Barbarestan - Wine Shop and Restaurant in Tbilisi

1 March, 2016 | Restaurant reviews | 50 seen

Vintage lovers and hipsters - rejoice, I just discovered another "fashionable" not to miss place in Tbilisi - Barbarestan - wine shop and restaurant on Aghanashebeli avenue.

Well this place actually didn't pop up on my radar by accident - I have heard of this place before, mostly positive reviews, but the real reasons I wanted to visit this place, on a lovely Saturday morning we couldn't decide where should we go today - so after this epic struggle - what to do next, I decided to try luck on Google - I decided to search for "breakfasts in Tbilisi" - let me assure how happy I was somebody (TripAdvisor) was created such list for me. 

Barbarestan ranked fourth on this list, and since it is was close to our apartment - we decided - its Barberastan time.

Outdoor signboard at Barbarestan

Menu at restaurant Barbarestan

Prices for food at restaurant Barberastan compared to other Tbilisi restaurants are well above average, like a cup of Turkish coffee here - 3GEL, Kubdari - 15 GEL. In fact, I didn't find here any breakfast menu items, so I wonder how this restaurant could rank #4 on TripAdvisor? 

Fancy dishes at Barbarestan restaurant in Tbilisi

I had a very ambivalent feelings about this place while waiting for our piece of Kubdari and enjoying that three lari Turkish coffee here. This place indeed features interesting interior elements, there were even signing canaries in the corner of room, but on the other hand - this place, as usually in high-end places in Georgia - it was completely empty. So it was a Saturday morning, why there are no happy people enjoying their breakfast here (remember. even TripAdvisor ranks this place fourth). And then I realized - which normal person will buy a cup of cheap Turkish coffee for 3 Lari? Kubdari 15 lari? Common... 

Wine bar at Barebarestan

Kubdari

The bottom line

Barbarestan probably is a decent place where to enjoy a glass (bottle) of wine, but speaking of breakfast - it's not. 

Alexander Nevsky Russian Orthodox Church in Tbilisi

1 March, 2016 | Churches and Monasteries | 193 seen

Alexander Nevsky Russian Orthodox Church is located in the neighborhood of Marjanishivli in Tbilisi, Republic of Georgia. Commonly referred to just as "Russian Church".

Along with the church of St. Vladimir in the neighborhood of Vera it is one of two churches in Tbilisi, where the service is performed entirely in Church Slavonic language.

Alexander Nevsky Russian Orthodox Church in Tbilisi

Originally built in 1864 by the donations of the faithful, additional the Holy Synod has allocated 5000 rubles. In 1886, the church bell tower was added. There are two refectory: Alexander Nevsky and St. Nicholas, which was built in 1900 in honor of the Emperor Nicholas II. In 1913, next to the church was built a chapel in honor to the 300th anniversary of the Romanov dynasty.

Alexander Nevsky Russian Orthodox Church in Tbilisi

There are several shrines in the church: the relics of Mary Magdalene, St. Nina, St. Nicholas, St. Shio Mgvime and others.

How to Speed up your Drupal site: CDN integration using KeyCDN

29 February, 2016 | Drupal Development | 10 seen

In today's Drupal development series I will show how easy you can setup a true CDN for your Drupal site using third party CDN provider -  KeyCDN. 

Get a free $10 bonus by signing up for KeyCDN

About Content delivery network

A content delivery network or content distribution network (CDN) is a globally distributed network of proxy servers deployed in multiple data centers. The goal of a CDN is to serve content to end-users with high availability and high performance. CDNs serve a large fraction of the Internet content today, including web objects (text, graphics and scripts), downloadable objects (media files, software, documents), applications (e-commerce, portals), live streaming media, on-demand streaming media, and social networks.

About KeyCDN

KeyCDN is a high-performance Content Delivery Network (CDN) and is one of the most affordable content delivery service on the market. With network spawning in Europe, Americas, Asia and Australia, with more networks planned KeyCDN seems has a very bright future in CDN market.

KeyCDN points of presence (existing and planed) 

It would be super cool to see a presence in Republic of Georgia, but they are at least in neighboring Turkey, so probably next time I will get more than 7,000 users visiting my blog from Turkey I will be better prepared (thus, I cant complain that I wasn't prepared good enough last time)

KeyCDN Pricing

I Signed up for a free 30 day trial account on KeyCDN, and now looking on their pricing I guess I will give this CDN company couple of months to test how great they really are.

KeyCDN pricing plans

I checked my Linode VPS graphs for last January, In total I had a traffic of about 120GB in January, which scaled to KeyCDN would make my monthly payment about $4.8. It's ridiculously cheap for CDN. I guess I can fine tune things on my blog, by compressing image sizes and get overall monthly traffic bellow $4 per month, which is not a big deal, but what actually would be a big deal - to reduce load sizes from my server, making site load even faster. 

Create a new zone on KeyCDN

Once you have signed up for KeyCDN, login and from dashboard choose Zones, click on New Zone button and enter your details

KeyCDN General zone settings

Give it a nice name, leave the default value Pull for Zone type (you could choose Push, but for the ease of this tutorial let's stick with Pull) and enter your websites url including http.

Zone URL

Installing CDN module for Drupal

Download this great module (CDN) from Drupal and enable it on your site. Now go to the Details tab on modules configuration page check next to the Origin Pull and enter your KeyCDN Zone URL 

Drupal CDN settings

That's it, basically you are done. Make sure you set your CDN to enabled and test how does it actually work!

Custom CNAME

A great feature you can do on KeyCDN is to use your own CNAME, instead of using http://mydomain.kxcdn.com I prefer using http://cdn,mydomain.com

Go to KeyCDN, from Zone alias, create new:

KeyCDN add Zonealias

Now, you should create actual CNAME record on your DNS server. Here is how to create CNAME record for KeyCDN on Linode:

• From DNS manager tab select your domain name
• Scroll down until CNAME records
• Click on Add a new CNAME record

Editing CNAME records on Linode

It will take about 30 minutes for Linode to update your DNS, after then you can start using your custom CNAME

​CDN and SEO

One thing what makes me worried when dealing with CDN's is a possible duplicate content penalty from Google, luckily there are some steps we can do to prevent this to happen.

Go back to KeyCDN, click edit on Zone you created a while ago, and click on Show advanced Features

• Make sure Canonical headers are enabled

• Robots.txt enabled - Block crawlers from indexing the content in your zone.
• Custom Robotx.txt

Copy following to custom robots.txt file 

KeyCDN Advanced Features

HTTPS secure pages and KeyCDN

Not a problem, see this article Linode: How To Secure Nginx with Let's Encrypt on Ubuntu 12.04

The Bonus content

Get a free $10 bonus by signing up for KeyCDN with this link

Shopping in Tallinn: Ülemiste Mall

29 February, 2016 | Shopping Venues | 23 seen

Ulemiste shopping mall is the biggest in Estonia, it features more than 210 stores and has a parking lot capable of handling 1300 cars. 

I don't remember actually why we chose exactly Ulemiste as our shopping destination in Tallinn, most probably somebody recommended it because of Ulemiste being the largest one. We get here by using public bus leaving somewhere from the city center (Don't remember anymore bus number, but ticket price was about one euro)

Ulemiste shopping mall in Tallinn, Estonia

Bigger and better than ever before, the new Ülemiste Centre is the largest fashion and family centre in Estonia.

ÜLEMISTE HIGHLIGHTS

• A modern, spacious and inspiring shopping and entertainment venue
• A wide variety of merchandise, offering a multifaceted shopping experience
• Relaxing areas to eat and meet
• Shops are grouped into zones according to category
• Estonia's largest selection of fashion goods
• Estonia’s largest selection of footwear
• Estonia’s largest selection of children's goods (including clothing)
• Estonia’s largest selection of sporting goods
• Wide selection of electronics
• Many home furnishing outlets
• Large variety of restaurants and cafes

I actually don't remember the reason we got here, probably some clothing shopping? All I can remember I bought here is a cheap Chinese USB cable for charging my Samsung phone (we bought two actually) for about two euros at one of the 1 euro boutique shops. I spent about five euros at one of the Ulemiste shopping mall massage chairs (I know it's stupid, but it was my birthday and I had no mood for walking around the malls countless shops)

Industrial landscape in Tallinn (somewhere around Ulemiste shopping mall)

Visit official website to learn more: http://www.ulemiste.ee/en

China Inn Restaurant in Tallinn

29 February, 2016 | Restaurant reviews | 29 seen

Are you looking for a Chinese restaurant in Estonian capital city of Tallinn? China Inn restaurant located in Tallinn's Old Town might be the right answer.

First discovered this venue back in Summer of 2015, during a two day trip to Tallinn. Chinese food is among my favorite food of the World  - here at China Inn in Tallinn you can get the same you would get in any other regular Chinese restaurant across the Globe. That's one of the reason I love Chinese restaurants - they have developed restaurant standards almost the same as McDonald's have.

China Inn Restaurant is located on the lively Viru street in Tallinn's Old Town

Street Signboard for China Inn restaurant in Tallinn

The menu items are present in Estonian, English and Russian languages. You can get here - soups, starters and salads, pork & beef, also vegetables dishes and combos. We opted for some combos made from shredded beef and noodles + Coke.

Noodles and shredded beef

The Bottom line

China Inn in Tallinn is a nice and clean place where to have a typical Chinese cuisine. Our bill here about EUR 30. Definitely will return to this place once next in Tallinn.

Visit official website www.chinainn.ee

Italian Cemetery

28 February, 2016 | | 4 seen

Life is not always about life, sometimes it's about death. Although not a huge fan of cemetery photography, I mus admit  - cemeteries are interesting for photography, best if no one you use to loved rests there.

During a week long trip to Italy we made a short stop of some of the Italian cemeteries... Feelings after visiting such cemetery? Like from some Gangster movies... Perhaps it would be even more dramatic if following photographs were done in B&W

Italian cemetery 

Ferrari family

At Italian cemetery

At Italian cemetery

Enjoying narrow Italian roads and Dancing Waltz in Town Square

28 February, 2016 | | 13 seen

It was on the afternoon of January 1st, we had left Venice in the morning and traveled towards Verona, we made a few stops before in some local lovely municipalities. Our car radio was tuned to some Italian radio who played The Vienna Philharmonic New Year's Concert under the baton of Mariss Jansons.

Janaury 1st is magical, streets are empty and those at the wheel can enjoy empty roads

Empty and narrow Italian road

Town square in Italy

We turned max volume on our car radio and danced for about 5 minutes in this town square. Just lovely, surreal and magical.. Few windows were opened and few curios watched our performance. Thank you Mariss Jansons for great performance.

Lovely architecture

An Italian cat

Postcards from Tallinn

27 February, 2016 | | 4 seen

Tallinn is a small and cool, naval town in Baltic's. I spent here my 30th birthday back in 2015 and here is how I (we) saw it. 

One of the famous Tallinn towers

Tallinn's Old Town

Air balloon flying over Tallinn

Towers of Tallinn

It's just fascinating to see how well old and new architecture blends in here in Tallinn

The times we had

I asked some American tourist to make a capture of us here in Tallinn right next to this lovely wall with inscription - The Times we had. B&W photography seems an excellent choice. 

Painter in streets of Tallinn

Estonian War of Independence Victory Column

27 February, 2016 | Military Heritage | 12 seen

The War of Independence Victory Column  is located in Freedom Square, Tallinn,Estonia. It was opened on 23 June 2009 as a memorial for those who fell during the Estonian War of Independence, through which the people of Estonia will be able to commemorate all those who had fought for freedom and independence.

The pillar is 23.5 m high and consists of 143 glass plates. The memorial incorporates the Cross of Liberty, Estonia’s most distinguished award established in 1919.

I visited this site back in Summer 2015, during a short two day trip to Estonian capital city of Tallinn.

For soldiers and civilians killed in action during the Estonian War of Independence between 1918 to 1920

The idea of creating a monument was conceived in 1919, before the end of the war. During the War of Independence in 1918–1920, 4,000 people were killed, and 14,000 wounded on the Estonian side. In 1936, a law was passed to establish a nationwide monument in commemoration of the war. Preparatory work was interrupted by the Second World War and subsequent Soviet occupation. After Estonia regained independence in 1991, the question of establishing a national monument for the commemoration of the War of Independence was raised again. In the spring of 2005, the Riigikogu decided that a column of victory in memory of the War would be erected at the Freedom Square in Tallinn. In 2006, a design competition for the monument received more than 40 entries. The winning entry "Libertas" was designed by Rainer Sternfeld, Andri Laidre, Kadri Kiho and Anto Savi. Celander Ehitus OÜ was selected as the prime constructor.

Ensemble of  Estonian War of Independence in Tallinn

Blog Income: 289% YoY Increase in Google AdSense Revenue

26 February, 2016 | Blogging | 10 seen

Learn how I increased revenue from Google AdSense by 289% Year over Year and how you could too. 

For a prelude: I have been using Google AdSense for six and a half years by now, from whom first four and a half years generated a really modest sum of EUR 100 ($110 according to exchange rates as of 02/26/2016).from many low traffic and let's be totally honest - thin content websites (I had installed AdSense ad units on dozens of sites).

There was a time when I took a pause from any attempts to build new or maintain existing low value websites of mine for about two years. At the end of 2013 (October)I decided to start fresh (after my second Summer long trip to US I had a feeling I need to launch a blog to share my travel notes, ideas, findings e.t.c.) - and launched this blog (you currently are reading it).

For the first three months I didn't installed any ad units here, but at the start of the New Year of 2014 ad units were back. So did a new section on blog appeared: Online Income reports - In my first month of monetizing this blog I earned whooping eight dollars.

Revenue from Google AdSense 2009-2016

It was about two years ago when I cracked that EUR 100 milestone and announced that here: Google AdSense 100 EUR Lifetime reached, time passed  fast and a year latter in February 2015 I reported doubled earnings over year: Google AdSense 200 EURO Lifetime Reached

The math here is simple - it took me four and a half years to earn first EUR 100, and it took just one year to earn next EUR 100.

And now lets speak how my earnings have increased since the last year.

Today (02/26/2016) by accessing Google AdSense reports I noticed that my lifetime revenue from this channel in total is EUR 624.21 for a time period Sep 4, 2009 - Feb 26, 2016. It is for a six and a half years. Nothing much, right?  Less than EUR 100 per yer, but wait - I just told that in first four and a half years I earned EUR 100, then in next year additional EUR 100.. and for the last year a whooping EUR 417.59 -

that is a 289% increase year over year. Awesome, right?

So, where is the magic?

There is no magic (at least for me) - not a black/white hat SEO, just a continuously everyday blogging for more than two years already. I'm not doing keyword research, and not using any other third-party tools to check competitor or whatsoever data. I'm just blogging, and the traffic is rolling in and earnings from Google AdSense are getting bigger and bigger. I'm blogging on many different topics, most of the articles published in this blog probably aren't earning a dime, while some are performing very good. Yup, I understand a little keyword research wouldn't do any harm and might probably help me to double revenue from Google AdSense and who knows maybe I'll do it in future.

I remember a few years ago I was reading Steve's Pavlina blog about how he decided to drop Google AdSense which generated him $100K per year - I thought OMG, that's a load of money. And I still think it is a load of money.So why Steve Pavlina did such move back in 2008?

Maybe I’m doing this just to confuse the Internet marketers who still mistakenly assume I run my business with profit as my primary motive. 

Now, Steve had another revenue channels to stick with as Google AdSense was not his top performing revenue channel.

Of course EUR 400 doesn't stand even close to $100K per year, and I'm not planning to abandon my modest earnings from Google AdSense, I still feel very enthusiastic about them. Google AdSense is not a top earning channel for me s well (Affiliate marketing is). I look on revenue from AdSense as a passive income, a free money to put aside for a rainy day (Well, for a now I'm paying my blog related bills from money earned here - Linode, Facebook ads, KeyCDN, domain renewal fees and other). Additional EUR 400 per year almost covers my blog expenses

Here are some tips and tutorials for Google AdSense

Over the course of past two years Google AdSense ad units have been present on my blog and during that time I have experimented with them. ere hare few of my experiments and tutorials.

• Change of Adsense ads for better layout - Experiment 1
• Removing Google Adsense Ads From Blog For Next 10 days
• How To Display Google AdSense Ad Unit on Drupal Taxonomy Pages
• How to create URL channels in Google Adsense
• ​Google Adsense Experiments: Pink Vs Blue - Part 1 - Creating Ad Styles

The Bottom Line

Past six and a half years with Google AdSense have thought me one valuable lesson - instead of focusing on many thin content websites and directing all my efforts to just one website (this blog) have helped me not only quadruple my earnings year over year, but actually have given me much more free time and less worries of Google Pandas/ Penguins. Less is more. Now I'm not sure will my revenue will increase such huge in the next year from Google AdSense, but I'm looking to this channel with very positive attitude.

Something from the Past - Hotel 'London' in Tbilisi

26 February, 2016 | | 136 seen

There was a time when after a visit to local literature cafe in Tbilisi, I felt in love with works of Russian poet and writer Mikhail Lermontov. Who knows, maybe it's time to get familiar with another great writer of his time - Knut Hamsun.

In today's Piece of Life photo story series old Hotel "London" in Tbilisi, or about  more precisely what's left from old day fame.

Stairways at Hotel London in Tbilisi

I'm amazed of seeing some elements at this building in pretty good shape, despite more than century old history, Soviet times and revolutions. What you can see on walls are very well done 3D paintings probably a century ago.. I wonder how these survived a new facelift from a bucket of floor paint (what's typical for Soviet times) 

What's left from old day glory at former hotel London in Tbilisi

Former hotel London in Tbilisi

​Visit of this place recalled me memories from seen in movie - A Chef in Love -  It stars Pierre Richard and Nino Kirtadze. The movie tells the story of Pascal Ichak, a French opera singer and chef living in Georgia, who opens a restaurant. It also shows the life in Georgia in the beginning of the 20th century, including its short period of independence (see Democratic Republic of Georgia). After the Bolshevik coup attempt of Georgia (1920), the chef refuses to emigrate and endures the brutalities of the new regime. 

Glass roof at former Hotel London

This place is just screaming - please, renovate,me, give me back that old day glory I had at the end of 19th century. 

Knut Hamsun and Hotel London in Tbilisi

An Outstanding Norwegian writer Knut Hamsun (1859-1952) lived in this building (Formerly hotel "London") in 1899 during his visit in Tbilisi

Saint Ekvtime Takaishvili Church in Tbilisi

26 February, 2016 | Churches and Monasteries | 100 seen

There is a small church located on Baku street 1, Tbilisi (on the right side from David Aghanashebeli avenue, first cross-street before Tamar Mephe avenue). I have wondered about this church for the couple of the last 3 years, while been living in this neighborhood. 

It was day 131/365 from my photo project, when I decided I'll go and photograph exactly this church and probably will learn more about it. So I went...

Saint Ekvtime Takaishvili Church in Tbilisi

I installed a tripod and started to play with panorama techniques (as I couldn't get this building in a horizontal frame), unfortunately weather was not my best friend today and in final image, the skies are totally blown up.

Next I decided to try my luck inside, using some interior photography techniques, so I entered the church and asked the lady (a nun?), who were sitting right next to the entrance - can I photography here? At start she told me, that it's not allowed, but I could try to ask for permission to priest, the lady took me to some other building (outside the church), and I was knocking to the priest door. Priest answered - Modi! (Come in!). I opened doors and asked to the priest, could I take some photos of this church. Priest gave me his allowance and started a brief conversation with me, after which I asked could I make a photo of him.

From the left: Father Nikolay of Ekvtime Takaishvili church; author of this blog in red

It was just matter of technique to set camera on timer. We had a small talk with Father Nikolay. I asked what's the name of this church actually. Father told me a brief story about Ekvtime Takaishvili, and that actually this church in named after him. 

Ekvtime Takaishvili (1863-1953) was a Georgian historian, archeologist and public benefactor. 

Born in the village of Likhauri in the western Georgian province of Guria (then part of Imperial Russia) to a local nobleman Svimon Takaishvili, he graduated from St. Petersburg University in 1887. From 1887 to 1917, he lectured on the history of Georgia at various prestigious schools in Tbilisi, including the Tbilisi Gymnasium for Nobility. During these years, he was actively involved in extensive scholarly activities and chaired, from 1907 to 1921, the Society of History and Ethnography of Georgia. Between 1907 and 1910, he organized a series of archeological expeditions to the historic Georgian region of Tao-Klarjeti (now part of Turkey).

After the February Revolution, he engaged also in politics, taking part in the establishment of the National Democratic Party of Georgia in 1917 and being elected to a post of Deputy Chairman in the Constituent Assembly of the Democratic Republic of Georgia from 1919 to 1921.

In 1917, he was among the founders and professors of the Tbilisi State University (TSU). He lost his tenure both in the parliament and at the TSU in 1921, when the Bolshevik Russia's 11th Red Army put an end to Georgia's independence. He followed the Georgian government in their French exile, taking the Georgian national treasury – numerous precious pieces of Georgian material culture - with him to Europe.

The treasury contained into 39 immense boxes, were shipped to Marseille and placed in a bank depository. Subsequently this precious cargo was transferred to one of the banks in Paris. Although the treasury was officially the property of the Georgian government-in-exile, it was actually Ekvtime Takaishvili who supervised this huge collection. In the early 1930s, Takaishvili won a lawsuit against Salome Obolenskaya (1878-1961), daughter of the last Mingrelian prince Nikoloz Dadiani, who also laid claim to a part of the treasury taken from the former Dadiani Palace in Zugdidi, Georgia. Despite numerous attempts by various European museums to purchase portions of this treasury, and extreme economic hardship, Takaishvili never sold a single piece of the priceless collection to live on and guarded it until 1933, when the League of Nations recognized the Soviet Union; the Georgian embassy in Paris was abolished and transformed into the "Georgian Office". The treasury passed into the possession of the French state. In 1935, Takaishvili urged the French government to hand the collections to Georgia, but it was not until the end of the World War II when was he able, in November 1944, to attract the attention of the Soviet ambassador A. Bogomolov to the fate of the Georgian treasury. Joseph Stalin's good relations with General Charles de Gaulle enabled Takaishvili to bring the treasury back to Georgia. However, Takaishvili had to spend his long unhappy days in Tbilisi under house arrest, seemingly considered to be too old to be imprisoned.

He was an author of numerous scholarly works on the history and archeology of Georgia and the Caucasus which are of special value even today. In Tbilisi, Tbilisi Second Gymnasium has been named after him. He has been canonized by the Georgian Orthodox Church. In 2013, he was posthumously awarded the title and Order of National Hero of Georgia.

Inside Saint Ekvtime Takaishvili church in Tbilisi

Prayer candles at Saint Ekvtime Takaishvili church in Tbilisi

​At the end above picture made as my day 131 photography

Cupola 

Georgian Tavern Tbilisi in Tallinn

25 February, 2016 | Restaurant reviews | 59 seen

Georgian cuisine lovers rejoice - I have just found another restaurant of Georgian food, this time in Estonian Capital city Tallinn. Discovered by accident during wanderings around Tallinn's Old Town, tried once back in Summer 2015.

Shortly I left St Michael's Swedish Church I noticed my darling was sitting on the stairs and finger pointed above her head - I smiled - something so familiar, something close.

Georgia Tavern Tbilisi in Tallinn (Ruutli street)

I entered this place and spoke out loudly: GAMARJOBA! All I was get in return was some cold faced Estonian skinhead waiter, replying me - what? I repeated - GAMARJOBA! and added SAKARTVELOS! The waiter looked at me as some nut guy, and told me that he cannot understand me. So, I asked, how can you name a place Georgian Tavern and not know what "Gamarjoba" means? Cold faced skinhead Estonian waiter mourned something. I continued - do you have a Georgian chef at least? Estonian dude pretended he doesn't understand English anymore and started to speak with me in Estonian. I was a bit pissed - and told him in Russian - позови шефа! (Ask for a chef).

While we we waiting for a chef, we decided to sit at the table in the restaurants yard

at Georgian Tavern in Tallinn

So after couple of minutes Georgian chef come to our table, seemed very encaustic, because of probably thought some fellow Georgians have arrived to Tallinn, so chef started a conversation with me in Georgian. Unfortunately I was not able to catch up all the conversation, so I briefly ordered kalakuri, ara kindza, ori turkuli kava (khinkali without kindza, and two Turkish coffees). He gave me very confused look - like why are you yelling - give me a Georgian chef, if you cant have longer conversations than ori turkuli kava... ?

Tbilisi signboard

Turkish coffee in Estonian manner 

Well, such a big cup of Turkish coffee made me smile. Estonian interpretation.

Khinkali at Georgian Tavern in Tallinn

Now, those were the most expensive khinkali I have ever tried, a piece comes for EUR 2 in Georgian Tavern in Tallinn, also strangely it was served with sour cream accompanied with adjika. Did they tasted like khinkali? Nope, not at all, more some meatballs wrapped in 2 cm thick dough with adjika dressing. Basically which probably means not every Georgian is a chef or as I like to think, they were not made by Georgian chef this time.

The Bottom Line

If you are looking for real Georgian cuisine, come to Georgia and enjoy your meal at any (I mean any) local restaurant, The Georgian Tavern in Tallinn is a weak reflection of Georgian cuisine, but for touristic reasons, yeah, why not, give it a try! See Tbilisi restaurants

St Michael's Swedish Church in Tallinn

25 February, 2016 | Churches and Monasteries | 24 seen

St Michael's Church or St Michael's Swedish Church is a Lutheran church used by the Swedish congregation in the old town district of Tallinn, Estonia.

We were off in the streets of Old Tallinn wandering what should we see, and I noticed this church and decided to go inside to adjust my church interior photography skills, at this point I didn't yet realized it is a Swedish church nor I had a clue what is the name of this church.

St Michael's Church, Tallinn

So I went inside looking for some best places to take inside photography, when some church lady approached me and in English started a one way conversations with me telling a harsh history of this church during Communist times. I felt dull, it was a surprise attack, I wasn't prepared to talk about church history today, I told her - I'm just a dumb tourist here, enjoying lovely weather in warm August afternoon, but lady was unstoppable. after some 10 minute lecture I asked her -  what is the name of this church at first place? She replied that this is a Swedish church. I said, ah Ok. She seemed surprised and repeated - THIS IS A SWEDISH CHURCH, I replied, yes I understood that. And she continued about harm communism has done to the church, something about atheism ideology e.t.c. Then a quick thought arise in my head, and I replied to the lady - I come a long way from Republic of Georgia, which also was under Communism rule together with Estonia, but in that country they have Georgian Orthodox Church, and despite the harsh rule of Communism Georgians have kept their churches and monasteries. Lady didn't seemed satisfied with my answer, but asked me to leave a note on church guest book, she even gave me a pen, and made sure I wrote something down there.

Now, better guide on this church probably will be Wikipedia.

Organ inside church

A Swedish-speaking minority and congregation has probably existed in Tallinn since the Middle Ages, but the first written reference of Swedish congregation dates from 1531. After the Swedish defeat during the Great Northern War and the subsequent loss of the province of Estonia to Russiain 1710, the church of the congregation, at the time housed in the church of the former monastery of St. Michael, was however taken over by the Russian authorities and used as a Russian garrison church. For some years during the early 1700s the congregation was therefore without a church until they relocated to the present premises in 1733.

The altar of St Michael's Church

During the upheavals of World War II and the Soviet occupation of Estonia, most Estonian Swedes fled the country and resettled in Sweden, and the Soviet authorities expropriated the building which was used as a sports club until the restoration of Estonia's independence in 1991. In 1992, following a state visit by the king of Sweden, the building once more passed into the hands of the Estonian-Swedish congregation. The church was reconsecrated after a period of repairs in 2002. Apart from the aforementioned Gothic vaulting, the church is notable for its fine baroque altar (artist Joachim Armbrust) and baptistery (artist Christian Ackermann)

Church's guest book

Signboard in Estonian and Swedish

Postcards from Este, Italy

24 February, 2016 | | 6 seen

It was sunny January 1st afternoon when we visited Este in northern Italy. One of our first stops in 2016.

Este, Italy

One of the main sights in Este is the Castle Carrarese of Este

​

Roundabout in Este

I would say a very piccolo roundabout

Ice rink in Este town square