay, this word, khachapuri,
it is a Georgian famous pie. But this word looks Russian, so “bulki”
is literally “buns” in Russian. So it’s funny how they named it by this word. And also, I want to draw your attention to
this interesting graffiti, I would call it. Hi, spider! This one looks like “pyshka” — a donut. And this bread is called “shoti,”
made in a shape of a boat, kind of. Is this the Snow White? Wow, look at this. Look at this mosaics, it’s made out of
seashells, mosaic pieces and stones. Here it says “Ureki” and the flag of Georgia, of course. Looks pretty taken care of… So this man told me that these mosaics are
made by a woman who holds this pharmacy. I didn’t quite understand him, but he said that she
showed her artworks at the Cannes movie festival. I didn’t notice at first, but also here it says
“gardakmna, shroba, mshvidoba”. Wow, she also included the coat of arm
of Georgian patrol police or something? I mean, it is so intricate and unique. And this is a Kolkhida Hotel. It’s named after Colchis, I told you
about this in my video about Kutaisi. …And it’s so striking to realize that Kutaisi is one of the
oldest continuously populated cities in the world. It used to be a capital of Colchis, a country from
that Greek poem about Jason and the Argonauts. According to legend, their ship Argo made a dangerous
journey to the Caucasus to get the Golden Fleece. The king of Colchis, Aeëtes, did not want to give it away. But his daughter Medea fell in love with
Jason and helped him to get the fleece. Today, the statue of Medea stands
on Europe Square in Batumi. This story reflects the history of the early
connections between Europe and the Caucasus. It’s cool to know that this Greek legend actually
took place here, on the territory of today’s Georgia! By the way, this is a mosaic
devoted to that very legend. This seems to be the ship. This one is the Golden Fleece. Unfortunately, part of the mosaic is destroyed. This is the abandoned sanatorium! It has one, two, three, four, five, six, seven floors. There’s some graffiti on the top, and wow — this
is what remained from the Soviet spa resort. What scares me is the roof, what if it just falls down on me? I mean, this building has stood
here for decades, but still. There’s some shelf, empty shelf. You cannot find anything interesting here,
like some Soviet artifacts. I mean, except for this TV frame. And also, don’t forget to push like under this
video, write your comment and subscribe to appreciate my sacrifice, exploring such
scary, deserted places. Let’s go on! I knew about this building,
I knew it’s located here in Ureki. But I didn’t expect that I would be able to
visit it, because it’s surrounded by fence, and it’s not quite clear whether it’s
allowed, but it seems that nobody cares. And look at this — my favorite Soviet
mosaics, this one is with fish. Aww, look how cute it is. I don’t know what this thing was used for,
maybe it was a pool or a fountain. But imagine how cool it would be if it was restored. I mean, I’m not even talking about this
building, but at least the pool, because such a mosaic is a very valuable piece of art. I don’t understand why it is neglected like this. And now, let’s see the Black Sea! Look at this black sand! Honestly, I didn’t know much about this town. I knew that it’s located somewhere north
of Batumi and that it is a popular resort. But there is one significant difference: unlike in Batumi,
where there are mostly stones or cobbles on the shore, here there is sand, and what
is more — it is black sand. Guys, have you ever seen it? Look at this. I don’t know if the camera can convey this,
but in real life it looks — it’s pitch black, but also with fine sand of other colors, like
green, yellow, or even kind of transparent. I wanted to look up some information about
this coastal town to tell about this to you. The first thing that comes up is the black sand,
which consists of the mineral called magnetite. This sand comes from the volcano, and the local
river brought it from the mountains to here, creating such a unique place. You can find such sands in different places around
the world, in Hawaii, in KamchatkaPeninsula in Russia. But what Georgia claims is that this sand is healing. I watched a couple of travel documentaries about this town. And in one — I think that it was paid for by a
local hotel — they interviewed the doctor there. Oh my God, guys, look at this, I found an acorn, I think? Acorn? So they interviewed a doctor who
was praising the unique treating features of the sand that basically
“heals any kind of disease”. And I was like, wow, probably I should look it up! But I didn’t find any scientific evidence, I tried to
find articles in magazines like Nature or Science. But the only articles about this
magic sand I found were from the websites of the Georgian hotels
and spa resorts that work here. So, um, yeah. Do you believe this sand is healing, is it truth? [teens:] Yes!!! Wow… Ah, you are from Gori, okay. Where is Stalin is from, sorry it’s
the one of the few things I know. Yeah. You are traveling from Gori to here? Yeah, I want to go there. Okay, goodbye, we have to go! Okay, bye! Oh my god, what you’ve just witnessed was
my ability to be sociable when it’s needed. because like too many people, but they
just look like nice, friendly teenagers. And I asked them, “Do you believe
that this sand is like healing?” And they said, “Yeeees.” Okay guys, if some Georgian person will watch this video,
don’t be too harsh on me in the comments, But I just want to promote the scientific knowledge. So maybe there will be some research on that. Maybe the Ureki sands just have not
yet attracted enough interest to them. So if you’re a scientist, please comment
below what do you think about this. But nevertheless, who cares? Okay, it might not heal cancer, but one of the healing
properties of this sand that I can prove myself is that when it is heated up by the sun and you put
your feet into it or play with it with your hands, it hits your feet and it feels so good! I think it works as a placebo effect, that’s why people
who spend time in the black magnetic sand resorts felt that they are relieved and healed
because it’s indeed I mean… Guys, have you seen it, do I have to explain
how beautiful and um relaxing this place is? After the beach I look like a bum. But I love it honestly. I little time left for my bus,
that’s why I’m in a hurry, actually, I’m already back in Tbilisi, and guys,
I don’t know about this magnetic sand, but this whole journey definitely was therapeutical for me. I haven’t seen so much nature in a while! And even when I returned here,
this room seemed so small to me. I was like, am I in the guest house again? After visiting Ureki, I understood how small we
humans are at the backdrop of the eternal nature. Because everything I saw there reminds me of the past: The kingdom of Colchis is no longer there. Centuries later, another country, or rather empire,
the Soviet Union, created a mosaic to honor Colchis. After that, this country vanished as well. The mosaic crumbled, the sanatorium
emptied out, Stalin is no longer here. And now I meet kids who come from his hometown. But our generation will disappear one day as well. And only this black sand will still be there,
quietly warming up in the sun. Thoughts like this remind me of how
fragile our existence really is. Honestly, it even makes me a little bit depressed. So, let’s return to something more related to daily life,
something I can control, which is making this video. If you enjoyed watching it, push the like button,
subscribe to my channel and leave your comment. Would you like to visit Ureki? And tell me — what do you think about the
properties of this black magnetic sand? Thanks for watching and have a nice day. Goodbye, poka-poka!
