Average salary in the Republic of Georgia at the end of the second quarter (Q2) of 2016 was GEL 1035.98 equaling about USD 389.
For the simplicity of further written and calculated, here is the exchange rates I used from Bank of Georgia website on December 14, 2016.
USD to GEL: 2.6599
EUR to GEL: 2.8222
If measuring in actual increase that is a huge increase by more than GEL 200 from GEL 773 in 2013. If converted to US…
Moss airport Rygge officially marks my first entry point to Norway in Summer 2016. Unfortunately, or for good, Rygge airport has been shut down to all civilian traffic on November 1, 2016.
We arrived here from Malaga by Ryanair cheap flight and stayed overnight in Oslo, to return back and have a flight to Riga next morning.
Moss Airport, Rygge was an international airport serving Moss, Oslo …
That day finally came - construction materials arrived.
We paused our construction works for about a month, because of a simple reason - lack of funds, or more precisely slow bank transfers, we did spent a lovely July harvesting mushrooms and even spent three days traveling around neighboring Lithuania to celebrate my birthday.
One thing made me worried - it was already second half of August and we still hadn't started works on…
Don't be surprised of the name Katskhi, this is a church located some 2km from the famous Katskhi pillar in Georgia.
The Katskhi Monastery of Nativity of the Savior, more commonly known as the Katskhi Monastery is a medieval monastery in Georgia, located in the village of Katskhi near the town of Chiatura. It was built at the behest of the Baguashi family in the period of 988–1014. The…
Málaga Airport, officially Málaga–Costa del Sol Airport is the fourth busiest airport in Spain after Madrid–Barajas, Barcelona and Palma de Mallorca. It is an important airport for Spanish tourism as it is the main international airport serving the Costa del Sol. It is 8 km (5.0 mi) southwest of Málaga and 5 km (3.1 mi) north of Torremolinos. The…
Right, today I found a fix to the issue we discovered earlier this summer - missing foundation for the some parts of our rural house.
Some few days ago I bough a concrete mixer, gravel was already waiting to be mixed with concrete, now it was time to pour in footing for the missing part.
All setup
Concrete mixer, wheelbarrow with gravel, a shovel. yes pretty much the basics for mixing the concrete.
Simple template for foundation
Now its…
That time of the year have come and for the rare time this year I was actually operating with camera in our kitchen - in today's special Christmas menu - our "traditional Georgian Christmas" table - salad Olivie, pirozhki and of course that tasty pizza.
It was that time of the year when again I installed a tripod, put a telephoto lens and decided to shoot macro's.
Christmas time during our expat time…
The Katskhi pillar is a natural limestone monolith located at the village of Katskhi in western Georgian region of Imereti, near the town of Chiatura. It is approximately 40 metres (130 ft) high, and overlooks the small river valley of Katskhura, a right affluent of the Q'virila.
If you have seen those amazing video clips about Georgia, you have most probably…
Hotel Zen is a 3-star hotel located in Torremolinos, Spain - a good location, pretty close to the Malaga airport. We booked Hotel Zen as our last hotel during our week long travels in Spain before departing to Oslo, Norway.
This property is 16 minutes walk from the beach. Featuring a heated outdoor pool and 2 terraces, Hotel Zen Airport is located in Torremolinos. This hotel offers air-conditioned rooms and free WiFi. A free airport…
Today I decided to keep digging trench around existing house fundament to prepare works for upcoming concreting works.
Yesterday I bough a concrete mixer and mixed first test of concrete, load of gravel were already waiting and of course a sacks of cement were bought. It was just a matter of shovel and hand work.
And then the bad news came - our house is partly missing foundation.
It turned out that at the end of house, there is no…
Samtavisi is an eleventh-century Georgian Orthodox cathedral in eastern Georgia, in the region of Shida Kartli, some 45km from the nation’s capital Tbilisi. The cathedral is now one of the centers of the Eparchy of Samtavisi and Gori of the Georgian Orthodox Church.
We discovered this church during our recent trip to town of Chiatura. My driver told me, this church seems to him as a copy of Kashveti…
It was on our last day from trip to Spain (region of Andalusia). Our trip ended at the same point where it started at Malaga, or more precisely at Torremolinos. We checked in at hotel, left our belongings at went to spend this afternoon at beach, turns out we have visited this same beach some 7 days ago already, see Playamar beach in Torremolinos.
I took the telephoto lens and experimented kind of portrait photography (wide aperture,…
Another addition to my home remodeling tools collection has arrived (been bought at local DIY store) - concrete mixer FXA 130L - with help of what I'm planing to concrete fundament for our rural house.
Concrete mixer is a must have tool for any self home builder and I would say it should be featured at any rural house. Concrete mixer is the second useful tool after a trimmer purchase this year.
FXA 130 liter…
Bulachauri restaurant probably is the restaurant I have visited the most - unfortunately I have never paid attention to the name of this place - I always know, that's that restaurant we always take meals when hiring our driver for trips to region of Mtskheta-Mtianeti.
Probably this is our driver's most favorite dining place.
I wanted to change this and ad this restaurant to the blog - so last time I visited this place I paid very…
Hotel Los Dolmenes in Antequera is among my favorite hotels I have stayed so far.
We booked this hotel during our latest trip in Spain (a week in Andalusia) in June 2016. Set in the olive grove, close to the El Torcal this is a really valuable hotel deal. We paid less than EUR 40 per night here (breakfast and free parking included)
Hotel Los Dolmenes
Set around a traditional Andalusian courtyard, the rooms at Los Dólmenes…
Traditions should be respected. For the third year in a row I have been celebrating my birthday at one of the former Soviet Union member country's capital city. Year ago, I spent awesome birthday in Tallinn (Estonia) and two years ago in Yerevan, Armenia.
It was planned to visit Minsk (Belarus) for this year, but instead of Minsk, my better part took me on a lovely three day ride across Lithuania, reaching Vilnius (capital of Lithuania)…
The Bazaleti Lake is a lake in eastern Georgia some 60 km northwest of the nation's capital Tbilisi and 5 km south of the town of Dusheti. It is used for fish culture, irrigation, and recreation. The nearby village and the historical district around the lake are also known as Bazaleti.
I had heard about Bazaleti lake before and thought there are some recreational facilities built…
El Torcal de Antequera is a nature reserve in the Sierra del Torcal mountain range located south of the city of Antequera, in the province of Málaga off the A45 road in Andalusia, Spain.
It is known for its unusual landforms, and is one of the most impressive karst landscapes in Europe.
It was on our day 4th or 5th in Spain (traveling around region of Andalusia), when El…
Motel Istros Aviaparkas is among the strangest and definitely the most solitary hotel I have ever stayed. Located some 4 kilometers from town of Panevezys in Lithuania.
It was the evening of my 31st birthday and we returned home from our three day trip around Lithuania. Tired. After checking few rural houses in the vicinity we decided hell - let's sleep among helicopters and Old Soviet war planes.
Old Soviet war planes
Located just some 500…
Vazha Pshavela house museum in Chargali features objects connected with life and work of well-known Georgian son and poet Vazha-Pshavela (1861-1915). Various publications of poet's works, paintings, graphics, sculptures and photographs are featured here.
What makes this place important? Not to mention that Vazha Pshavela is one of the well-known Georgian poets (obliviously) - The Big Head in the front of entrance of this…
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