Katskhi Pillar
The Katskhi pillar is a natural limestone monolith located at the village of Katskhi in western Georgian region of Imereti, near the town of Chiatura. It is approximately 40 metres (130 ft) high, and overlooks the small river valley of Katskhura, a right affluent of the Q'virila.If you have seen those amazing video clips about Georgia, you have most probably noticed this interesting object at some of them. It took me more than five years since I have been living in Georgia to actually visit it. Frankly speaking I have wanted to see Katskhi pillar since day one I arrived to Georgia, but things are as they are and…
Hotel Zen Airport Torremolinos, Spain
Hotel Zen is a 3-star hotel located in Torremolinos, Spain - a good location, pretty close to the Malaga airport. We booked Hotel Zen as our last hotel during our week long travels in Spain before departing to Oslo, Norway.This property is 16 minutes walk from the beach. Featuring a heated outdoor pool and 2 terraces, Hotel Zen Airport is located in Torremolinos. This hotel offers air-conditioned rooms and free WiFi. A free airport and beach shuttle service is available.Hotel Zen offers free shuttle service to airport and to/from beaches. We checked in early and decided to use free shuttle service to beaches, and spent very lazy afternoon in the beach.Statue of Buddha at…
Bad Discovery - Missing foundation for house
Today I decided to keep digging trench around existing house fundament to prepare works for upcoming concreting works.Yesterday I bough a concrete mixer and mixed first test of concrete, load of gravel were already waiting and of course a sacks of cement were bought. It was just a matter of shovel and hand work.And then the bad news came - our house is partly missing foundation. It turned out that at the end of house, there is no foundation at all, for about 2,5 meters. Well that makes things a little bit complicated, as I need to lay down the foundation at this part of the house from a scratch - I will need to dig deeper and more wider here. Should I mention I was really pissed…
Samtavisi Cathedral
Samtavisi is an eleventh-century Georgian Orthodox cathedral in eastern Georgia, in the region of Shida Kartli, some 45km from the nation’s capital Tbilisi. The cathedral is now one of the centers of the Eparchy of Samtavisi and Gori of the Georgian Orthodox Church.We discovered this church during our recent trip to town of Chiatura. My driver told me, this church seems to him as a copy of Kashveti church in Tbilisi. Although, recently Mikheil contacted me and told following:Actually, it is vice versa (and makes an interesting story in itself): the current Kashveti church, built in 1904-1910, is an intentional exact replica of the Samtavisi cathedral…
Lazy Day in Beach (Torremolinos, Spain)
It was on our last day from trip to Spain (region of Andalusia). Our trip ended at the same point where it started at Malaga, or more precisely at Torremolinos. We checked in at hotel, left our belongings at went to spend this afternoon at beach, turns out we have visited this same beach some 7 days ago already, see Playamar beach in Torremolinos.I took the telephoto lens and experimented kind of portrait photography (wide aperture, blurry background e.t.c). Not many portraits actually but some cool mood photography.White sands, blue sky and many palm treesSpain is definitely a true vacation destination.Lazy day in beachNow, this is a true Piece of Life!Lazy beach lifeSand…
Concrete Mixer FXA 130L
Another addition to my home remodeling tools collection has arrived (been bought at local DIY store) - concrete mixer FXA 130L - with help of what I'm planing to concrete fundament for our rural house. Concrete mixer is a must have tool for any self home builder and I would say it should be featured at any rural house. Concrete mixer is the second useful tool after a trimmer purchase this year.FXA 130 liter concrete mixer unpackedHuge was my joy after this purchase, now was time to set it up - what seemed an easy task to handle turned out to be a rocket science.Installing concrete mixerIt took me about 3 hours, countless phone calls to the DIY store, as I just didn'…
Hotel Los Dolmenes in Antequera, Spain
Hotel Los Dolmenes in Antequera is among my favorite hotels I have stayed so far. We booked this hotel during our latest trip in Spain (a week in Andalusia) in June 2016. Set in the olive grove, close to the El Torcal this is a really valuable hotel deal. We paid less than EUR 40 per night here (breakfast and free parking included)Hotel Los DolmenesSet around a traditional Andalusian courtyard, the rooms at Los Dólmenes come with wooden floors, a terrace, flat-screen TV and plenty of natural light. Each one comes with a private bathroom including a hairdryer and bath tub.Our roomLos Dólmenes is located just outside Antequera, 5 minutes’ drive from the city centre. It offers…
Bazaleti Lake in Georgia
The Bazaleti Lake is a lake in eastern Georgia some 60 km northwest of the nation's capital Tbilisi and 5 km south of the town of Dusheti. It is used for fish culture, irrigation, and recreation. The nearby village and the historical district around the lake are also known as Bazaleti.I had heard about Bazaleti lake before and thought there are some recreational facilities built around it. In fact, kind of, there are some buildings and even some restaurants. Thus when I first visited it, after returning from Vazha Pshavela house museum in Chargali in November 2016, I found just a lot wind and a lake. Kind of reminded me the…
El Torcal de Antequera
El Torcal de Antequera is a nature reserve in the Sierra del Torcal mountain range located south of the city of Antequera, in the province of Málaga off the A45 road in Andalusia, Spain.It is known for its unusual landforms, and is one of the most impressive karst landscapes in Europe. It was on our day 4th or 5th in Spain (traveling around region of Andalusia), when El Torcal de Antequera popped on our radar. It was not easy to get there for us, see: In The Searches For El Torcal - Wilderness in Spain, but after all we made it. It was already getting late, and I rushed to make the most of ending golden hour (HDR…
Motel Istros Aviaparkas
Motel Istros Aviaparkas is among the strangest and definitely the most solitary hotel I have ever stayed. Located some 4 kilometers from town of Panevezys in Lithuania.It was the evening of my 31st birthday and we returned home from our three day trip around Lithuania. Tired. After checking few rural houses in the vicinity we decided hell - let's sleep among helicopters and Old Soviet war planes.Old Soviet war planesLocated just some 500 meters from Via Baltica route (E67) - this hotel/motel kind of offers WI-FI, a TV set (with mostly Persian language channels) and not the best quality water in the shower (water with a high iron content)Lonely motel Istros AviaParkasThis is definitely …
Vazha Pshavela House Museum in Chargali
Vazha Pshavela house museum in Chargali features objects connected with life and work of well-known Georgian son and poet Vazha-Pshavela (1861-1915). Various publications of poet's works, paintings, graphics, sculptures and photographs are featured here.What makes this place important? Not to mention that Vazha Pshavela is one of the well-known Georgian poets (obliviously) - The Big Head in the front of entrance of this museum.The Big Head - Sculpture of Vazha Pshavela Vazha Pshavela House Museum in ChargaliAbout Vazha PshavelaVazha-Pshavela, simply referred to as Vazha is the pen name of the Georgian poet and writer Luka…
In The Searches For El Torcal - Wilderness in Spain
In the searches for el Torcal is a story worth to mention and complement with amazing (IMHO) travel photography - say - Wilderness of SpainEarlier today I practiced for the first time as a bird photographer, see Flamingo Lagoon near Fuente de Piedra in Spain, while searching for flamingos, we marked another tourism object to visit today - El Torcal de Antequera, mainly important because of possible great photography of rocks. We checked in at amazing hotel in a olive grove, which turned out to be just some 12km from El Torcal. Right, after a quick shower - let's drive there.In short - instead of 12 km we drive about 60km. Instead of comfortable highways we used some…
IKEA Shopping in Vilnius, Lithuania
IKEA store has been opened in Vilnius city already in 2013. This place is very popular among local and neighboring shopping travelers - Belarus and Latvia.There is no surprise seeing shoppers from Belarus here, as Minsk is less than 200km from Vilnius. Latvians? Well they just love shopping in Vilnius.It was my birthday, we were at Vilnius, after spending few hours wandering around Old Town - idea visiting IKEA arrived. Unfortunately we hadn't no idea where this store is actually located as we are not familiar with topography of Vilnius. No TomTom's here. We got a small tourist map (covering just Old Town) at tourism information center. Not a single word about IKEA there. My…
Wilderness in Georgia
During my long stay in Georgia I have documented a lot of Tbilisi restaurants, Georgian hotels, even museums, but little to nothing I have covered about wilderness in Georgia.
Wilderness, in fact, makes this country among the most beautiful countries in the world. Georgia is literally surrounded by wilderness, mountains, rivers, and a shepherd forcing his sheep from one mountain meadow to other (most probably crossing Georgian military road).
In today's Piece of Life series a little wilderness from Georgia (on the way to Vazha Pshavala house museum in Chargali)
Shepherd forcing sheep in Georgia
A common scene when traveling around Georgia.
Zhinvali water reservoir…
How to Import Canon DSLR .mov Files Into Adobe Premiere Pro CS4
In this article you will learn how to import Canon DSLR .mov files into video editing software Adobe Premiere CS 4 and how to possibly deal with a choppy playback.
It's all about codecs when dealing with video editing. If you don't have right codecs CS4 wont recognize videos shot with a Canon DSLR (Although, never version should).
One of the simplest ways to make Adobe Premiere CS 4 to recognize .mov files is by simply installing QuickTime player. After you have installed QuickTime just restart Adobe Premiere Pro and you should be able to import and edit your video's.
The chances are you will face the choppy playback issues now - making your video editing a pain. The…
Flamingo Lagoon near Fuente de Piedra in Spain
I'm not into bird photography at all, but idea visiting one of the Worlds largest Flamingo lagoons today sounded great.We were on our 4th or 5th day traveling around region of Andalusia in Spain. Somehow small town of Fuente de Piedra popped up in our radar (well, obliviously because of flamingos) and my first bird photography session begun.Keep on reading to learn how it failed after all.Visitor centerThere is a visitor center named after José Antonio ValverdeThe Visitors Centre has a reception for information, restrooms, gift shop and vending area. Also free 2 exhibition room and a 12 minutes long audiovisual. In the Visitors Centre you can also rent binoculars, audioguides in…
Osteria de Luca Italian Restaurant in Vilnius
Osteria de Luca is an Italian restaurant located in the Old town of Vilnius, Lithuania.During my latest visit here in August 2016, they served delicious Italian cuisine, I tried a wrapped pizza - intrigue and amazing. I got the feelings they have taken all the best ingredients straight from the Italy.I love Italian cuisine, and especially pizzas, once my better part and me, we visited Italy especially for Pizza tourism, gosh we tried so many Osteria's, prosciutto's and of course Pizza's. I made a lot of Italian restaurant reviews back then. Restaurant Antica Drogheria in Lucca, Italy near the leaning tower of Pisa is among my favorite Italian restaurant by now.Osteria de Luca in…
Restaurant El Arador, Estepa, Spain
I just love roadside cafeterias, so did happened today, we left Seville and had a direction towards Granada, after an hour of driving we started to feel hungry, it was lunch time. Luckly Restaurant El Arador popped up. Restaurante El AradorWhat to order in a typical Spanish restaurant? How about a fresh orange juice and a chorizo? French fries, chorizo and orange juice
The Republic of Užupis (Vilnius, Lithuania)
I have traveled to Vilnius, Lithuania a lot, for most of the times using Vilnius just as a transit stop. I decided to change this. It was my 31st birthday, and I opted for celebrations in Vilnius (I have a goal - to celebrate my birthday each year in one of the capitals of former Soviet Union's republics, so far I have celebrated already in Yerevan and Tallinn).I had read in some tourist brochures about The Republic of Užupis, and thought - what a cool site, I should put this on my travel list. Now, here is what it is all about: In 1997, the residents of the area declared the Republic of Užupis, along with its own flag, currency, president, cabinet of ministers, a…
Ujarma Fortress
Ujarma is a medieval Georgian fortress in the Kakheti region, located some 45 km east from the nation's capital Tbilisi.It's believed than in the second half of the 5th century, famous Vakhtang Gorgasali (founder of Tbilisi) erected numerous buildings in Ujarma and moved his residence there. After Vakhtang’s death, his heir Dachi was ruling Kakheti for some period from here. In the 10th century, Ujarma was destroyed by Arabian forces of Abul Kassim. In the 13th century, the fortress was restored by King George III, where he arranged treasury.This was my second attempt visiting Ujarma fortress, and I even managed to capture some pictures here, thus I…