Georgia Expat Photography Club

17 July, 2015 | Living in Georgia | 15 seen

Recently Johann contacted me with his idea to create a photography travel club in Georgia. Since I have been into a photography for the first day I got my first personal digital camera (it's some 6 years probably) - and for the last 4 years I have been living in amazing, very rich of spectacular views, country of Georgia which I have traveled around a lot (See my Georgia travels map) - I was just eager to promote his idea, to make a fun and entertaining community, fuelled with beautiful pictures of Georgia.

The Bridge of Peace in Tbilisi, photo by Johann Kritzinger

I quickly come up with the idea to create a community on Facebook and made my offer for naming such organization - Georgia Expat Photography Club. We invited a few of our friends (both expats and photographers) and ... first step accomplished.

Johann has some wonderful ideas to do next - like to make some city (Tbilisi) photographing tours - everyone is welcome to join. We are planing to do some longer trips (perhaps with overnight stay)  - one of the closest destinations we are looking to…

Blog Traffic Report - June 2015 - 22,569 Users

17 July, 2015 | Blogging | 10 seen

Welcome to the 21st blog traffic and statistics report. Since the very first month of my blogging career I have created a monthly blog statistics and starting January 2014 a blog income reports.

June was the absolute best in traffic numbers yet. For the third time I managed to crack the 20,000 user milestone and did set a new personal record (yet) - 22,569 monthly users. I first cracked 20K milestone back in March and May (2015). Technically speaking my traffic numbers have been around 20K since the start of 2015.

Blog Traffic Report June 2015 Source: Google Analytics

• June comes with a 8.29% traffic gain if compared to month of May. Average daily user count: 752.33.

Now - at the end of my May traffic report I expressed hopes to reach modest - 5% growth in June. Well, I reached more than 8% growth last month. Great!

An medium traffic spike to my blog happened at the start of June, when my post about average salaries in European Union got posted on Reddit. That day traffic to my blog accounted to 2,071 users. 

This was a third major traffic spike to my blog in it's short 21 month…

Responsive Learning Web App - sales.wilsonlearning.lv

16 July, 2015 | Drupal Development | 12 seen

Recently I was contacted by a long-term customer (Wilson Learning Baltics) with a request to build a responsive web learning application for their business needs. This was quite an easy task for me, in fact I have been built a similar web app for this customer some time ago already. I was provided with an example site on global learning portal, see it here CSP Mobile APP and asked to localize this app into Latvian. In fact all the localization task was already done and I was provided with one large .docx and .pdf file (.pdf just a mirror version) with all texts translated, so it was my turn to build this app from scratch and add content on it.

In short this web app teaches 4 very important steps in customer relationships - how to establish trust, how to identify needs, how to present your solution, and how to assure satisfaction, in case a user don't know were to start he/she is provided with a simple questionnaire form, answering on a few questions user can start exploring is there some ways he/she could improve his/her sales process.

To perform this task I took Drupal as content management system (Drupal is…

Hotel Dzintars Review in Jūrmala, Latvia

15 July, 2015 | Hotel reviews | 24 seen

Dzintars hotel is located in Latvian beach resort city Jūrmala - very close to the nations capital city Riga (some 30 minutes drive).

The reason I chose this hotel is plain simple - my brother works as a concierge here (family ties) and this hotel is among cheapest available in Jūrmala (and by saying cheapest I mean - it's a value deal)

I first visited Dzintars hotel back in 2014 or 2015 and since then have stayed here several more times.

Hotel Dzintars in Jūrmala

Guest can enjoy a free parking on site

Meal at Hotel Dzintars restaurant

A really tasty and affordable meal here 

Bike rental at hotel Dzintars

I don't know about rental prices, we got a free ride (thanks to my bro) - but I believe you can enjoy a free ride in Jurmala city as well

Breakfast menu at Hotel Dzintars

Pine forest near hotel Dzintars

Outdoor patio at hotel Dzintars

We enjoyed our breakfast here

Mansard room at hotel Dzintars

Flat screen TV at hotel Dzintars

Mansard room at hotel Dzintars…

What's Aperture And How To Control It

14 July, 2015 | Digital Photography School | 6 seen

With this post I'm starting a new and hopefully very interesting blog category - Digital Photography School on my blog (www.reinisfischer.com). The reason that made me to create such new category is simple - some time ago I bought my first DSRL camera - Canon 1200 D (in US it's marketed under Canon Rebel T5 brand), read my first impression of this camera: First Impressions Of Canon EOS 1200D Camera With 18-55mm Lens

[amazon:B00IB1BTWI:full]

Prior to that for many year I have been using a bridge camera Sony DSC-H7 and I was pretty pleased with result what I got. Although that bridge camera offers some control over picture you take, for 99% of time I have been using program A (auto). Before I bought a new DSLR camera I thought - the only difference between bridge camera and DSLR camera are that with DSLR camera I can take better quality pictures, it has more megapixels and yes, there is some lens attached. 

[amazon:B000M4J2PI:full]

After making a few shots with my brand new DSLR camera I realized that with program A I can make photos look worst than taken with bridge camera and I decided to investigate what's wrong…

St. John's Church in Saldus

14 July, 2015 | Churches and Monasteries | 13 seen

Some time ago I visited a lovely town Saldus (located some 100km from capital Riga), one of the main sights here is a church - St. John's Church of Saldus. As usual I took my camera and made a few shots here.

The altarpiece at Saldus St. John's church

Author of this altar painting is made by J. Dering (19th century). Read more: Churches in Saldus 

Saldus St. John church

This church building is the oldest building of the town and the first stone made church in Saldus built in 1615, but re-designed by Wilhelm Neumann and rebuilt at the end of 19th century.

Marketplace near church

During my short visit here  - Saldus city festival were held

Saldus St.John's church, in Latvia, was officially dedicated on August 27, 1900, after a long history of use and centuries of reconstruction. The first wooden church was built in 1461. The second, also made of wood, was built in 1530 and then renovated in 1567. The masonry church was built between 1614-1615 and financed by Wilhelm Duke. The fifth church in Saldus was built in 1737 on the hill where the present church…

What Is Minimum Wage In European Union 2015

12 July, 2015 | Macroeconomics | 86 seen

A year ago I created a blog post about minimum wages in European Union in 2014, that post generated a lot of views (more than 20,000 page views) and some buzz (got shared on Facebook, Reddit, and many other websites)

Update: Minimum Wages in European Union 2018

I decided to look back and compare how does minimum wage has changed in European Union member countries a year later (2015)

Minimum wage in European Union 2015

In short - minimum wage has been increased almost in every country, with the exception - Ireland and Germany. Germany is a newcomer to the minimum wage list this year.

The fastest growing minimum wages have been recorded in Romania 14% growth (+33 EUR/monthly), Latvia 11% growth (+40 EUR/monthly), Lithuania 11% growth (+36 EUR/monthly), United Kingdom 11% growth (+152 EUR/monthly) and Bulgaria 10% growth (+21 EUR/monthly)

Now - at first I was surprised to see the United Kingdom among fastest growing minimum wages, but then I realized - it's all about currency exchange rates (the United Kingdom is not part of Euro…

Best Recommended 9 Ordino Hotels in Andorra

11 July, 2015 | Hotel reviews | 9 seen

Ordino is a small and the most northerly parish in the Principality of Andorra located very close to the nations capital city Andorra la Vella. I discovered this place by accident about a year ago. Back then I was looking for Andorra la Vella hotels, but I even didn't noticed that we have been already left Andorra la Vella and were located in this charming province. We booked on site a lovely and very cheap hotel Gaspa. Read: Hotel Gaspa Review in Ordino, Andorra

Since I'm planing to return here someday I decided to list some of the most recommended hotels in Ordino, Andorra, according to Booking.com

This apartment hotel is located in the quiet town of Ansalonga, only one kilometer from Ordino, and within 8 km of the cable car to La Massana and the Arcalís-Vallnord ski resort.

These spacious apartments are an excellent option for groups of friends and families who wish to enjoy both winter and summer sports. Some apartments can accommodate up to 8 people. Conveniently located among the Andorran Pyrenees, this complex will allow guests to relax, explore the local area, and…

How to Specify a Vary: Accept-Encoding header Nginx

11 July, 2015 | Servers | 56 seen

The other day I visited tools.pingdom.com to test performance for my blog (the one you are currently reading) and I did fine I have a two bottlenecks:

• Remove query strings from static resources
• Specify a Vary: Accept-Encoding header

I managed to handle query string issue for static resources and then I headed to find a solution for the Specify a Vary thing. Since it's not a Drupal related issue I did some search regarding Nginx and I soon found excellent solution on stackoverflow.com

Inside the server { of the domain/subdomain that you want to set it, add

sudo nano /path/to/domain/sites-available/yourdomain.com

Save the file (CTRL-O and CTRL - X)  and restart Nginx (sudo /etc/init.d/nginx restart)

I managed to improve my performance score from 82 to 88 on tools.pingdom.com after this.

How to Remove query strings from static resources Drupal

10 July, 2015 | Drupal Development | 16 seen

The Evangelical Lutheran Church of Skrunda

9 July, 2015 | Churches and Monasteries | 14 seen

History of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Skrunda dates back to 1668 as stated on official Skrunda municipality website. I took my camera and went to memorize this place.

 Skrunda church

Bell tower of Skrunda Church

Back view of Skrunda Church

Burial near Skrunda church

According to the inscription on the cross - pastor Johann Daniel Goldmann is buried here

Skrunda church

I hadn't a chance to enter this church (ups, doors were closed) but according to Skrunda municipality  the pulpit and the altarpiece of Skrunda church were installed at the end of the 18th century, but the organ of the church was set up in the 19 th century. During the First World War, the church suffered considerable damage and it is known that a stable was created there. Although the church was reconstructed in 1920, serious conservation works and repairs to building were carried out in 1995. There are several legends about the church as well. 

Skrunda Cultural Center

8 July, 2015 | Entertainment | 11 seen

Right, I just made this name - Skrunda Cultural Center what is a direct translation from Latvian Skrundas Kultūras Centrs.

I wouldn't probably mention this place on my blog, but since lately I have been travelling around Skrunda a lot, I decided why not?! Another reason I'm listing this place here - you can get a free high-speed Wi-Fi internet here (at least I managed to get some).

Seriously speaking - Skrunda Cultural Center is a great place where locals gather to participate in different hobby groups, like singing, dancing, theater play (you name it) - and probably some major events are held here as well.

Right, show me the pictures buddy:

Conference hall at Skrunda Cultural center

Well it's more an assembly hall - but look up there (right top corner) there is some equipment to handle some basic interpretation services.

Piano at Skrunda Cultural center

You can play some classical music here

Skrunda Cultural center

Lovely alley near Skrunda Cultural Center

The Stender’s Bar&Club in Kuldīga

7 July, 2015 | Restaurant reviews | 13 seen

I believe soon I will have a complete list of Kuldīga restaurants, but prior that I would like to introduce you another interesting place in this charming Curonian city, meet The Stender's Bar & Club. 

Stender's Bar&Club is located on charming street in Kuldīga

Its address is Liepājas street 3

Menu desk at Stender's

Menu at Stender's Bar

Interior at Stender's

Daily dose of Coke

Served with ice

Poster at Stender's Restroom

Yes, I even take my camera to restrooms

Outdoor patio at Stender's place

Outdoor patio at Stender's place

Or me learning my camera

Meal at Stender's

Meal at Stender's

I must admit in photos this meal looks much better as it tastes. Well it tastes pretty good - but instead of honey/mustard sauce you got served... a ketchup... 

Compared to other restaurants/bars in Latvia prices here at Stender's are pretty high (it's like we paid some 20 EUR for some average meal here). But hey interiour is cool. Sure, why not.…

Home Remodelling - How It All Starts

6 July, 2015 | Home Remodeling | 9 seen

Recently my better part and I became a lucky home-owners, we went through a long and bureaucratic procedure to inherit a house in scenic place in a very remote country. The house is in a very bad condition and asks for a lot of investments - one of the primary things we are looking to do next - is to change a roof (it is leaky), to dig the well, draw in water and to connect to the electricity. Since it requires a lot of money and a lot of time I decided to start a new blog post series - Home Remodelling - to document progress.

Update: After a few years and a couple of thousand investment we lost ownership of this property and all the renovation works have stopped, instead we have a few other cool and interesting projects, see Home Remodeling for more

I will start with what we got. The pictures shown bellow are taken at the start of April 2015 and illustrates what we got.

Front view of our house

A small fish pond near the house

Backyard of the house

..and a skew shed

Old School electricity plugins

Apple orchard

Broken fence

Moss covering…

Širhans - Azerbaijani cuisine in Riga, Latvia

5 July, 2015 | Restaurant reviews | 97 seen

Širhans (Shirhan) is a lovely restaurant serving Azerbaijani cuisine located in the suburbs of Sarkandaugava in Riga, Latvia (Meža Prospekts 90).

I visited this place just shortly after a visit to Riga Zoo.

If you just like me enjoy Caucasian style cuisine you will enjoy this place. Although I must admit I'm very found of Georgian cuisine (Read my Tbilisi restaurant reviews) - this time I was pleased with Azerbaijani cuisine also. Thus take into consideration - to enjoy a real Azeri cuisine - you must visit land of fire. The local versions are usually adopted to local customer tastes.  

Restaurant Shirhan in Riga

Just take a look at this lovely tiger - as seen in the famous Mowgli series

Outdoor patio at Shirhan

Azerbaijani bread at Shirhan restaurant

Rye garlic bread

Well, this is a more Latvian thing rather Azerbaijani, but a good one

Meal at Shirhan restaurant

Restaurant Širhans in Riga serves both Caucasian (Azerbaijani) and European food. Prices at this place are a bit pricey. Don't try to order a…