Terra Novantica: What’s it all about?

If you plug “terra nova antica” into a Latin-English translator, you’ll get something like “the new front,” which is about as good as the “new old earth” I was going for. My Latin is questionable at best, so I guess I got lucky. It’s derived from the (actual word!) “novantique,” which literally means “both new and old through repair or imitation,” but which sounds way too much like a fashion line or a perfume brand. Thus the substitution of “antica.”

This is essentially my travel blog. I’ve dabbled in several different types, but never landed on something concrete enough to really stay consistent. This one, however, will start out as an on-the-ground guide to life in the country of Georgia, where I’m about to settle down for a while. The city of Tbilisi is up-and-coming as a place to visit, and the “digital nomad” community, which I’ve become involved with by virtue of semi-accidentally being one, is starting to catch on to it. Compared to a lot of other destinations, though, there’s a dearth of information on actually living in the city. Most of the information I’ve come across has been of the “Top 10 Things to See in Tbilisi!” variety, with relatively little attention paid to finding apartments, paying bills, riding the subway, et cetera. I’ll try to update this blog at least weekly with information on how my wife and I manage to get set up in the city.

Having moved to at least five different cities within as many years, I’ve gotten pretty good at figuring out what to do when I hit the ground. Hopefully I turn out to be as good at documenting it!

Since I tend to stay in one place for at least six months, my first priority is always finding a nice apartment. “Nice” is important, not because I’ve got a taste for living in luxury, but because my wife and I both work from home online, and therefore need, at a minimum, separate rooms to make video calls in. We also like having some light and a nice view since we tend to spend a lot of time at home and depressing surroundings just aren’t great for your energy. Therefore, my first couple of posts will be about the apartment-finding process, both what I’ve done in past cities and how Tbilisi works out.