Average Salary in European Union 2016

14 July, 2016 | Macroeconomics | 263 seen

My previous two articles about average salaries in European Union (EU) member countries turned out to be one of the most popular on the blog so far, I would even call them killer articles. 

The first post about average salary in EU for 2014 - got more than 85,000 page views; post about average salary in EU 2015 got more than 90,000 page views to the date

Update: Average Salary in European Union 2018

In today's article, I will wrap up latest data on the average salary in EU for 2016.

I wouldn't call this a scientific research, as most of the data in this article are taken from Wikipedia's article List of European countries by average wage. I have added years 2014 and 2015 from previous years and did some simple calculations in Google Sheets. I have listened to previous suggestions to extend the following table with population information for each country to get a better understanding.

2016, definitely is an interesting year for European Union, which will be remembered as the year of Brexit phenomena, when the United Kingdom in referendum decided to leave EU. Anyhow - for…

Duna de Bolonia

13 July, 2016 | Tourism objects | 26 seen

Duna de Bolonia is located in the Bolonia beach, some 20km west of Tarifa.

This dune is over 30 metres high and 200 metres wide, and stands out within the huge system of dunes to which it belongs. Located in the Bolonia Inlet, within the Estrecho Nature Park, this is one of the most unspoilt areas of the Cádiz coast, a vital natural habitat with stunning scenery.

Duna de Bolonia

The area is called "barjanal" on account of its half-moon-shaped dunes set perpendicular to the wind, with uneven slopes. It is one of the few transgressive systems in Andalusia, i.e., which are still advancing inland. Under the force of the easterly wind, it moves towards the ecologically important replanted groves of stone pine and scrub.

Wild cactus at Bolonia beach

Although some of Bolonia's sands are covered by exotic species to avoid them advancing further, the cliffs which are battered by the easterly wind have unusual vegetation such as Andalusian coastal juniper, Savin juniper and Portuguese crowberry. In more exposed areas, only Marram grass, sand couch and lotus grow.

Wooden…

Bolonia Beach near Tarifa

12 July, 2016 | Tourism objects | 10 seen

Bolonia beach or Playa Bolonia is located on the shores of Atlantic Ocean some 20 km west of Tarifa. We got here at the start of June, 2016 early in the morning, just after checked out from La Codorniz hotel.

The beach and bay is also known as Playa de Bolonia ("Bolonia Beach"), Ensenada de Bolonia ("Bolonia Cove"), or Bolonia Bay. We spent here about a few hours and got the tan for the rest of the Summer. Someone, actually, for the first time in her lifetime had an opportunity to actually swim in real Ocean. Congrats.

Once we arrived on site, there were a parking lot on rocks arranged by some local volunteers, luckily we got a free space, a couple of hours later, there were no free parking space left. Tip - arrive early. 

Coastal village Bolonia near Tarifa in Spain

This small village is known also as the location for the ruins of the Roman town of Baelo Claudia, which are located near the beach, considered to be the most complete Roman town ruins yet uncovered in Spain. 

Playa de Bolonia

The beach is about 3.8 kilometres (2.4 mi) in length…

Park Hotel in Yerevan Review

10 July, 2016 | Hotel reviews | 2 seen

In mid March, 2016 we visited Yerevan again, this time we booked a boutique hotel on Koghbatsi street - Park Hotel. 

We booked this hotel on booking.com for about EUR 80 per night, and stayed here for two or three nights (don't remember anymore) and used as our base for further Yerevan's exploration. There are two another hotels in Yerevan I can really suggest - Hotel Meg and Republica hotel. Yerevan's boutique hotels are among the best in the World I have ever stayed. 

Park hotel in Yerevan

This Yerevan hotel is centrally located, close to the lively Mashtots avenue and in 5 distance of 5 minute walk from central Republic Square. 

It might seems as a huge hotel building, in fact- Park Hotel is located just in the first two levels of this building.

King size bed and flat screen TV at Park hotel in Yerevan

A little nice room. All rooms include a fridge, a flat-screen TV with cable channels and a private bathroom. Some rooms feature a seating area to relax in after a busy day.

Bathroom

Couldn't resist to photograph a bathroom with a tripod in the…

LEMP Server Ubuntu 12.04 for serving Drupal on Nginx

9 July, 2016 | Servers | 21 seen

In this tutorial you will learn how to setup a LEMP stack on Ubuntu 12.04 for serving a Drupal site (s).

Update: I originally started this post to document my setup for actually configuring Nginx server on Ubuntu for Drupal site at the start of 2015. Many things have changed ,ever since, thus most of the written bellow will work.

LEMP is a variation of the ubiquitous LAMP stack used for developing and deploying web applications. Traditionally, LAMP consists of Linux, Apache, MySQL, and PHP. Due to its modular nature, the components can easily be swapped out. With LEMP, Apache is replaced with the lightweight yet powerful Nginx.

I have been serving Drupal websites running Nginx for years already, my favorite combination is a Linode VPS, Ubuntu and Nginx. For the past 3 years I have been running Ubuntu 10.04 Nginx 0.67 and PHP 5.2. It worked and still works great, but many things have advanced in those last 3 years, like for running a Drupal 8 I'm required to have a php 5.3 version at least. The support for Ubuntu 10.04 has ended on April 30, 2015, not to speak of my existing version of Nginx.

In fact the reason that made me to do…

La Codorniz Hotel Review in Tarifa

8 July, 2016 | Hotel reviews | 15 seen

We were driving around area of Tarifa, it was getting already dark, we hadn't yet booked any hotel. Our hope was that we will easily book some hotel on site. In fact we made a stop at some 3 roadside hotels. hostels but they all were fully booked. At every place I asked could they recommend me something in this area, and La Codrniz was one of the suggestions. 

We found La Codorniz hotel located just some 300 meters from beaches, about 5 km from town of Tarifa.

La Codorniz hotel near Tarifa, Spain

We got our room here for about EUR 65 per night, which included a free parking and breakfast.

Hotel Restaurant La Codorniz Tarifa is a family owned business that had its beginnings as a restaurant, gradually growing as the thirty seven rooms hotel that it is today. Hotel features twenty bungalow type rooms in the garden area near the pool, ideal for relaxing. Seven rooms with balconies with wonderful views to Morocco and Tarifa. Ten rooms with views to the interior and the mountains. All are spacious and comfortable with TV, telephone, mini fridge, air conditioning, heating and a private bathroom equipped with hairdryer.

16 Things to do in Batumi

7 July, 2016 | Travel guides | 52 seen

Batumi is a port city of Georgia, located on the shores of the Black sea.

Pebbled beaches energize you with their natural force and astonish with the beauty of seashells that can easily be found right in the rocks, especially after storms.

For choosing a hotel in Batumi see: 16 Best Batumi Beach / Seaside Hotels

Close to the sea, you will find a new boulevard with lots of boutiques and cafes whereas in the old boulevard you can peacefully have a rest in the shade of giant trees. Being in the center of different kinds of musical events you can always find something close to you in Batumi.

In this article, I've listed the top 16 things to do in Batumi

While you are there wandering around in Batumi, consider Batumi Real Estate Crypto Investment

Postcards from Batumi

6 July, 2016 | | 14 seen

At the start of March 2016, after about a two-year break I visited Batumi again.

This time I was equipped with a DSLR camera, a tripod, and two days of free time.

I decided to capture as much as I can. Result? In the pictures below. 

Sunset in Batumi

This photo was taken from the top of the mountain at Argo Entertainment center (you can get there by a cable car)

Batumi Miracle Park

A lot of wonders around here. The Chacha tower, alphabetic tower and a tower was once meant to wear the name of Trump

Rocky Black Sea coast in Batumi

Love to lay back in these pebbles.

Bike rental in Batumi

In 2022, they still have bike rentals available, but more popular seems are electric scooters

​

Batumi beach

Love sculpture - Ali and Nino

Fishermen

Author of this blog captured in action

Batumi port

Streets of Batumi

Batumi theater and Radisson building

Square in Batumi

Batumi Botanical Garden

Batumi Railway…

Spooky Images from Tarifa, Spain

5 July, 2016 | | 5 seen

We were heading from Gibraltar towards Tarifa, still searching for accommodation for tonight when we were surprised by a natural phenomenon - the mist.

Mist rolling over highway

Mist rolling over highway

It was getting late and dark, we decided to make a stop at local store to buy some goodies and I got an opportunity to capture another natural phenomena - clouds covering the Sun

Sun covered by clouds

Dwelling houses

Gibraltar

3 July, 2016 | Tourism objects | 15 seen

I have never been to the United Kingdom, today, thus, I had a chance to step a foot on British Overseas territory - Gibraltar. Nope, they are driving the same as in the rest of Europe (left side wheel), but some particles of British taste you can enjoy here definitely. 

Approaching Gibraltar from Spain (The Rock of Gibraltar)

There is a quick border control between Spain and Gibraltar. Passengers are not obligated to leave the vehicle. It took about 2 minutes for us to cross this border, and we were in.

Gibraltar is a British Overseas Territory located on the southern end of the Iberian peninsula. It has an area of 6.7 km2 (2.6 sq mi) and shares its northern border with Spain. The Rock of Gibraltar is the major landmark of the region. At its foot is a densely populated city area, home to over 30,000 Gibraltarians and other nationalities.

View to the Strait of Gibraltar

The Strait of Gibraltar is a narrow strait that connects the Atlantic Ocean to the Mediterranean Sea and separates Gibraltar and…

Cafe-Bar El Hacho, Gaucin

2 July, 2016 | Restaurant reviews | 12 seen

Cafe-Bar El Hacho in Gaucin proudly bears hundredth cafe name featured on blog. See all the rest 100 restaurant reviews.

We made a quick stop here, just shortly we left Ronda (Ronda Bridge) and took a small tapas and coffee con - lece's here. 

Inside sun terrace with outdoor pool

Outdoor pool

Light meal and freshly squeezed orange juice

Our bill here - around EUR 10.00

Cafe-Bar El Hacho in Gaucin, Spain

How to Fix Missing MarkeClusterer Icons for Drupal Gmap Module

1 July, 2016 | Drupal Development | 5 seen

I have been using Drupal + Mapping for years already. My most favorite combination Location + Gmap module for entering and displaying location info. 

Recently I did upgrade for Gmap module for this blog and things went wrong - customized province names disappeared and... Marker Clusterer icons were gone soon afterwards. My first thoughts were that latest Gmap module have done something wrong, turned out I was wrong. My next idea was it's related to Advanced Aggregation module - again wrong.

Finally the problem as it seems is related to - https://www.drupal.org/node/2734133 - Google has moved its source to github.

The MarkerClusterer library not shows the cluster icons because it has moved to github as it described here.

As it was pointed out by user chrbak on Drupal.

Today I decided finally to get back Marker Clusterer, because without it - it just looks ugly and breaks things apart.

Broken Marker Clusterer icons

Above you can see my travel map, unfortunately marker cluster is broken. Let's fix this.

To do that download the library file (markerclusterer.js)…

Puente Nuevo (Ronda Bridge)

30 June, 2016 | Tourism objects | 28 seen

The Puente Nuevo (New Bridge) or as we called it - Ronda Bridge is the newest and largest of three bridges that span the 120-metre (390 ft)-deep chasm that carries the Guadalevín River and divides the city of Ronda, in southern Spain.

We had a chance to visit the Puente Nuevo at the start of June (temperature that day was about 40 Celsius), for me, as for an eager excelling photographer this was a nice place to put my knowledge in place.

Let's start with panoramic photography:

Puente Nuevo

The architect was José Martin de Aldehuela, who died in Málaga in 1802. The chief builder was Juan Antonio Díaz Machuca.

The bridge was started in 1751 and took 42 years to build. Fifty workers were killed during its construction. There is a chamber above the central arch that was used for a variety of purposes, including as a prison. 

Tourists gathering at Ronda Bridge

Above from the bridge you can get spectacular views. 

During the 1936-1939 civil war both sides allegedly used the prison as a torture…

Siempre Igual Tapas Bar in Ronda

29 June, 2016 | Restaurant reviews | 15 seen

We visited Ronda, town in Spain' with one particular goal - to visit and photograph the bridge of Ronda. It was very hot day at start of June. We parked our car in a good distance from our destination and started to explore Ronda. One of our first stops were at Siempre Igual tapas bar.

It was already midday, a siesta has been started already so we opted for some tapas. 

Siempre Igual Tapas Bar in Ronda

Mussel tapas

For about 6 EUR, you can get such dish with mussels. Delicious. 

Tapas

Veggies and octopus... for following dish, price about EUR 1.5

Mini chorizo tapa

Price for above tapa - one euro. Amazing.

Once in Ronda, make sure you check out Siempre Igual Tapas bar.

Postcards from Spain

28 June, 2016 | | 8 seen

I wish I was writting down names of all those lovely places, we visited in Costa Del Sol in Spain, as I marked just the major spots. Today we were heading from Marbela, via Estepona towards Ronda, I made following pictures somewhere in the middle.

Pink boat

Costa Del Sol beach

White village in Spain