Castle Carrarese of Este

24 February, 2016 | Tourism objects | 38 seen

It was January 1st, 2016 when we visited Castle Carrarese of Este, during our drive from Venice to Modena. It was our second stop after we enjoyed a cup of cappuccino at lovely Candiana town. Read more: Bar Rialto in Candiana) 

The castle overlooking the town of Este consists of large master towers and massive walls, about a kilometre long, which embraces the extreme southern edge of the Euganean Hills. This mighty monument bears witness to the important role that the territory of Este played in medieval times.

Castle Carrarese of Este

The oldest part of the fortification is located on the elevated side and consists of a circle of walls with the remains of a church and the foundations of a small tower, probably dating to the sixth century AD.

The first evidence of a real castrum in this place dates back to 1115 and connects to the judicial and defensive power of the territory of which the feudal family which took its name from Este was appointed.

Inside view

During the twelfth and early thirteenth century, the Este Marquis enlarged the fortress building a series of curtain walls and residential buildings. The Marquis's castle reached its zenith with Azzo VI, who became an important centre of troubadour culture. Poets, artists and jesters were accommodated in his court, where they sang the Marquis praises and of the beautiful daughter Beatrice.

Broken statues 

The destiny of the castle changed abruptly because of the violent wars between the Guelph faction (which was guided by the Este family) and the Ghibellines, who besieged and damaged the fortification several times. In 1249 the castle was destroyed by Ezzelino III da Romano, who then decided to restore it, but in 1294 the Paduan family, now undisputed masters of the land, demolished it again.

The current configuration of the castle dates back to 1339, when Ubertino da Carrara, lord of Padua, decided to build it in the shape that we see today.

At the beginning of the fifteenth century, after the spontaneous surrender of the city to the Republic of Venice, another wall which encompassed all the new urban centre of Este, already bounded by the channel Bisatto, was erected.

Lost its military significance, in 1570, the castle was bought by the rich and powerful Venetian Mocenigo family, who began the construction of its palace on the south side of the Carrara fortification. Originally the grand palace was composed of two symmetrical buildings, which required the demolition of a pair of towers. The east wing, however, was destroyed by fire in the eighteenth century.

The City of Este bought the entire complex in 1887, allocating green spaces within the city walls and the surviving wing of the Palazzo Mocenigo to a public use.

Today the castle serves as a majestic backdrop of Carrara manicured public gardens, opened in 1915, full old trees, while the rooms of Palazzo Mocenigo host the prestigious collections of the Archaeological Atestino Museum.

• Used resources: Castle Carrarese of Este

St. Nicholas' Church, Tallinn

23 February, 2016 | Churches and Monasteries | 22 seen

St. Nicholas' Church is a medieval former church in Tallinn, Estonia. It was dedicated to Saint Nicholas, the patron of the fishermen and sailors. Originally built in the 13th century, it was partially destroyed in Soviet Bombing of Tallinn in World War II. It has since been restored and today houses a branch of the Art Museum of Estonia, focusing mainly on ecclesiastical art from the Middle Ages onward. The former church is also used as a concert hall.

St. Nicholas' church of Tallinn is located in the Green area in Harju street, Tallinn

St. Nicholas' Church in Tallinn

I could only wish I had photographer skills back there I have now, thanks to my photography experiments. Read more: Digital photography school

The church was founded and built around 1230–1275 by Westphalian merchants, who came from Gotland in the 13th century. While the city was still unfortified, the church had heavy bars for closing the entrances, loopholes and hiding places for refugees. When the fortifications around Tallinn were finished in the 14th century (the town wall enclosed the church and the settlement in 1310), the St. Nicholas' Church lost its defensive function and became a typical medieval parish church. There are only a few parts of the original church that have been preserved through the present.

In 1405–1420 St. Nicholas' church obtained its current appearance, when the central aisle was built higher than side aisles and the church was redesigned as a full basilica. In 1515 the tower was built higher and covered with late-Gothic spire. In late 17th century the tower was strengthened and secured. The spire was replaced with a Baroque spire with airy galleries, which was raised higher stage by stage through several centuries.The tower is now 105 metres (344.5 ft) high.

Read more about St. Nicholas Church in Tallinn on Wikipedia

Green area in Harju street, Tallinn

23 February, 2016 | Tourism objects | 11 seen

On the second day's morning, during our short two day trip to Tallinn, we left our hotel and went out to explore city. Soon we were in area which featured parks, gardens and architectural pearls - as I leant latter this place has a special name - Green area in Harju street. 

It's a pretty lively street in Tallinn, featuring some shops, bookstores and cafeterias. 

Medieval tower in Tallinn

Now I can only wonder what is the name of that tower,as we actually didn't visited it. ave you been to Tallinn recently, can you help me out naming this tower? Drop a comment!

Green area in Harju street

Outdoor cafeteria at Harju street green area

Georgian National Opera Theater

22 February, 2016 | Tourism objects | 65 seen

The Georgian National Opera and Ballet Theater of Tbilisi  is an opera house situated on Rustaveli Avenue in Tbilisi,Georgia. Founded in 1851, Tbilisi Opera is the main opera house of Georgia and one of the oldest such establishments in eastern Europe.

Recently gone through 6 years long renovation works, Georgian National Opera and Ballet theater has been opened for public on January 30, 2016.

Tbilisi Opera house on Rustaveli avenue

Since 1896, the theater has resided in an exotic neo-Moorish edifice originally constructed by Victor Johann Gottlieb Schröter, a prominent architect of Baltic German origin. Although definitively Oriental in its decorations and style, the building's layout, foyers and the main hall are that of a typical European opera house. Since its foundation, the theater has been damaged by several fires and underwent major rehabilitation works under Soviet and Georgian leadership; the most recent restoration effort concluded in January 2016, having taken six years and costing approximately 40 million U.S. dollars, donated by a Georgian business foundation.

Opera's park

The opera house is one of the centers of cultural life in Tbilisi and was once home to Zacharia Paliashvili, the Georgian national composer whose name the institution has carried since 1937. The Opera and Ballet Theater also houses the State Ballet of Georgia under the leadership of an internationally renown Georgian ballerina Nina Ananiashvili. In recent years it has hosted opera stars such as Montserrat Caballé and José Carreras, while also serving as a traditional venue for national celebrations and presidential inaugurations.

Statue of ballerinas in Opera's park

The foundation of the Tiflis Imperial Opera was closely intertwined with the turbulent political processes in Georgia following the country's annexation by the Russian Empire in 1801. In the first half of the 19th century, Georgia remained a restless and poorly integrated part of the empire. Unhappy with Russian policies, in 1832 Georgian aristocracy hatched a plot against the local Russian authorities, which was discovered and resulted in multiple arrests and repressions in the subsequent years. Anxious to reconcile the Georgian opinion in view of these lingering difficulties, the new Viceroy of the Caucasus, Count Mikhail Vorontsov, implemented a number of cultural initiatives, one of which was the foundation of the opera. The declared purpose of its establishment was to benefit the "public well-being" but it also served an important political goal of fully integrating the local Georgian aristocracy into the Imperial social life, thereby distracting them from any further anti-Russian conspiracies. Read more on Wikipedia. 

Visit official website: www.opera.ge (In Georgian)

Prospero's Books & Coffeehouse in Tbilisi

22 February, 2016 | Shopping Venues | 41 seen

Those of you looking for a literature in English or perhaps to enjoy a cup of latte, while in Tbilisi there is a great place where to have both - meet Prospero's Books located on Rustaveli avenue.

At Prospero`s Books & Caliban`s Coffeehouse you will be delighted to find : English and other language general books, English Language Teaching Books and Used books that are exchanged  for an in-store credit

At Prospero's Bookshop in Tbilisi

Features a cafeteria and lovely yard terrace to enjoy a cup of English tea (perhaps) while reading some good story. 

Bookshelves at Prospero's bookstore in Tbilisi

Besides the books, Prospero`s Books also offers Gifts & stationary and other services like, PBY Membership, Children’s reading Hour, Internet on the site. In the coffeehouse you can sit down, relax and enjoy a specialty coffee drinks, sandwiches and pastries or by weight, imported teas are available too.

Prospero's Books in Tbilisi

Visit www.prosperosbookshop.com to learn more

Restaurant 'Three crowns' in Tallinn

21 February, 2016 | Restaurant reviews | 8 seen

The restaurant “Three crowns” is located in the heart of Old Town, in the center of street Vene 8. Cheerfully opens the door’s for all people who love well-prepared cuisine, there is combined Estonian and European cuisine with interesting wine list of Old Town and New world. 

Although hotel we stayed during our short stay in Tallinn also featured a restaurant it ain't no fun eat at you hotel if you can go and eat at neighboring hotels restaurant, right?

Three Crowns Restaurant in Tallinn

At time we discovered this restaurant I was informed that kitchen will be closed in 20 or something minutes and we can''t actually order any course, but we can have some appetizers and of course some Estonian beer.

We had already intake some beer and vodka at Mad Murphy's Irish pub, so another beer seemed the right choice to have.

Greenery on the terrace at restaurant Three Crowns

While we were waiting our beer to be served we were joined by some Suomi (Finish couple), who seemed had intake already some 10 times more alcohol than we had and the real fun talk started. We spent next few hours in funny, definitely not sober talks. Really nice couple. 

I believe Finish tourists are both blessing and curse for Estonia. They are good for overall economy, but speaking of negative - I believe locals are tired of masses of drunken Finish tourists in Tallinn's streets.

Estonian beer

Onion rings and garlic bread as appetizer for beer

Mad Murphy's Irish Pub in Tallinn

21 February, 2016 | Restaurant reviews | 27 seen

Mad Murphy's Irish Pub is located in Tallinn very close to city's town square on Mundi street 2. If you are up to for a Nightlife in Tallinn, make sure you visit this pub,

I visited this pub back in Summer of 2015, during our short two days trip to celebrate my thirty birthday, shortly we were checked in at our hotel (Read my review here: St. Olav Hotel in Tallinn) we decided to explore our lively neighborhood, and it was a very lively. It was a warm August evening. 

Mad Murphy's Irish pub in Tallinn

I'm not that kind of person who loves to spend his time in bars and pubs, but... what happens in Tallinn, stays in Tallinn. Mad Murphy's pub was a very interesting experience - It was a Saturday's night, live Irish music was performed on stage, we are standing at bar desk enjoying our God knows what cocktails - vodka, beer e.t.c. when we notice something strange - we are the only ones in the pub who actually moves in the rhythms of Irish folk music.Estonians stay cool, the most Estonian public affords - to click fingertips while sitting still at their desks. 

Cheers mate is not an acceptable tip in Estonia

Some strong black Estonian beer

The Bottom Line

Mad Murphy's Irish pub in Tallinn is pretty tourist friendly, prices for drinks are not huge, and best of all they have a live music (at least in weekends).

Bar Rialto Candiana

20 February, 2016 | Restaurant reviews | 5 seen

I have always loved local cafes and restaurants where tourists barely step their foot in, we were of from Venice and traveled to Modena, when I said, let's visit some of the local villages and see what's good there. 

Back at this stage I even didn't know that village we were to enter is called - Candiana, shortly we parked our car and noticed a local pub/bar/restaurant - so we entered this place, which I learnt latter is named - Bar Rialto Candiana and ordered a cup of cappuccino. It was January 1st, some local folks were inside, lady approached me - raised her hand, hugged me and told - bueno ano, which probably translates as Happy New Year. I replied - bueno ano!

We were just about 30 km of from Venice and people were totally different. That was strange and lovely. 

Some special offer from Bar Rialto in Candiana

The only two words I understood here - pizza and cafe

Snacks at Bar Rialto

Interior at Bar Rialto

The above scene reminds me pretty much of how it looks in a regular Georgian cafe. See Tbilisi restaurants

Italian coffee at Bar Rialto in Candiana, Italy

The Bottom Line

Bar Rialto in Candiana, Italy is very friendly and I would say very attractive place,next time I will be in this are I will return here gladfully. 

St Mark's Square in Venice

20 February, 2016 | Tourism objects | 6 seen

St Mark's square probably is every travelers dream destination when traveling to Venice, Italy. So did it was among mine - must have destinations. We traveled to Italy and especially to Venice for a New Year's eve to celebrate 2016. 

I was so found of photography, and especially fireworks photography, that I started to prepare already about a month before our departure. huge was my disappointment, when I was not able to find a single spot to make any decent fireworks photography from St Mark's square. It's hard to tell, but I believe there were at least some 10,000 folks that night gathered in St Mark's square, together with buildings at square literally blocking any access to fireworks photography. 

St Marks square in Venice, Italy

Piazza San Marco, often known in English as St Mark's Square), is the principal public square of Venice, Italy, where it is generally known just as "the Piazza" (la Piazza). The Square is dominated at its eastern end by the great church of St Mark.

Fireworks photography from St Mark square

I took more decent fireworks photography two weeks later from my apartments balcony in Tbilisi. Read more: Old New Year's fireworks in Tbilisi

Venetians and tourists celebrating New year of 2016 in St Mark square

Gondolas in a bay close to St Mark's square

Fourth Traffic Spike - How to get 10,000 Pageviews in One Day

19 February, 2016 | Blogging | 12 seen

Yesterday (February 18) marked another important milestone for my blog - for the very first time my blog traffic crossed 10,000 page views in one day. Now, don't get me wrong - I would love to report 10,000 daily page views instead of 10,000 in one day, which happened thanks to the huge traffic spike made by a dozen of referring links. 

By now my blog gets about 2,000 page views per day, which of course is already a very great result, but having that traffic bump made me smile this morning. OK, I was actually closely monitoring stats already since yesterday and hoped I will manage to crack 10,000 unique users per day. I was short for about 1,300 users at the end.

10,000 page views in a day

When speaking about traffic spikes - in most cases (at least for me) - it doesn't mean my earnings are up as well. As you can see from te above screen - pages / session ratio is superb low, barely reaching 1.1. Normally my pages / session ratio is between 1.3-1.5. Although I believe I should aim something closer to 2 pages per session. The same applies for average session duration - 28 seconds instead of about one minute and 30 seconds on regular days. Bounce rate of 87.16% is very poor performing results. On regular days my bounce rate is just above 60%. 

Now answering on the question, mentioned in the title of this article

How to get 10,000 page views in a day

There is no magic or secrets, for me it took more than two years of everyday blogging, but the real reason is not even everyday blogging but a research on a highly social sharable and debatable topics, yesterday my article about Average salary in the EU got on the front page at Reddit, basically I would call it more a random luck, instead of a focused efforts of getting there. Reddit has been involved in previous two of three traffic spikes to my blog.

Speaking of me, I'm not a Reddit user and I don't know for sure how things are working there, but I believe users there are savvy tech people, being ad blind and not engaging with my content anyhow on my blog (I got just one comment from about 6,000 users yesterday) instead they are continuing conversations on Reddit. My blog was just a source (a tool) in the hands of the mighty Reddit users. 

On the other hand - if people are not engaging, revenue is low - this probably should be called a "wrong traffic" - it depends, basically yes, there is no direct benefits from such traffics spikes, but I believe they help in a long term. Yesterday I got a few additional referrals from some other forum sites as well  - which is a direct benefit from Reddit and confirms my theory about tech people there - instead of commenting or clicking on ads on my site, folks posted more links to my blog in other resources, which might help in future to bolster my SEO (I'm not doing any offline SEO, most of the backlinks are earned in natural way)

Can your hosting handle 10,000 page views per day?

The short answer is - it should. if your website is a simple, not involving complex database queries and most of the users visiting your site are anonymous with cache enabled you should be able to handle 10,000 page views in a day with ease.  You can get started with a cheap hosting from Bluehost or you can choose more expensive but more reliable VPS from sources like Linode.

Speaking of me - I ran a $40 box on Linode + Nginx and of course Drupal, yesterday's traffic spike was barely noticeable on my Linode performance reports. Just recently I upgraded my blog to secure HTTPS pages and implemented KeyCDN. The only thing I noticed here was increase in bandwidth:

KeyCDN traffic report

Traffic increased to about 4.7 GB from around 1GB bandwidth on regular days.This led me to further investigate is there a way I could save some bandwidth and deliver even faster page views for less money.

Lessons Learned

This was already fourth traffic spike to my blog, by now the largest one, there is a simple lesson I have learned by now - traffic spikes come and go, I'm not too much worried about them, my biggest concern is just can my server handle them - for now it seems - I could handle 50,000 page views per day (well it depends of course, but I'm not worried of my server infrastructure)

Thus there is one additional lesson I learned - I should further fine tune my page load times. I taught that there is still room to improve my monetization strategy from Google AdSense. Currently I'm serving 3 AdSense ad units, they are generating me some decent (not much) amount of money, but CTR are well bellow 1% (there are two ad units bellow the fold and one sidebar unit). I decided to experiment in next 10 days (till the end of February, by removing header image for each article, which looks great, but takes 80% of above the fold placement) and move up one of the AdSense ad units to see if there will be an increase in CTR.

That said, it's time to wait for another traffic spike, probably I will cover some article on 10,000 unique daily users (hopefully anytime soon)

St.Olav Hotel in Tallinn, Estonia

19 February, 2016 | Hotel reviews | 13 seen

St. Olav Hotel is located in the heart of Old Tallinn just a few hundred meters away from Tallinn's Town Hall square.

We stayed at this hotel in August, 2015, during a short travels to Estonian capital to celebrate my thirty birthday.

Lai street in Tallinn

Our hotel was located in the heart of Old Tallinn, since it was a Summertime, many cafes and restaurants were opened in our and nearby streets, so we had a plenty to choose from.

St.Olav hotel in Tallinn

The St. Olav is located in a historic building, and is decorated with antique furniture. The heated rooms have stone and brick elements, along with wooden furniture. Guests have an option of buying bathrobes and slippers.

Our room at St.Olav hotel in Tallinn, Estonia

Room features flat-screen TV, safe, minibar, work desk and free Wi-Fi.

St. Olav is only 400 m from Balti Jaam Railway Station. The Toompark is within 240 m. There are many restaurants, cafés and shops in the vicinity.

The Bottom Line

We paid about EUR 140 for a two night stay, what can I say - its decent hotel offering free breakfasts and Free Wifi. But what's most best of this hotel - its location. Definitely one of the best locations in Tallinn city centre.

Book St.Olav hotel on Booking.com

Tallinn Town Hall Square

19 February, 2016 | Tourism objects | 15 seen

One of the most impressive tourist sights in Tallinn, most probably is Tallinn Town hall square and its surrounding restaurants and cafes. Speaking of the Town Hall it is the oldest town hall in the whole of the Baltic region and Scandinavia.

We visited Tallinn's Town Hall square while headed to our hotel (located somewhere close) during a short 2 day trip to Estonia's capital to celebrate my 30th birthday.

To enter into Old Town we had to cross Viru gate

Viru Gate in Tallinn, Estonia

The barbican of Viru Gate was part of the defense system of Tallinn city wall built in the 14th century. By the 16th century, it had 8 gates that consisted of several towers and curtain walls connecting them. The main tower of a gate was always square and the barbicans were equipped with one or two small round towers. As the entrances to the Old Town were widened, several gates were demolished. The Viru Gate had to pay its dues to a horse-drawn tram route that connected the Old Market with Kadriorg. However, the corner towers were preserved; also, you can still see a part of the bastion that is called Musumägi. In 1898, its southern tower received a small Neo-Gothical addition.

Tallinn Town Square

Town Hall Square has been a market place and the centre of this old Hanseatic town since the Middle Ages. It became the centre of the Lower Town at the turn of the 13th and 14th centuries. As a square it plays an important role today as well - in summer it is filled with outdoor cafes, plays host to the Old Town Days and other medieval festivals, is a venue for open air concerts and fairs and more. In winter it becomes a magical Christmas market, the centrepiece of which is a towering spruce tree. The tradition of celebrating Christmas festivities here dates back to 1441, when the Brotherhood of the Blackheads are thought to have erected the world's very first Christmas tree.

Russian tavern Troika in the heart of Tallinn

Although a vey pricey place, this place knows how to attract visitors - dancers dressed in Russian national costumes performing Katyusha, after some second beer you don't care of price actually. 

Vardzia Cave Town Monastery Complex in Georgia

18 February, 2016 | Churches and Monasteries | 11 seen

Vardzia cave town is definitely a must have tourist attraction when traveling to Republic of Georgia, located in region of Samtkshe - Javakheti in about one hour drive from Akhaltsikhe town. For years I have been reading and heard a lot of stories of this place, but first visited just at the end of 2015. I was missing a lot.

We arrived here after sightseeing of Rabati castle in town of Akhatsikhe. Twilight was approaching and I was left with no options as to use best photography techniques I was familiar with, to get a decent photo story from Vardzia Cave town.

Vardzia cave town in Republic of Georgia

This was my first attempt of a decent photography, I opted using HDR here

The caves stretch along the cliff for some five hundred metres and in up to nineteen tiers. The Church of the Dormition, dating to the 1180s during the golden ageof Tamar and Rustaveli, has an important series of wall paintings. The site was largely abandoned after the Ottoman takeover in the sixteenth century. 

Vardzia cave town from a distance

While above image is just a regular photo

Minivan taking to the caves

We bought our entrance tickets (about 7 lari( and booked a guide (about 15 lari), now we were taken some 500 meters in a minivan, up to the caves.

Trails at Vardzia cave town

Some construction works were performed at site, to build more pawed pathways.

Caves built in rocks

Since 1985 the site has formed part of the Vardzia Historical–Architectural Museum-Reserve, which includes forty-six architectural sites, twelve archeological sites, and twenty-one sites of monumental art. In 1999 Vardzia-Khertvisi was submitted for inscription on the UNESCO World Heritage List as a Cultural Site.

Our guide Vladimir

Vardzia Cave town monastery complex

Soviet-era excavations have shown that the area of Vardzia was inhabited during the Bronze Age and indicated the reach of Trialeti culture. Cave settlements such as Uplistsikhe are known along the Mtkvari River from at least the fifth century BC, while rock cut architecture in the context of Georgian Christianity is known from Zedazeni and Garedzhi from the sixth century AD, and more locally from Vanis Kvabebi, Cholta and Margastani from the eighth century. Four distinct building phases have been identified at Vardzia: the first during the reign of Giorgi III (1156–1184), when the site was laid out and the first cave dwellings excavated; the second between his death and the marriage of his successor Tamar in 1186, when the Church of the Dormition was carved out and decorated; the third from that date until the Battle of Basian c.1203, during which time many more dwellings as well as the defences, water supply, and irrigation network were constructed; while the fourth was a period of partial rebuilding after heavy damage in the earthquake of 1283.

Vardzia cave town

A number of documentary sources supplement the knowledge derived from the site's physical fabric. The collection of chronicles known as the History of Georgia refers to Tamar erecting a church to house the icon of the Virgin of Vardzia after receiving divine help in her campaigns, before transferring the monastery from Upper or Zeda Vardzia. Tamar is said to have departed from Vardzia during her campaign against the Muslims, and her ensuing victory at Basian is celebrated in the Hymns in Honour of the Virgin of Vardzia by Ioane Shavteli. The History of Georgia also relates how Vardzia escaped the Mongol invaders in the 1290s. The Persian Safavid chronicler Hasan Bey Rumlu describes Vardzia as a "wonder", "impregnable as the wall of Alexander the Great", before recounting its sack by the Persians under Shah Tahmasp I in 1551; a near-contemporary note in the Vardzia Gospel tells of its repatriation from a Persian bazaar. After the arrival of the Ottomans in 1578, the monks departed and the site was abandoned.

Secret tunnel at Vardzia Cave town

Vardzia

​

View to Mtkvari river from Vardzia

Armenian Apostolic Church of Tallinn

17 February, 2016 | Churches and Monasteries | 81 seen

Huge was my surprise when walking from Tallinn Bus Station to the city centre I discovered an Armenian Apostolic church, surrounded by skyscrapers. Just a year ago I spent my birthday in Yerevan, Armenia.

Now a year latter, seeing an Armenian Church seemed like a sign for me. I still don't know what kind of sign, but that was a great reason to photograph here.

Armenian Apostolic church in Tallinn, Estonia

Surrounded by skyscrapers, this Armenian church in Tallinn is almost invisible for untrained eye.

Inscription plate in Armenian and Estonian

Although I don't speak either language, I believe it's saying - Armenian Apostolic Church

Now, I wanted to learn more about this church, and here is what I have found: (Source: Karine Grigorjan) 

June 17 2001, when Armenian Apostolic Church celebrated Church day, there was inaugurated Armenian temple in Tallinn. This church is situated in the beginning of the Tartu highway and before that it was Estonian church St. Yan.

The idea to create the Armenian Apostolic Church Community was brought by Vanush Carapetjan and Suren Saakjan  with the blessings of Wazgen I, who is the Cathalicos of all Armenians. In November 1993, the Community of St. Grigory was already registered in Tallinn.

In May 1994, the Community got to use the building of St.Yan almshouse, which is situated in the beginning of the Tartu  highway.

The Archbishop of the Estonian Evangelistic Lutheran Church Kuno Payula helped to get the room for the Community. In December of the same year Archbishop Garegin, nowadays the Catholicos of all Armenians Garegin II, has consecrated the future temple.  

The Almshouse was restored through the help of the Armenian Community in Estonia, there was installed and blessed Chachkar made from the pink toof, which was brought from Armenia. The Archbishop Kotiyski Arakel and the Archbishop of the Russian and Novonahichevanski Eparchia Erzras were present at the consecration of Chachkar. The Metropolit of Talinn and the whole Estonia Kornili visited the ceremony as well.

After the formal ceremony of the Church inauguration, young people from the Armenian Community were baptized which was the best evidence to prove the words of Apostol Pavel: “Be jealous of big presents and I will show the way much better”.

Khachkar stone in Tallinn, Estonia

Now, when photographing this stone monument, I had no idea what that actually is, some month latter I actually visited Armenia, and went to Haphpat monastery (Province of Lori, Armenia), and just then I learnt - that instead of just stone monument, those are called khachkars:

A khachkar, also known as an Armenian cross-stone is a carved, memorial stele bearing a cross, and often with additional motifs such as rosettes, interlaces, and botanical motifs.[Khachkars are characteristic of Medieval Christian Armenian art. Since 2010, khachkars, their symbolism and craftsmanship are inscribed in the UNESCO list of Intangible Cultural Heritage.

Wizz Air: Opens Seven New Routes From Kutaisi Airport

17 February, 2016 | Living in Georgia | 12 seen

Budget travelers - rejoice - 7 new routes will be launched from Kutaisi airport in Georgia. Berlin, Munich Memmingen, Milan Bergamo, Dortmund, Thessaloniki,  Larnaca and Sofia

I believe it is just a next logical move from Wizz Air, after recently European Union agreed to lift Visa requirements for Georgians entering European Union. Could this possibly mean a new start of possible immigration wave?

Wizz Air, the largest low-cost airline in Central and Eastern Europe, on February 17 announced it will begin base operations in September at David the Builder Kutaisi International Airport with one A320 aircraft and add seven new routes to Europe.

Wizz Air will launch new twice-weekly service from Kutaisi to Berlin Schönefeld, Munich Memmingen, Milan Bergamo, Dortmund, Larnaca and Sofia, while flights between Kutaisi and Thessaloniki will be flown three times a week. With these new destinations, Wizz Air’s network from Georgia consists of 11 routes to eight countries. Fares start at EUR 24.99.  

Kutaisi, famous for its many gardens and tree-lined streets, is the second-largest city in Georgia. Its most famous landmark is the 11th century Bagrati Cathedral ruin, a protected UNESCO Heritage site. Wizz Air began operations in Kutaisi in 2012 and has carried more than 500,000 passengers in that time. 

Owain Jones, Wizz Air Chief Corporate Officer said:

We are very excited about being a part of the economic development of Kutaisi, not only in terms of culture and tourism, but for business and manufacturing as well. Wizz Air believes investment in Georgia with an Airbus A320 aircraft and with a locally recruited base crew will pay economic dividends for business in Georgia and for Wizz Air. We know the importance of affordable air travel for a region’s economic development which has been a by-product of WIZZ operations in all our base cities. Opening a base here underlines our commitment to providing the people of Georgia with high quality, low-fare service to more and more cities throughout Europe.

Dimitry Kumsishvili, Vice Prime Minister, Minister of Economy & Sustainable Development of Georgia said:

Following fruitful and extensive cooperation we are proud to greet Wizz Air, one of the largest low cost carriers in Europe, on opening of its base at Kutaisi International Airport, which is the first low cost airport in the region. We are confident that Kutaisi International Airport will be a successful and productive base for Wizz Air operations that will support the development of tourism in Georgia and will give the new opportunities to Georgian travelers to travel to Europe with affordable ticket fares. Wizz Air’s base will create new job opportunities for industry professionals and have a positive impact on the aviation industry as a whole.