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Estia Handmade Art Boutique Shop & Masterclasses in Tbilisi
It was a late October evening (It actually happened on Halloween night) when after having a delicious noodles at Fire Wok we decided to take some other route for heading into Tbilisi's Old Town. And suddenly on Lerrmontov street 3 we noticed a small boutique shop with interesting name - Estia, at first I thought maybe it's somehow related to Estonia. The sign at outdoors informed they serve a coffee here as well. You can't buy…
Our First Veggie Garden: Planting Plants in Boxes
What would be a real country house without a garden? Right it would be a garden less country house. Although we have some old apple orchard and a few cherry trees there was one thing missing - some small veggie garden for our needs. There was one another major obstacle we didn't have any water supply at our rural country house. Read more: Home Remodeling - How It All Starts So we opted for a small veggie garden to be planted…
The Tiger Lillies Concert Review in Tbilisi
The Tiger Lillies performed on Tbilisi Concert Hall on November 8, 2015. I must admit I had no clue what this band is all about, but had heard that The Tiger Lillies are must have. And I'm glad I agreed to visit their show in Tbilisi. This was the second show in a row (previous one was Diana Krall's concert at the end of October 2015) I visited in Tbilisi concert hall. First surprise arrived when we noticed that our seats was just behind…
How to Patch and Plaster Walls in Your Old Rural House
It's one of the construction works I really enjoy - to patch and plaster walls - it doesn't requires a lot of skills and it's a really cheap way to get things done fast. Today I will show you how I patched our rural country house's kitchen walls with a plaster mix for less than $10. Prior to that I removed all the junk from the room (kitchen) and applied a base paint both for walls and ceilings. Read: Removing Junk And Adding First Layer…
Shaurma Club on Tamar Mephe Street (Tbilisi)
Shaurma club on Tamar Mephe street in Tbilisi is among one of the best street food places I have tried in Tbilisi and Georgia. They offer really tasty shaurma's, kabab's and they even have a salad bar. They obey all sanitary norms (work in gloves at least) and the prices are really budget friendly. If you enjoy street food and love shaurma's you will definitely enjoy Shaurma Club on Tamar Mephe in Tbilisi. Frankly speaking I have…
Abandoned Airfield Near P104 (Jaunpils-Tukums) Road (Latvia)
As I stated in my previous post about beautiful poppy fields near P104 Jaunipils - Tukums road in Latvia, there is a hidden treasure inside those lovely fields - an abandoned airfield. I doubt it has been used for any military means, more for agriculture (field spraying from a biplane). So I headed in and here is what I got: Abandoned airfield near Tukums The same concrete plates for runaway structure as seen in…
Riga Central Market
Riga Central Market as I believe is among of of the top Riga attractions a tourist might want to visit and see. First opened to public in 1930, with main structures of the market built by reusing old German Zeppelin hangars, it now has become Europe's largest market and bazaar. There are not many markets from which I have seen I could compare this one. The closest I can compare is La Boqueria market in Barcelona, Spain. …
Beautiful Poppy Field Near P104 (Jaunpils-Tukums) Road (Latvia)
Some might think what's so special with those poppy fields in some place called near P104 road in Latvia, and I might reply - probably there is nothing special, but since we used this bypass road to get to Riga all the Summer along, we just noticed them every time we drove past this district. Now I took those images on June 26th and today being back in Tbilisi I tried to locate this place on map, unfortunately I couldn't find an…
First Summer Solstice in Our New (Old) House
Last year we celebrated Summer Solstice on our apartments balcony in Tbilisi, this year we did it the right way. After I tried out how it's to move grass with a scythe, then with a trimmer and finally hiring a professional grass mover we started to repair our recent acquisition, after room and kitchen was cleaned out ouf junk and some paint job was applied both to walls and ceilings we did a test with a first garden party in order to…
Ēdole Castle and Emila Market with 17 Cheeses and Crayfish
Ēdole Castle is a Gothic Revival castle situated on the banks of Ēdole Lake, Ēdole parish, in the historical region of Courland, western Latvia. I had an opportunity to visit Ēdole castle and taste some of the 17 cheeses few days before Summer Solstice Līgo was held (back n 2015). During my visit a fair called Emīla market (Emīla tirgus) took action. Famous Latvian film Emīla nedarbi was filmed here in…
Removing Junk And Adding First Layer of Paint (Kitchen Works)
In my previous article on home remodeling series you already learned how with the help of just a white paint I decided drastically to improve a room which latter might become our bedroom in our rural house. Haven't red that article yet? Go ahead and see it: Room One - Wall and Ceiling Painting with Water Based Paint Now it was turn for another room (kitchen) to put some facelift on, but before that we had to clean up the mess, remove all…
How To Prepare Traditional Uzbek Plov (Lamb and Rice Pilaf)
In this post you will learn how to prepare a traditional Uzbek plov (lamb and rice pilaf. It might sound as a complicated food to prepare, but in fact if you have the right ingredients and right tools (cooking pot) there is nothing complicated in it. There are three main ingredients to get that tasty plov done - lamb meat, rice and quince. Since I'm living in Republic of Georgia, it's easy to find all…
How To Carve a Pumpkin and Make Stunning Halloween Photos
In this post you will learn how to carve a pumpkin and prepare it for a good photography. Let's call this digital photography school tutorial - a pumpkin photo session. Tools you will need: a pumpkin, sharp knife, a marker, candles a DSLR camera and a tripod (for photography) For a pumpkin I visited local Tbilisi market and bought one for 2 GEL (~0.6$) Let's start with carving that pumpkin: Use a marker to draw up lines on…
Georgian Parliament Building (Kutaisi)
That day finally come and I have finally photographed the legendary Georgian Parliament building in Kutaisi. After picking up my mom at Kutaisi International Airport and before heading towards to Tbilisi, we made a short excursions around Kutaisi and villages near Kutaisi. It took me just a few seconds to capture this amazing landscape of futuristic parliament building. The Georgian Parliament Building in Kutaisi…
Sorrel Soup With Hard-Boiled Eggs (Photo Recipe)
Today we will prepare one of mine all times favorite soup - Sorrel soup. The idea for this blog post come out of my 365 days photo project, when everyday I'm taking some picture in Manual mode and publish it to my Flickr account. Since the strong jury didn't enjoyed my entry photo with sliced onion for day 13 I was literally taken to the kitchen and all I has to do - just to photograph. One image speaks thousands words! Enjoy!…
Room One - Wall and Ceiling Painting with Water Based Paint
It took us some time to figure out what do next with our recently inherited rural house which was not in her best shape. After I started my fight with grass, (Lawn moving with scythe and Lawn moving with trimmer) I decided it's time to free up some space inside the house, so we actually have some room to stay for night, for example. Since our major tasks for this summer was actually to change that leaky roof, we were not ready to…
Café 'Staburadze' Review in Kuldīga (Latvia)
Cafe Staburadze is located on Liepajas street in Kuldiga. Here serves a traditional Latvian cuisine (pork chops and other stuff) and ... I just love this place. After I had tried almost all of the Kuldīga cafe's and restaurants I have concluded that exactly cafe Staburadze is among my favorite dining places in lovely Kuldīga town. And here are just a few reasons you will love Staburadze as well - it's centrally…
Diana Krall Concert Review in Tbilisi (Georgia)
Diana Krall performed in Tbilisi in frames of Tbilisi Jazz Festival and her own Wallflower World Tour on October 23, 2015. We visited this show at Tbilisi Philharmonic hall (Previous time I was here was a concert of a Russian band Aquarium and Boris Grebenshchikov 2014). During this show some older songs from Diana Krall repertoire, like Fly me to the moon were performed and of course some new ones. But speaking of…
Boiled Potatoes With Ground Meat Sauce Recipe
Welcome everyone to just another food blogger post series - today we will prepare a very simple recipe - Boiled potatoes with ground meat sauce. It's just that time of the year when I found myself more in kitchen just eager to cook something, and after a visit to the local market I decided I want to prepare something simple, tasty and something I could photograph for my digital photography school project. As I believe…
First Barbecue Festival in Our Newly Inherited House
While there is a good reason to visit a barbecue festival in Armenia, in this post I will provide some details on the first barbecue festival (OK, it's actually a party) we held in our recently inherited country house, where some serious home remodeling tasks are performed. Throwing up a barbecue party is a must have to fully enjoy all the good works and intentions you are doing while performing such a routine tasks, like fighting a…
Hiking in Borjomi (Georgia)
A group of four Georgia Expat Photographer club members visited Borjomi on September 20, and we did a lovely hike here. I took my camera, Map My Ride app (great for recording trekking routes) and here is the result. During this route which took us some 3 hours we visited 2 lovely monastery sites, discovered an open air sulphur pools, spent some time in Borjomi mineral water park and of course took that lovely Borjomi…
Lawn Mowing with a Trimmer
Right, this post is like and extended version for my previous post in home remodeling series on lawn mowing with a scythe. After a tough fight with grass using old school tools like scythe it was enough for me. And I mean it - no more scythe for me. Having a house in rural Latvia teaches a very important lesson, you have to own a trimmer, or it will be a very costly for you to fight the grass. Since some serious trimmers cost a lot and we hadn'…
Borjomi Mineral Water Park in Georgia
Borjomi mineral park which is located in town on Borjomi, some 120 km from nations capital Tbilisi, is a lovely place to enjoy a lazy day, preferable for slow walking and enjoying beautiful aroma coming from pine cons. This park (and Borjomi town) has been on my most favorite destination list in Georgia for many years already (well, I first visited this place in 2011). This park was in our Borjomi hiking route, during our recent…
Lawn Mowing with a Scythe
Welcome to the second post in home remodeling series, today I will write about thing called - lawn mowing (I prefer using word grass) with a tool called scythe. It has been a while before my first post about our new property - a house, a really bad managed house we inherited. The thing why it took us so long is - it took us some 2 months to decide - will we seriously do anything with this house or probably let's just leave as it is and come back…