Dzin Chao Chinese Restaurant in Tbilisi

19 March, 2016 | Restaurant reviews | 66 seen

Dzin Chao is among my latest discoveries from Tbilisi restaurants. I discovered it after paid a visit to Tbilisi zoo, its actually located just at the front of entrance into Zoo.

Now I know at least three Chinese restaurants in Tbilisi, see: Oriental Pearl and New Asia

Dzin Chao restaurant interior 

Spacious premises, I believe you can throw your next meeting with pals here with ease. As a pleasant surprise we got a gift - a large teapot with green tea for free.It's great, because it's rare to get green tea in Tbilisi, and if, then such pot will cost some 7-12 GEL. Here you get it for free.

Menu at Dzin Chao in Tbilisi

Pretty much the usual stuff you can get at Chinese restaurants. For some reason prices seemed a bit lower than it two other restaurants I mentioned above. Probably that is because of this restaurant is fairly new (as I was told opened just in October 2015)

Sweet egg and corn soup

Shredded beef in sweet and spicy sauce

Dzin Chao Chinese restaurant in Tbilisi rocks! We paid about GEL 50 for a meal for two persons. Atmosphere is great. Worth…

Tbilisi Zoo

19 March, 2016 | Tourism objects | 27 seen

Tbilisi has many cool tourist attraction sites, but there is one, which is rarely mentioned in official guides or Tbilisi reviews - meet the hidden pearl of nations capital - Tbilisi Zoo.

On the other hand worldwide coverage Tbilisi Zoo got after Tbilisi floods on 14 June 2015, leaving many animals dead or on the loose. See: Zoo animals on the loose and deaths feared after Georgia floods

Tbilisi Zoo is located in the Vere valley just next to the Heroes square. There is a symbolic 2 GEL entrance fee in Zoo's territory. In park there some additional attractions for kids, like Ferris wheel and other carrousels. There is a terrarium with separate 1GEL ticket for amphibian lovers.

Peacocks at Tbilisi Zoo

The Tbilisi Zoo was established on 1927. It was designed by a group of Georgian and Russian specialists. The Zoo was further expanded in the 1930s. At its heyday in the 1970s, the Tbilisi Zoo was home to more than 1,000 animals and enjoyed more than 500,000 visitors per year. The Zoo, largely depending on dwindling funding allocated from the city budget, went into decay as a corollary…

My Italy Travel Guide

18 March, 2016 | Travel guides | 8 seen

This is a roundup post listing places from our latest trip to Italy at the end of 2015 / start 2016.

The idea to visit Italy born in our Tbilisi apartment's kitchen when I was preparing another homemade pizza, I was flattening pizza dough with a rolling pin, when the better part of me told - hey, let's go to Italy.

And so we did. After about a month we were sitting on a plane Tbilisi - Milan. We hadn't special plans or ideas what to visit. We just drove around.

I did a lot of photography, as I was eager to apply my newly developed photographer skills. Italy definitely is a photographer's paradise.  

Our total cost for this trip was about EUR 2,500, we stayed at decent hotels, drove a rental car and ate at fancy Italian restaurants (osterias). Thus we managed to spend half of that on our trip to Spain, I don't regret a euro cent spent here. 

About FireFly Car Rental in Italy

18 March, 2016 | Professional services | 22 seen

Searching for a budget friendly car rental in Italy? Look no more - I can highly suggest FireFly car rental. We used Firefly during our recent week long trip in Italy, prior to that I have used FireFly Spain (see: My Spain and Andorra Travel guide).

We booked our economy Volkswagen Polo car online and picked it up at Milan-Malpensa airport (you must call to FireFly office upon arrival, after then they will send a shuttle bus to pick you up and will take you to the office, our case it was located in town of Case Nuovo).

Unfortunately we hadn't roaming enabled, so our phones were useless at this stage. After some 10 minutes wandering at the Terminal 1 exit in Milan-Malpensa airport what to do next, I approached some Swiss guy (I didn't know he is a Swiss before approached) and asked could I use his phone to call to FireFly office. Swiss guy gave me his phone and I was dialing to FireFly office - the manager at the other end told me that shuttle will be there in 10 minutes. Thank you Swiss guy - you saved our day back there in airport.

We took the full insurance and as a gift got a free GPS device (TomTom…

Kiwi Vegan Cafe Tbilisi

17 March, 2016 | Restaurant reviews | 19 seen

Kiwi is a vegan non-profit community cafe located on Vertskli street 41, in Tbilisi Old Town. It is stated that all of their proceedings are donated to good causes related to animal rights. Kiwi provides a free social meeting space for organizations who are working for important change in the society, events can be arranged.

Kiwi vegan cafe is the second socially responsible cafe I have found so far in Tbilisi (I don't search for them specially, they just pops in front of me). See Art Cafe Kamara - a social enterprise art cafe which employs rehabilitated persons from different addicts

That was on sunny February afternoon, I decided to head to the Old Town to capture photo of the day (See: 365 days photo project) after all I ended up with a Piece of Life story about Tbilisi - Pearl of Caucasus. I ended my that days wanderings in some side streets (where I actually haven't been before) and noticed Kiwi cafe.

Kiwi cafe located on Verchli street

Since I have heard of this place before I decided to go in.

Inside cafe

Since this is a vegan cafe, and I'm not a vegan I…

Tbilisi - Pearl of Caucasus

17 March, 2016 | | 17 seen

I have spent about five years as an expat living in Georgia, most of the time I have lived in Tbilisi (about six months I spent in Batumi). In today's Piece of Life post series I just wanted to share some piece of Tbilisi. Allow me to call this vibrant city - The Pearl of Caucasus (Thus Yerevan rocks, and most probably Baku too - I still haven't visited Azerbaijan, thus once I fished on the border with Azerbaijan, see Fishing on Jandari lake).

It has always been a pleasure for me to photo document Tbilisi, here are just a few interesting photo stories: Postcards from Tbilisi, Tbilisi - Fairyland in Winter or recent discoveries on Aghmanashebeli avenue.

It was on a sunny afternoon in Mid Ferbuary, when I took my camera and headed to the Old Town to capture something beautiful. At the end I found myself in the Rike park shooting from a tripod. See: Digital Photography school

The Bridge of Peace

The Bridge of Peace in Tbilisi is a pedestrian bridge and one of the most famous tourist spots in the city. It connects district of Tbilisi Old Town with Rike Park over a river of Mtkvari.…

Beautiful morning mist

16 March, 2016 | | 11 seen

It was an early morning of August, back in 2015, I was still sleeping, tired of yesterday's hard work of unloading few tones of sand from our rural house's loft, probably still dreaming to finish anytime soon roofing works, when my better part took DSLR camera and went out shooting - look - what a beautiful mist she captured today:

Morning mist 

Mist in our backyard territory

Mist in apple orchard

mist over pine coppice

Unloading Few Tonnes of Sand from Loft

16 March, 2016 | Home Remodeling | 10 seen

For a minute it seemed that all major removal, junk unloading and demolishing works are over, but then I realized we still have that soil coving floor in loft. And I'm speaking of some 25 cm thick layer of soil, for some reason covered there.

Few weeks ago I was still naive I hoped to remove that soil/sand from the loft without any help but myself. Yup, that was quite a naive. Now, when finally last shingles were removed it was time for another pushup - get rid of that soil. I had a two workers helping me around, and it took us about twelve hours to unload and transport soil to the construction pit.

All we needed here: shovels, wheelbarrow and a lot of strength and patience doing such a monotone work

Pile of sand

Black and White photography best describes that day - it was all about sand, dust and gray tones.

Uncovering planks

It took us some time to dig enough through 25cm thick soil to uncover planks underneath 

Author of this blog captured in action

That day I actually forgot that I'm actually a Drupal Developer. Now, I will most probably print…

Minimum Wages in European Union 2016

15 March, 2016 | Macroeconomics | 72 seen

In 2016 there were 22 out of 28 European Union member states with official minimum wage set by the government.

Update: Minimum Wages in European Union 2018

The most are receiving residents of Luxembourg (EUR 1,923.00) while the least in Bulgaria (EUR 215). 

By simple calculations, I averaged the average minimum wage in 22 EU member states - EUR 810.82. In most of the member countries there is an increase in minimum wage in 2016, still, there is one country with sharp decrease.

N.B. Countries that don't have a minimum wage set by the government in European Union - Austria, Denmark, Finland, Cyprus, Italy and Sweden (collective bargaining agreements effective, instead of minimum wage)

For this year's minimum wage table I decided to include data for 2014, 2015 and current 2016, added growth over year and growth over two years, to better understand the overall scene. Data used in this table are from Minimum wages on Eurostat, List of sovereign states in Europe by minimum wage and my previous articles: Minimum wage 2015; Minimum wage 2014;

Karabak Turkish Restaurant in Tbilisi

15 March, 2016 | Restaurant reviews | 70 seen

Karabak is very cool Turkish restaurant located on the busy Queen Tamar Aveneu (Tamar Mephe) in Tbilisi not very far from Tbilisi Railway station.

When I first noticed a huge restaurant opening here on Tamar Mepe avenue, I got confused about its name - Karabak. My first thought was they are naming restaurant after Nagorno-Karabakh unrecognized Republic. Turns out (as I was told) it's not related to disputed land between Armenia and Azerbaijan, but it is actually the restaurant's owner surname)

It was on Valentine's day after two interesting photo journalism wanderings in Tbilisi (see: How Valentine's day was celebrated in Tbilisi and Reconstruction works on Agamashebeli avenue) we decided to visit one of my all times favorite Tbilisi restaurants - Katha 11... When we were at Katha 11... it was closed. I haven't checked lately, but back then I seem it is closed/closed like for permanent, we were sad and hungry... after few minutes of trying to figure out where to get a decent restaurant nearby (our options were: Shaurma club, Theater cafe or Bears restaurant) we agreed to say no to shaurma, theater cafe didn't sound like…

Art Cafe Kamara

15 March, 2016 | Restaurant reviews | 20 seen

Art Cafe Kamara is a social enterprise art cafe which employs rehabilitated persons from different addicts, at least I was told so when first visited this place.

Funded by the Swiss Government, this social enterprise art cafe is located at the foothills of Tbilisi Botanical garden in the Old Town.

Art cafe Kamara

Being uninformed about this places social activities, we at start thought - just another art cafe, which wont survive long. But since we were off for a cup of Turkish coffee,  it was a great chance to get in, get some coffee and take a look on new artists trying to do business (or something like that)

So we went in - I asked to the bartender - so, tell me please, what this place is all about what you are doing and so on. The person replied - This is a Swiss government funded project for former drug addicts by employing them. 

Hmm.. I thought - that's actually changes the way I look on this place. We ordered some Turkish coffee and agreed to order a breakfast omelet as well (thus it was already an afternoon)

Swiss Confederation and International Organization for Migration…

Hotel Best Western Modena District, Italy

14 March, 2016 | Hotel reviews | 15 seen

Best Western Modena District hotel was our last hotel in Italy during our week long travels across the country. 

This Best Western hotel is a 5-minute drive from the Campogalliano exit of the A22 Motorway, 10 km from Modena. The property offers a gym, and free outdoor parking.

At check in I asked can they give us a smokers room, the receptionist lady told they have a lovely, large smokers room, which is designed for disabled persons, we didn't mind, after seeing our room - we concluded, they just love disabled persons here in Italy - super spacious room, double soft king-size bed and a very spacious bathroom. Best they had Russian TV channels (which was rare in Italy, most probably a lot of Russian tourists visits Modena vicinity)

Best Western Modena District hotel in Italy

The Modena District has excellent connections via local motorways and national roads. The cities of Bologna and Parma are around 35 minutes away by car. 

King size bed

All rooms at Best Western Modena District are large and air-conditioned. They come with a contemporary design, free Wi-Fi, and an LCD TV with film and sports…

Modena Town Hall

14 March, 2016 | Tourism objects | 21 seen

Looking for free toursit attraction sites in Italian town of Modena? You might visit Modena Town Hall. 

Facing the Piazza Grande (a UNESCO World Heritage Site), the Town Hall of Modena was put together in the 17th and 18th centuries from several pre-existing edifices built from 1046 as municipal offices.

Modena Town Hall, Italy

It is characterized by a Clock Tower (Torre dell'Orologio, late 15th century), once paired with another tower (Torre Civica) demolished after an earthquake in 1671. In the interior, noteworthy is the Sala del Fuoco ("Fire Hall"), with a painted frieze by Niccolò dell'Abbate (1546) portraying famous characters from Ancient Rome against a typical Emilia background. The Camerino dei Confirmati ("Chamber of the Confirmed") houses one of the symbols of the city, the Secchia Rapita, a bucket kept in memory of the victorious Battle of Zappolino(1325) against Bologna. This relic inspired the poem of the same title by Alessandro Tassoni. Another relic from the Middle Ages in Modena is the Preda Ringadora, a rectangular marble stone next to the palace porch, used as a…

Tartine Brasserie - French Restaurant in Tbilisi

13 March, 2016 | Restaurant reviews | 25 seen

Tartine Brasserie is one of the rare places in Tbilisi where brunch is served in weekends. I have been in research for perfect breakfast restaurant in Tbilisi for past couple of weeks already, last week I tried so called breakfast menu at Barbarestan - Wine Shop and Restaurant in Tbilisi it didn't worked well. So another Saturday morning - another Tbilisi restaurant.

Located in the heart of Tbilisi Old Town, this place have been on my radar for a very long time already (some few years ago I actually tried some time here, but back then I didn't had ultimate list of Tbilisi restaurant reviews). In fact - we were looking for a brunch at this place some month ago already, but again, we were here some 30 minutes before brunch was served (starting 10AM), so we left for another close by restaurant - Samikitno / Machakhela Restaurant review (Meidan square, Tbilisi)

It's time to tell a photo story of Tartine Brasserie

Brasserie Tartine in Tbilisi

Located at the Meidan Square Brasserie Tartine is one of the rare places in Tbilisi where brunch is served

Brunch menu

I did find it a…

How to Get around in Tbilisi by Taxify (Taxi Mobile Application)

13 March, 2016 | Living in Georgia | 17 seen

There is a very convenient way of getting around in Tbilisi by taxi using mobile application Taxify.

I probably first heard of this company at the end of 2014 by visiting Georgian Startup challenge organized by GITA. 

For my travels around Tbilisi I mostly use taxi either by calling to the central or just by catching taxi on the street (I prefer second over first still). Taxis are cheap in Tbilisi, but you never know about cars technical condition, the cabin cleanliness and so on. There have been cases I would rather call my taxi a tank instead of a car - broken handles, battered windshields, unbalanced seats and so on. Should I mention - smoky salon? As a smoker I don't pay much attention to the last, but I believe a non-smokers could get feeling he/she will get all those thousands lung diseases a smokers develop in their lifetime.

It was so until recently by using a random street taxi a noticed a huge Lenovo tablet in cars windshield and Taxify app installed on it - so I asked to the taxi driver - what does he thinks of it? Well, we all probably have heard of Uber - which is a pioneer…