Sputnik Hotel in Batumi

8 January, 2017 | Hotel reviews | 7 seen

I now have a new favorite hotel in Batumi - Sputnik hotel. 

Surrounded by a garden with tropical plants and trees, this 4-stars Sputnik Hotel & Spa Batumi is nestled in Batumi Hills with a stunning views of the city and black sea. Hotel boasts an outdoor pool and is just 12-minute drive from city centre. There is a restaurant, bars, swimming pool, terraces, and free WiFi at the property.

We stayed at Sputnik hotel for three nights at the end of November 2016, and paid about 300GEL (about USD 100),we got a lovely value deal at local Georgian Groupon clone site, but looking now on Booking the price doesn't seems much higher about $50. That's what I love about good (decent) hotels they are not expensive at all. 

For 100 USD we got a nice de lux room with a bath tube next to our king size bed, and yes that huge flat screen TV hanging over bed. Very cool experience. I must admit I did found some ideas for our rural country house.

De Lux room at Sputnik hotel

I had to make a panoramic photography to fit in all details (unfortunately I missed a bath) 

The elegant rooms at the Sputnik Hotel Batumi are equipped with a private bathroom. For your comfort, you will find bathrobes and free toiletries. A flat-screen TV with satellite channels is featured.

Bath tube at Sputnik hotel

A fun experience, sit in the bath and watch TV, cool! Never had done that before!

Restaurant at Sputnik hotel

Now, I would recommend to eat somewhere in city, this restaurant didn't made me much trust. Thus we got our free breakfast served here. Speaking of them - ahh... not the best, some heated hachapuri, lack of juice or coffee... well.. it could be better, but wasn't during our stay (November 2016)

Breakfast at Sputnik

An egg, slice of hachapuri, some cheese, one slice of sausage, some cucumbers, for some reason one slice of tomato.. Well... funny!

The Sputnik Batumi offers free on-site parking. A shuttle service is available to Machindzhauri Train Station which is 2 km away and Batumi Airport, 6 km from Hotel Sputnik. 

Postcards from Oslo

7 January, 2017 | | 10 seen

Seems Postcards from series are one of the most featured at Piece of Life project, and there is no surprise about it, we travel a lot, and visit many interesting cities around the World. So did happened during our latest trip to Norway, what was meant to be just a night in Olso, between layover flights turned out to be a mini postcards from Oslo.

Skyscraper in Oslo

Why doesn't I feel surprised seeing Radisson Sas hotel among one of the tallest buildings in Oslo?

A typical day in Oslo

A channel

Oslo

Remove a Wall to Finish Foundation Concreting

6 January, 2017 | Home Remodeling | 4 seen

Some build home by pouring in foundation first, we started by replacing roof, removing walls and then pouring in foundation. Sounds intrigue? Continue reading to learn more.

In today's home remodeling series a day when we removed first wall and finished pouring in concrete for foundation for our upcoming bathroom. 

I had a handy hands today, Guntars, we started our cooperation already last year, he helped me a lot with roof replacement works. The plan for today was following, to demolish old log wall and pour in the final layer of foundation.

Removing first decks from the wall

It might sound as a complicated task,but in our case it was not, as most of the log and decks were rotten already a century ago. As you can see from picture above, Guntars is removing careless nailed decks from the part where use to been a door - well we didn't now that then, thus I had an idea, there have been a doors some time ago. By reading archives about our property I have learnt that there has been a huge fire in 1967, and half of the house has been burnt. Now we will uncover some details of the past.

Removed logs

We have an idea to re-use old logs from house walls and to build a rustic fence around our territory.

Scars from the past

As you can see, there clearly have been doors in the past, also we can see there have been fire at this part of the house, maybe it can explain why we are missing foundation at this part of house.

Removed walls

It's not perfectly visible in above picture, but we have used three supporting beams to fix roof in the level . Now once we have removed this part of wall, it's time to pour in last, leveling, layer of concrete for foundation and soon we will construct this wall from scratch, 

Foundation

Now we have a rock solid foundation (at this part there were no foundation at all) and now after some time we will put a new wall here, getting one step closer to our upcoming bathroom.

View toward house from garden

I won't sleep very well this night as I will be concerned about supporting beams and seeing the roof a top on the house next morning. Otherwise - Awesome!

Chiatura Cable-ways Central Station

5 January, 2017 | Tourism objects | 19 seen

If you have a chance of visiting remote Georgian city Chiatura, make sure you take a free ride at one of the famous cable ways. Also don't forget to take your camera and make one of the interesting photos you will make in Georgia.

Some call them Stalin's cable cars, I prefer to call them - the rare chance to return to the year of 1954.

As I have been told, most of the cable cars have been in service in 1954, and most of them seems haven't been repaired ever since. I remember, few years ago a friend of mine sent me a preivev of Georgian documentary by Gabriel Razmadze Black Mulberry / Shavi tuta about miners in Chiatura, after watching that short, which was mainly concentrated on riding these cable cars in Chiatura, I had an ambivalent feelings regarding both to the documentary and to the Chiatura. Now, once I visited Chiatura by myself - one thing I know for sure - those old and neglected cable cars are great for independent shorts - I don't feel being a documentarist, but I felt it's time to convert my DSLR camera to a video camera and start filming shorts (well, not only in Chiatura, but shorts)

Old and neglected

These cable cars will take you to one of the most interesting rides if not in your life, then in Georgia for sure. Seems they haven't been repaired since they have been in service (1954). Should I mention, the ride is completely free (As of November 2016)

Chiatura cable car in service

Breathtaking scenes can be observed through the window

View towards Chiatura

See more pictures from Chiatura in article Postcards from Chiatura

​

Upper cable way station in Chiatura

Oslo Bus Terminal

4 January, 2017 | Railway / Bus / Ferry | 27 seen

Oslo Bus Terminal was our second stop from our first time short trip to Norway,we arrived here from Moss Airport, Rygge, in June, 2016 and left back from the same terminal to airport in the next morning.

Oslo Bus Terminal  is the main bus station serving Oslo, Norway. Owned by Vaterland AS it is located beside Oslo Central Station and serves local buses to Akershus as well as domestic and international coaches.

Oslo Bus Terminal

The station was built by the Akershus transit authority Stor-Oslo Lokaltrafikk as a bus station for their routes to Downtown Oslo. The station is five minutes walk from Oslo Central Station as well as the rapid transit station Jernbanetorget and the tram and city bus services at ground on Jernbanetorget. On the east side of the station is a tram station named Bussterminalen Grønland that allows the quickest transfers to the Ekeberg Line.

Foundation From Fibo Ceramsite Blocks

3 January, 2017 | Home Remodeling | 19 seen

It happened a a few weeks ago, when digging a trench around the existing foundation I discovered a missing foundation for one part of our rural house.

Back then I quickly realized I will use Fibo ceramsite blocks to boost construction works. 

The other day I poured in concrete footing, and today was the day to add first Fibo ceramsite blocks over footing

Hardened foundation footing

It rained for the last two days, I was a little bit worried, could too much rain could make some damage for footing, but it was just perfect - rock solid foundation footing to put Fiblo blocks over.

Fibo ceramsite blocks

I bought few at local DIY store and transported with our Honda CRV car. A reliable car is a must have.

Fibo clay blocks in foundation

Here is some technical background about Fibo blocks I used for foundation:

• Compression strength: 50 kg / cm ²

Now we are talking - soon, very soon we will start to remove walls and build our dream bathroom from scratch - amazing.

Postcards from Chiatura

2 January, 2017 | | 12 seen

Chiatura is an amazing and worth to explore city in the Imereti region, Georgia.

Famous because of manganese and iron ores. What makes this city special - cable cars, it's believed there are some 17 cable cars / lift systems in operation in Chiatura.

Chiatura have been on my travel list for a very long time already - first visited and documented in November 2016. Yes, we took a ride in those old and neglected, but awesome cable cars. Taking a ride in cable cars here is completely free (as of November 2016)

Soviet era monument in Chiatura

Amazing, charming and unique.

Old and neglected

Due to the steep sided river valley, production workers spent a large amount of time walking up from the town to the mines, there by reducing productivity. In 1954 an extensive cable car system was installed to transport workers around the valley and up to the mines. Still utilising the same infrastructure installed originally in the 1950s, today some 17 separate aerial lift cable car systems still exist around the town. Some of the most interesting lines are just outside the city and for those lines you can see the rough map here.

Rides are completely free (As of November 2016)

Aerial view of Chiatura

The city is located inland, in a mountain valley on the banks of the Qvirila River.

Mine railway in Chiatura

In 1879 the Georgian poet Akaki Tsereteli explored the area in search of manganese and iron ores, discovering deposits in the area. After other intense explorations it was discovered that there are several layers of commercially exploitable manganese oxide, peroxide and carbonate with thickness varying between 0.2 m (0.66 ft) and 16 m (52 ft). The state set-up the JSC Chiaturmanganese company to manage and exploit the huge deposit. The gross-balance of workable manganese ores of all commercial categories is estimated as 239 million tonnes, which include manganese oxide ores (41.6%), carbonate ores (39%), and peroxide ores (19%).As a result, the company developed a rail link to transport manganese ore to the ferro-alloy plant in Zestaphoni, which operated today by Georgian Railways is fully electrified. Manganese production rose to 60% of global output by 1905.

Chiatura

That's life, Piece of Life!

Road To Million Dollars in Saving Account

1 January, 2017 | Investments | 37 seen

I'm 31 now, I have a goal to save one million dollars by the time I will be 60. That's 29 years. That's $34,482.75 I should save each year, next 29 years in the row. That's a lot.

I currently make less than $20,000 per year, by US standard I'm the one who falls into the category - working poor. However, unlike my colleges in US, I live overseas (see living in Georgia) where standard of living in much much lower if compared to US , and in fact with funds I have here in Georgia I can afford pretty decent life style - travel a lot, spend evenings in fancy Tbilisi restaurants and even build a rural country house in other country.

I have some hopes for the bright future and I believe I could make about $45,000 per year in next 5 years (still sounds unrealistic today, let's say hard but doable).

I love challenges - more than three years ago this blog born as a challenge - can you blog 365 days in a row. It has been more than three years now and I still continue writing an article per day.

I always have loved photography, for years I was hanging around with my simple power and shoot camera and shot a lot, but it was just about two years ago I decided to take my photographer skills to the next level, soon I started my first 365 days photo project, and my photography started to shine.

Now, its time to take a control about my finances. It's not that I'm a complete beginner in finances, a time ago I actually started my first adventures in savings. Back then I looked on compound interest rates in Georgian Lari, interest rates were at about 9% annually, shortly inflation started and I lost about 17% of my money in converted in USD. I stopped looking on savings in other currencies than USD or EUR. 

So what's the plan for 2045

In 2045 I will turn 60 years old. Seems in far future, but in fact it's not. The last ten years disappeared as a flickr. For almost 6 years I have been living in Georgia, and it still feels it was just yesterday I first put step on Georgian land. Time flies. 

My initial plan for the first two or three years of my bigger goal of saving a million dollars is to put aside money I have earn with the help of this blog.

I'm planing to save the same percent as how much old I am. Today I'm 31 year old, for this year I plan to put aside 31% of my total income.

In a matter of fact I still have no clue where this year end will end for me both financially and geographically, I believe for this year to end with something $20,000 or close. That would ask to put aside about $6,500 in 2017. Still nothing close to $34,482.75 I should put into savings account each year if I wish to retire at 60 with million dollars in my bank account.

What I'm looking for is not just put money in the sock, but rather reinvest it in stocks, mutual funds e.t.c.

Right now - my goal for 2017 is to work with peer to peer lending and try to figure out could I get back about 12% annually.

I mentioned I will put income from blog into savings, yes as a matter of fact blog helps me a lot financially and I'm making some dollars on it for the last three years (I made about $3,334 in 2014 and $9,819 in 2015 and will end at about $15,000 in 2016).

In 2014 I was 29 years old, idea is simple this year I will deposit 29% from income I made in 2014, 30% from income I made in 2015, and latter on this year I will deposit 31% from income I made in 2016.

I'm looking to deposit first batch of money in January, about $966,00, second batch in March/April (about $2,945) and third batch (about $4,650) throughout the year. In total it would make about $8,561 deposited in, most probably, peer to peer lending in the first year from my 29 year adventures on saving a million dollar. That's a load of money actually. 

Now, I believe that I wont make probably any profit at first year, thus it's tempting for me to write down how much possibly I could make if that 12% annually might work out for me. $8,561+12% = $9,588.32, that's more than $1,000. Amazing.

As a blogger I'm making about $600 from Google AdSense annually. If peer to peer lending will turn out to be a successfully experience, it might be pretty successful way to make money earn more money,

Average Salary in Georgia 2016 - $ 389

31 December, 2016 | Living in Georgia | 19 seen

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 dollars that is a drop from $442 in 2013. The truth, as I believe, is somewhere in the middle. 

One thing haven't changed, thus -  inequality on how many receives male and female employees. For example, male employees in average received GEL 1172.9 at the end of Q2 2016, while their female colleague just GEL 746.2.

The biggest salaries in Georgia have been received in financial intermediation (GEL 1,964 / USD 738), construction (GEL 1,398 / USD 525) and public administration (GEL 1,377 / USD 517), while the lowest were set at agriculture, hunting and forestry (GEL 531 / USD 199), education (GEL 544 / USD 204) and hotels and restaurants (GEL 692 / USD 260)

Average monthly nominal salary of employees by economic activity Q2 2016

For the following table I have used data provided by GeoStat.ge

Data source: GeoStat.ge

If looking on these data from a broader perspective, like average salary in former Soviet Union Republics, things are not as gloomy as they might seem at the first sight. Georgia, thus not the most advanced economy of the former Soviet Union republics, stays somewhere in the middle, with larger average salary than in Belarus, Kazakhstan. But less than in Russia or Baltic states. The biggest issue here is not the low average salary, but instead a problems with Georgian national currency against USD. But that's another topic. 

If compared to average salaries in EU countries Georgia would take last position just after Bulgaria.

Moss Airport, Rygge, Norway

30 December, 2016 | Airports | 28 seen

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 private company Rygge Sivile Lufthavn AS.

Moss/Rygge shut down to all civilian traffic on 1 November 2016. The airport is however co-located with the still operational Rygge Air Station, operated by the Royal Norwegian Air Force, who also own the land and runway. The control tower services (air traffic control) are operated by Avinor.

Coach departing Rygge airport to Oslo city center

That coach definitely was the most expensive I have tried - round trip ticket from Rygge airport to Oslo city center and back for two persons cost me about EUR 140. What's the fun of using cheap flight by Ryainair to pay triple price for the coach? I'm not the guy who will miss this airport, on the other hand seems Norwegians enjoy of being one of the most expensive countries in the world. Good for them. For a budget traveler, not the best destination - hey fly to Georgia instead. From the remote Kutaisi airport you will get to Tbilisi center for less than 10 USD and the distance is about 200km.

The airport opened on 8 October 2007, but did not officially open until 14 February 2008, when regular scheduled services started. The airport has a capacity for 2 million passengers per year, but could not reach this because of a concession limit of 21,000 annual air movements. The airport handled 1,890,889 passengers in 2013. The airport used to be a major base for Ryanair from March 2010 until October 2016 and was also served to a much lesser extend by Norwegian Air Shuttle and few charter operators. The airport has been closed for all civilian traffic by 1 November 2016 due to a proposal from its main commercial operator, Ryanair, to shut down its base at the airport on that date after a new Norwegian passenger tax was introduced.

Construction Materials Arrives (aerated concrete blocks and other goodies)

29 December, 2016 | Home Remodeling | 11 seen

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 arrived. It turned out, it was a bit problematic for a driver to enter our yard, thus I assured him, that about a year ago a truck twice as big as his truck successfully delivered for us a metal roof. See: Roof Works, Part 4 - Metal Roofing Arrives

Construction materials arrives

I especially ordered a car with a manipulator. Huge was my surprise when driver invited me to climb in the trailer and climb on top of aerated concrete blocks to fix lifting belts. It was fun, that's the least I can tell.

Construction materials unloaded

It took us about an hour to unload pictured above. On the top left you can see how our neighbor started a huge fire. View was both funny and epic - me lifting belts, neighbor burning fire. I wonder who was surprised more.

Katskhi Monastery of Nativity of the Savior

28 December, 2016 | Churches and Monasteries | 11 seen

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 Orthodox Church.

Katskhi church

The Katskhi monastery is a octagonal building of more complex design than other similar polygonal Georgian monuments such as Gogiuba, Kiagmis-alty, Oltisi, and Bochorma. The exterior of the church features three gradually narrowing cylindrical levels formed by the faceted gallery, the main body of the church, and the drum of the dome.

The six apses are inscribed into the outer polyhedron and surrounded by an ambulatory from all sides. An inscription from the ambulatory mentions the certain "Tskhovreba, daughter of Ioann, Duke of Dukes". A single spacious interior compartment around the subdome bay includes radially oriented semi-circular apses. One of these, the altar apse, projects outward prominently due to its large bema. The drum of the dome is also faceted. Each facet of the main body of the church as well as that of the dome and gallery terminate in a pediment with three lines of polygonal cornices.

The building was richly ornated, but the decoration of two upper tiers was lost in the process of the 1854 restoration. Of note is a large composition in relief at the southern vestibule of the gallery, the Exaltation of the Holy Cross, featuring a cross supported by four angels.

The church is surrounded by a pentagonal wall, which contains a free-standing bell tower in its eastern corner. These structures are later additions, probably from the 17th or 18th century.

Málaga–Costa del Sol Airport

27 December, 2016 | Airports | 14 seen

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 Airport and left to Oslo,Norway using Ryanair.

Waiting area at Malaga airport

Málaga Airport is the busiest international airport of Andalucía, accounting for 85 percent of the region non-domestic traffic. It offers a wide variety of international destinations. The airport, connected to the Costa del Sol, has a daily link with twenty cities in Spain and over one hundred cities in Europe. Direct flights also operate to Africa, the Middle East and also to North America in the summer season. Airlines with a base at the airport are Air Europa, Norwegian, Ryanair and Vueling.

Ryanair flight from Malaga to Oslo

Pouring Concrete Footing

26 December, 2016 | Home Remodeling | 4 seen

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 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 concrete

add some reinforcement from metal rods.

Concrete foundation footing

Now, I'm using some really strong plastizers which will make concrete rock solid already after a day, and I will continue to lay over the foundations. But for now - let's leave concrete to solidly for night.

Christmas Cooking Photo Session in The Kitchen - Olivie salads, Pirozhki and of course Pizza

25 December, 2016 | Food blogger | 10 seen

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 fermented

A mandatory ingredient for our Christmas table is dough, which we prepare by ourselves. 

Ingredients for salad Olivie

I just love traditional Russian Olivie salads, they are quite easy to prepare. 

Boiled carrots and potatoes for Olivie Salad

Yup, one of the rare times you boil whole carrots.

Coffee break

Might be a cool addition to our Peace of Life series.

Rolling pin 

We are going to make a base for pizza using this rolling pin.

Pirozhki waiting to be baked

Filled with a meat/onion mix.

Our Christmas table 2016

From our traditional Georgian Christmas table - pizza, pirozhki (not visible in this photo) and of course salad Olivie - 100% hand made. And one of the mine latest favorite wines - Ojaleshi, rumor has it Stalin loved it. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!