Cycling Near Lisi Lake In Tbilisi (Route Map + Photos)

11 March, 2015 | Outdoor Activities | 34 seen

Welcome to another cycling in Tbilisi post series. Today I will write about our latest cycling route near the Lisi lake, will provide you with a cycling map and plenty of photos I managed to capture here. 

During this cycling route, we discovered a few and very interesting places in Tbilisi I had previously barely heard but never had visited them before. Places like Tbilisi Hippodrome and Tbilisi Dog Shelter. 

It all started with a call to a friend with a mini-van. Damn, we are like typical tourists, why should you wheel if you can call a friend and ask to drive you up in the hill (Lisi lake is located in mountainous suburbs of Tbilisi). See Organized tours in Georgia,  if you are looking for minivan transfers in Tbilisi or around Georgia.

This is a 10.05 km route in Tbilisi, Georgia (Near Lisi lake) The route has a total ascent of 38.06 m and has a maximum elevation of 670.55 m. This route was completed in 3 Hours 49 minutes and 12 seconds (I didn't pause MapMyRide app during breaks, visit of Tbilisi Hippodrome and Tbilisi Dog Shelter)

Route starting point near Lisi Lake…

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11 March, 2015 | Blogging | 37 seen

Tbilisi Dog Shelter Near Lisi Lake

10 March, 2015 | Professional services | 126 seen

The other day, while cycling near Lisi Lake in Tbilisi, we discovered a few interesting places. I have already written a blog post about Tbilisi Hippodrome, which we stumbled upon by accident.

By accident, we also discovered a Tbilisi dog shelter. 

While cycling from Tbilisi Hippodrome back to Lisi Lake, my eyes caught an interesting scene—in the middle of nowhere, people were doing some exercises. So we decided to approach, and the closer we got, the louder a dog started barking. And there it was—A Tbilisi Dog Shelter.

I first heard about this organization at the last Christmas Charity Fair held at Sheraton Hotel. I even subscribed to a volunteer list by providing my email, but I never got a response. Well, things are as they are.

We were quickly handed two dogs to take for a walk in the nearby meadows, so we did.

It was lame, funny, and socially responsible all at once. First, we must acknowledge the problem of stray pets in Tbilisi and Georgia, so we must be socially responsible. As Antoine de Saint-Exupéry would say:

We are responsible for those we have tamed.

It was lame because we were not prepared to walk a…

Tbilisi Hippodrome Near Lisi Lake (Jockey Club)

9 March, 2015 | Entertainment | 196 seen

After a longer break of my cycling advetures, on a lovely Saturday morning we took our bikes and headed to Lisi Lake.

Turned out that just a few hundred meters away from Lisi Lake there is located a place called 'Tbilisi Hippodrom LTD' - At start I was kinda suspicious, because only one for me known Hippodrome in Tbilisi (now we should call it a former hippodrome) is located along the Vake-Saburtalo road.

I'm not an expert in this field - if owner of this place wanted to call it a hippodrome - fine with me.

I managed to take 18 pictures of this place:

Construction works at Tbilisi Hippodrome

Horse stables at Tbilisi hippodrome

Girl with a horse at Tbilisi hippodrome

Tbilisi Hippodrom LTD

Parking a bike

We were asked to park our bikes at the entrance to not to scare horses

Horse stables at Tbilisi Hippodrome

At Tbilisi Hippodrome

Working hours at Tbilisi Hippodrome 9:00-19:00

Jockey and a horse at a training ring

A horse and a horse handler lady

At Tbilisi…

Yamato Sushi Bar in Tbilisi Review

8 March, 2015 | Restaurant reviews | 15 seen

Welcome to another post in series of Tbilisi restaurant reviews.

Today I will write about a Yamato Sushi bar located on Alexander Kazbegi avenue in Tbilisi.

As usual we bought a coupon on local Georgian groupon clone style site hotsale.ge.

Offer was for around 20 GEL ($10.00 / EUR 9.00) or probably even cheaper and included a sushi set and a miso soup.

As usual for taking photographs I'm using my Samsung phone and using Instagram (then taking them from Instagram and adding to posts - you can read a blog post on how I turned my Instagram account into a photo blog 

Yamato Sushi Bar in Tbilisi

Iamato Sushi bari (Georgian Transliteration)

Inside interior at Yamato Sushi Bar

Inside interior at Yamato Sushi Bar

Miso soup at Yamato Sushi Bar

I'm not very familiar with Japanese cuisine, just some random stereotypes I guess, so it's hard for me to tell - was it a real Japanese miso soup or local version of that. Well I believe the second version is the correct answer - in this variation of miso…

15 Best Recommended Hotels in Girona, Spain on Booking.com (Close to Cathedral; Price Range EUR 50 - 100)

7 March, 2015 | Hotel reviews | 10 seen

Last autumn I made a week long trip to Spain, region of Catalonia, after landing at Barcelona El Prat Airport, we took our car from rental company and went straight to Girona. You can read more about my first impressions of Girona, but here is a quick tip - major tourist attractions in Girona are: Girona Cathedral and Jewish Quarter. 

Back then we stayed at Hotel Gran Hotel, which actually is pretty good bet, but I decided to list another great Girona hotels and apartments. 

Depending on your travel budget you will learn that you can get your Girona hotel in average EUR 50 - EUR 100. 

As said the closer your hotel is located to Girona Cathedral and Jewih Quarter - the better.

Those hotels listed bellow are most recommended in Girona among Booking.com users

Hotel Gran Ultonia is situated just 500 metres from Girona Cathedral and the historic Barri Vell district. Each air-conditioned room includes a rain shower, free Wi-Fi and a flat-screen TV.

The stylish, functional rooms at the Gran Ultonia feature soft lighting and hardwood floors. They all have a minibar, a…

Restaurant 'Shengen' Review in Tbilisi

7 March, 2015 | Restaurant reviews | 11 seen

Welcome to another great Tbilisi restaurant review - today I will write about restaurant Shengen located on Sioni street in the heart of Tbilisi Old Town.

The reason I was intrigued to visit this place was simple - I really enjoyed their name - I mean Shengen from Schengen area - it made me smile.

To get here - as usual using local Georgian groupon clone sites - vovovo.ge this time - be bought a coupon here for a steak and glass of wine.

This offer was as low as 12GEL ($5.50 / EUR 5.00) per person. 

Those of you have seen a comedy EuroTrip (2004) - probably will find some similarities after American youngsters got lost in Slovakia :)

Entrance corridor at restaurant Shengen 

Though this restaurant is located in Tbilisi Old Town on Sioni street, we entered here from river Mtkvari embankment side (but you can get to this place from Sioni street if you will enter this corridor right next to Konka station)

Corridor connecting with Sioni street

Inside interior at Shengen Restaurant

Probably a cozy sitting place next to the window

…

How To Display Social Share Buttons On Drupal Taxonomy Pages

6 March, 2015 | Drupal Development | 6 seen

Home Made 'Pirozhki' (Baked Stuffed Pies) And Cinnamon Buns

5 March, 2015 | Food blogger | 10 seen

Blog Online Income Report - February 2015 - $900.05

5 March, 2015 | Blogging | 19 seen

Welcome to already fourteen of my blog's online income report. Today I will cover earnings I made solely with my blog during month of February 2015.

I'm doing those report since start of 2014 and they (reports) help me track my online success or failures. I hope they can inspire others as well.

In total I earned $940.05 what is up by 25.02% if compared to my earnings in month of January, when I earned $752.65

$940.05 in a month equals to $33.57 in a day

Technically speaking, my February earnings would be the same as a minimum wage in Malta or a little bit more than average salary in Croatia. I haven't been to neither of these countries yet, but I would like to visit them one day for sure.

Blog Traffic February 2015 (Source: Google Analytics)

In February I got a major traffic drop, when overall traffic dropped my some -25% and resulted in 14,579 users. Despite a traffic drop I managed to earn more this month than last month - pretty interesting trend to observe I must admit.

On the other hand my blog is attracting pretty much international traffic, so for…

Lagidze Water near Sameba

4 March, 2015 | Restaurant reviews | 36 seen

Welcome to another post in Tbilisi restaurant series. Today I will speak about cafe Lagidze Water located at Sameba Cathedral complex. 

I had heard previously about Lagidze Water, but I didn't know much about it, just something that it was pretty popular drink during Soviet times (and probably Tsarist Russia times as well)

My knowledge was short like it's some syrup mix with water - well I'm not found of syrup waters but seems that in Georgia it's pretty much popular drink. According to Wikipedia

Lagidze water  is a popular Georgian soft drink based on soda and a variety of natural syrups. It has been traditionally mixed in a glass from a soda fountain, but it is also available as a bottled soft drink in a range of flavors. Some American food writers liken it to egg cream, but the authentic Georgian drink includes neither milk nor chocolate syrup

Anyway - here you can enjoy a tasty Adjarian khachapuri or Penovani as well accompanied with syrup water.

Lagidze Water in Tbilisi near Sameba Cathedral

Menu at Lagidze Water

Lagidze Water lemonades

Sameba - Holy Trinity Cathedral of Tbilisi

4 March, 2015 | Churches and Monasteries | 130 seen

Holy Trinity Cathedral of Tbilisi, commonly known as Sameba (Trinity in Georgian) probably is among the most known Tbilisi tourist attraction sites and of course it's the main cathedral of Georgian Orthodox Church.

For me it's always been interesting to look at Sameba from two points of view - it's third highest Orthodox cathedral in the world and it symbolizes Georgian national and spiritual revival.

Holy Trinity Cathedral of Tbilisi (Sameba)

Constructed between 1995 and 2004, it is the third-tallest Eastern Orthodox cathedral in the world and one of the largest religious buildings in the world by total area. Sameba is a synthesis of traditional styles dominating the Georgian church architecture at various stages in history and has some Byzantine undertones.

View towards city from Sameba

The idea to build a new cathedral to commemorate 1,500 years ofautocephaly of the Georgian Orthodox Church and 2,000 years from the birth of Jesus emerged as early as 1989, a crucial year for the national awakening of the…

Blog Traffic Report - February 2015 - 14,579 Users

2 March, 2015 | Blogging | 14 seen

Welcome to 17 my blog's traffic and statistics report. This time covering month of February 2015.

I'm doing monthly traffic and income reports to measure were I was, were I am and were I am heading too. Those reports keep me track my progress (or bounces), and hopefully can inspire some other bloger(s) as well.

This February come with a traffic dip, when overall traffic dropped by -26.36% and totalled in 14,579 unique users. 

Blog Traffic February 2015 (Source: Google Analytics)

14,579 users is a -26.36% drop if compared to month of January

It's a -5,219 user drop if compared to previous month

14,579 in a month equals to 520.67 users in a day, again it's a down from 638.64 users in day last month

I must admit, this traffic dip didn't come as a surprise for me, following words I said last month when forecasted results for this month (February):

Speaking of forecast for February - I will keep my forecast modest - 14,000 unique visitors or a little bit less (I'm afraid of traffic drop, and there are only 28…

Restaurant / Cafe 'Accent' Review in Tbilisi

1 March, 2015 | Restaurant reviews | 22 seen

Welcome to another Tbilisi Restaurant review. Today I will speak about a Cafe Accent. Though they call themselves a cafe - I prefer to use a word restaurant.

I believe this place is a new in Tbilisi opened just recently, we found it on local Georgian groupon clone site (hotsale.ge) - we bought a coupon for a steak, wine and a tiramisu.

Though Cafe Accent is located in the heart of Tbilisi Old Town on Gorgasali street, we had a problems of actually finding it. Our first attempt to locate this place ended unsuccessful, after being lost somewhere on Vahkang Gorgasali street next to Mtkvari river, we ended our first approach of finding Cafe Accent by having our supper at other restaurant Maspindzelo.

We decided to try our luck other day, and when that happened we again almost missed this place - the signboard on a facade from street of Cafe Accent is barely seen

Hard to read sign of Cafe Accent Tbilisi

Another hard readable sign of Cafe Accent

After a few lousy minutes of thinking is it really a restaurant we went inside, luckily inside interior was almost perfect

…

Maximizing Revenue: A Guide to Google Adsense Experiments

28 February, 2015 | Blogging | 16 seen

Google AdSense is a popular advertising network that allows website owners to display ads on their sites and earn money when users click on them. AdSense offers a wide range of ad formats and customization options to help publishers maximize their revenue. However, even with the best practices in place, it can be challenging to determine what ad types and placements work best for your audience.

This is where AdSense Experiments come in.

AdSense Experiments are a feature that allows publishers to test different ad types, ad sizes, and ad placements to see which configurations perform better. With Experiments, you can test different ad layouts on a subset of your traffic and measure the impact on revenue. This feature helps publishers optimize their AdSense revenue and understand the impact of ad changes on user experience.

To get started with AdSense Experiments, you'll need to have an active AdSense account and an ad unit that is receiving traffic. Here are the steps to set up an experiment:

Go to your AdSense account, click on "Ads" in the left-hand menu, and select "Experiments." Click the "New Experiment"…