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Green (Mtsvane) Monastery
Green Monastery (The Chitakhevi St. George's Monastery) is located in a picturesque place in the Borjomi valley. People called it lovingly “The Green Monastery”, because all the trees in the valley are of a special green color. The stones, with which the church is built, are also green, but some are dark and some are light. I have visited Green monastery few times, and always have messed up with good photography - last time I visited it (…
Restaurant 'Porto' Near Plunge, Lithuania
Restaurant 'Porto' near town of Plunge in Lithuania is place were we stopped for about an hour to book a nearby hotel, using restaurants Wi-Fi and of course tried local cuisine. It turned out that "Porto" is not only a restaurant but hotel as well. Thus, the hotel / restaurant is located next to the highway - it didn't seemed an option for this night, we decided to use online booking to check some other hotels and we ended…
Žemaitė Memorial Museum, Bukantė Manor Homestead
If you love rural tourism, you will love this place, which name is really hard to even spell - but here is the name: Žemaitė Memorial Museum, Bukantė Manor Homestead Located in the Zemaitojos national park, district of Plunge, Lithuania. As usually we discovered this place by accident, making our trip to Vilnius, after making stops at Mosedis Catholic church and Idol Hill near Salantai we followed some God knows what road signs…
Idol Hill (Alkakalnis) near Salantai, Lithuania
God's path are untraceable, without a strong reason we made our first stop in Lithuania at Mosedis catholic church, then left Mosedis and continued our road just straight (without any directions yet in our minds), when we noticed a road sign "Alka Kalnis 2km" and decided to take that turn and visit ancient Lithuanian pagan ritual place. Well what else could Alka Kalnis stand for? From my short Lithuanian knowledge Alka could mean Idol…
St. Michael Archangel Church in Mosėdis
This church is located in the town of Mosėdis, Lithuania. St. Michael Archangel Church represents late Baroque style. I visited this church in frames of my three days birthday trip across Lithuania (For the third year in a row I have a tradition to greet my birthday abroad in some country's capital, this year it was turn for Vilnius. Although Lithuania is already featured to my blog already with few interesting tourism objects - at the end…
Oliva Italian Restaurant in Yerevan
If you are looking for an authentic Italian cuisine, here is the simple advice - visit Italy, but if in case in place of Italy you have found yourself in Yerevan, Armenia - here is a good Italian Restaurant Oliva, which is worth to visit and enjoy really good Italian cuisine in pretty authentic atmosphere - live music in evenings or tasty tiramisu cake are just a few to name. I first discovered Oliva restaurant back in 2014, when found they are…
Artashi Mot Restaurant on Moskovyan Street in Yerevan
Artashi Mot restaurant was a recommendation from our friend and taxi driver Tom, shortly we returned from the trip to the temple of Garni and Geghard monastery back to Yerevan, we asked Tom for a good local restaurant he would suggest us, and he shortly took us to Moskovyan street and the tasty Armenian cuisine experience started. Make sure you check out other Yerevan restaurant recommendations as well Entrance at Artashi Mot on…
Geghard Monastery Complex in Armenia
Geghard is a medieval monastery in the Kotayk province of Armenia, being partially carved out of the adjacent mountain, surrounded by cliffs. It is listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. I first heard about this monastery in some Travel Channel series on Armenia, I remember I was surprised when journalist told that this church is actually cut into the rock. At start of the March (2016) I visited Armenia…
Temple of Garni, Armenia
The Temple of Garni is a classical Hellenistic temple in Garni, Armenia. It is perhaps the best-known structure and symbol of pre-Christian Armenia. It was probably built by king Tiridates I in the first century AD as a temple to the sun god Mihr. We visited the Temple of Garni the next morning after our beautiful visit to Khor Virap monastery complex near border of Turkey. I called…
'Delicious Ravioli' on Tumanyan street in Yerevan
Delicious Ravioli on Tumanyan street in Yerevan, Armenia serves a traditional Georgian cuisine. Actually this is a typical khikali place and I still wonder why this place is called a Ravioli place instead of Khinkali, as in Russian language sign - this place is still called Tasty Khinkali. Strange. Anyway, as usually when abroad I search for a Georgian cuisine. Last time I visited Georgian Tavern in Tallinn, Estonia, today was Yerevan's turn.…
Khor Virap Monastery Complex in Armenia
The Khor Virap is an Armenian monastery located in the Ararat plain in Armenia, near the closed border with Turkey, about 8 kilometres (5.0 mi) south of Artashat, Ararat Province. The monastery was host to a theological seminary and was the residence of Armenian Catholicos. Located some 30 km from nations capital Yerevan, Khor Virap is best reached by organized tours, personal vehicle…
Tashir Pizza (On Mashtots Avenue, Yerevan)
I first heard about Tashir Pizza back in Tbilisi (Georgia), the girls from local community informed that there is a famous Armenian pizza coming to the town - I had no clue what does famous Armenian Pizza stands for, so I visited my first Tashir pizzeria at Tbilisi East Point mall - read my review here: Tashir Pizza at EastPoint Mall (Tbilisi) Now, couple of months latter we were on a short few day trip to Armenia, and Tashir name popped…
Yerevan Brandy Factory Ararat
This post is about Yerevan Brandy Company producing famous Ararat brandy. During my latest trip to Yerevan (Armenia) I had a free time and I decided to to visit Yerevan Brandy Factory. So, we just walked there by foot, and huge was our surprise when the girl at reception informed that tours can be arranged only by calling before - that's lame. But OK, if you are planing to make an indie trip to Yerevan Brandy Factory - make sure you…
Yerevan Opera Theatre
It took me about 4 or 5 times to visit Yerevan, before I actually visited Yerevan Opera theater. OK, in fact I didn't even visited it, just passed by, but the Opera House is a popular landmark when wandering around Yerevan. Here is the fun fact - The ground-breaking of the Opera-Theatre took place on 28 November 1930 during the celebrations of the 10th anniversary of Soviet Armenia. Armenian…
The Swan Lake park in Yerevan
The Swan lake park in Yerevan is a popular recreation area in the heart of Yerevan, located next to the Opera house in a 5 minute walking distance from main Republic Square. The Swan Lake park usually hosts various open air art exhibitions. - Ice-skate with many locals at the Swan Lake (next to the Opera House) during winter months. The huge guitar and piano at the entrance of the Swan park I visited Swan park in the middle of March, it was…
Cathedral of Cadiz
Cádiz Cathedral is a Roman Catholic church in Cádiz, southern Spain, and the seat of the Diocese of Cadiz y Ceuta. It was built between 1722 and 1838. The cathedral was declared Bien de Interés Cultural in 1931. When visiting Cathedral of Cadiz, don't forget to climb up the bell tower and get some spectacular pictures from above, see: The Bell Tower of Cadiz Cathedral Cathedral of Cadiz The Plaza de…
The Bell Tower of Cadiz Cathedral
I don't know how many popular tourism objects in Spain's Cadiz there are, but the Cathedral of Cadiz and it's bell tower should be among them for sure. We visited Cadiz for couple of hours in June 2016, arrived here from El Puerto de Santa Maria by the ferry in the morning and left afternoon. There is a small entrance fee - EUR 5, which gives access both to the Bell tower and access to the church, audio guides are available as well. There is no…
Port of Cadiz Bay
We used Port of Cadiz Bay (Puerto de Cadiz) twice - first for entering from El Puerto de Santa Maria, second for leaving back to, yes you re right, back to the El Puerto Santa Maria again. At Reina Victoria pier in Cadiz-City Basin, there is a metropolitan maritime station from Cádiz, that attends to the passengers between Cádiz, El Puerto de Santa María and Rota, with modern catamarans. It has it access from Sevilla square and it is five…
Castle of San Marcos (El Puerto de Santa María)
While waiting for our ferry departing for Cadiz, we had a chance to visit a local fair in El Puerto de Santa Maria). I made some interesting photography here. One of the first tourism objects I noticed in El Puerto was Castle of San Marcos. Castle of San Marcos (also Castillo de Alfonso X El Sabio) is a medieval castle located in El Puerto de Santa María, Cádiz, Spain. The castle was erected as a …
Ferry from El Puerto de Santa Maria to Cadiz
The other day we arrived to El Puerto de Santa Maria just for one reason, we had red in some travel guide, that if approaching from Jerez to Cadiz, a nice option to have is to take a ferry leaving El Puerto and connecting with Cadiz. It took us some time to actually figure out where the terminal building is located and to find a free parking space for our rental car. Once we found both, we had some free time before ferry departing and luckily…
Campsite 'Miera Osta' near Pāvilosta
I'm a huge admirer of Latvian seashore town of Pāvilosta. I guess I first discovered it just last year. This Summer we spent many trips to Pāvilosta and vicinity - just by doing nothing - wandering around. The other weekend we found a new road end and decided to give it a try - at the end we were met by the campsite Miera Osta located near white sand Baltic seashore, some 240km from nation's capital Riga. Tree house Kids will…
Gravel and Crushed Stone For Foundation
This Summer I will need a lot of gravel and crushed stone for home remodeling tasks, mainly for foundation sealing works. Some time ago (while digging a pond), I negotiated a few cubic meters of gravel from neighbor, who was sealing surface of the road meanwhile, it turned out that neighbors' gravel was not ideal for foundation as it consisted from clay particles, and we decided re-use clay/gravel for rock garden instead. I had no…
Sponge Cake With Wild Berries
Here comes another post on food blogger series, and again I must admit I'm not the original creator of following sponge cake, my better part is. Sponge cake with wild berries Really cool cake, here is photos and cooking directions: Biscuit dough: 4 eggs, 4 tbs. flour, 4 tbs. sugar Cooking directions: Separate egg white form the egg yolk. Whip egg white to hard foam. Separately whip yolks with 4 tablespoons…
Digging a trench around existing foundation - Building a bathroom from scratch - part 4
Here comes another update on building a bathroom from scratch series in project home remodeling. The thing is - the house we got didn't pamper us a lot, and so for example I had to install new supporting beams, not to speak about changing a roof, prior to before ever dreaming about having a bathroom. OK, I had a vision about a bathroom once we replaced roof last year, but to actually feature bathroom, we have to build many new things, among them…