Blog Archive: December 2018

The Botanical Garden of the University of Latvia is located in Pardaugava (Kandavas 2), just a 10-minute ride from the central part of Riga. The garden was founded in 1922. Over 15ha visitors can explore hothouses and outdoor collections with some 6,000 different plants. It is one of the most well-loved recreational…

The Grand Documentary of 2017 is a second part from the never-ending Grand Documentary series, originally set back in 2016. The Grand Documentary of 2017 is a 5 minutes and 23 seconds long short film documenting our lives back in 2017.  Filmed in various countries across the Globe throughout 2017, glued, polished,…

Baltezers is a popular recreational village located in Ādaži Municipality some 17 km from Riga city center. The place is popular among tourists from the close neighboring countries like Estonia and Lithuania (because of Via Baltic road) and also for tourists from Scandinavia and Russia. In today's article, I've…

Weekend trip to Kyiv, Ukraine is a short recap of my 32 birthday celebrations back in 2017. In short, we booked a central hotel in the city center, used local taxi's a lot, traveled forth and back to the distant neighborhoods, and tried a lot of great Ukrainian cuisine. Traditions should be respected. For the fourth…

Puzata Hata is a popular (and probably the largest) chain in Kiev - it serves traditional Ukrainian cuisine for a budget price. Puzata Hata was one of our favorite Kiev restaurant chains we visited during our latest trip to Kiev in August 2017. See: Kiev restaurants The Puzata Khata Restaurant Network opened its…

This is a round-up post for our 3 weeks trip to Crete, Grece in June 2017, listing most of the places (tourism objects, hotels, restaurants, and more) In short, we fled from Tbilisi via Athens to Chania, see About Tbilisi - Athens - Chania (Greece) flight by Aegean Airlines,  spent some 8 hours in Athens, and arrived…

Kvareli is a town in northeastern in Kakheti Province, Georgia. Located in the Alazani Valley, near the foothills of the Greater Caucasus Mountains, it was the birthplace of Georgian author Ilia Chavchavadze The area is in the center of the Kakheti wine-producing region, and the town itself is known for its …

Rustavi cannot be proud of having top luxury hotels, like the one you can find in Georgian resort towns of Bakuriani, Gudauri, Batumi or the nation's capital Tbilisi. The reason probably is plain simple - the close distance to Tbilisi city. On the other hand, Rustavi is known for it's racing track and huge auto…

Kvareli Public service hall is located in the center of Kvareli town near Chavchavadze Street. Public Service Hall is an agency of the Georgian government which provides a variety of public services, these include the services of the Civil Registry Agency, the National Agency of Public Registry, the National Archives…

I first discovered the small Latvian town Kazdanga back in the Summer of 2015, since then I've returned here many times. Kazdanga is located near the motorway P117 some 9 km from the Aizpute and 167 km from Riga. In today's article, I decided to list the top 3 places/things to do once in Kazdanga.

Restaurant Tutarchela is located on Archil Mishveladze street 76, Tbilisi, just next to the Vake Park.  I was a bit surprised to learn that here is served Megrelian cuisine, and should admit that Megrelian cuisine is as great as Georgian According to the restaurant's FB page, there is served a wide selection of…

Baku is the capital and largest city of Azerbaijan, as well as the largest city on the Caspian Sea and of the Caucasus region. Baku is located 28 metres (92 ft) below sea level, which makes it the lowest lying national capital in the world and also the largest city in the world located below sea level. It is located…

Kvareli Eden Hotel is located in a remote place some 1 or 2 km from the Kvarteli town center, Georgia. Kvareli Eden features an indoor swimming pool and a wine therapy spa center. Free Wi-Fi and free private parking are provided. We booked a stay at Kvareli Eden in the mid of November 2018 during Georgia Discount…

Filmed in 8 countries throughout 2016, glued, sanded, laminated, blamed and put together in Tbilisi, Georgia using Adobe Premiere CC.  The Great Documentary is 13 minutes and 2 seconds long short from our lives back in 2016.  The story starts in Venice, Italy, travels to Georgia, Armenia, then Latvia, Lithuania,…

Roshen Confectionery Corporation is a Ukrainian confectionery manufacturing group. The leading manufacturer of confectionery products in the country, it operates facilities in the Ukrainian cities of Kiev, Vinnytsia and Kremenchuk, as well as in Budapest, Hungary and Klaipėda, Lithuania. The name of the company was…

Zoomart on Abashidze street 78  (located very conveniently close to the Vake park) has been our favorite pet food store (actually the only one) for several years already. We came here regularly to buy special cats dry food.  According to Zoomart website, there are already 11 stores across Tbilisi (2018).  At Zoomart…

Milan is the world' s fashion capital, so there is no surprise seeing high-end hotels located in the city center. I've been once in Milan, back then we chose to stay at a hotel close to the Milan-Malpensa airport and chose Holiday Inn Express Milan-Malpensa Airport Hotel (Case Nuove, Italy),  as we traveled from…

Annual Winter Fair (Christmas charity fair) was held at Tbilisi's Radisson Blue Hotel on December 1, 2018 For many expats in Georgia, it has been already a tradition to visit this fair year. For me, this was already some sixth or seventh fair (as a visitor), maybe I should start selling hot wine in the next years (…

Welcome to the nineteenth (#19) dividend income report, covering earnings I've made from dividend-paying stocks, peer to peer lending (both fiat and cryptocurrencies) in November 2018. In case you are wondering why I'm sharing online my earnings - the answer is pretty simple -  back in January 2017, I set a goal to…

A very interesting film by Martin Gronemeyer, telling a story about foreign expats in China during the cultural revolution. The film tells a unique personal story combined with rare historical footage give a new perspective on Mao’s utopia.  At the height of Maoism, China was as closed off as present-day North Korea…