14 Tallinn Trip Ideas for your next travel to Estonian Capital

4 March, 2016 | Travel guides | 2 seen

Are you planing your first trip to Tallinn, trying to figure out what to see, where to go and where to stay overnight? In this guide I have added few cool Tallinn's attractions, shopping venue and really cool restaurants.

I spent two days in Tallinn, during Summer of 2015 to celebrate my 30th birthday. In those two days I reviewed 14 places where we headed to, stayed in or had a lovely meal.

Hope this guide might help you plan your next trip to Tallinn.

Alternatively you can check my Estonia's travel guide here

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P.S. Here is my birthday cake

Birthday cake

You might find interesting my previous birthday guide to Armenian capital city of Yerevan: Celebrating Birthday in Yerevan, Armenia - Roundup

Cafe Cinema in Tbilisi

3 March, 2016 | Restaurant reviews | 24 seen

Cafe Cinema is sharing one building with Carrefour store on the Kolhoznaya square (I know there is a new name for this square, but I never can remember the name). I have been going shopping for groceries time by time to this Carrefour store (although I prefer either Tbilisi Mall or recently opened East Point - both located in suburbs of Tbilisi), and just recently I discovered that there is not only Carrefour located in this building, but that there are actually some more boutique shops in store's second and thirds floors.

So I went to the second floor and discovered Cafe Cinema - I have no clue is there actually any cinema hidden in this building as well, but speaking of this cafeteria - it rocks. Prices are very affordable, atmosphere is great and they even have English language newspapers. And yes, this is a rare place where Coke is served with ice. Nice.

Menu at Cafe Cinema

Basically the menu is very simple, you can get crepes, wraps, cocktails, coffee and tea. Menu is written in Georgian only, but staff speaks both English and Russian. Menu is pretty illustrative so you can see…

Giorgi Leonidze Park (Former Alexander Garden)

3 March, 2016 | Tourism objects | 70 seen

Ok, I just learnt this place is renamed after Georgian poet Giorgi Leonidze, although I most often call this park -  Alexander Garden. 

Parks of April 9 and Giorgi Leonidze (former Alexander Park) were cultivated in 1859 by the project of the architect O. Simenson. In 1865 the garden got its final form. It covered about 36.000 m2 areas. The garden was named in honour of the Emperor Alexander I. In the 30-eth of the XX century, after uniting the market and Dzneladze (present Tabukashvili) streets, the Alexander Park was divided into upper and lower platforms.

Monument to Giorgi Leonidze in Tbilisi

Giorgi Leonidze (December 27, 1899 – August 9, 1966) was a Georgian poet, prose writer, and literary scholar.

Leonidze was born in the village of Patardzeuli in the eastern Georgian province of Kakheti. He graduated from the Tbilisi Theological Seminary in 1918 and continued his studies at the Tbilisi State University. His first poems appeared in Georgian press in 1911, and then, briefly collaborated with the Symbolist group Blue Horns. His real talent emerged in…

Carpe Diem Café in San Bonifacio

2 March, 2016 | Restaurant reviews | 14 seen

I have never kept in secret my love for the local restaurants and cafes where tourists barely step their foot in. We did find a few great local Italian restaurants during a week long trip in Italy and when we arrived to San Bonifacio (checked in at our hotel, see Best Western Soave Hotel, San Bonifacio ) we decided to explore our options and find some great restaurant nearby.

It was alright late night on January 1st - and after some 20 minute driving around San Bonifacio it seemed we wont find any place that will be opened today. Luckily we noticed this place - meet Carpe Diem Cafe in San Bonifacio.

At Carpe Diem Cafe in San Bonifacio, Italy

A very few locals had been gathered here tonight and talked the usual stuff, locals usually do at such places.Some were looking to good looking waitress and ordered more bear so could just be in contact with her, and so on. The local cafe's rock!

We were hungry - and ordered a lot - nobody from the personnel spoke English but we understood each other by signs. 

Something superb delicious at Carpe Diem cafe

They…

Best Western Soave Hotel, San Bonifacio

2 March, 2016 | Hotel reviews | 13 seen

We booked this Best Western franchise hotel in San Bonifacio, Italy through secret deals on Hotwire, on January 1st, 2016, we chose this hotel because of it's close location to Verona and affordable price (about $60).

I love using Hotwire, in most cases there are great value deals, but it was not like this time. We got a small, bad equipped room from Hotel Soave. No, I'm not complaining, our stay was pretty OK. But it was far from the expected.

Hotel Soave is 200 m from San Bonifacio Railway Station and 800 m from the A4 motorway exit. It offers free parking, free internet, a fitness centre and a varied buffet breakfast.

Queen size bed

We made a mistake on reservation and selected queen size bed... when at the reception I asked could we get a King Size bed, thus it was our fault - receptionist didn't agree to change this room.

On booking.com it' s told that all rooms feature king size bed - well, in reality it's false

All rooms of the Soave Hotel feature a king-size bed, a 20" LCD TV with Sky channels, and an MP3 and DVD player. Playstation games are available to rent from reception.

Sky…

Barbarestan - Wine Shop and Restaurant in Tbilisi

1 March, 2016 | Restaurant reviews | 54 seen

Vintage lovers and hipsters - rejoice, I just discovered another "fashionable" not to miss place in Tbilisi - Barbarestan - wine shop and restaurant on Aghanashebeli avenue.

Well this place actually didn't pop up on my radar by accident - I have heard of this place before, mostly positive reviews, but the real reasons I wanted to visit this place, on a lovely Saturday morning we couldn't decide where should we go today - so after this epic struggle - what to do next, I decided to try luck on Google - I decided to search for "breakfasts in Tbilisi" - let me assure how happy I was somebody (TripAdvisor) was created such list for me. 

Barbarestan ranked fourth on this list, and since it is was close to our apartment - we decided - its Barberastan time.

Outdoor signboard at Barbarestan

Menu at restaurant Barbarestan

Prices for food at restaurant Barberastan compared to other Tbilisi restaurants are well above average, like a cup of Turkish coffee here - 3GEL, Kubdari - 15 GEL. In fact, I didn't find here any breakfast menu items, so I wonder how this restaurant could rank #4 on…

Alexander Nevsky Russian Orthodox Church in Tbilisi

1 March, 2016 | Churches and Monasteries | 195 seen

Alexander Nevsky Russian Orthodox Church is located in the neighborhood of Marjanishivli in Tbilisi, Republic of Georgia. Commonly referred to just as "Russian Church".

Along with the church of St. Vladimir in the neighborhood of Vera it is one of two churches in Tbilisi, where the service is performed entirely in Church Slavonic language.

Alexander Nevsky Russian Orthodox Church in Tbilisi

Originally built in 1864 by the donations of the faithful, additional the Holy Synod has allocated 5000 rubles. In 1886, the church bell tower was added. There are two refectory: Alexander Nevsky and St. Nicholas, which was built in 1900 in honor of the Emperor Nicholas II. In 1913, next to the church was built a chapel in honor to the 300th anniversary of the Romanov dynasty.

Alexander Nevsky Russian Orthodox Church in Tbilisi

There are several shrines in the church: the relics of Mary Magdalene, St. Nina, St. Nicholas, St. Shio Mgvime and others.

How to Speed up your Drupal site: CDN integration using KeyCDN

29 February, 2016 | Drupal Development | 10 seen

In today's Drupal development series I will show how easy you can setup a true CDN for your Drupal site using third party CDN provider -  KeyCDN. 

Get a free $10 bonus by signing up for KeyCDN

A content delivery network or content distribution network (CDN) is a globally distributed network of proxy servers deployed in multiple data centers. The goal of a CDN is to serve content to end-users with high availability and high performance. CDNs serve a large fraction of the Internet content today, including web objects (text, graphics and scripts), downloadable objects (media files, software, documents), applications (e-commerce, portals), live streaming media, on-demand streaming media, and social networks.

KeyCDN is a high-performance Content Delivery Network (CDN) and is one of the most affordable content delivery service on the market. With network spawning in Europe, Americas, Asia and Australia, with more networks planned KeyCDN seems has a very bright future in CDN market.…

Shopping in Tallinn: Ülemiste Mall

29 February, 2016 | Shopping Venues | 25 seen

Ulemiste shopping mall is the biggest in Estonia, it features more than 210 stores and has a parking lot capable of handling 1300 cars. 

I don't remember actually why we chose exactly Ulemiste as our shopping destination in Tallinn, most probably somebody recommended it because of Ulemiste being the largest one. We get here by using public bus leaving somewhere from the city center (Don't remember anymore bus number, but ticket price was about one euro)

Ulemiste shopping mall in Tallinn, Estonia

Bigger and better than ever before, the new Ülemiste Centre is the largest fashion and family centre in Estonia.

• A modern, spacious and inspiring shopping and entertainment venue
• A wide variety of merchandise, offering a multifaceted shopping experience
• Relaxing areas to eat and meet
• Shops are grouped into zones according to category
• Estonia's largest selection of fashion goods
• Estonia’s largest selection of footwear
• Estonia’s largest selection of children's goods (including clothing)
• Estonia’s largest selection of sporting goods…

China Inn Restaurant in Tallinn

29 February, 2016 | Restaurant reviews | 29 seen

Are you looking for a Chinese restaurant in Estonian capital city of Tallinn? China Inn restaurant located in Tallinn's Old Town might be the right answer.

First discovered this venue back in Summer of 2015, during a two day trip to Tallinn. Chinese food is among my favorite food of the World  - here at China Inn in Tallinn you can get the same you would get in any other regular Chinese restaurant across the Globe. That's one of the reason I love Chinese restaurants - they have developed restaurant standards almost the same as McDonald's have.

China Inn Restaurant is located on the lively Viru street in Tallinn's Old Town

Street Signboard for China Inn restaurant in Tallinn

The menu items are present in Estonian, English and Russian languages. You can get here - soups, starters and salads, pork & beef, also vegetables dishes and combos. We opted for some combos made from shredded beef and noodles + Coke.

Noodles and shredded beef

China Inn in Tallinn is a nice and clean place where to have a typical Chinese cuisine. Our bill here about EUR 30. Definitely will…

Italian Cemetery

28 February, 2016 | | 5 seen

Life is not always about life, sometimes it's about death. Although not a huge fan of cemetery photography, I mus admit  - cemeteries are interesting for photography, best if no one you use to loved rests there.

During a week long trip to Italy we made a short stop of some of the Italian cemeteries... Feelings after visiting such cemetery? Like from some Gangster movies... Perhaps it would be even more dramatic if following photographs were done in B&W

Italian cemetery 

Ferrari family

At Italian cemetery

At Italian cemetery

Enjoying narrow Italian roads and Dancing Waltz in Town Square

28 February, 2016 | | 15 seen

It was on the afternoon of January 1st, we had left Venice in the morning and traveled towards Verona, we made a few stops before in some local lovely municipalities. Our car radio was tuned to some Italian radio who played The Vienna Philharmonic New Year's Concert under the baton of Mariss Jansons.

Janaury 1st is magical, streets are empty and those at the wheel can enjoy empty roads

Empty and narrow Italian road

Town square in Italy

We turned max volume on our car radio and danced for about 5 minutes in this town square. Just lovely, surreal and magical.. Few windows were opened and few curios watched our performance. Thank you Mariss Jansons for great performance.

Lovely architecture

An Italian cat

Postcards from Tallinn

27 February, 2016 | | 4 seen

Tallinn is a small and cool, naval town in Baltic's. I spent here my 30th birthday back in 2015 and here is how I (we) saw it. 

One of the famous Tallinn towers

Tallinn's Old Town

Air balloon flying over Tallinn

Towers of Tallinn

It's just fascinating to see how well old and new architecture blends in here in Tallinn

The times we had

I asked some American tourist to make a capture of us here in Tallinn right next to this lovely wall with inscription - The Times we had. B&W photography seems an excellent choice. 

Painter in streets of Tallinn

Estonian War of Independence Victory Column

27 February, 2016 | Military Heritage | 13 seen

The War of Independence Victory Column  is located in Freedom Square, Tallinn,Estonia. It was opened on 23 June 2009 as a memorial for those who fell during the Estonian War of Independence, through which the people of Estonia will be able to commemorate all those who had fought for freedom and independence.

The pillar is 23.5 m high and consists of 143 glass plates. The memorial incorporates the Cross of Liberty, Estonia’s most distinguished award established in 1919.

I visited this site back in Summer 2015, during a short two day trip to Estonian capital city of Tallinn.

For soldiers and civilians killed in action during the Estonian War of Independence between 1918 to 1920

The idea of creating a monument was conceived in 1919, before the end of the war. During the War of Independence in 1918–1920, 4,000 people were killed, and 14,000 wounded on the Estonian side. In 1936, a law was passed to establish a nationwide monument in commemoration of the war. Preparatory work was interrupted by the Second World War and subsequent Soviet occupation. After Estonia…

Blog Income: 289% YoY Increase in Google AdSense Revenue

26 February, 2016 | Blogging | 11 seen

Learn how I increased revenue from Google AdSense by 289% Year over Year and how you could too. 

For a prelude: I have been using Google AdSense for six and a half years by now, from whom first four and a half years generated a really modest sum of EUR 100 ($110 according to exchange rates as of 02/26/2016).from many low traffic and let's be totally honest - thin content websites (I had installed AdSense ad units on dozens of sites).

There was a time when I took a pause from any attempts to build new or maintain existing low value websites of mine for about two years. At the end of 2013 (October)I decided to start fresh (after my second Summer long trip to US I had a feeling I need to launch a blog to share my travel notes, ideas, findings e.t.c.) - and launched this blog (you currently are reading it).

For the first three months I didn't installed any ad units here, but at the start of the New Year of 2014 ad units were back. So did a new section on blog appeared: Online Income reports - In my first month of monetizing this blog I earned whooping eight dollars.

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