Blog Archive: March 2016
An ex-pat living in Georgia since 2011, I trade stocks, take photographs, work out at the gym, and many more. Here I write about travel, finance, and other things that might interest me.
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Building a Dog house
Recently we inherited not only a bad managed rural house, but also got a German shepherd dog Bob. I have posted a lot about our home remodeling works, and in one article you can see Bob. Bob is very scared dog, he doesn't trust people, as his owner passed away, he haven't approached any people, even me. After a summer spent in our rural house, the best we could achieve - Bob laying in front of house and observing us. We feed Bob well and during…
Shooting Hanheld HDR Photography
As some of you already know lately I'm a lot into HDR photography. For most of the times I'm shooting from a tripod, but sometimes (just sometimes) I'm lazy enough to take tripod with me. In most cases I end up damning myself for not taking tripod this time and most often avoid HDR shooting. Also in a lot of popular tourist spots (churches,cathedrals) it's forbidden to use a tripod - so you are left with handheld and no flashlight photography.…
Otium Restaurant in Tbilisi
Otium restaurant is a very stylish, but what's interesting not at all expensive venue, located in neighborhood of Vake in Tbilisi (uphill on the Turtle lake road). I have dozen of times passed by this restaurant during some of mine hiking trips around here (See: Hiking in Tbilisi - Turtle lake (Kus Tba) - Vake Park) but I always refused to visit it, because I thought it should be out of my league (all those SUV cars parked in front of the…
Invest in Georgia - Peer-to-Peer (P2P) lending - Mintos.com
After almost five years spent as an ex-pat and passive investor (savings accounts only) in Republic of Georgia, time after time I'm looking for some other liquid investment opportunities in Georgia. Mostly I end up with stock exchange, but for now Georgian Stock Exchange market doesn't seems transparent enough and easy accessible. By saying - not enough transparent I mean - I haven't find yet a broker offering real-time stats. Time after time…
The Roof Works are Done (Almost)
That August, 2015 day was a huge day - we finished roof covering works in our rural country house. It took us about a month as we launched roofing works, and it will take us few more days to complete roofing completely. I didn't photographed today much, or day before (when most covering were done), in fact I didn't photographed at all, my better part did. Here is what we got: Almost done here Just three more roof plates (int total for both…
Aerial photos from rooftop
Today we continued covering roof with metal plates, in a short break I took my DSRL camera a top on the roof and made some aerial photos. You won't get here views as nice as you could get from Tbilisi or Batumi aerial trams, but taking into consideration that we are speaking of an old rural house - these views are as much great. Roof masters a top on the roof (Edgars and Guntars) Aerial view to our veggie garden Few months ago we planted…
Intelligentsia Coffee Bar Tbilisi
I have spent countless hours at Intelligentsia Coffee Bar near Turtle lake in Tbilisi - this place has been my offsite office in hot Summer days (see: Turtle lake - my working place for today) or starting point before taking a hike (see: Hiking in Tbilisi - Turtle lake (Kus Tba) - Vake Park) As the name of this place stats - it's a coffee bar, but you can order delicious meal here as well, starting Panini ending French fries. Intelligentsia…
Azerbaijani Restaurant Agha in Tbilisi
Azerbaijani cuisine restaurant Agha is located near Heroes square (access is from the Circus side) in Tbilisi. After a meal here - I'm already planing my next trip to the land of fire - Azerbaijan. At this restaurant I tried something new for me - Dushbara soup, piti soup and veal saji on Fire. Lately I have tried a lot new non-Georgian cuisine places in Tbilisi, see Turkish restaurant Karabak, Chinese restaurant Dzin Chao or French Tartine…
How To Change a Flat Car Tire
Last summer I learnt not only how to change a roof for old rural house, also I excelled as a tire guy. During last summer I changed tires for our old junk car at least six times. To this day I still don't know why we got so many flat tires (most probably, because I bought cheap used tires at local tire workshop). Anyhow, it was the next morning after we added first metal roof plates a top of our house, when I noticed a flat tire has happened…
Roof Works, Part 6 - Finishing lathing and adding first plates of metal roof
Today was a big day, we managed not only to finish lathing works, covered roof with cross wind sheet but actually installed two plates of metal roof. Today was a very long working day also, by now I feel excelled a lot if roof works and home renovation. We started early in the morning (around 7:30 AM) as I knew this will be a very long day, and I really wanted to start cover roof with metal plates. Construction workers stretching cross wind…
Dzin Chao Chinese Restaurant in Tbilisi
Dzin Chao is among my latest discoveries from Tbilisi restaurants. I discovered it after paid a visit to Tbilisi zoo, its actually located just at the front of entrance into Zoo. Now I know at least three Chinese restaurants in Tbilisi, see: Oriental Pearl and New Asia Dzin Chao restaurant interior Spacious premises, I believe you can throw your next meeting with pals here with ease. As a pleasant surprise we got a gift - a large teapot…
Tbilisi Zoo
Tbilisi has many cool tourist attraction sites, but there is one, which is rarely mentioned in official guides or Tbilisi reviews - meet the hidden pearl of nations capital - Tbilisi Zoo. On the other hand worldwide coverage Tbilisi Zoo got after Tbilisi floods on 14 June 2015, leaving many animals dead or on the loose. See: Zoo animals on the loose and deaths feared after Georgia floods Tbilisi Zoo is located in the Vere valley just next to…
My Italy Travel Guide
This is a roundup post listing places from our latest trip to Italy at the end of 2015 / start 2016. The idea to visit Italy born in our Tbilisi apartment's kitchen when I was preparing another homemade pizza, I was flattening pizza dough with a rolling pin, when the better part of me told - hey, let's go to Italy. And so we did. After about a month we were sitting on a plane Tbilisi - Milan. We hadn't special plans or ideas what to visit. We…
About FireFly Car Rental in Italy
Searching for a budget friendly car rental in Italy? Look no more - I can highly suggest FireFly car rental. We used Firefly during our recent week long trip in Italy, prior to that I have used FireFly Spain (see: My Spain and Andorra Travel guide). We booked our economy Volkswagen Polo car online and picked it up at Milan-Malpensa airport (you must call to FireFly office upon arrival, after then they will send a shuttle bus to pick you up and…
Kiwi Vegan Cafe Tbilisi
Kiwi is a vegan non-profit community cafe located on Vertskli street 41, in Tbilisi Old Town. It is stated that all of their proceedings are donated to good causes related to animal rights. Kiwi provides a free social meeting space for organizations who are working for important change in the society, events can be arranged. Kiwi vegan cafe is the second socially responsible cafe I have found so far in Tbilisi (I don't search for them specially…