Blog Archive: June 2022

Macroeconomics

African Union GDP Per Capita 2022*

The African Union (AU) is a continental union consisting of 55 member states located on the continent of Africa.  The AU's future goals include a customs union, a single market, a central bank, and a common currency, thereby establishing an economic and monetary union.

This morning I was talking to Rob, a friend from South Africa, we were talking economics, Georgia, and railways and suddenly I remembered a few years ago I did an article…

Real estate

Is it possible to buy a 3 bd apartment in European Union Member state for just EUR 350?

A few years ago I bought a property in rural Latvia (which is a member state of the European Union) for under EUR 4,000 - most of the time I thought this has been a bad investment. 

Since my original purchase I have additionally invested about EUR 14,000, making my total around EUR 18,000, and this Summer for the first time I feel I could actually realize this apartment for EUR 25,000 or at least EUR 20,000 without much hassle. See the…

Hotel reviews

Friends Hub village Guest house review in Vazisubani

Friends Hub village guesthouse is located in Vazisubani, near Gurjaani in the region of Kakheti, Georgia, some 2-hour drive from Tbilisi.

Oskars, the host, invited me to visit his new place at the start of May 2022. After a few stops at McDonald's, Sighanghi, and Bodbe monastery we finally reached Vazisubani, where we were greeted with traditional Georgian supra and a lot of chacha.

Here I made a short video from our trip:…

Laptop Reviews

Top 10 Laptops with Backlit keyboard 2022

A neat feature a laptop can have is a backlit keyboard.

In 2022 the chance of finding a laptop with a backlit keyboard is more possible when looking at HP, Dell, or Lenovo laptops

Keep reading to learn more about top 10 best selling laptops with Backlit Keyboard on Amazon

A quick note: This article contains affiliate links to Amazon.com, by clicking on links on this page and by making a purchase on the Amazon site, I will earn an affiliate…

Building & Renovation

How To Tile Kitchen / hallway floor

The time had finally come and I was ready to tile the kitchen and hallway floors at our Vilgale apartment.

A year ago I would say  - no way I'm going to do it myself, but here you go, I did it all on my own, with some research on Youtube and a lot of encouragement from friends who have done it.

As it is in our Tbilisi apartment - I decided to go with large 60cmx60cm tiles, which I bought at the local DEPO store (in Liepaja) In total I…

Real estate

Tbilisi Rent to Sublet on Airbnb - Part 1

This is the topic I first encountered many many years ago, well actually back in these days it was more about buying a property in Tbilisi and renting it out with the option of selling the property in a few years with profit. 

Throughout the years I've been contacted by investors from all around the world (literally from Italy to Australia and Brazil) interested in Tbilisi rental market. My simple question always has been - what is the…

Building & Renovation

New Investment Project - Summer House with Garden in Latvia

Welcome to another interesting project in the home remodeling series. - summer house with a garden in SouthWest Latvia. It turns out this is already the third, ongoing home remodeling project featured on the blog. Exciting.

This is the project my fiancee actually bought, without first seeing it - the price seemed very good, not to take this property. I was a bit skeptical at the start, as we still have another ongoing renovation project with…

Pearl of Tbilisi - Gardenia Shevardnadze Flower Garden

Gardenia Shevardnadze is a lovely flower garden in Tbilisi, where you can buy seedlings for your yard, balcony, terrace, home, or office. 

The place is popular among photographers, tourists, gardeners, and enjoyers of life.

After visiting this place so many times, while living in Georgia, I wouldn't hesitate to call this place a Pearl of Tbilisi and include it among the top 10 must-visit places in the Georgian capital. 

It was an…

Laptop Reviews

Top 7 Aluminum Chassis / Body laptops 2022

In today's article, I've listed the TOP 7 bestselling aluminum chassis laptops on Amazon in 2022

Most Aluminum chassis laptops come with the price attached and nowadays there are both traditional, touchscreen, and of course gaming laptops surrounded by metallic cases. Even some of the Chromebooks are available in aluminum chassis.

Top 20 Aluminum Chassis Notebook / Laptop Computers

A quick note: This article …

Living in Georgia

Hiking Likani, Sunday school Rustavi

Embedded thumbnail for Hiking Likani, Sunday school Rustavi

Another awesome weekend in Georgia 🇬🇪- with some elements of offroad riding, hiking, camping, horseback riding near Likani station, and a few skulls at Green monastery Saturday.

Back to Rustavi scout center for a lovely Sunday with fellow Latvians. 

Our last weekend trip with VW Touareg. 

Macroeconomics

Minimum Wages in European Union 2022

In 2022 there were 21  out of 27 European Union member states with an official minimum wage set by the government.

Turns out this is already the eighth (#9) article about minimum wages in European Union featured on the blog. To keep it up, here is the raw data for minimum wages across European Union in 2022.

Please don't judge too hard, data are taken from this article on Wikipedia, and applied some…

Real estate

Buying a property in Georgia (Dedoplistskaro)

Dedoplistskaro is a small town in Kakheti, Georgia with a population of about 6,000. Distance to Tbilisi about 130 km, about 2 hour drive. 

I first had an idea of buying a house in Dedoplitskaro a few years ago, back then I was researching the whole of Georgia and Dedoplitskaro stayed the top of the list because the buying price seemed one of the lowest in the country. When speaking with locals (not from Dedoplitskaro) - I was told that…

Living in Georgia

Eagle canyon in Georgia

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The bear went over the mountain .. or last weekend we went hiking at the Eagle Canyon near Dedoplistskaro, Shopping at the Dezerteer market in Tbilisi, and exercising at Lisi Lake... another fabulous weekend has been put on our tapes and post-processed.

Enjoy the video and thumbs up!

Real estate

Tbilisi Airbnb market overview - May 2022

Recently I've been working on the Tbilisi Airbnb property management service and with the help of this article, I decided to take a quick look at the overall Tbilisi Airbnb market. The size, revenue, occupancy rate, and more.

According to AllTheRooms, the average daily rate for hosts earned in Tbilisi was $40, which is a +5.26% growth if compared to the previous month. while the occupancy rate was 27% (a -10% decrease compared to the previous…

Real estate

Tbilisi Airbnb property managment

Tbilisi ex-pats and locals - I'm launching a new service - Tbilisi Airbnb property management.

Whether you are an expat looking for someone that does Airbnb management in Tbilisi? Someone that can take care of your apartment and rent it out when you are out of town. Or local looking to get maximum return from short-term rentals. We are here to help.

I'm open to helping manage your property, listing it on Airbnb, Booking.com, and other…

Living in Georgia

Sighnaghi & Vazisubani trip

Embedded thumbnail for Sighnaghi & Vazisubani trip

At the start of May, Oskars invited us to visit his new hut in Kakheti.

After a few stops at McDonald's, Sighanghi, and Bodbe monastery we finally reached Vazisubani, where we were greeted with traditional Georgian supra and a lot of chacha.

Now, there is one more cool place where they speak Latvian to visit in Georgia. Enjoy the video and Thumbs up!

Filmed with DJI Mavic Air 2 and Samsung Galaxy phone, Georgia May 13-14, 2022

Living in Georgia

Notes from Tbilisi: Abandoned Military sites in Latvia / Estonia; Sold VW Touareg car; #2 Bitcoin newsletter

Good afternoon from sunny and hot Tbilisi. The weather was scorching today, reaching +32 Celsius.

The morning started with an interesting message to the blog's contact form - an Estonian person was asking some questions about military sites in Latvia, we exchanged a few e-mails and talked both about Latvian and Estonian abandoned military sites.



Information about former Latvian radar base Skrunda-1

Hello, Reinis

I read your post about…

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