Blog Archive: December 2016

Average salary in the Republic of Georgia at the end of the second quarter (Q2) of 2016 was GEL 1035.98 equaling about USD 389. For the simplicity of further written and calculated, here is the exchange rates I used from Bank of Georgia website on December 14, 2016. USD to GEL: 2.6599 EUR to GEL: 2.8222 If measuring in actual increase that is a…

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…

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…

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 …

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…

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 setup Concrete mixer, wheelbarrow with gravel, a…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

Bulachauri restaurant probably is the restaurant I have visited the most - unfortunately I have never paid attention to the name of this place - I always know, that's that restaurant we always take meals when hiring our driver for trips to region of Mtskheta-Mtianeti. Probably this is our driver's most favorite dining place.  I wanted to change…

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…