Postcards from Vilnius
Piece of Life has already featured postcards from two other Baltic state's capital cities, see Postcards from Tallinn and Postcards from Riga.In today's postcards from series - cards from Vilnius, Lithuanian capital city.For the third year in a row I have been celebrating my birthday in some of the former Soviet Union's country capital city, it all started with Yerevan (Armenia), followed by Tallinn (Estonia) and this year I was in Vilnius (OK, this was a longer trip, spending some time in rural Lithuania as well). It was my birthday morning, we left a country house somewhere near Kaunas, see: Country House 'Guronys' Near Pasuliai in Lithuania and dive in Vilnius,Busy tourist street in…
Sioni Water Reservoir (Georgia)
I had never been to this area of Georgia before, the lucky day come and I negotiated with our driver to visit town of Tianeti. It was from Tianeti driver suggested us to visit Sioni lake, or more precisely Sioni water reservoir. In short - another spectacular place to see and visit while in Georgia.I didn't find much background of this place, thus I'm guessing this is an artificial water lake, built during soviet era, probably in 1950-ties.The dam is built on Iori river .Anyhow I was here for new impression and for some photography..Sioni water reservoir in GeorgiaSioni reservoir gets its feed basically from river Iori. Iori is a river rich with fish. It is a habitat of…
Opening Bank Account in Georgia - Bank of Georgia
This is already the third time I have opened a bank account in Georgia as an individual. This time at the Bank of Georgia.
Let me explain - I'm already using two local banks - Procredit bank and Bank Republic.
If you need consultancy or help with opening a bank account in Georgia, visit the Terramatris website: Opening Bank Account in Georgia
Unfortunately, my default bank for check operations, Bank Republic, has been sold to another large Georgian bank - TBC bank. I opened an account at Bank Republic about two years ago with one single aim - to redeem checks sent from the US. This September I read the news and learned that Bank Republic is merging with TBC bank, and…
Hotel Review - Leflet Valme in Dos Hermanas, Spain
Leflet Valme is a 3-star hotel located in a small town of Dos Hermanas in province of Sevile, Spain.We booked this hotel for one night prior of visiting Seville next morning. Our road took us here from Cadiz, and in fact we almost missed exit to Dos Hermanas town, luckily rental car's tomtom device helped us to locate both town and hotel.In short a decent hotel for a decent money.Leflet Valme hotel in Dos Hermanas, SpainThe hotel is easily accessible from A-4 motorway and SE-30 road. Seville is 12 km from the property and can be reached by public transport. There is a bus stop 1 minute on foot from the property. Leflet Valme hotelFree continental breakfast with coffee and tea…
Vilnius TV Tower and Observation Platform
The Vilnius TV Tower is a 326.5 m (1,071 ft) tower in the Karoliniškės microdistrict of Vilnius, Lithuania. It is the tallest structure in Lithuania, and is occupied by the SC Lithuanian Radio and Television Centre.It was my birthday morning when by chance we made a visit to Vilnius TV tower. We simply get lost in Vilnius, as we tried to find city center (remember no tomtoms or what-so-ever devices here). Somehow we discovered that it's just here, well not the city center, but the tallest structure in Lithuania.Vilnius TV towerThe TV tower played a major role in the events of 13 January 1991, when 14 unarmed civilians lost…
Public Service Hall in Tianeti
Georgia is well know of its unique style and design for Public service halls across the country.The most famous probably is the Tbilisi Public service hall (Ups, I don't have a separate article about it yet, but yes, there is a good reason to make one soon). I was surprised when noticed a futuristic public service hall in Tianeti (small rural town located some 75km from nations capital Tbilisi), as the only cool sites I have found so far in Tianeti were Kuzh Park and a lovely roadside cafeteria Vanessa. Tianeti Public Service HallTianeti public service hall have been built and opened for public just recently (in 2015) the cost for the State budget was GEL 2,735,114 (About USD…
Country House 'Guronys' Near Pasuliai in Lithuania
Guronys is located on a 7 hectare area and offers rooms and historic, wooden cottages with authentic décor of a Lithuanian village house. It is located on the bank of the lake, 8 km from Vilnius - Kaunas motorway and booking.com says it offers boat and waterbike rental, as well as a waterslide.It was on our second day trip around Lithuania, when we booked this guesthouse, while eating Some Chinese food in Kaunas. It was a day before my birthday and we wanted o have some romantic and probably even a remote place. The price seemed a bit too low for a good country house (we paid just EUR 27), I felt a bit antirust at start - what can you get for 27 EUR - I guess pretty much nothing…
Kuzh Park in Tianeti
Kuzh park is located in the town of Tianeti, Georgia.We first discovered it at the end of October 2016, and ever since we have been returning here once in a while, especially now with our baby girl. I didn't find much info about this park on the internet, thus at the end of October I visited it, made some photographs, and decided to extend my Georgia travel app, by adding this place on map.There is a lovely cafeteria - Vanessa located just before the entrance to this park.Children's playground and wind broomsThis place is spectacular in every season. But best visited in Spring / SummerCarvingsPark is well maintained, there are interesting carved objects, children attractions,…
Lithuanian Wedding
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 KaunasCastle of KaunasTo frame the above picture, I had to use a tripod and panoramic photography technique - in the background, the groom's friends. NewlywedsLock of loveMaybe it's time for me to excel as a…
Ankara Turkish Restaurant in Tbilisi
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 riceDietary and tasty.Turkish DolmaI 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…
Viva Kaunas - City Under Your Feet
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 restaurantI instead took tripod and made a panoramic photography here with a…
Harvesting Mushrooms in Georgia
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…
Le Montrachet Tbilisi Restaurant Review
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…
Rural Tourism in Lithuania - Karpyne
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…
How to Install & Config Drupal 8 on Ubuntu 14.04 + Ngnix
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…
Mastis Lake in Telšiai, Lithuania
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 MastisCaptured from the parking lot of Guesthouse Sinchronas, we stayed here for one night in August, 2016.Recreational area near lake MastisProbably you can rent some boat here and enjoy a lovely boat ride.
Guesthouse Sinchronas in Telšiai, Lithuania Review
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…
5 Days In Georgia Itinerary List - Make Most Of Your Trip
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…
Telavi Market (Buy Georgian Churchkhelas , Spices or House Wine)
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…
Kindzmarauli Corporation Wine House in Kvareli, Georgia
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…