Postcards from Cadiz

10 September, 2016 | | 20 seen

My latest trip to Spain took us to the sunny and astonishing city of Cadiz. In today's Piece of Life series - a fraction, os simply Postcards from Cadiz.

Square in Cadiz

Cádiz is a city and port in southwestern Spain. It is the capital of the province of Cádiz, one of eight which make up the autonomous community of Andalusia.

White arch in Cadiz

Cádiz, the oldest continuously inhabited city in Spain and one of the oldest in western Europe,has been a principal home port of the Spanish Navy since the accession of the Spanish Bourbons in the 18th century. The city is a member of the Most Ancient European Towns Network.

Cadiz, Spain

Situated on a narrow slice of land surrounded by the sea‚ Cádiz is, in most respects, a typically Andalusian city with a wealth of attractive vistas and well-preserved historical landmarks. The older part of Cádiz within the remnants of the city walls is commonly referred to as the Old Town (Spanish: Casco Antiguo). It is characterized by the antiquity of its various quarters (barrios), among them El…

Port of Cadiz Bay

9 September, 2016 | Railway / Bus / Ferry | 3 seen

We used Port of Cadiz Bay (Puerto de Cadiz) twice - first for entering from El Puerto de Santa Maria, second for leaving back to, yes you re right, back to the El Puerto Santa Maria again.

At Reina Victoria pier in Cadiz-City Basin, there is a metropolitan maritime station from Cádiz, that attends to the passengers between Cádiz, El Puerto de Santa María and Rota, with modern catamarans. It has it access from Sevilla square and it is five minutes walking from the center of the city.

Inside terminal building

Passengers leaving Port of Cadiz Bay terminal

Puerto de Cadiz

See more: http://www.puertocadiz.com/opencms/PuertoCadiz/en/

Average Monthly Salary in Former Soviet Union Republics 2016

8 September, 2016 | Macroeconomics | 173 seen

About two years ago I first compared average monthly salary in Former Soviet Union Republics. Now, two years later, I decided to compare again. I was surprised after seeing results. Let me explain.

First - call it as you wish - major world economic crisis, sanctions against Russia, better integrated or worst integrated parts of the World, but after seeing huge drops in all but Baltic States and Armenia's average salary for me it seems, those countries are still very closely related with Russia, at least in economical plan, and I'm not saying it is good nor it's bad. It's just how it looks for me. 

If exchanged to US dollar Russia's monthly average salary in Russian roubles  in past two years have dropped by whooping -359 USD. If you are interested in former Soviet Union space, you have probably heard about events in Ukraine, sanctions against Russia and Russian rouble troubles against American dollar. Those of you who follows my blog, had probably read about my worries about weak Georgian Lari against American dollar. 

Not only national currencies have lost their…

Castle of San Marcos (El Puerto de Santa María)

7 September, 2016 | Tourism objects | 20 seen

While waiting for our ferry departing for Cadiz, we had a chance to visit a local fair in El Puerto de Santa Maria). I made some interesting photography here. One of the first tourism objects I noticed in El Puerto was Castle of San Marcos.

Castle of San Marcos (also Castillo de Alfonso X El Sabio) is a medieval castle located in El Puerto de Santa María, Cádiz, Spain. The castle was erected as a fortified church by King Alfonso X of Castile. It was built on the site of a mosque of which the wall of the qibla survives.

Front view of Castle of San Marco

The castle was declared a national monument on 30 August 1920 and is currently listed in the Spanish heritage register as a Bien de Interés Cultural.

Statue of Alfonso X of Castile

Alfonso X (also occasionally Alphonso X, Alphonse X, or Alfons X,23 November 1221 – 4 April 1284), called the Wise(Spanish: el Sabio), was the King of Castile, León and Galicia from 30 May 1252 until his death. During the Imperial election of 1257, a dissident faction…

How I Made $1,000 with Google AdSense in 7 years

6 September, 2016 | Blogging | 6 seen

Yes, I know the title doesn't sounds too much promising. Do a quick Google search and there will be zillion of results pointing out how to make $1,000 a day, or at least in a month. No to speak about - how to make a million dollar from Google AdSense. I'm here to tell you my story how I made humble thousand dollars in seven years. Dude, I feel sorry for me.

Round a year ago I covered an article about Google AdSense achievements, it turned out I was using Google AdSense for already 6 years. Now it's already seven years, that's about 1/4 of my life or about one half of my adult life. 

Now to put a little bit of light of this sad entry I must tell that about 2/3 of this money I have made in last 365 days.

Here is how it all started: It was a late night of September 4th, 2009, when I finally decided to give it a try for Google AdSense. Back then I had dozens of different "projects", mostly powered on WordPress, I was exploring different niches and put a lot of time on too much directions. I decided to try to monetize my efforts - and of course I was thinking, yet yet - I will make those million dollars overnight. …

Ferry from El Puerto de Santa Maria to Cadiz

4 September, 2016 | Railway / Bus / Ferry | 222 seen

The other day we arrived to El Puerto de Santa Maria just for one reason, we had red in some travel guide, that if approaching from Jerez to Cadiz, a nice option to have is to take a ferry leaving El Puerto and connecting with Cadiz.

It took us some time to actually figure out where the terminal building is located and to find a free parking space for our rental car. Once we found both, we had some free time before ferry departing and luckily we got a chance to see a local fair, see Fair in El Puerto de Santa Maria.

Yachts (boats) at Bay of Cadiz

Terminal Maritima El Puerto de Santa Maria

For a timetable please visit: B-042 - Cádiz-El Puerto de Santa María

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A bull

While you are waiting for departure you can make a lovely photo session next to the bull (located at Terminal parking)

Ticket price

If I remember right, ticket price is EUR 2.65 round-trip (as of 11.06.2016)

Passengers entering ferry/catamaran

The sailing takes actually pretty long (about 45 minutes) during which you can get spectacular views of the Bay of Cadiz, City of Cadiz and of…

Fair in El Puerto de Santa Maria

3 September, 2016 | | 13 seen

Right, its time to continue our latest adventures from our latest Spain trip (visiting region of Andalusia). In today's Piece of Life series a trade fair in small town of El Puerto de Santa Maria.

We left Jerez early in the morning and followed by the advices on the internet decided to get to the Cadiz today, and one of the options was by making a stop at El Puerto de Santa Maria, from which a ferry departs to the city of Cadiz.

We arrived around 10:00 AM at El Puerto de Santa Maria, searched a while for a free parking lot and got one a bit out of the city center next to the matador and bull statue. 

Matador and bull statue

There is some arena actually behind this statue, but forgive me - I forgot the name, as we didn't planned actually a trip here.

Iglesia Mayor Prioral

I made a nice panoramic photo out of this, which according to the Wikipedia is Priory Church - religious building in El Puerto de Santa María, province of Cádiz, Spain. It is documented from 1486 when the building was under construction. It was damaged by an earthquake in the 17th century and was partly rebuilt in…

Campsite 'Miera Osta' near Pāvilosta

2 September, 2016 | Tourism objects | 29 seen

I'm a huge admirer of Latvian seashore town of Pāvilosta. I guess I first discovered it just last year. This Summer we spent many trips to Pāvilosta and vicinity - just by doing nothing - wandering around. 

The other weekend we found a new road end and decided to give it a try - at the end we were met by the campsite Miera Osta located near white sand Baltic seashore, some 240km from nation's capital Riga.

Tree house

Kids will enjoy this, and you can actually rent this tree house for about EUR 50. I had a chance to met with the owners of Miera Osta, and I was told that because of campsite being located at the nature reserve, it is forbidden to dig a well (for example) or have an electricity. And yes, it's forbidden to build any fundamental structure, that's why - owners have built a tree house, as long as it doesn't touch the ground - it's fine. Really creative folks there.

Playground at Miera Osta

Bathhouse on the wheels

As I already told - really smart guys here. You can rent a bathhouse next to the sea for about EUR 30 (2 hours). I definitely want to try this one, so let me…

Deep in the Forest

1 September, 2016 | | 6 seen

I'm not a huge fan of wild woods, instead, I prefer parks, thus this time I agreed to accompany a person in a thing called mushroom gathering, and believe it or not - I even got a nice catch of mushrooms. 

In today's Piece of Life series - a hunt for mushrooms in the deepest forests in Courland (Latvia)

Ferns in the woods

Observant viewer will find chanterelles under these ferns.

Red-Capped Scaber Stalks

Polypore

The Polyporales are an order of fungi in the division Basidiomycota, subclass Agaricomycetidae. The order includes some (but not all) polypores as well as many corticoid fungi and a few agarics (mainly in the genus Lentinus). Species within the order are saprotrophic, most of them wood-rotters. Those of economic importance include several important pathogens of forest and amenity trees and a few species that cause damage by rotting structural timber. Some of the Polyporales are commercially cultivated and marketed for use as food items or in traditional Chinese…

Gravel and Crushed Stone For Foundation

31 August, 2016 | Home Remodeling | 9 seen

This Summer I will need a lot of gravel and crushed stone for home remodeling tasks, mainly for foundation sealing works.

Some time ago (while digging a pond),  I negotiated a few cubic meters of gravel from neighbor, who was sealing surface of the road meanwhile, it turned out that neighbors' gravel was not ideal for foundation as it consisted from clay particles, and we decided re-use clay/gravel for rock garden instead. 

I had no chance but to look for other source for gravel and crushed stone. I found a gravel quarry and ordered a load of gravel and crushed stone. Today I got the delivery. Cool. 

Pile of gravel and crushed stone

In total it's about 3 cubic meters of gravel and about one cubic meter crushed stone. 

Crushed stone

Now, I have already started digging trenches around existing house foundation, and next is to buy a concrete mixer and a lot of sacks of concrete powder. Exciting!

Sponge Cake With Wild Berries

30 August, 2016 | Food blogger | 14 seen

Here comes another post on food blogger series, and again I must admit I'm not the original creator of following sponge cake, my better part is. 

Sponge cake with wild berries

Really cool cake, here is photos and cooking directions:

Biscuit dough:

4 eggs, 4 tbs. flour, 4 tbs. sugar

Cooking directions:

Separate egg white form the egg yolk. Whip egg white to hard foam. Separately whip yolks with 4 tablespoons of sugar. Fold into the egg yolks Whipped egg whites and flour. Bake for about 10-15 minutes in 180-200 degrees. When done baking cut into 3 equal parts.

Cream: Sweet cream with vanilla and sugar.

Between the layers of sponge smear cream.Daub with cream also the top of the cake and decorate with berries. In our case - wild raspberries + blueberries.

Sponge cake with wild berries

Voila - the taste of Summer and yummy.

Digging a trench around existing foundation - Building a bathroom from scratch - part 4

29 August, 2016 | Home Remodeling | 12 seen

Here comes another update on building a bathroom from scratch series in project home remodeling. The thing is - the house we got didn't pamper us a lot, and so for example I had to install new supporting beams, not to speak about changing a roof, prior to before ever dreaming about having a bathroom. OK, I had a vision about a bathroom once we replaced roof last year, but to actually feature bathroom, we have to build many new things, among them - completely replace old and rotten wood beams with AAC blocks.

Sealing old foundation is one of the top priorities before building new AAC walls. Today I took the shovel and started digging:

Searching for a basement

Another reason I wanted to dig today - we still haven't find the old basement (as I believe old houses like this, must feature a basement). I had a vision a basement could be at the place you can see I have dug off the soil. It turned out there is just a lot old bricks and nothing else. Still strange about those old bricks.

Trench around old foundation and electricity cable

I will ask to the best electrician I know - my dad to re-install this cable…

Concreting Foundation For a Garden Pizza Oven - Part 2

28 August, 2016 | Home Remodeling | 7 seen

This Summer I excelled in concreting works, the major concreting works involves concreting stone wall inside our rural country house and concreting house foundation (more on that in upcoming posts from home remodeling series)

In spare time from major home reconstruction works this Summer we decided to build a cool and fancy garden pizza oven, connected with a water supply (sink) and electricity - making a cool outdoor kitchen with a lot of space for not only baking pizzas but doing some other exciting things.

Some time ago I built a foundation form using old clay bricks from chimney we took down inside house. It took me some 2 weeks before I continued works on garden pizza oven, and today I had a free time and will to concrete foundation using ready made mortar (mixing it together with water). Tools I used - a bucket, hand drill with a mixer.

We had decided to extend a little bit our garden oven, to have some space to store firewood (under) and a place for a sink. I took the shovel and dug off about a meter of soil.

Extending garden oven

I will use the same old clay bricks to fill up the empty space.

Forest Mushrooms - Penny Bun & Red-Capped Scaber Stalk

27 August, 2016 | | 32 seen

A few days ago I reported a photo story with a harvest of mushrooms from our backyard, then we gathered fungus called Slippery Jack, in today's Piece of Life series - a harvest from deepest woods of Courland (Latvia), meet Penny Bun & Red-Capped Scaber Stalk.

And again, those mushrooms were actually gathered by my better part and not me. I was actually drilling holes in a stone wall meanwhile:

Penny Buns and Red-Capped Scaber Stalk

Red Capped scaber stalk or Leccinum aurantiacum, is a species of fungus in the genus Leccinum. It is found in forests of Europe, North America and Asia and has a large, characteristically red-capped fruiting body. In North America, it is sometimes referred to by the common name red-capped scaber stalk. There are some uncertainties regarding the taxonomic classification of this species in Europe as well as in North America. This is a favorite species for eating and can be prepared as other edible boletes. Its flesh turns very dark on cooking.

Penny Bun - Boletus edulis, cep, porcino or porcini is a basidiomycete …

Beam Strengthening on Stone Wall - Building Bathroom from Scratch - Part 3

26 August, 2016 | Home Remodeling | 37 seen

The never ending story with my adventures on home remodeling and building a bathroom continues. In todays part 3 I will tell you a brief photo story how I strengthened a beam on the stone wall.

See part 1 and learn more how I actually concreted this stone wall, while in part 2 see how we actually installed first bearing beams above bathroom ceiling. I'm of course talking not only about bathroom, but about a stronger and stable house as well (as bathroom will be built later into this space)

Tonight I didn't sleep, I was thinking all night along on how should I will replace outer wood walls with AAC blocks. Previous day I had bought masonry drill and special glue for concreting bolts (left from previous year's roof works)

I was eager to start drilling that huge stone wall at 4:00 AM, thus I waited until 7:00, and the I striated. Should I mention - my partner was not very pleased about my morning activities?

Drilling holes for bolts

I had to use two types of drills - wood drill and masonry drill. I drilled for about 6-7 cm each and later with help of a special masonry glue concreted bolts in the stone wall…