ConnieF
Constance Finch Joined: July 30th 2008
Logged in: September 10th 2010
Logged in: September 10th 2010
Travel Blog Posts
We WIN the Contest
Our 15 seconds of Fame Anyone who's been following Dudley Dawson's Worlds' Worst Cubicle Contest in the San Francisco Examiner (or read my previous blog on this subject) knows that we submitted two entries (#22 and #23) and that #22 was in the lead. I got the news that we WON the contest (was there any doubt?) and we've been awarded a gift card. If you want to see all the entries and results, go to: http://www.examiner.com/examiner/x-3040-Life-in-the-Cubicle-Examiner~y2009m8d30-Connie-Finch-wins-the-2009-Worst-Cubicle-in-the-World-award (copy and paste into any browser). You'll die laughing! But that's not the end of the story! When Dudley asked me what I was going to do with the winnings, I mentioned my charity work and that I would be buying toys for the orphanages in Romania, Moldova and The Republic of Georgia. He asked me more questions and ... read more
The winner?
Think you have it bad? Even though we've returned home, I still have some fun times to share. It turns out you can publish a book from your blog (these website operators are so clever about getting money out of us, aren't they?) and so I'm planning my first book "Adventures with Connie, 2009". I want to make sure a few more entries get included. To wit: My blog about Tbilisi wouldn't be complete without telling you about our entry for "The World's Worst Cubicle" contest currently being run by Dudley Dawson of the San Franciso Examiner. http://www.examiner.com/x-3040-Life-in-the-Cubicle-Examiner~y2009m8d3-Worst-Cubicle-in-the-World-2009--Week-2-finalists After viewing the week 1 and week 2 finalists, I knew these entries couldn't hold a candle to the work area of one of Irakli's friend that we visited in Tbilisi. So I submitted the following entry. Entries ... read more
Family Rug
Artistry in wool and silk As my husband knows only too well, carpets (er, Rugs) fascinate me. Even though we have wall to wall carpet in our flat, I have several wool area rugs. My mother Eleanor loved rugs, and we had many of them in our home growing up. She taught me how to look always at the reverse side, which in good hand made rugs will be almost as colorful and clear as the front side. Apparently, Irakli's mother Gulika likes them too, as she had a stunning one in their flat. So, no matter where I am, I can't resist checking out the rugs and carpets. I was in heaven in Georgia, as rugs are common. In Tblisi, my 'cousin in law' Ilya was kind enough to endulge me and took me into ... read more
Welcome to Sighnaghi!
Our visit to a fairy tale town Sighnaghi is the most beautiful town I have seen in all my travels, including Netherlands, Turkey, Romania, Spain and Italy. One of the few medieval towns that still has all its' city walls, Sighnahi is perched on a hill overlooking a vast valley, with the lofty, snow covered Caucasian mountains opposite. The entire town was recently redone by the Georgian government in an effort to boost tourism. Apparently this cost something like 1% of the GNP for an entire year. May I say it was worth the investment? While tourism is sharply down this year, due to the impact of last year's war with Russia, I think this town will attract visitors for a long time to come. Picturesc is an understatement. The air is clean, the views are ... read more
Father Jacob and his monks
Forming new charity partnerships Opportunities to share blessings with others surround us all, if only we have the courage to look and to ask questions about how we might be of service. Here's some more information about how we hope to expand our charity work into Georgia. Before we left the US, we invited Irakli's cousin Ilya to draw on his vast network to help us find potential partners for charity work. Since we have certain criteria, and since we need a local liasion to be our eyes & ears, we asked Ilya for both the introductions, advice and ongoing monitoring. As I've mentioned before, everyone knows everyone in Georgia, or knows someone who does-there aren't 6 degrees of separation here, only 2 degrees. We want to work with small, grass roots groups, that already have ... read more
The Silk Museum
The Past meets The Present After our wonderful trip to the Caucasian mountains, my husband Irakli departed for home, while I got to enjoy another week in Georgia. Thanks to the absolutely wonderful hospitality of his family and friends, especially his brother Achi and cousin Ilya, I saw even more interesting sights. Although I'm now back in the USA, I thought you would enjoy hearing about a few of my final adventures. First stop: The Silk Museum. Who knew that Georgia once had a thriving silk industry? Georgia established trade relations with the Far East early. The northern part of the "Silk Route" crossed its territory and carried trade from China and India to Europe. So the Georgian people have been influenced by many cultures, both Asian and European. Thus, the Georgians' architecture, language, literature, cooking ... read more
Lunch with a view
Taking the Georgian Military Highway to Kazbegi and hiking in the Nature Reserve Stretching from Tbilisi to Russia via some of the most mountainous terrain on earth, the Highway has existed as a route since before the 1st century BC but was only a basic track. In 1783 the Russians converted it into a carriage road via a hurculean effort requiring more than 800 soldiers. In 1829 Pushkin and many other Russian writers such as Gorky and Tolstoy followed this route to Tbilisi. In 1883, following the opening of the railway via the Caspian coast, the road lost much of its' importance. The border was closed during the recent 2008 war between Georgia and Russia. However the Russians did not attempt to use this route for their attacks, as it is very easily defended with deep, ... read more
Borjomi Park
On the road in Georgia Having been convinced of the wisdom and economy of traveling “Georgian style” with friends and relatives rather than hiring a guide, Irakli and I embarked on our trip of southwestern Georgia with his brother Achi, his cousin Ilya and Ilya’s daughter Nuntsa. First stop:Borjomi- This town of about 20,000 people has several well known springs with heath-giving mineral waters, each with different properties (and flavors) such as sodium carbonate. Some are carbonated, some flat, and others have a distinct mineral content and resulting taste. There is a large bottling plant and a lovely park with a cable car to the high cliffs above the river. In 1862, Grand-Duke Mikhail Romanov, Viceroy of the Transcaucasus and the brother of the tsar renovated the spa and built a summer residence here. The railway ... read more
Voronet Monastery
The most famous of Romania's "Painted Monasteries" Romania's "Painted Monasteries" are UNESCO World Heritage monuments. Perhaps the most famous and stunning of the painted monasteries is Voronet. Widely known throughout Europe as "the Sistine Chapel of the East" due to its interior and exterior wall paintings, this monastery offers an abundance of frescoes featuring an intense shade of blue commonly known as ‘Voronet blue.’ The composition of the paint continues to remain a mystery even now, more than 500 years after the church was built. Voronet Monastery was founded by Stephen the Great in the year 1488. Stephan, the ruling prince of Moldavia, built the monastery to fulfill a pledge to Daniil, a hermit who had encouraged him to chase the Turks from Wallachiia, one of the 3 ancient provinces of Romania which Stephen succeeded in ... read more
At the train station
By train and car to and from Iasi So, now that you've read about our trip to Moldova, you may be wondering "How the heck did they get there & back?" Well, we traveled through some of the most beautiful countryside in the world, in my humble opinion. And, we traveled there in the most stress free way-by train. Traveling by train in Romania is one of my most favorite travel activities. The lovely and varied scenery, the click clack of the rails, the gentle sway of the carriage, the unique churches and villages all combine together to weave an unforgettable experience. I was also blessed on this trip to have an interesting traveling companion, Christina Semon. As I've mentioned, Christina is a young Orthodox Christian missionary who has dedicated several years of her life to ... read more
