Hotel Los Dolmenes in Antequera, Spain
Hotel Los Dolmenes in Antequera is among my favorite hotels I have stayed so far. We booked this hotel during our latest trip in Spain (a week in Andalusia) in June 2016. Set in the olive grove, close to the El Torcal this is a really valuable hotel deal. We paid less than EUR 40 per night here (breakfast and free parking included)Hotel Los DolmenesSet around a traditional Andalusian courtyard, the rooms at Los Dólmenes come with wooden floors, a terrace, flat-screen TV and plenty of natural light. Each one comes with a private bathroom including a hairdryer and bath tub.Our roomLos Dólmenes is located just outside Antequera, 5 minutes’ drive from the city centre. It offers…
Bazaleti Lake in Georgia
The Bazaleti Lake is a lake in eastern Georgia some 60 km northwest of the nation's capital Tbilisi and 5 km south of the town of Dusheti. It is used for fish culture, irrigation, and recreation. The nearby village and the historical district around the lake are also known as Bazaleti.I had heard about Bazaleti lake before and thought there are some recreational facilities built around it. In fact, kind of, there are some buildings and even some restaurants. Thus when I first visited it, after returning from Vazha Pshavela house museum in Chargali in November 2016, I found just a lot wind and a lake. Kind of reminded me the…
El Torcal de Antequera
El Torcal de Antequera is a nature reserve in the Sierra del Torcal mountain range located south of the city of Antequera, in the province of Málaga off the A45 road in Andalusia, Spain.It is known for its unusual landforms, and is one of the most impressive karst landscapes in Europe. It was on our day 4th or 5th in Spain (traveling around region of Andalusia), when El Torcal de Antequera popped on our radar. It was not easy to get there for us, see: In The Searches For El Torcal - Wilderness in Spain, but after all we made it. It was already getting late, and I rushed to make the most of ending golden hour (HDR…
Motel Istros Aviaparkas
Motel Istros Aviaparkas is among the strangest and definitely the most solitary hotel I have ever stayed. Located some 4 kilometers from town of Panevezys in Lithuania.It was the evening of my 31st birthday and we returned home from our three day trip around Lithuania. Tired. After checking few rural houses in the vicinity we decided hell - let's sleep among helicopters and Old Soviet war planes.Old Soviet war planesLocated just some 500 meters from Via Baltica route (E67) - this hotel/motel kind of offers WI-FI, a TV set (with mostly Persian language channels) and not the best quality water in the shower (water with a high iron content)Lonely motel Istros AviaParkasThis is definitely …
Vazha Pshavela House Museum in Chargali
Vazha Pshavela house museum in Chargali features objects connected with life and work of well-known Georgian son and poet Vazha-Pshavela (1861-1915). Various publications of poet's works, paintings, graphics, sculptures and photographs are featured here.What makes this place important? Not to mention that Vazha Pshavela is one of the well-known Georgian poets (obliviously) - The Big Head in the front of entrance of this museum.The Big Head - Sculpture of Vazha Pshavela Vazha Pshavela House Museum in ChargaliAbout Vazha PshavelaVazha-Pshavela, simply referred to as Vazha is the pen name of the Georgian poet and writer Luka…
In The Searches For El Torcal - Wilderness in Spain
In the searches for el Torcal is a story worth to mention and complement with amazing (IMHO) travel photography - say - Wilderness of SpainEarlier today I practiced for the first time as a bird photographer, see Flamingo Lagoon near Fuente de Piedra in Spain, while searching for flamingos, we marked another tourism object to visit today - El Torcal de Antequera, mainly important because of possible great photography of rocks. We checked in at amazing hotel in a olive grove, which turned out to be just some 12km from El Torcal. Right, after a quick shower - let's drive there.In short - instead of 12 km we drive about 60km. Instead of comfortable highways we used some…
IKEA Shopping in Vilnius, Lithuania
IKEA store has been opened in Vilnius city already in 2013. This place is very popular among local and neighboring shopping travelers - Belarus and Latvia.There is no surprise seeing shoppers from Belarus here, as Minsk is less than 200km from Vilnius. Latvians? Well they just love shopping in Vilnius.It was my birthday, we were at Vilnius, after spending few hours wandering around Old Town - idea visiting IKEA arrived. Unfortunately we hadn't no idea where this store is actually located as we are not familiar with topography of Vilnius. No TomTom's here. We got a small tourist map (covering just Old Town) at tourism information center. Not a single word about IKEA there. My…
Wilderness in Georgia
During my long stay in Georgia I have documented a lot of Tbilisi restaurants, Georgian hotels, even museums, but little to nothing I have covered about wilderness in Georgia.
Wilderness, in fact, makes this country among the most beautiful countries in the world. Georgia is literally surrounded by wilderness, mountains, rivers, and a shepherd forcing his sheep from one mountain meadow to other (most probably crossing Georgian military road).
In today's Piece of Life series a little wilderness from Georgia (on the way to Vazha Pshavala house museum in Chargali)
Shepherd forcing sheep in Georgia
A common scene when traveling around Georgia.
Zhinvali water reservoir…
How to Import Canon DSLR .mov Files Into Adobe Premiere Pro CS4
In this article you will learn how to import Canon DSLR .mov files into video editing software Adobe Premiere CS 4 and how to possibly deal with a choppy playback.
It's all about codecs when dealing with video editing. If you don't have right codecs CS4 wont recognize videos shot with a Canon DSLR (Although, never version should).
One of the simplest ways to make Adobe Premiere CS 4 to recognize .mov files is by simply installing QuickTime player. After you have installed QuickTime just restart Adobe Premiere Pro and you should be able to import and edit your video's.
The chances are you will face the choppy playback issues now - making your video editing a pain. The…
Flamingo Lagoon near Fuente de Piedra in Spain
I'm not into bird photography at all, but idea visiting one of the Worlds largest Flamingo lagoons today sounded great.We were on our 4th or 5th day traveling around region of Andalusia in Spain. Somehow small town of Fuente de Piedra popped up in our radar (well, obliviously because of flamingos) and my first bird photography session begun.Keep on reading to learn how it failed after all.Visitor centerThere is a visitor center named after José Antonio ValverdeThe Visitors Centre has a reception for information, restrooms, gift shop and vending area. Also free 2 exhibition room and a 12 minutes long audiovisual. In the Visitors Centre you can also rent binoculars, audioguides in…
Osteria de Luca Italian Restaurant in Vilnius
Osteria de Luca is an Italian restaurant located in the Old town of Vilnius, Lithuania.During my latest visit here in August 2016, they served delicious Italian cuisine, I tried a wrapped pizza - intrigue and amazing. I got the feelings they have taken all the best ingredients straight from the Italy.I love Italian cuisine, and especially pizzas, once my better part and me, we visited Italy especially for Pizza tourism, gosh we tried so many Osteria's, prosciutto's and of course Pizza's. I made a lot of Italian restaurant reviews back then. Restaurant Antica Drogheria in Lucca, Italy near the leaning tower of Pisa is among my favorite Italian restaurant by now.Osteria de Luca in…
Restaurant El Arador, Estepa, Spain
I just love roadside cafeterias, so did happened today, we left Seville and had a direction towards Granada, after an hour of driving we started to feel hungry, it was lunch time. Luckly Restaurant El Arador popped up. Restaurante El AradorWhat to order in a typical Spanish restaurant? How about a fresh orange juice and a chorizo? French fries, chorizo and orange juice
The Republic of Užupis (Vilnius, Lithuania)
I have traveled to Vilnius, Lithuania a lot, for most of the times using Vilnius just as a transit stop. I decided to change this. It was my 31st birthday, and I opted for celebrations in Vilnius (I have a goal - to celebrate my birthday each year in one of the capitals of former Soviet Union's republics, so far I have celebrated already in Yerevan and Tallinn).I had read in some tourist brochures about The Republic of Užupis, and thought - what a cool site, I should put this on my travel list. Now, here is what it is all about: In 1997, the residents of the area declared the Republic of Užupis, along with its own flag, currency, president, cabinet of ministers, a…
Ujarma Fortress
Ujarma is a medieval Georgian fortress in the Kakheti region, located some 45 km east from the nation's capital Tbilisi.It's believed than in the second half of the 5th century, famous Vakhtang Gorgasali (founder of Tbilisi) erected numerous buildings in Ujarma and moved his residence there. After Vakhtang’s death, his heir Dachi was ruling Kakheti for some period from here. In the 10th century, Ujarma was destroyed by Arabian forces of Abul Kassim. In the 13th century, the fortress was restored by King George III, where he arranged treasury.This was my second attempt visiting Ujarma fortress, and I even managed to capture some pictures here, thus I…
Postcards from Seville, Spain
We spent a whole day in charming Seville (Spain) back in June 2016. Although many tourism objects and sites were visited today, just one did find a separate article on blog, see Plaza De Espana.Today I decided to experiment with mood photography and as I photographed a lot tourists in the streets of Seville, a nice addition to Postcards from series, I thought. Postcards from Spain have been featured already a few times on Piece of Life project, see Postcards from Cadiz, Sunflower fields in Andalusia, Spain, Postcards from SpainTourists buying postcards in SevilleI didn't buy one.Spices in the streets of SevilleSpaniards love to sell spices, tea and other goodies, few days ago…
Literatu street in Vilnius
The chances are you will love this narrow street in Vilnius, capital of Lithuania if you are an avid reader, writer or just a true hipster (OK, just joking). "Literatu street project" - formally name of the project. The wall with mounted artworks - dedications to the literature workers in the Vilnius old town. Literatų str. is situated very close to the main street of the Vilnius Old Town Pilies str. and is one of the visited tourist places in Vilnius.Literatu gatve in VilniusArtworks mounted on the walls of the Literatu street (Literatų gatvė) are dedicated to the literature workers: writers, translators, everyone who has link with Lithuania…
Iosebis Duqani (Joseph's Tavern) near Sasadilo
Iosebis Duqani is just another cool roadside cafeteria, located near village of Sasadilo, in Mtskheta-Tianeti region, Georgia. Often readers of my blog are familiar on my passion on roadside cafeterias, in most cases they are just excellent. It' s not that I have visited this place for the first time (as I did it actually already in 2011), it is just the first time I'm featuring it on blog.The most fun fact about this place, is not this place at all, but the fact - I had to spend more than 2 hours to locate coordinates of it - let me explain, this website is built as a geospatial web. Which means most of of the restaurants, hotels and of course tourism objects are…
Plaza de España: A Historical Marvel in Seville, Spain
Plaza de España undoubtedly ranks among the top 10 must-visit tourist attractions in Seville, Spain.
Here's a delightful anecdote from my visit: I stumbled upon the name of this iconic place only after completing my photography session. By sheer chance, I decided to ask a passerby about the name of this fabulous location. To my surprise, the gentleman burst into laughter, revealing that he was, in fact, a guide for this very place. With a smile, he informed me that the place is called Plaza de España, sparking a short but engaging 5-minute conversation between us.
Embracing the true spirit of travel, I confess – who needs to conduct thorough research beforehand? Just kidding, but, truth…
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…