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Guinness – the pride of Ireland

17/03/2015 — by Magdalena Kuźma — 0

There are couple of things that Ireland is commonly associated with. These are shamrock – the four-leaf clover, St. Patrick, the harp and of course beer. Out of really big variety only one got popular all over the world. Guinness is probably the most recognisable Irish brand but in fact it is only one example of Irish dry stout. There are dozens of stout beers avaliable in Ireland but it’s Guinness that got famous. What is the reason for it? Is it really the best? Or is it the marketing? We decided to check it visiting Guinness Storehouse in Dublin. Ok, that’s fun for parents but wht about Ola? Don’t worry she was more than happy to run around, climb the barrels and pose for photos. See for yourself.

Guinness Storehouse is a seven storey presentation of most importants for the company facts. Unfortunately they don’t let visitors actually see the brewery. On the first floor we start with raw ingredients they use for beers manufacturing. Of course all of them are the finest selections of their kind. First of the fundamental ingridients is barley. It’s the roasted barley that gives Guinness its color. And you have to know that it’s not black but deep ruby red. It’s underlined at every occasion so every ignoramus will leave the exhibition with that knowledge. 100 000 tones of barley are used only by this factory every year, malted, unmalted and roasted.
Another important ingredient is hop. The one used by Guinness is grown all over the wolrd: in Czech Repiblic, Australia, Germany, UK and US. What is interesting hop plants grow up to 4,5 meters.
And the most important component, here called the trasure, is the yeast. It’s so precious because it’s the yeast that does all the job – it makes alcohol from the sugar and nutrients in barley. Thanks to its work we are able to enjoy the liquor. Ginness claims that since 19th century some yeast from each brew has been transferred on to the next to ensure consistency. All before mentioned ingridients are supplemented with the best quality water.

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Next floor shows us the whole process of brewing, beginning with mixing milled barley with water, mashing and sieving. The process is probably more complicated but here it is presented by showing the most significant steps. The mixture recieved as a result of processing the barley is called the wort. In next step hop is added to the blend and it is boiled in 100 degrees for 70 minutes to extract as much flavour as possible. Afterwards they add their treasure – the yeast – and here the liquid becomes beer. Fermentation takes two days and the product is provided with alcohol and carbon dioxide. The beer is almost done. It only requires one more stage – maturation, which allowes the distinctive flavour to develop. To finish up the beer is filtered to make sure none solids remain and blended. Whole nine-day process is finnished by multiple testing to make sure the quality level is reached.

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When the beer is already produced next thing we need is to deliver it to customers. Guinness claims that the history of the company is the history of transport itself. And indeed, looking back to the beginnings of this beer production, we see the wooden barrels, carefuly produced by brewery coopers, and we can follow all means of transportation like horses, trains, barges, ships and road transport. Here Ola couldn’t stand sitting in the stroller when there was so many interesteing things around her. She had to get out and start running around; thankfully there was not too many people there so she didn’t disturb them too much.

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For their visitors Guinness prepared a special training of beer tasting. The aim of the training is to make sure every visitor gets the full taste of beer with every sip they take. It’s all nicely arranged. In the first room there are four columns producing steam with different aromas characteristing for the stout. And here we recieve the miniature glass of beer that we’re going to taste in another room. Ola seemed very interested in as the glasses were in just perfect size for her. Of course she could only watch it through the aromatic steam. Next room was a great performance, the show given by a professional taster was supposed to deepen our sensations. Honestly speaking – the “revolutionary” way of drinking did not knock us down with some newly discovered richness of taste.

Having already first sips of beer from those little glassed we moved on to next level. Since now we are sure how the beer should taste it;s time to find out how to pour ourselves a pint of Guinness. The instruction of pouring a perfect pint says that it should take neither more nor less than 119,5 seconds. It describes six steps we need to perform to reach the perfection.

See the movie with the instruction of pouring the Perfect pint of Guinness.

Mom was designated to give it a try and fill an excellent pint of Guinness for Dad. After short training glasses and taps were given to visitors. Whole group following the instructions did a good job and deserved a certificate and a souvenir photo. The best reward was of course the possibility of drinking that perfect pint of beer. Just to remind: a pint is more than half liter – it’s exactly 568 ml and pint of Ginness gives us 196 calories.

[photosetgrid layout=”31″] Guinness Storehouse [/photosetgrid]

Quick overview of company advertising history since 1929, meeting the well known symbol of Guinnes beer – toucan bird and we were taken to the tv room with huge beer cups where we realised that Guinness is not only that one Guinness draught sold in widget cans that we know. The variety of Guinness beers is way bigger than we expected. Beside different kinds characteristic for different countries there are three basic types of beer they produce: Guinness Draught, Extra Stout, Foreign Extra. Foreign extra is the oldest type they have produced. They claim it has been made with extra hops to preserve freshness. The extra hops are supposed to result in floral overtones throughout the beer. Extra Stout’s bitterness is allegedly great company for smoked seafood. In Draught we should taste the sweetness of caramel and the coffee aroma so using it to create dark desserts would be a good idea. Running between big bottle caps was Ola’s favourite play. They were perfect size to become huge drums for her.

[photosetgrid layout=”32″] Guinness Storehouse [/photosetgrid]

Finally we got to the last floor to grab one, included in the ticket price, glass of beer. With a pint of stout one can admire the view over Dublin – the Gravity Bar is located on the 7th floor and with its glass walls round room becomes a good observation deck. They indicate on windows the most important landmarks for the city and the company as well. There are not too many of them so atmosphere upstairs quickly focuses on beer again. Only upstairs we found out that Ola wasn’t the only kid visiting the storehouse. There were couple more kids in their strollers.

Practical info: there is an entrance for wheelchairs and strollers before the main entrance when going from the parking lot. Buy the tickets online, that lets not only you avoid queuing but also save some money – it’s 10% off online. Ticket price includes free on site parking. There are few restaurants inside, they all have high chairs.

And remember:

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Caviar or buckwheat? Favourite Belarusian dishes

20/01/2015 — by Magdalena Kuźma — 1

Belarusian cuisine is rather simple. Basic products used for meals preparation are root vegetables and cereals. They are accompanied by dairy products, soups, different beverages and meat. Here we won’t tell you much about meat but will try to show other choice of belarusian food.

The most popular of those root vegetables are of course potatos. Visiting Belarus we had to inevitably try potato pancakes. They are called draniki there and are usually served with sour cream, sometimes with mushroom sauce. It’s not rather recommended to eat mushrooms in Belarus but somehow we always end up with them. Southeastern areas of the country are still contaminated with radiocactive isotope cesium-137 afther the disaster in Chernobyl in 1986. But we strongly believe that today’s vegetable suppliers have their products tested before delivery to consumption. The same story is with blueberries so if possible it’s better to avoid them there.

Our first on this trip potato pancakes we tried in the restaurant Kamyanica in the back of Gorky Park in the center of Minsk. It’s a 19th century building brought to Minsk from Nesvizh, small city nearby the capital, a home of beautiful 16th century palace complex inscribed on UNESCO World Heritage List. Interior of Kamyanitsa is decorated with swords and shields, waitresses wear nice costumes and whole place in details is kept in 19th century style. [photosetgrid layout=”5″][/photosetgrid]

Potato pancakes we can definitely praise – very good, homemade, fresh and crispy. It’s easy to spoil them but here they managed to keep the quality. And it’s here where we ended up with mushrooms!
Since the kitchen was already closing when we arrived, we couldn’t be to picky when ordering. Out of lenten dishes (as they call here non-meat options) we could also choose buckwheat and herring stuffed tomatoes. Buckwheat is very often served as an addition to for example meat dishes but also as a dish itself. Herring is another popular in Belarus product, especialy when it comes with a shot of vodka!

For desert we order a bite of luxury – sandwiches with caviar. It’s popular as a snackfood and it is usually present in local restaurants’ menus. Served as an appetiser, snack, vodka chaser and on our todays dinner – a desert.

[photosetgrid layout=”2″] Kamyanitsa, Minsk [/photosetgrid]

We appreciated the high chair for Ola a lot, even though that after some time she was more interested in it’s underside.

[photosetgrid layout=”2″] Kamyanitsa, Minsk [/photosetgrid]

For bigger children they have kids menu with both meat and non-meat dishes.

Next day for dinner we tried national cuisine in Vasilki restaurant (cornflours) on Independence Avenue and it turned out it was our another mushroom meal. It seems that mushrooms are usually added to non-meat dishes here. The place is arranged in traditional style; light colors, traditional motives and waiters’ costumes brought to our minds pictures of the idyllic country. Restaurant must be very popular among locals as people kept coming all the time we spent there. That’s probably why they have six restaurnat in the city.

Place offers not only national quisine but also various meals of generaly eastern origin however some western style food is also present in the menu. Pictures of dishes allow easily decide what to choose. Baby high char was avaliable so Ola could eat her dinner comfortably. Only at the end she decided to go out of it to check what she can get from the table.

We ordered a frying pan of eggs and pickled cucumbers, potatos and of course fried mushrooms. Nothing special but tasty and warm.

An interesting eastern compsition is a kind of salad – herring under a coat. It’s layered sequentially: herring, boiled potatos, carrots, beetroots and shreded eggs on top. All of them covered by thin coat of mayo. When ordering any kind of salad in Belarus make sure to have something more as salads are really tiny there!

Although the weather was crazy cold Dad ordered popular in eastern Europe cooling soup – a mix of beetroots and milk drinks like sour cream, joughurt or buttermilk. By the way when being in Belarus make sure to try some of those dairy products. They are totaly different than the ones produced by western companies, they are smooth and delicious.

So then it was necessary to warm up!

Vodka is a special product in Belarus, it’s highly consumed and its price is very important for Belarusians and for whole economy. Within last 2 – 3 years it doubled its price. Other products prices rose as well but it was vodkas cost that has been the most widely commented, also abroad.

To keep the truth we have to say that Minsk is full of sushi bars, pizza restaurants and so on. Those different cuisines must be very popular in the city. Just before leaving we visited one of local chains – Planeta Pizza. Modern decor inside, all age guests around, almost no free tables. Unfortunately no high chair. It wasn’t easy to deal without it but we made it. Not without getting dirty all over. Pizza was quite good, different dough thicknesses available, rich variety of types to choose.

Place offers wide selection of other than pizza dishes as well. What made us smile was the stamp. Belarusians like stamping all the pricelists. Only menu with round stamp seems to be valid. In such modern restaurant we didn’t expect to see this custom it but here it is:
If you get tired by national Belarusian cuisine Planeta Pizza is a good place to step in. Oh, and make sure to try kvass – another typically eastern drink. It’s made of fermented bread, contains very little alcohol – look for it in section of non-alcoholic beverages. It perfect for thirst. Probably all the restaurants have it on their menus. In medieval times it was a beverage popular accross whole Europe but today is characteristic for Russia, Ukraine and Belarus.

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Our 3 ideas for snacks in Dubai

01/12/2014 — by Magdalena Kuźma — 0

At Deira Spice Souq accross the Dubai Creek try some refreshing fruit juices. There is a booth right on the corner of the souq when approaching it from abras (wooden boats) water station. One of them is that fresh, that is served right from the fruit – a coconut. Juice itself is nothing really special but drinking it straight from the fruit makes all the fun. Cost is not so high (less than 3 dollars) so we think it’s worth trying.
Get the table with the view over the Creek and abra station near Old Souk. Try some fruit juices and enjoy the view of small wooden boats swimming accross the Creek back and forth.
We had turkish style coffee, fruit salad and some juices of fruits which names told us completely nothing and sat back, relaxed, read the newspaper and watched the waves on the Creek waters. [photosetgrid layout=”2″]

[/photosetgrid]Yeah, right. Maybe a year ago we would have but today we could only try. In fact we gave the baby some fruits to try, checked if she wasn’t thirsty and gave her some water, excercised a little to keep all the things on the table, met some of Ola’s new friends and drank our drinks in a hurry and moved on.

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Last but not least – mom’s favourite idea – Haagen Dazs. Those are the ice creams mom would do anything to get.Producer declares using only natural ingredients in their ice creams, no preservatives and no artificial color. We don’t know if it’s true but mom says they are really better then any others she’s tried so far. They of course are not a local product but when visiting a luxury city, trying luxury ice creams is a must.

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3 must be restaurants in Dubai

01/12/2014 — by Magdalena Kuźma — 0

Even if you can afford a dinner in the most expensive location in Dubai – Al Mahara restaurant in Burj Al Arab, looking for some good food you will surely visit Bu Qtair. It’s a place with the best and most fresh fish in the area. Fish they serve come straight from the water; fishermen just came back from the sea delivering fresh seafood to the restaurant. Instead a fancy restaurant you will find a bunch of plastic chairs and tables outside.
It is also quite an avdenture to find out how it all works. So first step is to get inside to place an order.
That means to choose from the huge amount of freshly caught fish in some kind of sauce. If nothing looks familiar it’s a good idea to rely on stuff’s help. Pay at the window, leave them your name and sit outside looking forward to hear it being shout by the waiters.
Once your order is ready you get your own plastic table. We got one big fish, whole bunch of shrimps and a box of tissues. No alcohol is served. Fish looked burned outside but it was just that (kind of Indian) sauce and inside it was all nice and delicate. And the shrimps, slightly spicy, we dare to say were the best we have ever had.
That’s not kind of a place where they accept credit cards so be equipped in local currency. I don’t think we have to add that baby high chair is not available.
Another remarkable place is Barracuda restaurant. It’s located at Jumeirah street and declares itself to be best contemporary Egiptian and Arabic seafood restaurant there.It works in similar way to the previous one – everyone is free to choose his own fish and have it cooked in one of the offered ways like singary (fish opened and grilled with seasons), radda, fried, tagine (fish prepared in a clay pot with seasons) and some others. We chose singary and tajine fish and to kill the first hunger seafood soup, eggplant with garlic and hummus. Eggplant was awesome, and fish, cooked both ways, exceptional!
Ola sat together with us at the table in high chair and enjoyed throwing to the ground everything she could only catch. And of course she stole our waiter’s heart.
Al Fanar Restaurant & Cafe – place offers strictly local quisine and among their guests there are more local people than tourists.The place is decorated in the atmosphere of old Emirati traditions. Guests are greeted by old dessert Land Rover parked at the entrance and lovely personnel dressed in traditional style uniforms. Outdoor terrace offers kind of compartments. Low table and soft carpet was a good place for Ola. She was the first one who started choosing from the menu but anyway ended with her usual meal – milk.We ordered koftat samak (fish cutlets with tomato sauce), tomato and onion salad and Jesheed (crumbled fish cooked with onion).
All the food was good, full of local spices taste. However Emirati cuisine seems to based on meat. Meat-eaters will find there a wide variety of dishes, vegetarians very few. It’s worth to finish the meal with with a pot of Arabic tea.
[photosetgrid layout=”2″][/photosetgrid]We took also desert (khabisah – some traditional sweet) but it didn’t look like you would like to see it so we are not showing any picturs of it. Neither it tasted. Deserts, unlike other dishes, we cannot advise.
We have to definitely praise their stuff – we were served by at least four people at the same time, and all of them very nice and helpful. They finished our visit by ritual hands washing with scented water. Baby high chair is available hovewer Ola barely used it as she preffered being carried by personnel or sit with us at the table. Or underneath it.
[photosetgrid layout=”2″][/photosetgrid]We visited the branch located at Jumeraich road in the small shopping center. Mall restrooms were equipped in changing station and vending machine with baby stuff. The other location in Dubai Festival City Mall has way more decorated interior, including local scenes from old times build of figures of people and animals.

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There is such place in Barcelona… London Bar

08/11/2014 — by Magdalena Kuźma — 0

There is such place in Barcelona, a place off the main touristic route, a place where closing your eyes you can get transferred almost 100 years back. It’s London Bar, a pub loacted at Nou de La Rambla 34, not far from Guell Palace.

It’s been there since 1910. Its interior has not been renovated recently and we can find there old equipment, wall decorations, even floor tiles reminding of the times when artistic bohema was poping in there.[photosetgrid layout=”3″]

[/photosetgrid]It has always been a special place, with some kind of spirit that brought artistic souls there. Imagine only that on the same place you are sitting now there used to sit Hemingway, Orwell, Picasso, Joan Miró, or Dalí.[photosetgrid layout=”2″]

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Stuff is friendly and outgoing what creates still special atmosphere in the place. We got there right after opening, at 6 o’clock, and found already some loacals having their favourite drinks at the bar. Only couple of tourists looked inside. We wanted to feel like the Catalonians and had some tradiotinal drinks. Salut!

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7 things you have to try in Georgia

22/10/2014 — by admin — 0

Wine – first and the most characteristic produce of Georgia. Georgia declares itself as an origin of wine 7000 years ago. They developed a special production method using clay jars called kvevri. It’s even added to UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage List.
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Almost all teritories of Georgia are wine producers. Starting of course from Kaheti (leading in terms of volume) in the east where harvest starts in the first half of September until the republic of Abkhazia in the west where the pick up can be even at the end of November. Georgians developed around 400 different types of grape varieties that are grown exclusively there. Another thing are wine types which usually contain a mix of different grape types. The flagship type of Georgian wine is Saperavi, an obligatory position in the offer of each respectable georgian winery. Other popular varieties are Kindzmarauli and Pirosmani. More about wine – here.
Cha-cha – another product of grapes. This time using leftovers from vine production. This is a type of moonshine with 45-60% of alcohol. It’s produced at homes – it is completely legal traditional product. Strong as hell, often served in bars like tequila, with lemon. Of course it is also produced by professionals and sold in stylish bottles. And it tastes more or less like that:
Borjomi – mineral water, naturaly carbonated, cures stomach problems, diabetes and other diseases. Rich in minerals has a specific taste and smell, possible to drink only when cooled. It’s dad’s favourite, while mom just cannot look at it. The city of Borjomi where the water originates is a spa resort, worth visiting and driking some water straight from the spring. The water used to be drawn straight from the river from a makeshift metal cage. Today the center of the town is modernised and is more visitors-friendly.
Fresh fruits – warm climate of Georgia lets grow many kinds of fruits and vegetables. The most common is of course grape. Red and white, all very very sweet and delicious. Besides wine and fruits themselves Georgians have some other idea for of grapes.

At first sight it looks like sausage but in fact it’s nuts on a string dipped in the mix of grape and flour. Delicious! Apart from grapes Georgia abounds in other fruits. Depending on the region there are apricots, bananas, pomegranates, figs, watermelons, kiwi fruits, almonds, walnuts. All fresh, sweet and tasty. Ola liked them a lot, especialy apples and oranges. Just to play right now, she will try them next time.
Bread – Caucasian bread is different than the one we know in Europe. First of all it has another shape – it’s flat and eye-shaped. It’s not used for making sandwiches or to be cut but rather to be torn. And tastes more like a roll.
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There are some sweet variations of this bread – with rasins and cinamone. They are especialy popular by the road Senaki-Tbilisi in the mountains, before Khashuri. There is a lot of booths selling warm bread just afer the period of handicraft and motor oil zone. Just have to stop there and give it a try.
Khachapuri – a type of pie or bread, filled with cheese, sometimes with added potatos or eggs. Don’t be surprised when ordering khachapuri in different places you will get a different meal each time. Pay attention to what kind of khachapuri is there on the menu. Our favourite is adjarian one – with cheese and egg with butter on the top, all shaped as a boat or an eye.

Other kinds are also named from the region of their origin: Mingrelian, Imeretian, – round and flat, the most popular type, Ossetian, Svanuri, Rachuli, Phenovani, Abkhazian (multilayer). This is one of our fist choice dishes as it looks unusually, tastes great and it’s alway safe because in any variation it contains meat.
I think it was Ola’s first bread she ever tried – a dough from khachapuri. She seemed to like it.
And it was the time when she started being interested in what’s on the table. In Georgia you can always count on help when you are with a baby. „You eat, I will take care of the baby” we hear the waitress reaching for our girl. Never in our lives we have eaten faster.
Salad – very well accopmanies khachapuri. Basic Georgian salad is simple and if made of fresh produce, of amazing taste. The recipe is simple: fresh cucumbers, tomatoes and onions, seasoned with fresh parsley. Of course many variations have developed, starting from garnishing with purple basil, adding green pepers, to the types with cheese or with walnuts (sauce of walnuts, ground coriander, garlic and vinegar) but the basic version is our favourite.
Meat-eaters will probaby by delighted with Georgian shashlik. Usually made of pork or chicken. Barbecue is highly prcaticed method of meet preparation especialy for some holidays or other family feasts. We cannot say anything more cause we don’t eat meat but our friends are huge shashlik fans.

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Georgian ambrosia – our wine stories

22/10/2014 — by admin — 0

What product is Georgia most famous for? Right, it’s high quality wine. Right after Borjomi water or maybe before… Anyway Georgian climate and landscape is a perfect condition to grow grapevine. Some say that it’s Georgia where wine was invented thousands years ago.

So what is the best time to visit Georgia because of wine? Wine you can try anytime but September- October give the possibility to witness the harvest.

The most famous for wine region of Georgia is Kachetia. It’s east from Tbilisi. 100 km away from Tbilisi is situated its capital Telavi. Views on the way as always beautiful.

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In this part of country the harvest might start even at the begining of September. It’s very sunny and grapes ripen very fast. At the beginning of September we found on the streets trucks full of grapes going to factories to sell their fruits.

In front of local factories there are lines of hundreds of trucks, tractors and other vehicles. All full of grapes, mostly dark, small but very very sweet grapes.

The whole work in the factory starts in the evening when the fruits are picked and loaded on trucks. So in the peak season they dont sleep at night for weeks. Despite so much work Georgians will always find some time and attention for others. We were let to the factory and shown the process of receiving of fruits!

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When in Kachetia they are having hard time working, west from Tbilisi farmers are still waiting for the friuts to ripen. They might start harvest even in the middle of October. By that time they are happy to welcome visitors.

To learn about the history and wine production we took a guided tour in Chateau Mukhrani winery.

[photosetgrid layout=”2″] Chateau Mukhrani [/photosetgrid]

This is a vinery factory owned by multinational group of people. Indeed a good place to learn about wine because although they currently don’t use traditional Georgian way of production, they have an exhibition that lets familiarize with it.

They offer guided tour including testing of 4 wine types for 35 lari, unless you are a brestfeeding mother/ driver and pay 20 just for the tour.

Chateau Mukhrani owns 100 hactares of vineyards, carefully planted and looked after.

One of their secrets is cuting bunches of wines if there are too many on one plant to provide each little grape maximum benefit from the soil and from the sun. Those that were cut lie under the bushes.

Although they produce wine in modern way, they are planning to set up production in old Georgian tradition. For the time being we can see old kvevris exhibited in the castle’s cellars. Kvevri is a storage vessel, a jar which was used for wine production.

That Georgian production method involves puting grapes and juice together to those kvevris buried underground so that only the hatch was visible. Process is controlled with the usage of special tool on the stick used for getting the wine out of kvevri.

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Continuing the tour we were taken to the cellars where the wine matures in oak casks.

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We finished with tasting of 4 main types of Mukhrani wines. Fast, as Ola and mom got only to smell the glasses. Tasting and the whole tour is well prepared, everything is very professional, well arranged with fluent English speaking guide! It was pleasure to visit them.

But real adventure waited for us few kliometers further, near the city of Gori. Following the signs of wine route we arrived to the village Ateni Sioni. Not without problems of course. We got totaly lost in Stalin’s town – Gori. Local men asked by driving mom for direction turned out to be very helpful, right after asking „Yhy, ok, where is somebody to whom I can explain?” Probably only man was a partner to talk. Finally we reached the village of Ateni.

And found a house tagged as Old Wine Cellar. House was closed, nobody aroud, silence. While Ola was eating her dinner in the car, dad went to look around. It didn’t look from the road like there was anything going on in the neighborhood. We were just dissapointed and getting ready to leave when we saw somebody going out of home. And that’s how we met Temur, a head of family and the owner of the old wine cellar. In the first way he took us to his vineyard. Suddenly we found ourselves under a roof of grapes. It’s the first time we saw vines growing this way. The impression was amazing, as far as eye can see there were all grapes hanging from the vine. Following housholder we entered to this magical land.

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Straight from the yard we went to the barn, a small museum of Georgian wine manufacturing art. All items gathered there have been used by their ancestors as this family has lived there for generations. After seeing all exhibits and souvenirs we landed at the table, acompanied by other family members.

Table was full of traditional Georgian homemade food: bread, cheese, pickled cucumbers and fresh friuts straight from the garden. And of course that thing that led us there – wine. Also homemade, red and white. And together with that our host turned into real georgian tamada – a toastmaster. How many times we raised our glasses, we cannot remmeber. We drank to us, them, babies, women, men, Georgians, peace, love and so on. Finally we were even offered chacha, local homemade vodka, or more than vodka cause 60%! Dad took it with dignity but not without some difficulties.

Of course Ola was the one who attracted the most attention. She had to be carried and loved all the time.

The tradition of drinking in Georgia says that, after the toast, one has to drink whole glass at once. That’s because in the past animal horns were used as glasses and there was no way to put it aside without emptying it first.

After finishing all wine on the table and discussing everything that came to our minds we left previously being given apricots, couple bunches of grapes and of course another bottle of wine.

We have to addmit that wine was not particularly tasty but the atmosphere we found there, Temur’s and his wife’s hospitality and warm welcome made this night unforgetable. That was the most true experience we’ve had in Georgia so far. This night was incredible, however dad’s next morning wasn’t easy…

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