Alaverdi Monastery in Georgia
Alaverdi Monastery is a Georgian Eastern Orthodox monastery located 25 km from Akhmeta, in the Kakheti region of Eastern Georgia.While parts of the monastery date back to 6th century, the present-day cathedral was built in the 11th century by Kvirike III of Kakheti, replacing an older church of St. George.Despite being on my travel bucket list in Georgia for a very long time, I first visited it in the middle of September 2017, during a two-day trip to Kakheti. See: Day Trip to Kakheti in GeorgiaAlaverdi Monastery in GeorgiaThe monastery was founded by the Assyrian monk Joseph (Yoseb, Amba) Alaverdeli, who came from Antioch and…
Home Remodeling - Season 3 (2017)
We had some great plans for this Summer's home remodeling works, unfortunately, we faced some obstacles, and decided to stop any further home remodeling works for this year.Despite being pretty upset about our situation, we still enjoyed a great Summer at our rural country property.Here I'm adding pictures, how it all looked in April 2017, make sure to check out how it all started, and see previous years start of the season.Let's start with one of the biggest pride - the freshly dug pond in the front of the housePond in April 2017Amazing, it is full with water. See how we waited for water level to rise, last autumn: Waiting For The Water Level Rising In The PondView towards…
Rose Garden 'Dailas Rozes' near Tukums in Latvia
We received a special request, from a special person, to deliver park rose Rītausma, which could translate as Dawn in English.Rītausma is a local, Latvia selected park rose breed. To get one (seedling price was about EUR 5), we had to cross half of the country, to find this special, precious rose at Dailas Rozes, located in Sēme parish, some 5km from Tukums.After spending an hour at Dailas Rozes park, I felt impressed, made a few photos here and would highly recommend this place to all rose lovers.RozītesDailas Rozes is located in Rozītes, Sēme parish, Tukums district, Latvia. We did find problematic to find this place, but for that, I've added coordinates (at…
Autumn Harvest in The Garden
Back at our rural country house in Latvia, we have a pretty international garden, plants, and flowers from different countries across the world, so, for example, we have a tulip bulbs from the Netherlands, cabbage seeds from the United States of America, some lichens from Georgia, and of course traditional Latvian plants.It was at the end of August 2017, we decided it's the right time to harvest the crop, we planted back in Spring. In today's Piece of Lifes series - Autumn Harvest 2017GardenToday we will dig potatoes, beets, carrots, onions, and cut cabbagesSee, how we made this garden a year ago using ground tiller: Ground Milling With A TillerChrysanthemumsI'm bad at…
One of The Best Traditional Cretan Restaurants - Gramvousa in Kaliviani
There is another clear winner in my top restaurant list - Gramvousa Restaurant in the small Cretan village Kaliviani. Discovered by the accident, during our travels in Crete at the start of June 2017.We headed here after failed attempt to reach Balos beach in the nearby vicinity, see: Discoveries in Crete - Rough Road To Balos BeachRight now it's hard to remember where did we actually headed, but we were driving through this small village, just later we learned the name of it - Kaliviani. As it was afternoon already, we just looked for some lovely roadside restaurants, and here it was - Gramvousa Traditional Cretan Restaurant.Gramvousa Traditional Cretan…
Discoveries in Crete - Rough Road To Balos Beach
Balos Beach & Lagoon have been listed as one of the TOP 10 Best Europe's Beaches in 2017 according to Trip Advisor. We didn't know that yet when planned our trip here with a rental car we took earlier this morning at Agia Marina beach.This was indeed a beautiful trip, kind of reminded me the one we did about a year ago in Spain's region of Andalusia, see: In The Searches For El Torcal - Wilderness in SpainTorcal - Wilderness in SpainAlso, I should admit we didn't reach Balos beach after all, as the road to there was indeed rough, and once we were at the final parking space it turned out that we should walk for some 15-20 minutes more and there were zillions of tourists, idea…
August 2017 Dividend Income Report - $40.43
Welcome to the fourth (#4) dividend income report, covering earnings I've made from dividend paying stocks, peer to peer lending (both fiat and crypto currencies) in August 2017. If you are new to these dividend income reports, where I'm sharing my progress towards financial freedom, here is a backstory in short - I started my wealth building adventure (portfolio) in January 2017 with a simple goal to invest $8,561 this year in several batches. First months of the year didn't generate me anything much, but starting May it has started slowly pick up.Last August, I turned 32, we headed to Kiev, Ukraine to celebrate it for a couple of days…
Mavros Molos Beach near Kissamos, Crete
Mavros Molos beach is a quiet and kind of remote, tourist unspoiled beach located near Kissamos, some 40km from Chania. We made here a short stop during our Crete exploring trip back in June 2017Mavros Molos Beach is the largest beach in Kissamos (Kastelli) itself, with fine sand and relatively shallow water.Mavros Molos beach near Kissamos, CreteMavros Molos beach is at the west end of town, right in front of the restaurants and tavernas, and is fully organized with umbrellas and loungers. There are hotels and apartments for rent on the beach.Mavros Molos beach near Kissamos, CreteIndeed, during our short, I would say, a 5-minute stay at this beach,…
Cafe Mixail Malandrakis in Kalydonia, Crete
Cafe Mixail Malandrakis is located in a small village of Kalydonia, Crete in distance some 25km from Chania town.We discovered this place by accident, when, after checking out from a hotel room in Agia Marina (see: Vergina Beach Hotel Review, Agia Marina, Crete), took a rental car and decided to head in the direction towards Kissamos. it was still quite early, and we decided it would be a very good idea to have some morning coffee. As usual, it happens with such lovely roadsides cafeterias, at least for me, it always involves a lot of research work after, to find coordinates, names e.t.c to put this place on my World travel map. This time it involved usage of Greek transliteration…
Wandering In The Woods B&W Photography
For the second year in the row I agreed to go to the same forest and harvest mushrooms, instead of a catch of forest goodies, I spent a few days finding interesting, eye catching elements in the woods.Don't get me wrong, I did find some forest mushrooms (eatable), but compared to previous year's experience this was nothing much. See the same forest a year ago: Deep in the Forest, also see: Forest Mushrooms - Penny Bun & Red-Capped Scaber StalkI did find it interesting, once in the woods, for reason or not I tend to photograph with wide open aperture, probably because of limited light, but usually, I prefer tack sharp over bokeh. Once our forest wanderings were over, when…
How To Fix Mixed Content Errors From Disqus on HTTPS site
Today I noticed that SSL connection on this blog had errors due to “mixed content”, meaning HTTPS site was loading additional content that was served over insecure HTTP. After a little bit of digging in the console, I discovered that the issue was due to our Disqus comment plugin loading over HTTP.
I felt surprised learning that Disqus is serving HTTP content, and quickly googled, are there other webmasters complaining about this, and I found a few articles. What felt even more surprising was that this problem has been around since the end of 2016. See: Mixed Content Errors from Disqus on HTTPS Site
It turns out, Disqus is serving anonymous cookie over HTTP…
Mild Summer Evenings at Agia Marina Beach in Crete
We traveled to Crete, at the start of June 2016, after capturing mesmerizing postcards from Chania, we continued our route to Agia Marina, where stayed for about 3 nights at Vergina Beach hotel
After, we continued our trip deeper in Island, and at the end of this trip returned to this area for another 5 days
In today's Piece of Love series, pictures from Agia Marina beach
Rock formations near Agia Marina beach in Crete
From what we have seen from our upcoming travels almost all across Crete, Agia Marina was one of the most tranquil places, slow, pretty quiet, despite a lot of Scandinavian folks resting here. Swimming in these beaches - a real joy.
Sunset…
Red Dragon Restaurant Review in Platanias
Red Dragon is a Chinese restaurant in Platanias, Crete serving kind of combo tourist meals for IMHO bit high prices.Anyhow, as we booked a hotel room in a nearby Agia Marina town (which seems is a hotel area), then most of the dinning options are located in nearby Platanias.As previous evening we walked about 4 km to The Stones Restaurant, for this night we wanted something closer, Red Dragon was one of the first places we met in our route.Red Dragon restaurant in PlataniasI don't remember correctly, but it offers like EUR 25 combo meal for two persons (and seems that most places in area focuses on this price level for combo meals), as we had an appetite, we went for some shredded beef and…
Tampakakis Bakery in Agia Marina, Crete
Tampakakis bakery is a lovely place in Agia Marina, many pastries and tasty coffee available here. Tampakakis was closely located to hotel we stayed for couple of days in Agia Marina (Vergina Beach Hotel Review, Agia Marina, Crete)Fresh morning coffee and crispy buns guaranteed.Tampakakis Bakery in Agia Marina, CreteWide variety for morning coffee and affordable prices.Cookies, buns and bread at Tampakakis Bakery
SEO Results After Implementing Drupal AMP
About a month ago I finally managed to implement AMP for my Drupal powered blog. Now, a month latter I decided to take a look and see is there any SEO boost from it.
In the past 30 days traffic have grown my 13%, for the first time cracking 100,000 users milestone. Although, it's hard to say with a 100% confidence that AMP did it - I still will say - AMP is amazing and I would recommend to implement it for any type of websites. If still wonder what is AMP, here is a brief explanation:
The AMP Project is an open-source initiative aiming to make the web better for all. The project enables the creation of websites and ads that are consistently fast, beautiful and high-performing across…
The Stones Restaurant Review - Platanias, Crete
The Stones restaurant is located in Platanias, Crete. Located kind of remote / roadside. We visited this place on a rainy day, after checked in at hotel in nearby town of Agia Marina (see: Vergina Beach Hotel Review, Agia Marina, Crete). The walk was for about 4 km (each direction)This place serves traditional Greek and European cuisine, obliviously we opted for Greek salad as a starter. I wanted to order some mussels, but kind owner of The Stones restaurant told me they don't have mussels as this time, as they order only fresh mussels from Chania in the mornings. As it was raining that day, we were only guests for this evening.Outdoor terrace at The Stones…
Review of Mintos.com Peer To Peer Lending Platform After 6 Month of Investing
I've been investing on Mintos.com peer to peer lending marketplace already 6 months. In today's article, I'll share some of my key findings so farBefore continuing, please see Review of Mintos Peer to Peer Lending After One Month of Investing and Mintos.com Review after 3 month investing in Peer to Peer loans. There is one reason I'm investing here on Mintos - option to invest in Georgian Lari currency, as I've been living in Georgia for a while, I like the idea of having some of my money in the local market. See: Invest in Georgia - Peer-to-Peer (P2P) lending - Mintos.comBoth individuals and entities can invest through Mintos. Individual investors must be at least…
Perseid Meteor Shower Time Lapse Video / Photography - August 13, 2017
The Perseid meteor shower, one of the brighter meteor showers of the year, occurs every year between July 17 and August 24. The shower tends to peak around August 9-13.
The 2017 Perseids peaked on the night of August 12 and early morning hours of August 13. I was a little bit late to the party and decided to capture star trails on night from August 13 to August 14.
What was meant to be a star trail photography, actually turned out a lovely time lapse video.
I'm not an expert in astro photography, in fact I've done just one star trail photography before, see: My first star trail photography, a year ago. This year I was prepared technically better…
Vergina Beach Hotel Review, Agia Marina, Crete
This property is 1 minute walk from the beach. Set right on the sandy beach of Agia Marina, Vergina Beach Hotel offers free WiFi in all areas and air-conditioned accommodation with views over the Cretan Sea. It includes a beach bar and a cocktail bar.We booked this hotel at the start of June 2017 and stayed here for 2 nights, paying in total about EUR 106.As we hadn't yet booked a rental car here, for getting here we took a taxi from Chania bus station and paid a fixed price EUR 14, in case you are not willing to pay for taxi, you can take bus, it's really cheap.Room at Vergina Beach HotelVergina studios, suites and apartments are simply, yet tastefully furnished, with a private…
July 2017 Dividend Income Report - $124.51
Welcome to the third (#3) dividend income report, covering earnings I've made from dividend paying stocks, peer to peer lending (both fiat and crypto currencies) in July 2017. I started my wealth building adventure (portfolio) in January 2017 with a simple goal to invest $8,561 this year in several batches. First months of the year didn't generated me nothing much, but starting May it has started slowly pick up.Make sure you check out my previous two dividend income reports:June 2017 Dividend Income Report - $53.42May 2017 Dividend Income Report - $65.45In todays article you will learn both how much I've received in dividend income in July 2017, also…