Old New Year's fireworks in Tbilisi

14 January, 2016 | | 8 seen

While there is a good reason to visit St Mark's square in Venice, Italy (that's exactly we did this New Year) - the chances to photograph New Year's fireworks turned much brighter from our Tbilisi's apartments balcony.

Shortly before clock turned twelve on night between January 13 to January 14, we made a moka coffee, I installed a tripod and enjoyed amazing Old New year's firework.. Piece of Life!

Fireworks in our Tbilisi apartments backyard

Old New Year's fireworks in Tbilisi, Georgia

Fireworks in Tbilisi, Georgia

The Old New Year or the Orthodox New Year is an informal traditional holiday, celebrated as the start of the New Year by the Julian calendar. In the 20th and 21st centuries, the Old New Year falls on January 14 in the Gregorian calendar.

The tradition of the Old New Year has been kept in Belarus, Uzbekistan, Bosnia and Herzegovina (mostly in Republika Srpska), Georgia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Montenegro,Moldova, Ukraine (Malanka), Wales (as Hen Galan) and …

Holiday Inn Express Milan-Malpensa Airport Hotel (Case Nuove, Italy)

13 January, 2016 | Hotel reviews | 34 seen

We stayed overnight at Holiday Inn Express Milan-Malpensa Airport hotel just shortly we landed at the airport and took our rental car from FireFly.

It turned out that FireFly office was just some 200 meters from this hotel, so we didn't had much driving for the first day from during our seven day trip in Italy. OK, we drove to the nearby town of Ferno to have a Italian style supper at Osteria San Martino.

If you are traveling by car  - I highly recommend to choose hotels near airports - you won't be in city center, but you will have much more benefits, rather than staying in center - free parking, cheaper price are just the two and main reasons I prefer hotels/motels outside city centers. And Holiday Inn Express hotel in small town called Case Nuove (located just next to Milan/Malpensa airport) was our first choice when looking through Booking.com.

They have smokers rooms, which is essential, if you smoke, if you don't - good for you (don't even start).  TV could be bigger and feature more channels, but all the rest was perfect. We got what we paid for.

King size bed at…

Osteria San Martino in Ferno, Italy

12 January, 2016 | Restaurant reviews | 43 seen

This was the first time I ate at the real Italian restaurant, and my first experience was more than satisfactory.

Shortly after we landed at Milan/Malpensa airport, took our rental car, and checked in at nearby hotel, we started to explore TripAdvisor for some lovely place to have a Italian supper. Osteria San Martino popped up, so it was all about of entering right coordinates to TomTom device. This restaurant was located some 20 minute drive from our hotel in town called Ferno.

Osteria San Martino in Ferno, Italy

I was glad I decided to take a tripod for my Italy trip, so I had a chance to make lovely long exposures. Since it was night already we arrived here, without a tripod there would be no picture of entrance for this place. The Devil is in details, right? Actually I run a digital photography school on my blog, make sure you check out my articles if you find photography your passion.

Menu at Osteria San Martino

Wow, there was zillion of food items to choose from. In fact when speaking of restaurant menu, I prefer shorter menu's rather some 20 list readable book, instead of focusing on…

Railroad crossing in Skrunda municipality, Latvia

11 January, 2016 | | 16 seen

Skrunda is actually a very lovely small Latvian town, you can find here both Soviet military heritage (Read: Skrunda-1 Abandoned Soviet Military Ghost Town In Latvia) , delicious Latvian cuisine (Bistro 'Elvi' In Skrunda) or just enjoy a lovely walk near river Venta (Read: Skrunda Open-Air Stage and Park).

In today's Piece of Life project series I would love to show a beautiful place where poppy field meets railroad - a railway crossing point. 

Railroad in Skrunda municipality

Railroad perspective

Poppy field near Skrunda Railway

There is something magical in Latvia - and both poppy fields and rails make this country look even better. Read more: Beautiful Poppy Field Near P104 (Jaunpils-Tukums) Road (Latvia)

Railroad crossing in Skrunda municipality

Milan–Malpensa Airport

10 January, 2016 | Airports | 24 seen

Milan - Malpensa is one of the major airports serving city of Milan in Italy. Just to mention, there is another airport serving city of Milano- Bergamo. 

Milan–Malpensa Airport, formerly City of Busto Arsizio Airport, is the largest airport for the Milan metropolitan area in northern Italy. It serves 15 million inhabitants in Lombardy, Piedmont and Liguria. The airport is located 49 kilometres  northwest of central Milan, next to the Ticino river, which is a border between Lombardy and Piedmont. The airport has two terminals and two runways.

It took me about twelve years to visit Italy again, last time I hitchhiked and traveled across Italy back in 2003, when returned home from Marseilles (France) to Riga (Latvia). Oh, gosh, that was unbelievable experience - to travel across all continent of Europe just with EUR 50 in pocket. Twelve years ago the best I could afford was to spend a night next to the Bergamo airport in corn field (one of the coolest travel experiences I've ever had). Now, at the end of 2015 we arrived to Milan again, this time for a 7 day leisure trip, and our Italy trip…

David Gareja Monastery Complex

9 January, 2016 | Churches and Monasteries | 29 seen

David Gareja Monastery complex probably is among top tourist attractions in Republic of Georgia you should visit. Located in the desert, bordering with Azerbaijan this place provides very spectacular views. Best ways to get here is either by using your own vehicle or hiring a driver or booking a trip.

The monastery complex includes hundreds of cells, churches, chapels, refectories and living quarters hollowed out of the rock face.

David Gareja Monastery Complex in Georgia

The complex was founded in the 6th century by David (St. David Garejeli), one of the thirteen Assyrian monks who arrived in the country at the same time.

Cells in David Gareja monastery complex

A group of Latvian tourists in the middle of David Gareja monastery complex

Tower in Monastery complex

The convent was particularly patronized by the Georgian royal and noble families. The 12th-century Georgian king Demetre I, the author of the famous Georgian hymn Thou Art a Vineyard, even chose David Gareja as a place of his confinement after he abdicated the throne.

Fortification…

Udabno - Almost Forgotten Village in Georgian Desert

8 January, 2016 | Military Heritage | 304 seen

Udabno is a small village located in distance some 50 km from Tbilisi. The chances you will visit this place is huge if you are visiting one of the most famous Georgia' s landmarks - David Gareji monastery complex. The main road from Tbilisi will take you through Udabno village if you are visiting David Gareji.

When I first was at Udabno back in 2011 it seemed as completely abandoned place, but at the end of December, 2015 it looked that some people are actually living here, and even a Polish run hostel has been established here.

Udabno village located in the middle of Georgian desert

Udabno in Georgian means - Desert.  The village was built in middle 80s during Soviet times, for the eco-migrants settled there from mountainous Svaneti region. It’s separation from other settlements, the close location with Davit-Gareji monastery, and specific character of the proud Svan people creates a micro-world that definitely worth to explore. (Source: Udabno, Georgia)

Udabno, Georgia

I was told that during Soviet Georgia days, Udabno was closed village and no entrance was allowed here without special permit. At…

How To Display Google AdSense Ad Unit on Drupal Taxonomy Pages

7 January, 2016 | Drupal Development | 12 seen

Title for this article might be named also as - how to display block on taxonomy pages only. In fact that was the solution I was looking for about two years, and felt a bit awkward when figured out a very easy, not to say super simple solution.

The blog you are currently reading is Drupal powered, no WordPress, Joomla or some other content management system here, so I will speak Drupal language in this article.

• Create a new block, paste your Google AdSense (or whatever content you want, it's not only about Google AdSense after all), under block visibility settings choose only the listed pages and enter taxonomy/term/*

note that /* at the end of path - it is called a wildcard and means that your enabled block will be shown on /taxonomy/term/apples and taxonomy/term/oranges, in case you would like to display that block only on one taxonomy term page, you would enter a complete path without wildcard at the end, for example /taxonomy/term/apples.

Google AdSense on Drupal Taxonomy pages

In above image there is a working example of my…

How To Make Floating Blocks in Drupal Using Module

6 January, 2016 | Drupal Development | 35 seen

In this article you will learn how to make blocks on your Drupal site to float using a simple, and yet powerful module - Floating block.

Here are some other cool tutorials you might find interesting:

• How To Display Social Share Buttons On Drupal Taxonomy Pages
• Floating social share buttons (without using modules)
• How to align Facebook like, Google + and Twitter buttons? (CSS tricks)
• Facebook like button for Drupal site 

From module creators: The Floating block module allows you to keep html blocks, selected using jquery selectors in a fixed position on the page as you scroll. It works in a similar way the table header fixer in Drupal Core. This means that when the user scrolls their browser selected parts of the page can stay in the users view.

This is extremely useful when you have pages with lots of content and you want a side menu to stay in view.

I will create a custom view and then will display it as block in my theme. Add two fields: path and custom code…

More Paint Job - Base layer for Kitchen's Floor

5 January, 2016 | Home Remodeling | 4 seen

Those of you following my blog have noticed I'm featuring home remodeling series here, it all started back in the Spring/Summer of 2015, when we inherited a lovely but very badly managed country house in rural Latvia. In today's photo series I will show you how using the most cheapest floor paint I gave a new life to a rundown wooden plank floor in our rural's house kitchen.

But before that, take a look how it all started in this kitchen:

• Removing Junk And Adding First Layer of Paint (Kitchen Works)
• How to Patch and Plaster Walls in Your Old Rural House

Now let us begin with adding some floor paint in this lovely kitchen

Preparing floor for paint

If you are looking to paint your floor by yourself, make sure you have cleaned floor properly, no dust e.t.c. For us, for that summer a water was our biggest obstacle - we simply had no water attached to our house (no well as well), so to clean that floor, we had to bring in water from some other places, but still we were limited to about 50 liters per day (plus we had a lovely veggie garden we should water)

Our kitchen

In the background…

Wine Tunnel Near Kvareli in Georgia (Winery Khareba)

4 January, 2016 | Tourism objects | 112 seen

Wine Tunnel owned by a winery Khareba is located close to the town of Kvareli, in region of Kakheti, republic of Georgia. It features not only exotic manmade tunnel built in the rocks, but it also has a large territory offering interesting attractions related to Georgian heritage. Guests can book a wine tasting tour here and will be provided with best selection wines from winery Khareba.

I first visited this wine tunnel in the middle of October, 2015 together with my mom during a short one day trip around region of Kakheti,

Wine Tunnel at Winery Khareba near Kvareli town in Georgia

Winery Khareba is constructed of 15 tunnels. Two tunnels reaching 800 meters are parallel to each other and connect the other tunnels that are 500 meters. The walls of the tunnels are lined with thousands of bottles of Khareba wines. The tunnels keeps the temperature relatively constant and cool facilitating the storage of wine. Read more: Winery Khareba

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Clay pots at Khareba winery

Wine tunnel at Khareba winery

Khareba was established in 2004. Today the winery has 1,000 hectares (2,471 acres) of vineyards throughout…

Neighborhoods of Tbilisi - Varketili

3 January, 2016 | Tourism objects | 219 seen

In today's photo article I will speak about another neighborhood in Tbilisi - Varketili. Varketili is most probably famous because of the Varketili metro line connecting this part of city with city cente.In today's article most of the pictures are focused around exactly at this metro station.

Varketili is probably not the most tourist visited place in Tbilisi, if you are hoping to find lovely wood carved balconies here or enjoy a swim in a sulfur bath you most probably wont find anything from that here. I haven' t double checked this, but apartment rent in Varketili are one of the cheapest options in Tbilisi. I know at least two expats living in this neighborhood. On the other hand Varketili is one of the largest Tbilisi massive and it' s very huge.

The best way of getting here - Tbilisi metro.

Varketili metro

You barely can notice that somewhere here actually a metro station is located, connecting you with Tbilisi city center in matter of couple of minutes (10-15 minutes) Actually Varketili was one of the hardest neighborhoods to actually photograph for me. I was so confused of large masses of…

Giant Plane Tree in Telavi

2 January, 2016 | Tourism objects | 308 seen

There is a biggest tree in Georgia located in the city center of Telavi (Region of Kakheti). It's not only giant, it is more than 900 years old as well.

I discovered this tree back in October , 2015, during a day trip to region of Kakheti, we made a 5 minute stop here, I got an opportunity to photograph it with my mom posing next to it.

The Giant Plane tree in Telavi, Republic of Georgia

It's width is about 12 meters and height 46 meters.

The Giant Plane tree in Telavi, Republic of Georgia

The plane tree in Telavi is near the ‘Batonis Tsikhe’ (the Prince’s Castle), the Batonis Tsqharo’ (the Prince’s Spring) and the monument to the great Georgian King of the 18th century Heracles II. Source: Platan

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The Giant tree in Telavi

It is known that the great Georgian writers Ilia Tchavtchavadze, Akaki Dseretheli, Vazha-Phshavela and other Georgian or foreign public figures were visited to see the plane tree in Telavi. As earlier, there are so many guests to see the tree, which attract and charm the visitors by its greatness and beauty. Source: Georgian Genealogy

Platanus Orientalis…

One Second a Day Video Project (November 7 - December 9, 2015)

1 January, 2016 | Digital Photography School | 14 seen

I decided to great the New Year of 2016 with a 32-second video flashback I made at the end of 2015, filmed mostly in Tbilisi, Republic of Georgia.

​The idea of creating one second a day video project arrived at me after I watched the movie Chef (2014). I was already doing my 365 days photo project and for the 32 days it was both fun and entertaining to both photograph and film, then post-process, e.t.c. It was a harsh experience as well. But it was worth every additional hour spent to produce a daily second video.

• Master class in Asian Cuisine
• The Tiger Lillies Concert Review in Tbilisi
• ​Wanderings In The Tbilisi Old Town (HDR Efex Pro)
• Eating at some of the Tbilisi restaurants
• Lisi Lake in Tbilisi (Georgia)
• Listening to Classical Music at Tbilisi Baroque Festival
• East Point Shopping Mall in Tbilisi
• ​and other

All videos were shot with my Canon 1200D DSLR camera, some videos are shot from a tripod.

I wanted to make this in Adobe Premiere but ended up simply uploading…

Sieksāte Church and Monastery Complex Under Construction

31 December, 2015 | Tourism objects | 15 seen

"Suppose one of you wants to build a tower. Won't you first sit down and estimate the cost to see if you have enough money to complete it? Luke 14:28

There is to be constructed a new Lutheran church and a monastery in Sieksāte Latvia. In above image you can see construction works from site from Summer 2015.

Let me wish you all the best for next 2016!