Blog Archive: December 2016
Moss Airport, Rygge, Norway
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 and Eastern Norway. It is located in Rygge, 10 kilometres (6.2 mi) outside Moss and 60 kilometres (37 mi) outside Oslo. It also served as a regional airport for Østfold county and owned and was operated by the…
Construction Materials Arrives (aerated concrete blocks and other goodies)
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 rebuilding walls for our old log house. Haven't I mentioned - we are replacing log walls with aerated concrete blocks) I ordered these blocks at the first day I got money transferred to my bank account and today was the day when construction materials…
Katskhi Monastery of Nativity of the Savior
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 church building is noted for a hexagonal design and rich ornamentation. Closed down by the Soviet government in 1924, the monastery was revived in 1990 and is now operated by the Eparchy of Sachkhere and Chiatura of the Georgian…
Málaga–Costa del Sol Airport
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 airport has flight connections to over 60 countries worldwide, and over 14.4 million passengers passed through it in 2015.Our latest trip to Spain (region of Andalusia) started an ended here at Malaga airport. We arrived here from Berlin Schönefeld…
Pouring Concrete Footing
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 setupConcrete mixer, wheelbarrow with gravel, a shovel. yes pretty much the basics for mixing the concrete.Simple template for foundationNow its time to pour in a base footing, itš a bout 90 cm width and about 30 cm height. Latter on that we will continue to pour in foundation.It's just a footing to make things rock solid.Pour in concreteadd some reinforcement from metal rods.Concrete foundation…
Christmas Cooking Photo Session in The Kitchen - Olivie salads, Pirozhki and of course Pizza
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 in Georgia have always marked two essential things to do - first to visit annul Christmas charity fair and second, on Christmas eve to cook something cool. Like we have baked gingerbreads, pirozhki and of course pizzas.
Dough is been…
Katskhi Pillar
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 noticed this interesting object at some of them. It took me more than five years since I have been living in Georgia to actually visit it. Frankly speaking I have wanted to see Katskhi pillar since day one I arrived to Georgia, but things are as they are and…
Hotel Zen Airport Torremolinos, Spain
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 and beach shuttle service is available.Hotel Zen offers free shuttle service to airport and to/from beaches. We checked in early and decided to use free shuttle service to beaches, and spent very lazy afternoon in the beach.Statue of Buddha at…
Bad Discovery - Missing foundation for house
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 foundation at all, for about 2,5 meters. Well that makes things a little bit complicated, as I need to lay down the foundation at this part of the house from a scratch - I will need to dig deeper and more wider here. Should I mention I was really pissed…
Samtavisi Cathedral
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 church in Tbilisi. Although, recently Mikheil contacted me and told following:Actually, it is vice versa (and makes an interesting story in itself): the current Kashveti church, built in 1904-1910, is an intentional exact replica of the Samtavisi cathedral…
Lazy Day in Beach (Torremolinos, Spain)
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, blurry background e.t.c). Not many portraits actually but some cool mood photography.White sands, blue sky and many palm treesSpain is definitely a true vacation destination.Lazy day in beachNow, this is a true Piece of Life!Lazy beach lifeSand…
Concrete Mixer FXA 130L
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 concrete mixer unpackedHuge was my joy after this purchase, now was time to set it up - what seemed an easy task to handle turned out to be a rocket science.Installing concrete mixerIt took me about 3 hours, countless phone calls to the DIY store, as I just didn'…
Hotel Los Dolmenes in Antequera, Spain
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 DolmenesSet around a traditional Andalusian courtyard, the rooms at Los Dólmenes come with wooden floors, a terrace, flat-screen TV and plenty of natural light. Each one comes with a private bathroom including a hairdryer and bath tub.Our roomLos Dólmenes is located just outside Antequera, 5 minutes’ drive from the city centre. It offers…
Bazaleti Lake in Georgia
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 around it. In fact, kind of, there are some buildings and even some restaurants. Thus when I first visited it, after returning from Vazha Pshavela house museum in Chargali in November 2016, I found just a lot wind and a lake. Kind of reminded me the…
El Torcal de Antequera
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 Torcal de Antequera popped on our radar. It was not easy to get there for us, see: In The Searches For El Torcal - Wilderness in Spain, but after all we made it. It was already getting late, and I rushed to make the most of ending golden hour (HDR…
Motel Istros Aviaparkas
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 planesLocated just some 500 meters from Via Baltica route (E67) - this hotel/motel kind of offers WI-FI, a TV set (with mostly Persian language channels) and not the best quality water in the shower (water with a high iron content)Lonely motel Istros AviaParkasThis is definitely …
Vazha Pshavela House Museum in Chargali
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 museum.The Big Head - Sculpture of Vazha Pshavela Vazha Pshavela House Museum in ChargaliAbout Vazha PshavelaVazha-Pshavela, simply referred to as Vazha is the pen name of the Georgian poet and writer Luka…
In The Searches For El Torcal - Wilderness in Spain
In the searches for el Torcal is a story worth to mention and complement with amazing (IMHO) travel photography - say - Wilderness of SpainEarlier today I practiced for the first time as a bird photographer, see Flamingo Lagoon near Fuente de Piedra in Spain, while searching for flamingos, we marked another tourism object to visit today - El Torcal de Antequera, mainly important because of possible great photography of rocks. We checked in at amazing hotel in a olive grove, which turned out to be just some 12km from El Torcal. Right, after a quick shower - let's drive there.In short - instead of 12 km we drive about 60km. Instead of comfortable highways we used some…
IKEA Shopping in Vilnius, Lithuania
IKEA store has been opened in Vilnius city already in 2013. This place is very popular among local and neighboring shopping travelers - Belarus and Latvia.There is no surprise seeing shoppers from Belarus here, as Minsk is less than 200km from Vilnius. Latvians? Well they just love shopping in Vilnius.It was my birthday, we were at Vilnius, after spending few hours wandering around Old Town - idea visiting IKEA arrived. Unfortunately we hadn't no idea where this store is actually located as we are not familiar with topography of Vilnius. No TomTom's here. We got a small tourist map (covering just Old Town) at tourism information center. Not a single word about IKEA there. My…
Wilderness in Georgia
During my long stay in Georgia I have documented a lot of Tbilisi restaurants, Georgian hotels, even museums, but little to nothing I have covered about wilderness in Georgia.
Wilderness, in fact, makes this country among the most beautiful countries in the world. Georgia is literally surrounded by wilderness, mountains, rivers, and a shepherd forcing his sheep from one mountain meadow to other (most probably crossing Georgian military road).
In today's Piece of Life series a little wilderness from Georgia (on the way to Vazha Pshavala house museum in Chargali)
Shepherd forcing sheep in Georgia
A common scene when traveling around Georgia.
Zhinvali water reservoir…