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Building a Dog house
Recently we inherited not only a bad managed rural house, but also got a German shepherd dog Bob. I have posted a lot about our home remodeling works, and in one article you can see Bob. Bob is very scared dog, he doesn't trust people, as his owner passed away, he haven't approached any people, even me. After a summer spent in our rural house, the best we could achieve - Bob laying in front of house and observing us. We feed Bob…
Otium Restaurant in Tbilisi
Otium restaurant is a very stylish, but what's interesting not at all expensive venue, located in neighborhood of Vake in Tbilisi (uphill on the Turtle lake road). I have dozen of times passed by this restaurant during some of mine hiking trips around here (See: Hiking in Tbilisi - Turtle lake (Kus Tba) - Vake Park) but I always refused to visit it, because I thought it should be out of my league (all those SUV cars parked in…
The Roof Works are Done (Almost)
That August, 2015 day was a huge day - we finished roof covering works in our rural country house. It took us about a month as we launched roofing works, and it will take us few more days to complete roofing completely. I didn't photographed today much, or day before (when most covering were done), in fact I didn't photographed at all, my better part did. Here is what we got: Almost done here Just three more roof plates (int total for…
Aerial photos from rooftop
Today we continued covering roof with metal plates, in a short break I took my DSRL camera a top on the roof and made some aerial photos. You won't get here views as nice as you could get from Tbilisi or Batumi aerial trams, but taking into consideration that we are speaking of an old rural house - these views are as much great. Roof masters a top on the roof (Edgars and Guntars) Aerial view to our veggie garden Few months ago we planted…
Intelligentsia Coffee Bar Tbilisi
I have spent countless hours at Intelligentsia Coffee Bar near Turtle lake in Tbilisi - this place has been my offsite office in hot Summer days (see: Turtle lake - my working place for today) or starting point before taking a hike (see: Hiking in Tbilisi - Turtle lake (Kus Tba) - Vake Park) As the name of this place stats - it's a coffee bar, but you can order delicious meal here as well, starting Panini ending French fries…
Azerbaijani Restaurant Agha in Tbilisi
Azerbaijani cuisine restaurant Agha is located near Heroes square (access is from the Circus side) in Tbilisi. After a meal here - I'm already planing my next trip to the land of fire - Azerbaijan. At this restaurant I tried something new for me - Dushbara soup, piti soup and veal saji on Fire. Lately I have tried a lot new non-Georgian cuisine places in Tbilisi, see Turkish restaurant Karabak, Chinese restaurant Dzin Chao…
Roof Works, Part 6 - Finishing lathing and adding first plates of metal roof
Today was a big day, we managed not only to finish lathing works, covered roof with cross wind sheet but actually installed two plates of metal roof. Today was a very long working day also, by now I feel excelled a lot if roof works and home renovation. We started early in the morning (around 7:30 AM) as I knew this will be a very long day, and I really wanted to start cover roof with metal plates. Construction workers stretching cross…
Dzin Chao Chinese Restaurant in Tbilisi
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…
Tbilisi Zoo
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 …
About FireFly Car Rental in Italy
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…
Kiwi Vegan Cafe Tbilisi
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…
Unloading Few Tonnes of Sand from Loft
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…
Karabak Turkish Restaurant in Tbilisi
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…
Art Cafe Kamara
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…
Hotel Best Western Modena District, Italy
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…
Modena Town Hall
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…
Tartine Brasserie - French Restaurant in Tbilisi
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…
Pruning trees and shrubs
One of my biggest challenges last summer was unstoppable fight with grass (see: Lawn Mowing), not to mention larger scale works on roof replacement. But there was another major issue we faced - overgrown bushes and totally deprived landscape. When dealing with trees and shrubs it's not only about landscape, but also about their health. You want healthy landscape right? Now, we had a really deprival and unhealthy landscape in our backyard…
Roof Works, Part 5 - And once more let's remove old roofing
Think roof works are cool? In fact - roofing is one of the hardest works in construction and if you have decided by your own to replace your old roofing - think again! Anyway - let me show - how once again (See: Replacing Roof - Part 1: Removing old roofing) we removed old wooden shingles from our rural house back in Summer of 2015. This time I hired two workers to help me out with demolishing works and ...…
Actual Price Index at Tbilisi Market - March 2016
Yup, another hipster style article about actual prices for consumer goods at local Tbilisi market (Bazroba). It has been a while since I decided to measure how lari/dolar exchange rates influence actual prices, if you, just like me are an expat living in Georgia - you most probably have faced the consequences of weak lari against US dollar. Thus - I don't believe that foreign currency should affect local economy. National…
Chops by the River - Restaurant & Grill
Chops by the River restaurant and grill is now among my favorite Tskenti restaurants, and allow me to say among Tbilisi restaurants as well. Located in village of Tskneti this restaurant offers single priced grill menus and very pleasant atmosphere. I have heard of this place by some friend before, but the circumstances that made us actually to visit this restaurant was a little bit strange. As an active outdoor lovers we were…
Juliet's House in Verona, Italy
As testified by the coat of arms on the internal arch-way of the court-yard, this house belonged to the “Dal Cappello” or “Cappelletti”. The building, dating back to the 13th and renovated in the last century, features the balcony where Romeo promised his beloved Juliet eternal love in Shakespeare’s famous tragedy.I had a chance to visit World famous Juliet's balcony on January 2nd, 2016 - it was a very rainy and cold day In VeronaJuliet's…
Guest House Hapi in Jūrmala
If there is a reason I will remember Hapi guest house in Jūrmala, then probably its green walls and super unprofessional staff attitude will be among top of them. Hapi guesthouse in Jūrmala We stayed here for one night back in August 2015 and ... I can not even express my disappointment in words how unprofessional and meanwhile expensive this so called guest house was. We paid about EUR 40 for stay in this place... EUR 40 is not much,…
Lawn Mowing - The Never Ending Story Continues
Our roof works were still in the middle, and I noticed that grass have grown again. It was just recently when I trimmed backyard territory, but this time I decided it's time to completely trim all our land (about 0.57 hectares). I asked to our worker, could he handle this task in one day. He agreed, so in the next day - I took a day off from any home remodeling works, instead did some work for customers and photographed how grass is…