Sputnik Hotel in Batumi
I now have a new favorite hotel in Batumi - Sputnik hotel. Surrounded by a garden with tropical plants and trees, this 4-stars Sputnik Hotel & Spa Batumi is nestled in Batumi Hills with a stunning views of the city and black sea. Hotel boasts an outdoor pool and is just 12-minute drive from city centre. There is a restaurant, bars, swimming pool, terraces, and free WiFi at the property.We stayed at Sputnik hotel for three nights at the end of November 2016, and paid about 300GEL (about USD 100),we got a lovely value deal at local Georgian Groupon clone site, but looking now on Booking the price doesn't seems much higher about $50. That's what I love about good (decent) hotels…
Postcards from Oslo
Seems Postcards from series are one of the most featured at Piece of Life project, and there is no surprise about it, we travel a lot, and visit many interesting cities around the World. So did happened during our latest trip to Norway, what was meant to be just a night in Olso, between layover flights turned out to be a mini postcards from Oslo.Skyscraper in OsloWhy doesn't I feel surprised seeing Radisson Sas hotel among one of the tallest buildings in Oslo?A typical day in OsloA channelOslo
Remove a Wall to Finish Foundation Concreting
Some build home by pouring in foundation first, we started by replacing roof, removing walls and then pouring in foundation. Sounds intrigue? Continue reading to learn more.In today's home remodeling series a day when we removed first wall and finished pouring in concrete for foundation for our upcoming bathroom. I had a handy hands today, Guntars, we started our cooperation already last year, he helped me a lot with roof replacement works. The plan for today was following, to demolish old log wall and pour in the final layer of foundation.Removing first decks from the wallIt might sound as a complicated task,but in our case it was not, as most of the log and decks were rotten already…
Chiatura Cable-ways Central Station
If you have a chance of visiting remote Georgian city Chiatura, make sure you take a free ride at one of the famous cable ways. Also don't forget to take your camera and make one of the interesting photos you will make in Georgia.Some call them Stalin's cable cars, I prefer to call them - the rare chance to return to the year of 1954.As I have been told, most of the cable cars have been in service in 1954, and most of them seems haven't been repaired ever since. I remember, few years ago a friend of mine sent me a preivev of Georgian documentary by Gabriel Razmadze Black Mulberry / Shavi tuta about miners in Chiatura, after watching that short, which was mainly concentrated…
Oslo Bus Terminal
Oslo Bus Terminal was our second stop from our first time short trip to Norway,we arrived here from Moss Airport, Rygge, in June, 2016 and left back from the same terminal to airport in the next morning.Oslo Bus Terminal is the main bus station serving Oslo, Norway. Owned by Vaterland AS it is located beside Oslo Central Station and serves local buses to Akershus as well as domestic and international coaches.Oslo Bus TerminalThe station was built by the Akershus transit authority Stor-Oslo Lokaltrafikk as a bus station for their routes to Downtown Oslo. The station is five minutes walk from Oslo Central Station as well…
Foundation From Fibo Ceramsite Blocks
It happened a a few weeks ago, when digging a trench around the existing foundation I discovered a missing foundation for one part of our rural house.Back then I quickly realized I will use Fibo ceramsite blocks to boost construction works. The other day I poured in concrete footing, and today was the day to add first Fibo ceramsite blocks over footingHardened foundation footingIt rained for the last two days, I was a little bit worried, could too much rain could make some damage for footing, but it was just perfect - rock solid foundation footing to put Fiblo blocks over.Fibo ceramsite blocksI bought few at local DIY store and transported with our Honda CRV car. A reliable…
Postcards from Chiatura
Chiatura is an amazing and worth to explore city in the Imereti region, Georgia.
Famous because of manganese and iron ores. What makes this city special - cable cars, it's believed there are some 17 cable cars / lift systems in operation in Chiatura.
Chiatura have been on my travel list for a very long time already - first visited and documented in November 2016. Yes, we took a ride in those old and neglected, but awesome cable cars. Taking a ride in cable cars here is completely free (as of November 2016)
Soviet era monument in Chiatura
Amazing, charming and unique.
Old and neglected
Due to the steep sided river valley, production workers spent a large amount of time walking up…
Road To Million Dollars in Saving Account
I'm 31 now, I have a goal to save one million dollars by the time I will be 60. That's 29 years. That's $34,482.75 I should save each year, next 29 years in the row. That's a lot.
I currently make less than $20,000 per year, by US standard I'm the one who falls into the category - working poor. However, unlike my colleges in US, I live overseas (see living in Georgia) where standard of living in much much lower if compared to US , and in fact with funds I have here in Georgia I can afford pretty decent life style - travel a lot, spend evenings in fancy Tbilisi restaurants and even build a rural country house in other country.
I have some hopes for the bright future and…
Moss Airport, Rygge, Norway
Moss airport Rygge officially marks my first entry point to Norway in Summer 2016. Unfortunately, or for good, Rygge airport has been shut down to all civilian traffic on November 1, 2016.We arrived here from Malaga by Ryanair cheap flight and stayed overnight in Oslo, to return back and have a flight to Riga next morning.Moss Airport, Rygge was an international airport serving Moss, Oslo and Eastern Norway. It is located in Rygge, 10 kilometres (6.2 mi) outside Moss and 60 kilometres (37 mi) outside Oslo. It also served as a regional airport for Østfold county and owned and was operated by the…
Construction Materials Arrives (aerated concrete blocks and other goodies)
That day finally came - construction materials arrived. We paused our construction works for about a month, because of a simple reason - lack of funds, or more precisely slow bank transfers, we did spent a lovely July harvesting mushrooms and even spent three days traveling around neighboring Lithuania to celebrate my birthday.One thing made me worried - it was already second half of August and we still hadn't started works on rebuilding walls for our old log house. Haven't I mentioned - we are replacing log walls with aerated concrete blocks) I ordered these blocks at the first day I got money transferred to my bank account and today was the day when construction materials…
Katskhi Monastery of Nativity of the Savior
Don't be surprised of the name Katskhi, this is a church located some 2km from the famous Katskhi pillar in Georgia.The Katskhi Monastery of Nativity of the Savior, more commonly known as the Katskhi Monastery is a medieval monastery in Georgia, located in the village of Katskhi near the town of Chiatura. It was built at the behest of the Baguashi family in the period of 988–1014. The church building is noted for a hexagonal design and rich ornamentation. Closed down by the Soviet government in 1924, the monastery was revived in 1990 and is now operated by the Eparchy of Sachkhere and Chiatura of the Georgian…
Málaga–Costa del Sol Airport
Málaga Airport, officially Málaga–Costa del Sol Airport is the fourth busiest airport in Spain after Madrid–Barajas, Barcelona and Palma de Mallorca. It is an important airport for Spanish tourism as it is the main international airport serving the Costa del Sol. It is 8 km (5.0 mi) southwest of Málaga and 5 km (3.1 mi) north of Torremolinos. The airport has flight connections to over 60 countries worldwide, and over 14.4 million passengers passed through it in 2015.Our latest trip to Spain (region of Andalusia) started an ended here at Malaga airport. We arrived here from Berlin Schönefeld…
Pouring Concrete Footing
Right, today I found a fix to the issue we discovered earlier this summer - missing foundation for the some parts of our rural house.Some few days ago I bough a concrete mixer, gravel was already waiting to be mixed with concrete, now it was time to pour in footing for the missing part.All setupConcrete mixer, wheelbarrow with gravel, a shovel. yes pretty much the basics for mixing the concrete.Simple template for foundationNow its time to pour in a base footing, itš a bout 90 cm width and about 30 cm height. Latter on that we will continue to pour in foundation.It's just a footing to make things rock solid.Pour in concreteadd some reinforcement from metal rods.Concrete foundation…
Christmas Cooking Photo Session in The Kitchen - Olivie salads, Pirozhki and of course Pizza
That time of the year have come and for the rare time this year I was actually operating with camera in our kitchen - in today's special Christmas menu - our "traditional Georgian Christmas" table - salad Olivie, pirozhki and of course that tasty pizza.
It was that time of the year when again I installed a tripod, put a telephoto lens and decided to shoot macro's.
Christmas time during our expat time in Georgia have always marked two essential things to do - first to visit annul Christmas charity fair and second, on Christmas eve to cook something cool. Like we have baked gingerbreads, pirozhki and of course pizzas.
Dough is been…
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'…