Lithuanian Wedding

10 November, 2016 | | 8 seen

I originally wanted to create a post - Postcards from Kaunas, for Postcards from series, but when browsed through the images I captured back in Kaunas, Lithuania this Summer I found that this time my architecture photography failed, instead I have captured lovely scenes from a typical Lithuanian wedding.

This is not the first time "Put a nationality here" Wedding is appearing on Piece of Life wall, see Armenian Wedding.

Rose leaves in the streets of Kaunas

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Castle of Kaunas

To frame above picture I had to use a tripod and panoramic photography technique - in the background groom's friends. 

Newlyweds

Lock of love

Maybe its time for me to excel as a wedding photographer? :) Leave me your quotes and let's arrange a session for wedding photography.

OwnCloud - Increase Max File Upload Size

9 November, 2016 | Servers | 38 seen

It has been more than 2 years, since I installed (set and forgot) OwnCloud for internal file sharing. 

For the past two years OwnCloud have worked like a charm (and still does). Just today I faced a problem - I tried to upload file larger than 513 MB (default max file for OwnCloud), but struck because of exceeding max file upload size. I really needed to deliver this file across few continents as quick as possible. Well I could probably use direct file upload on bare ftp, but this is not the case. I went hunting for a quick solution to increase max upload file size on OwnCloud.

Luckily I found this tutorial, explaining how things are handled in OwnCloud and how to upload files bigger than 512 MB.

The fun part follows now - As I did set Owncloud more than two years ago, I had forgotten all server login details, and ended using Linode Lish access to gain back control of this server. I keep notes after each setup, so after a brief mail search I did found missing login details anc could proceed.

Our OwnCloud file sharing setup had been running on a separate Linode VPS with Ubuntu 14.04 on it. The…

Cafe Vanessa in Tianeti

8 November, 2016 | Restaurant reviews | 20 seen

I love roadside cafeterias, in most cases they are better or in same level as fancy restaurants. I wouldn't call Cafe Vanessa in Tianeti a roadside cafeteria, as I believe we can call it the only one in this small Georgian town.

Located next to the Kuzh park in Tianetie, at Vanesa cafe you can have tasty and cheap baked goods (stuffed pies, khachapuri), have a really huge cup of Turkish coffee and plenty of Georgian lemonades. They serve ludi (beer) and of course khinkali also.

Simple and elegant

Not cheap plastic tables. They have like 2 or 3 tables at this place, it's not very spacious, but for smaller groups - just ideal - simple and clean.

Bakes pies with potato filling and wrapped sausages

Nice street food actually, but as I said, you can order khinkali here as well.

Cafe Vanessa in Tianeti

Ankara Turkish Restaurant in Tbilisi

6 November, 2016 | Restaurant reviews | 15 seen

I love Turkish cuisine, and those Turkish restaurants located in Tbilisi are very good. In fact it is thanks to the Turkish Restaurants in Georgia I learnt what halal actually is (as most of the Turkish or Persian places serve Halal exclusively)

Anyway - the story is not about halal but Ankara restaurant in Tbilisi, located on David Aghmanashebeli avenue. In short tasty lunch for a normal price, accompanied with classical Turkish sweets (bakhlava).

Chicken, vegetables and rice

Dietary and tasty.

Turkish Dolma

I love dolmas. Though you can get dolmas at almost every Tbilisi restaurant, nothing compares to dolmas at Tbilisi Turkish restaurants. I love dolmas so much, that once I even prepared them at home, see: How to Prepare Traditional Dolma (Grape Leaves Roll)

Viva Kaunas - City Under Your Feet

5 November, 2016 | Tourism objects | 17 seen

I remember from a trip to Italy, once we were in Florence - we specially searched Michelangelo Square as it promised to give the most stunning views of city. In fact it did - see: Michelangelo Square in Florence, Italy. It was at the start of August (2016) we were on a birthday trip to Vilnius, and our road took us through old Lithuanian capital city - Kaunas.

Our first stop, by chance, was at the place called Viva Kaunas - it's actually a restaurant offering to dine almost in the sky. In fact we didn't try our lunch here, but I really enjoyed the views we got from the viewing platform.

Viva Kaunas restaurant

I instead took tripod and made a panoramic photography here with a landscape of Kaunas.

Panorama of Kaunas, Lithuania

Harvesting Mushrooms in Georgia

4 November, 2016 | | 50 seen

This Summer we harvested a lot of mushrooms in the deep woods of Latvia, the nation with a strong mushroom culture. This was a good year, look some Slipery Jack even grew in the backyard of our rural house. We made a lot of delicious mushroom sauces and even preserved some (marinated mushrooms).

We returned to Georgia at the start of October, did some trip across the country in the very first five days. See: 5 Days In Georgia Itinerary List - Make Most Of Your Trip and then we agreed with a friend of us, let's have a day trips on Saturday's across the Georgia. (I look back, what we did in Saturday's about a half year ago - we hunted best Tbilisi restaurant breakfast menus, and it seems so lame now)

Without a specific destination, just the free flow. Our first trip happened to be to the very interesting (but less popular) region of Tianeti.

The town of Tianeti is reachable in about 1 hour and 30 minutes drive from Tbilisi. We were already half way there when noticed folks with baskets and buckets bustling in woods. Hmm, we thought - mushrooms. Let's give it a try. We parked our car on the roadside and entered woods of Tianeti.

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Le Montrachet Tbilisi Restaurant Review

3 November, 2016 | Restaurant reviews | 34 seen

Le Montrachet Tbilisi restaurant says it is a Neo-Bistro by a New York Chef. Progressive farm driven cuisine in a relaxed atmosphere.. Located in the historic Jewish quarter in Tbilisi Old Town (Betlemi street 23) this place offers combo menus and exclusive Georgian Wine. Eclectic, but fun. Definitely not the cheapest place in town. Awesome Combos on the other hand!

We visited this place in mid October (2016) in company of six, to get a table here I had to call and reserve it few days prior. (Never have done this in Georgia before). We reserved a table for 6 persons for Friday night. 

In fact I did find it a bit problematic to locate this place, as it is located in very remote street (thus very scenic). The places misses American style HUGE signboard. 

Once entered, I met few people I usually meet once in a year at Tbilisi Charity Fair (Folks from different Diplomatic Missions) - I exchanged  hand shakes with few and headed to the table, were our friends already waited us.

Three Course menu

Le Montrachet is one of the few places in Georgia, which offers a menu meals (the other one, as far I…

Rural Tourism in Lithuania - Karpyne

2 November, 2016 | Restaurant reviews | 17 seen

Right, I actually wanted to write a short review about restaurant Karpyne located in the middle of country, but finding a translation of this place (Kaimo Turizmo Sodyba Karpyne) and browsing trough my cameras viewfinder I did find this is actually a very cool rural tourism site in Lithuania, as it offers not only restaurant, but also, lodging, fishing, there is even a separate brewery at this huge complex.

Karpyne complex is located near village Gabsiai (next to the Kaunas - Klaipeda highway), Raseiniai municipality, Kaundas county, Lithuana. We discovered this place by chance driving to Kaunas. It was lunch time and we decided to stop here.

Fishing lakes at Karpyne complex in Lithuania

Following info I found about fishing opportunities here:

Homestead  Karpynė always welcomes fishermen looking for opportunities not only to catch a big catch, but also to spend a good time, get a break from the bustle of the city and enjoy fishing in one of the three existing our ponds.
In our homestead ponds guest can catch carps, pikes, bream and other fish. If you get lucky, you could easily lure up to 18 kg weighing fish.…

How to Install & Config Drupal 8 on Ubuntu 14.04 + Ngnix

1 November, 2016 | Drupal Development | 18 seen

In this article I will provide information how to install latest Drupal 8 version on Ubuntu 14.04 machine with Nginx.

Tools involved: Putty, Notepad++

I assume you have already configured Nginx on your machine, if not, here is a tutorial for LEMP Server Ubuntu 12.04 for serving Drupal on Nginx, don't be afraid of version 12.04, as in version 14.04 the only differences that might occur are in Ngnix config blocks, which I will cover in this article.

If you are looking for a great VPS server, try Linode, I have been using it for more than 4 years and can only highly recommend, their VPS starts $10/mo.

Now, once you have all set up, open Putty and login to your server with sudo privileges:

Make sure you change admin in second row to your username

Add a new server_name

copy/paste code bellow (…

Mastis Lake in Telšiai, Lithuania

30 October, 2016 | Lakes | 15 seen

Mastis lake is located in the town of Telšiai, Lithuania.

There is a dwelling houses located in the shores of lake Mastis, and seems there is a nice recreational area built closer to the Telsiai city center.

View towards lake Mastis

Captured from the parking lot of Guesthouse Sinchronas, we stayed here for one night in August, 2016.

Recreational area near lake Mastis

Probably you can rent some boat here and enjoy a lovely boat ride.

Guesthouse Sinchronas in Telšiai, Lithuania Review

29 October, 2016 | Hotel reviews | 17 seen

It was on the eve of my birthday (August 2016), and we decided to celebrate it in Vilnius, Lithuania. We took our Honda CRV car, crossed Latvia / Lithuania border through Priekule, made few remarkable stops at places like - St. Michael Archangel Church in Mosėdis, Idol Hill (Alkakalnis) near Salantai, Žemaitė Memorial Museum, Bukantė Manor Homestead and finaly we had a stop at Restaurant 'Porto' Near Plunge at which, eating our pizza and using booking.com we booked Guesthouse Sinchronas in Telšai for tonight's stay. 

As my birthday was coming, we wanted to book a decent (not luxury, but decent) hotel somewhere in this part of Lithuania, as it was getting late already. Guesthouse Sinchronas in Telšai promised to have 4 stars.

Well, huge was our disappointment, when in place of 4 stars we actually got a 2 stars with a minus. No don't get me wrong - it's a decent guesthouse, with clean rooms, roof terrace and kind of restaurant. It just lucks a normal parking lot, an elevator (guesthouse rooms are located in the third or fourth floor) and what the most funniest - in the bathroom it featured half cut…

5 Days In Georgia Itinerary List - Make Most Of Your Trip

28 October, 2016 | Living in Georgia | 184 seen

For the second time, I felt like a real tourist in Georgia.

Let me explain - I have been living in Georgia for more than 5 years, thus for the past two years I'm spending the Summer months in Latvia.

This year we were absent from Georgia for about 6 months, and when returned - we had no choice but to travel a lot across the country, as the friends of my partner joined us during our journey back home to Tbilisi. 

We booked our flight back to Georgia (Tbilisi) already at the start of August (back then I was still busy with brick-and-mortar things performing home remodeling works). Friends of my partner planned to visit Georgia for the very first time. Our flight was on the same day, on the same plane. Instead of a typical week of doing nothing, after return, we had a very busy first 5 days in Georgia.

Our story starts at Tbilisi airport, I had called before to my driver and asked him to pick us up at the airport, but as it might happen in Georgia, he was late for some 30 minutes, and I had a chance to listen to almost all taxi drivers tempting offers, promising to…

Telavi Market (Buy Georgian Churchkhelas , Spices or House Wine)

27 October, 2016 | Shopping Venues | 19 seen

Oh, I love fresh vegetable markets, especially those located in Georgia. One of my favorite markets in Georgia is located in Telavi. I remember once I pulled our vehicle of the road near Gori, and we bough a box with tomatoes, see: Fresh Vegetable Market Near Gori Highway - amazing. In today's article I will provide some info about Telavi market, located in the region of Kakheti.

Make sure you check out other shopping venues.or see a full listings of my discoveries in Georgia: All About Georgia.

In fact, if I have a chance being in this area of Georgia. I'm trying to visit especially this market and buy some groceries for our household here. I love this market because of two reasons - it's much cleaner than those in Tbilisi (see Bazroba) and prices here can be twice as lower than in Tbilisi. Friends of mine who I have taken here, loves this market because of great walnuts and tasty Georgian churchkhelas. If you are a tourist in Telavi, and looking for some tasty souvenirs to take back home - Telavi market is a great destination, then. Churchkhelas, Nuts and wide variety of Georgian spices. 

Kindzmarauli Corporation Wine House in Kvareli, Georgia

26 October, 2016 | Tourism objects | 26 seen

Right here comes another interesting Georgian Wine House, with a super cool name - JSP Kindzmarauli Corporation Wine House, located in the Kakheti, town of Kvareli.

I must admit -  I had never heard of tis winery before, on the other hand I don't call myself a wine expert. Thus I can at least tell which is mine favorite Georgian wine - Khvanchkara. 

We arrived here from another winery, located just a few kilometers from Kindzmarauli corporation, see Wine Tunnel Near Kvareli in Georgia (Winery Khareba). My good old Georgian driver tried to convinice me, they are selling a tap Kvahckara wine here for 2 GEL per litter. It sounded fishy for me, but I agreed driver to take my friends and me to this winery. 

Variety of bottled Georgian wines

There is a small wine shop at the entrance of Kindzamarali wine house, where you can buy wine produced at this factory directly form producer. I asked, so - I was told you are selling tap Kvachkara as well, and got a nice reply - no Kvachkara is too exclusive wine to be sold on plastic bottles. It was fine with me and I replied - Thank's God…

Theming Drupal 8: How to Hide Site Name

25 October, 2016 | Drupal Development | 15 seen

I'm starting a new Drupal series - Drupal Tuesday, from now on - every Tuesday, Drupal related articles will be featured on my blog.(at least I hope so) 

It's not that I wouldn't had any previous Drupal tips and tricks, In fact I have more than 100 Drupal related articles already in archive.

Just recently I started working with Drupal 8, and since it involves a new learning curve even for me - I decided to refresh my skills and write down notes.

Let's start with a really simple issue - removing site name from Drupal 8.

What at start seems like a simple issue, might turn out to be a imminent problem. The truth is - it's super simple, but a little bit complicated if you come with a Drupal 7 background.

For hiding site name in Drupal 8, we will need to go to the blocks structure (amazing, why I spent an hour trying to figure out why it's not under configuration section?)

Search for a block site branding (it should be in header section)

Site Branding Drupal 8

Click on the configure button:

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