I have an apartment on the twenty eighth floor of a high rise apartment building in downtown Batumi.
I pay $429 per month for a furnished apartment and the landlord pays the utilities up to $30 per month.
January was the first time I went over the $30 for utilities. It was cold hovering just above freezing for two weeks. The apartments all around me are empty because they are still under construction or have not yet been sold. This means that they are not heated. Therefore my apartment is losing heat through the walls ceiling and floor to those empty apartments.
That said, the amount over was only $15.
I am retired and living on $1,600 a month combined SS and disability.
Out of that I also support my granddaughter who is attending college.
I look at the situation in the US in amazement. An apartment like mine where I lived near Longview, WA would cost as least $1,200 per month. Utilities would be extra and nothing would be left for me to eat.
I couldn’t afford to return to the US and if I did I’d be living in a tent under a freeway overpass somewhere.
Thank God I am where I am.
I walk on Batumi beach almost every day. The views are amazingly beautiful. The fact that I can rent reasonably leaves me money for entertainment. I can eat out where they have live music. I can attend concerts at the municipal concert hall. I have ridden the cable car and Ferris wheel.
I wouldn’t call it an exciting life but it certainly beats living in a tent under an overpass.