Hiking trails near Turtle lake, Tbilisi in Winter

6 February, 2017 | Outdoor Activities | 15 seen

I'm fond of hiking/trekking trails near Turtle lake in Tbilisi, I have done several routes, with my favorite being unaccessible anymore after the Tbilisi flooding in June 2015.

See: Failed attempt to complete Tskneti - Turtle lake hiking route

Now, since it was about a year since our latest hiking activities in Georgia, on a lovely's Sunday morning (February 5, 2017) we decided to catch a taxi (see: How to Get around in Tbilisi by Taxify (Taxi Mobile Application) ) and head to the Turtle lake and let's see. I was into a photography mood, so I packed a new backpack I ordered recently from Amazon to store gear and of course a tripod. I decided to go with a HDR and panoramic photography today, also made few short video clips.

Hiking trails in Tbilisi in Winter

God's path is untraceable! Today I met an American teenage girl in the middle of nowhere (trails around Turtle lake in Tbilisi) being able to speak 6 languages (English, French, Russian, Hebrew, Georgian and even Megrelian). About two years ago I met on the same trails a Russian American speaking Georgian. Holy trails.

Some outpost from the past

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Tasty Ukrainian Cuisine on Khreshchatyk street in Kiev

5 February, 2017 | Restaurant reviews | 19 seen

Wow, my first (yet, only one) Kiev restaurant review and I can't remember name of this place.

Shame on me. On the other hand it was not planned to make any Kiev restaurant reviews this time, as we were having just a layover flight in Kiev before departing to NYC. See: About Tbilisi - Kiev - New York Flight by Ukrainian Airlines

Unfortunately our flight was delayed for 10 hours and instead of waiting at Borispol's airport transit area we opted to have some Kiev tour. At that included a trip to the heart of Kiev (at least I think so)

As Wikipedia have helped me to learn more now, we were wondering somewhere around Khreshchatyk (central street) in Kiev. And it was just that time to start looking for authentic Ukrainian cuisine, quickly we found ourselves in one of the backyards of beautiful Khreshchatyk street and noticed following entrance (at that stage I thought there is written name of this place)

Restaurant in Kiev

Seemed very Ukrainian for us and we decided to enter. This was a good choice.

Ukrainian traditional cuisine

Mmm, the stuff I like and often feature at food…

Cafe at Hotel Mate in Khulo

4 February, 2017 | Restaurant reviews | 5 seen

I just love those small roadside cafeterias and cafe at Hotel Mate in Khulo (region of Adjara in Georgia) is just another great discovery. 

Hotel Mate is located in the center of Khulo in front of the hospital up the hill from central road. Address: 1 Davit Aghmashenebeli st, Khulo

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Hotel cafe in Khulo

The food served at this cafe is just delicious, let's say made with countryside love.

Traditional Georgian meal - Ostri

Ostri is a hot, spicy beef stew that is very popular in Georgia, both as a home prepared meal and as a dish in restaurants.

A Perfect Harmony

3 February, 2017 | | 10 seen

It was on a still and tranquil evening after a hard work day on home remodeling - for the record, today was one of the toughest days in my constructors career as we faced some really though obstacles to overcome.

More about that, learn in this article: Fall Through The Ceiling, Dig a Trench Around Foundations, Stone Wall Concreting

In the evening, during sunset, I took camera and decided to document overall progress both of house and surrounding territory. I made just some random shots, not thinking much of scene or composition, when suddenly realized objects been captured to the SD card for some reason forms harmony - they duplicates and reflects. An idea for Piece of Life article born - A Perfect harmony

Overall scene in the front of house

Summer dinning table outdoors placed in the meadow, grass just mowed, some aac blocks in the background, a grill, pond and a veggie garden.

A pair of shovels

For no reason they were propped against wall each to other. 

Two hay forks

Seriously? I didn't even know we have these.

Mowed grass

Almost…

Kyiv-Passazhyrskiy Railway station

2 February, 2017 | Railway / Bus / Ferry | 20 seen

Kyiv-Passazhyrsky, also called just as Vokzalna, is a railway station in the capital of Ukraine, Kiyv (Kiev)

The Kiev Metro station Vokzalna is adjoining the complex, constituting the station's main intersection with city transport. The Kiev tram terminal Starovokzal'na  (the terminal for Kiev's High-Speed Tram line) is also adjacent via a passageway.

I had a chance to spend here some 5 minutes, during our latest flight Tbilisi - Kiev - New York city, as our flight was delayed for about 10 hours at Kiev - Borispol airport we decided to use these hours by exploring Kiev, instead of waiting at airport's transit area.

Out of the airport terminal at Borispol, there are buses taking passengers either to Kharkivksya or Vokzalnaya. The ticket prices are really cheap price. Since we didn't had any clue which station should we go, we asked just a bus going to the city center. Bus driver told, we must then go to the Vokzalnaya. Latter turned out that this railway station is not at all located in city center, but some 7 km from it, though from here it is possible to take a metro ride to the…

Postcards from Khulo

1 February, 2017 | | 6 seen

It was in middle of November 18, we booked a train ticket to Batumi, leaving Tbilisi. Prior to that we booked a really lavish hotel with bath tube next to king size bed for a really cheap money, see Hotel Sputnik in Batumi. After spending lazy first days in Batumi, see: 16 things to do in Batumi I decided to get to the place I had heard so much before, to the Khulo.

Khulo is a townlet in Adjara, an autonomous republic in southwest Georgia, 88 km east of the regional capital Batumi, in the upper valley of Adjaris-tsqali. The town and adjoining 78 villages form the mountainous Khulo District.

We hired a taxi driver in Batumi and agreed for a 100 lari price (about USD 37) he will takes us to Khulo and back. Wow, that was one of the best trips I've had that year. That part of Adjara is just spectacle, waterfalls, arched bridges, mountains, rivers... you name it. A true inspiration for Piece of Life.

Khulo

Although I didn't made my best shot here, I'm still pretty happy with result. For those of you who have been to the Sighnaghi, don't you find some similarities from this distance shot?…

Blog Traffic and Income Report 2016 - 635,048 Users / $18,586.41

31 January, 2017 | Blogging | 47 seen

It is just that time of the year  when I'm looking back on previous 2016 year in my blogger's career.

In today's article I will reveal some data behind the blog scenes - both traffic and income for the whole year of 2016.

This blog now is more than three years old, and for the last three years it has gone a long way, I have developed my writer skills from so so to average, there is still a long way to make them good and polish to perfect. The good news - I have enjoyed blogging process a lot, it have helped me to make new connections, make new friendships and grow me as a personality. 

If you have been following my blog for a while, you have already probably noticed that I publish quarterly reports (In fact for the years of 2014 and 2015 I made monthly income reports, but I decided to go with quarter reports since, as I think they illustrates better overall scene about blog growth)  Make sure you check them out: Online Income reports. This article is a round up posts for previous four quarterly reports. 

See previous yearly reports:

• Blog Income Report 2014…

Fall Through The Ceiling, Dig a Trench Around Foundations, Stone Wall Concreting

29 January, 2017 | Home Remodeling | 7 seen

Think I have written about all topics mentioned in title already?

You are right, I indeed have, see: Digging a trench around existing foundation, Stone Wall Concreting. But that's just for the other part of house, now we are mowing to other side and repeating most of the works we did on opposite side - we will remove old log walls and replace them with aac blocks, but before that there is still some need to perform preparation works.

So what about falling through the ceiling? Yes, indeed, this was one of the scariest days in my life as for the second, while removing some boards from loft, I accidently put my foot, where I knew I shouldn't, at one part of house, there were just a fake ceiling made from cardboard. Once I accidentally stepped on it, it went all dark along my eyes and for that short milliseconds I was failing, I made a lot of thinking, what I was thinking about? Not to broke anything and how to re-group my body to fall safely. It's just wonders what our mind can do to us in critical moments, I indeed regrouped my body…

Georgia in Winter (Photos from Tbilisi)

29 January, 2017 | | 20 seen

There is a good reason to visit Georgian skiing resorts in Gudauri, Bakuriani or Mestia if you are up to a winter holidays in Georgia.

See: Gudauri - Georgian Winter Capital for skiing, snowboarding, paragliding and heli-skiing

On the other hand, here at Piece of Life series, we love to feature and document photo stories happening around us. A simple thing like a snow in Tbilisi (which is rare, actually) or Total Lunar Eclipse makes us to leave our cozy apartment and go out and document. 

A year ago (January 24, 2016) we featured our first story on snow in Tbilisi See: Tbilisi - Fairyland in Winter

A year later, on Saturday's morning, January 28, 2017 snow in Tbilisi surprised us again

Snow in Tbilisi

We started our story on recently reconstructed David Aghmanasgebeli street, see: New Life for Agmashenebeli avenue, Tbilisi

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Metal cat overlooking David Aghmeneshabeli street in Tbilisi

There are many cool sculptures/ installations on Aghmeneshabeli street

Still waiting for customers

Embankment near Dry Bridge

Actually…

Kiev Boryspil International Airport

28 January, 2017 | Airports | 60 seen

Boryspil International Airport  is an international airport in Boryspil, 29 km  east of Kiev, the capital of Ukraine.

It is the country's largest airport, serving 65% of its passenger air traffic, including all its intercontinental flights and a majority of international flights. It is one of two passenger airports that serve Kiev along with the smaller Zhulyany Airport.

Kiev's Borispol airport marks my first entrance to the Ukrainian land (at the end of December 2016) during connecting flight Tbilisi - Kiev - New York by Ukrainian airlines.

Unfortunately our connecting flight to New York was delayed for 10 hours and I had plenty of time to explore this airport.

Photo exhibit at Borispol airport's transit zone

As a reminder for travelers like me - that Ukraine is having really hard times right now - Photo exhibit dedicated to the Ukrainian soldiers.

Speaking of airport itself - cozy and very good. There are smoking rooms available plenty of cafeterias and of course Tax Free shopping. For my surprise, goods at Borispol airport weren't expensive at all. The best…

Top 10 Plovdiv Hotels in Bulgaria

27 January, 2017 | Hotel reviews | 6 seen

For today's article I've decided to take a look on average hotel price in Bulgaria's Plovdiv and also list TOP 10 hotels there based on Booking.com recommendations.

Now, just recently I booked my first flight to Sofia (capital of Bulgaria), after that I made some "investigation" what to expect in Bulgaria and crafted an article: Planing a Trip to Bulgaria - Hotels, Car Rental, Things to Do, Places to visit and Let's Buy a House There.

In that article I talking about many topics, but one of the first I'm looking to have a nice hotel room both in Sofia and Plovdiv (hopefully with a nice view). 

See: Top 10 Hotels in Sofia (Bulgaria)

I don't find 5-star or luxury hotels in neither in Sofia or Plovdiv being out of my league, seems there are nice hotels in Plovdiv (even in 4 and 5 star category) for a really affordable prices, with the highest price being set at 136 USD per night , average USD 70-80 and lower class, but still really good and decent hotels even starting at ~ USD 35 

In this article I have listed TOP 10 Plovdiv hotels, based on Booking.com recommendations in Plovdiv.

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Makhuntseti Arched Bridge

26 January, 2017 | Tourism objects | 279 seen

The Makhuntseti Arched Bridge is located in the village with same name, in the Keda municipality (region of Adjara in Georgia) on Batumi - Khulo road.

The bridge is pretty large and holds together on the natural rock stones and lime. The bridge is located above Acharistskali river.

Makhuntseti Arched Bridge

The horizontal length of the bridge among piers is 19.5 meters. The walkway length is 28.7 meters and the width in the middle is 2.5 meters. The height of the arch from water level is 5.6 meters. The piers of the bridge have no holes.

Makhuntseti Arched Bridge

There is a small info board located next to the bridge, with detailed information both in Georgian and English.

During the centuries  restoration works have been made for the bridge. Wit latest restoration works been made in 2018.

Makhuntseti Waterfall is located in a walking distance from this arched bridge. 

Waiting For The Water Level To Rise In The Pond

25 January, 2017 | Home Remodeling | 11 seen

In the mid Summer 2016, we did a major task - dug a pond, after pond excavation works we were left with a large hole in the middle of our rural property.

There are no incoming streams actually which could fill pond faster and we are left with just rain and snow waters.

Luckily, there were a lot rain this Summer and our small pond started to fill with water.

Pond

Lovely evening mood and cat on the inspection walk.

Pond seems rather really small from picture above, which is not true in fact,it just has been recently excavated and waiting for water to fill in. It took less than two months and even grass have grown back. See: Pond Digging - Part 3 - The Result 

Pond

View towards house from the road side. 

I wonder what will we see this Spring?

About Tbilisi - Kiev - New York Flight by Ukrainian Airlines

24 January, 2017 | Travel guides | 24 seen

In mid-November 2016 I faced an issue which I had to handle in the United States. I had to fly there soon.

In the past I have flied twice to the United States, both time leaving from Warsaw, Poland by Polish Airlines LOT and once have returned back via Istanbul using Turkish airlines flight from Houston. 

This time I decided to make it happen with less layovers as possible and even smaller waiting times. Our first choice was to fly with Turkish Airlines with connecting flight in Istanbul, the price for two persons round trip (Tbilisi - Istanbul - New York) was nice about $1,200, but it involved 8 hour waiting time in Istanbul, which is not nice for such long flights.

We didn't considered Polish Airlines, as the connecting flight in Warsaw is pretty far from Tbilisi. And last time we flied with them the airplane was some old can from 70ies.

And then Ukrainian Airlines popped up - offering amazing deal, waiting time in Kiev airport just about 2 hours for a connecting flight and price the same as Turkish airlines (about $1,200 for two persons round trip Tbilisi - Kiev - New York). So we booked our flight to NYC with Ukrainian Airlines.

Makhuntseti Waterfall

23 January, 2017 | Tourism objects | 52 seen

I was more than sure that the name of this waterfall in Keda municipality (region of Adjara) is Queen Tamar Waterfall, and was surprised latter to learn official name is Makhuntseti Waterfall.

No matter of the name, it is just second waterfall I have discovered in Georgia (the other been located behind Tbilisi sulphur baths in Abanotubani district). Waterfalls and water are great for photography. It was in the morning, we left hotel Sputnik in Batumi (in last evening I arranged a taxi driver to take us on the ride to Khulo from Batumi) and this waterfall was our first stop.

It was pretty early still, no tourists on site. The morning was still covered in mist and it was a little bit freezing.

Makhuntseti Waterfall

There are some small cafeteria located near this waterfall, probably it would be nice to enjoy a cup of coffee here. At the time we arrived here, everything was still closed. 

A small channel formed from waterfall

Very lovely place for a photography. Could spend hours with long exposures here.

Makhuntseti Waterfall