American Bluegrass Concert

Old Tbilisi, Erekle II street, open air concert of American bluegrass, june 16.
On this and its neighbour narrow streets there are lots of cafes, clubs, restaurants, where you can enjoy tasty music. Here are invited also musicians from abroad.
I enjoyed bluegrass in live, it was nice...

Elit Electronics Picnic in the Open Air Museum

Last sunday Elit Electronics made up a picnic for all its collaborators. Whole green teritory of amazingly beautiful museum was covered with people dressed in red. Really nice contrast ... :) I had very good time with them.
Periodically the collaborators are invited to concerts, plays, excursions etc.




Sweet dreams :)

Georgian struggle art

Movement theatre actor



Movement theatre. Theatre and Film University students

Few photos from 9th Tbilisi International Book Festival

proverb bags for children

Gogi Kharabadze CD collection including Vepkhistkaosani (The Knight in the Panther's Skin), poems of famous Georgian poets, gospels, the new testament etc.

"Vepkhistkaosani" illustration

Fairy tale book, made by children

Mountain-network Bed & Breakfast

mountain-network900-2, originally uploaded by grijsz.

Dshuta (Juta) call in advance 00995 99 533239 or ask in the village for Jago Arabuli

Shatili call in advance 00995 77 729362 or ask in the village for Vasha and Marina Chincharauli

Korsha (behind Barissakho) ask for Shota and Marina Arabuli 00995 95 503134 or 00995 99 472205

Roshka ask for Shota Tsiklauri and his wife Tina. Shota my provide car transfers to Shatili or Barissakho as well. 00995 99 399789 (Relatives of Shota in Korsha, as there is no mobile connection yet in Roshka)

Gudani ask for Tsila, also car transfers and horses, 00995 93 301170 or 00995 93 930754, gudani@posta.ge

Cesho ask for Murtazi

Cesho ask for Bakuri

Zemo Alvani and Dartlo call in advance 00995 99 964839 or ask for Manana Idoidze

Shenako ask for Kako

Indurta ask for Irakli Papashvili

Ninigori (3km before Lagodekhi) call in advance 00995 93 344615 or ask for Simoni Nareshelashvili

Prices approximately from 15 to 40 USD, prices may change, ask in advance

Paul Haupt after 60 years again in the Caucasus

Last year former German Soldier and Prisoner of War Paul Haupt from Westfalen in Germany came after 60 years for a visit to Georgia to the places, where he had spent 4,5 years. His welcome by Georgian citizens was so heartly, that he often could not withstand weeping. The irony was, that he had never been on the Eastern Front, but got catched short after the war in Bavaria and got submitted with thousands of others to the Soviet Army on Czech Territory.

Soviet Army Doctors evaluated the physical conditions of the imprisoned soldiers and signed one dash on the uniform for the healthiest, 2 dashes for the medium and 3 for the physically weakest. When Paul realized (he got one dash) and counted 1 and 1 together, he quickly added himself 2 more dashes and had the luck not been sent to Siberia (1 dash), Kazakhstan (2 dashes) but with 3 dashes to Georgia. The prisoners didn't know their destination, but after weeks they saw the mountains of the Northern Caucasus, then the Caspian Sea, then Baku, then Rustavi and Tbilisi and shortly later his final camp in Chiatura in Western Georgia. It was a small camp with not more than 200 prisoners, the guards from Central Asia. Paul, small from stature, often managed to climb through a whole in the fence outside and to barter cement with vegetables, fruits, bread and even wine. Often he got invited by Georgians, who gave him Khatshapuri, Nuts, Churchkhela.

See a couple of photos from his visit to Western Georgia here:

http://www.kaukasus-reisen.de/paul-haupt.htm

A list of plants found at Botanical Excursions in Georgia

by Dr. Helga Dietrich, Dr. Hans Jürgen Buhr and Gregori Deisadze

Link


Astrantia major, Lagodekhi National Park

Carpets in Manana's Shop Tbilisi

Borjomi-Kharagauli National Park Price List

Service Categories	costs (Gel)
Entrance Fee – Georgians above 16	5
Entrance Fee – Georgians under 16	2
Entrance Fee – Children till 10	Free
Entrance Fee - Locals	Free
Entrance Fee – Foreigners	15
Guide (Per day)	33
Horse (Per day)	35
Overnight stay In the Tourist Shelter (per night)	10
Camping Place per night	5
Tent per night	7
Sleeping Bag per night	5
Backpack per day	5
Camping Mat	3

http://www.borjomi-kharagauli-np.ge/

Buses and Minibuses (Marshrutkas) are going from Tbilisi Bus Station Didube to Borjomi every hour. The Administration building is on the main road, at the far end of the town on the right sight.

Me with boomerang

Thanks to Jörg for the photo. We had a nice weekend with a farewell-party for Jörg Kassner, who moves soon to Greece, in Lagodekhi with Georgians and Germans, Tamada (me), Rkatsiteli, Tswadi, with some Australian and Uzbek influences, crazy dancing and party. Me and my wife had on Sunday also our seventh celebration of marriage.

Theatre and Film University Girls' Ensemble

We, Theatre and Film university students decided to create girls' ensemble some months ago. Since february we have repetitions and we work really hard. But we are still without name :) Our head is Lela Goliadze, daughter of famous singer Amiran Goliadze (Ensemble "Rustavi"). She, herself is a member of ensemble "Kelaptari".
Our ensemble is not famous, we haven't had concert and people don't know us yet. So, Kaukasus is the first, where people can listen to us :)
I took this repetition yesterday. Hope you'll enjoy it...

Sprachkurs Georgisch 17.09.-12.10. Berlin

Frau Dr. Steffi Chotiwari-Jünger leitet im September/Oktober einen Sprachkurs Georgicum zur Georgischen Sprache und Literatur an der Humboldt-Unversität Berlin. Anmeldeschluss 10.09.

Alle Details hier:

http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=ddmj59z8_452hp4ttp

Art4ru

Now open Igor Markin's collection of Contemporary Russian Art with one of the most usable collection websites I ever saw. Clean, no Flash, no usability mess, good reproductions and a cool blog by Markin himself. Something for Saatchi to look at... ;-)

The Art Newspaper on Igor Markin

His Collection at Art4ru

Igor Markin's blog

and one of my favourites of his collection, Mikhail Chernyshev, here

Georgian Dinner Ninigori

Dinner, originally uploaded by grijsz.

Unknown at Kabali

kabali, originally uploaded by grijsz.

Trekking Caucasus Georgia Summer 2007

We have some free places left on our unique Trekking tours into the Greater Caucasus in Georgia this summer:

Adventure Tusheti: 14.07. - 27.07. (1-2 free places)
Tbilisi-Alvani- Omalo- Dartlo- Cesho-Parsma-Girevi-Tsovata-Shenako-Diklo-Tbilisi
EUR 1380,00
Full description in German here
http://kaukasus-reisen.de/tuschetien-abenteuer.htm
Contact me for details in English language at info@kaukasus-reisen.de


Mountainworld Khevsureti: 29.07. - 10.08. (1-2 free places)
Tbilisi-Stepantsminda (Kazbegi)-Juta-Arkhoty-Roshka-Shatili-Mutso-Ardoti-Barissakho-Tbilisi
EUR 1340,00
Full description in German here
http://kaukasus-reisen.de/bergwelt-chewsuretien.htm
Contact me for details in English language at info@kaukasus-reisen.de


Cattle drive Tusheti: 24.09. - 08.10. (1-3 free places)
Tbilisi-Alvani-Omalo-Dartlo-Parsma-Girevi, this route back to Alvani on cattle drive
EUR 1580,00
Full description in German here
http://kaukasus-reisen.de/viehtrieb-tuschetien2007.htm
Contact me for details in English language at info@kaukasus-reisen.de

A Christening

31.05.2007 Saskia Annelore at Mamajvari-Church, Tbilisi

How to reanimate a Tushetian race horse or not

Alex describes witnessing the traditional horse race at Zezvaoba-Dalaoba here:
http://transcaucasian.blogspot.com/2007/05/zezwaoba-dalaoba.html