• historic,  outdoors,  travel

    Batumi Fortress: Gonio Apsaros Fortress

    We are nearing the end of my posts about our trip to the republic of Georgia! Today, I am sharing our visit to the Gonio Fortress which is the oldest fortress in Georgia. It dates back to the Roman times. The fortress is 15 km outside of Batumi and 4 km north of the Turkish border. The oldest reference to the fortress is in 1st century. You are greeted at the entrance with 2 large statues. The outside walls of the fortress all remain and it is quite impressive to behold. I have been to medieval castles in France and seen some old ruins in Italy, but never something of…

  • budget,  fashion,  summer

    Linen Pants and Black Tank: A Travel Outfit

    Sometimes, the simplest outfits are the best outfits. I wore these pants on the way from the US to Georgia and for the car ride from Tbilisi to Batumi as well as our flight back to the US. Our flight out of Tbilisi was not till 9 PM, so we had one last day visiting the city before heading to the airport. We had a great time walking and discovering a couple new spots once again. Once was the remnant of the fortress we had seen from the botanical gardens the first day. There is not much left to it, just parts of a tower. We went past the Turkish…

  • budget,  fashion,  summer

    Shorts for Days: July 12-17

    What a fun thrifting outing I had last week with my friend Rachel from The Faux French Girl! I had a little list for what I would like to find and can you believe that I found what I was looking for? My goal was to find some printed shorts as I didn’t have any and yes, even though I have said that I am not wearing shorts much this summer, I still enjoy wearing them when I won’t be in and out of the car. Today I am sharing the 4 pairs of shorts I have and a bonus shorts outfit I wore this week too. Colorful Stripes I…

  • ageless style link up,  fashion,  summer

    White Dress with Brights for the Ageless Link Up

    This month, the Ageless Link Up ladies are showcase white dresses or skirts with bright colors! I decided to share a dress I showcased a couple years ago, this thrifted Crown and Ivy eyelet dress. When I looked up my post, I was surprised to see that I had shared it for an Ageless Link Up too! Here is the post, where I paired it with yellow and pink. Today, I am sharing with multicolored wedges and a scarf I brought back from the Republic of Georgia. I actually bought the pink ball earrings specifically for this post. I used to have a pair of pink and orange ones which…

  • budget,  outdoors,  travel

    Batumi Botanical Gardens

    You probably will agree with me after you admire the pictures in this post, but I think this is the most beautiful botanical gardens I have ever visited. And we didn’t even get to see everything because it was much larger than we expected and with all of our walking, we decided to stick to some of the highlights. Welcome to Batumi Botanical Gardens! By Georgian standards, the botanical gardens were a little expensive, 20 laris per person (our 6 year old being free). So we paid 100 laris ($36) for our family of 6 which wasn’t too made by American standards. And it the picture above, you see a…

  • budget,  fashion,  summer

    Maxi Skirt and Bodysuit: A Day in Batumi, Georgia

    I reached for this Amazon bodysuit several times on this trip. It is several years old and I probably need to buy it again, it is from the brand Mangopop. I tried it in white but did not like it, but I have worn this one over and over for several years. I love the square neck and the short sleeve length is perfect. Needless to say, it goes with everything! The time we spent in Batumi was very relaxing. The Hilton had views of this park on one side and the Black Sea on the other. It was right off the Batumi Boulevard. The accomodations and amenities were really…

  • budget,  fashion,  summer

    OTTD recap, July 6-11

    As I am trying to rotate through everything in my closet, I thought I would share a week of outfits once again, but this time in real time. Last time, I shared them a month after I wore them. I really like what I came up with, my goal was to wear things I hadn’t worn much or hadn’t worn yet this summer. These are the outfits I wore this past week. Saturday I tend to wear several outfits in a day on the weekend as we may have different activities going on and we usually go to church in the evening. Last week, we decided to go tubing down…

  • budget,  outdoors,  travel

    Batumi Singing Fountains

    On our first walk on the boulevard by the sea (Batumi Boulevard), my hope was to end at the Batumi fountains which I had read about. The fountains move in synchronization with music and with lights in the evening. However, we walked in the wrong direction. The boulevard or promenade is 7 kilometers long and since we had walked probably several kilometers in one direction, we decided to leave the search for the next evening. The second night found us once again stopping for ice cream and this time, we ordered the next size up with was still less than $2! Yum! We walked as it got darker and came…

  • budget,  outdoors,  travel

    Batumi Boulevard: A fun walk

    Our hotel, the Hilton Batumi was in the perfect location to enjoy both the Black Sea and to take leisurely walks along Batumi Boulevard. The boulevard is a multi purpose pathway along the sea and is bordered on the other side by different hotels and restaurants. There are several paths so that bikes, scooters and such can have a pathway separate from walkers. There are also many trees bordering sections of the boulevard. Our hotel was very near the octopus structure where children and adults enjoyed roller skating. It is such a picturesque spot! It also offers a little bit of shade. We stayed 3 nights in Batumi and we…

  • budget,  fashion,  summer

    Black and Red Outfit: Printed Skirt with Bodysuit

    The first morning in Georgia, we took the steep way up and down to the Tbilisi botanical gardens. Since I only brought two pairs of sneakers (a white pair and a black pair) it was very easy to decide on shoes. These little Jellypop tennis shoes didn’t have as good as a grip as my Adidas, but I never did slip on the cobblestones. I chose them the days I knew we could come across more dusty paths. I only wore this skirt once before our trip to make it special and it sure was the thrifted find of the year. The only reason I haven’t worn it since then…