Blog Archive: December 2014

Does Turkey is seeking closer ties with Russia and coming Eurasian Union?

14 December, 2014 | Emerging Markets | 15 seen

More than year a ago I published article Turkey could join Eurasian Union were I tried to compare economy of Turkey by using GDP and GDP per capita for time period 2000-2012.

I found that Turkey might reach $1 trillion of GDP by the end of 2016, so did I found that Economy of Turkey has increased for about 3 times (2000-2012)

I did used following words a year ago:

That said makes me think, that Turkey has no serious plans to join Eurasian Union. IMHO Turkey is teasing European Union. And why shouldn't? Turkey has long, long history on it's attempts to join European Union, but there always are some obstacles from EU side. And that makes Turkey angry.

I ended that article with following words:

So that's said - I still not believe in any serious Turkey attempts to join Eurasian Union, I doubt Turkey's will to relay on Customs Union trade agreements, which would more likely to slow down Turkey's economy. I'm sure that will be accepted Germany offer for Turkey like it's with Norway. EU + Turkey.

On other hand - the ball is on Russian side now - Russians should act quickly, if they want to see Turkey in Eurasian Union. They should offer…

Shopping in Georgia: Tbilisi Mall

14 December, 2014 | Shopping Venues | 42 seen

Though I have been living in Georgia for 3 and a half years, I have never talked much about shopping in Georgia or Tbilisi. Starting today I decided to change that.

My first recommendation for those who are looking for shopping fun in Tbilisi will be Tbilisi Mall.

If I remember correctly - it was first opened at the end of 2012 and soon find its way to the hearts of customers.

One of the anchor tenants here is the Carrefour store, according to my observations it makes the most use of Tbilisi Mall. Though you will find here many other shops (non-food-related), like Prada, LC Waikiki, Marks&Spencer (are just a few from the brand represented here).

Plenty of Wine at Tbilisi Mall (Carrefour)

Seafood at Carrefour

Cheese at Carrefour (Tbilisi Mall)

Vegetables at Tbilisi Mall (Carrefour)

Christmas tree at Tbilisi Mall

Cafeteria at Tbilisi Mall

Located in the west end of the city, Tbilisi Mall is the largest shopping mall within the Caucasus dedicated to creating discovery of a new lifestyle and living for all its customers.…

Fire Wok Tbilisi

13 December, 2014 | Restaurant reviews | 42 seen

Fire wok Tbilisi is a small, I would call it a boutique Wok place located on Shalva Dadiani street (close to Liberty square).

Here you can have noodles or rice woks for a really democratic prices.

Fire Wok Tbilisi

There is not much place inside - so if you are planing to take you loved ones to Fire Wok  - it won't be best place to sit around a table and talk about your impressions of Tbilisi. Instead you can order food for takeaway and have it at your hotel/hostel.

Menu at Fire Wok Tbilisi

Menu offer a Fire Wok is simple - you can have either noodle or rice based dishes. Chicken, Beef and Veggie are pretty straightforward terms - what is chao mian you should ask on place.

Prices are really democratic - 5 Gel for a wok. 

Unfortunately  I hadn't chance to try how it actually tastes, because of I didn't have enough cash with myself - debt cards are not accepted at Fire Wok.

Noodles and Rice at Fire Wok

Chef at Fire Wok

Though this place is more grab and go - I'm glad such place exists in Tbilisi.

If you are…

15 places and things to do in Georgia I have discovered in 2014

11 December, 2014 | Travel guides | 6 seen

No, you won't find here visit to Narikala fortress or Sameba church, you will learn that I have discovered Tbilisi Botanical garden instead.

Drinking wine? Well - not this year!

36 Reasons to Visit Georgia and Tbilisi

What about rafting with a crazy instructor from Ukraine? Or a ride to Tbilisi sea at +40° . Something romantic? - how about a ride on an aerial tram in Batumi to watch the sunset in the Black Sea? Something tasty? Italian ice cream at Luca Polare. Something unusual? - A dairy farm in Tbilisi suburbs. 

I have been living in Georgia for already 4 years - and this country never ends surprising me.

I decided to create a blog post of 15 interesting places and activities to do in Georgia I have discovered just in 2014.

My Spain + Andorra Travel Guide

10 December, 2014 | Travel guides | 9 seen

This is a round-up post of our travel discoveries in Spain at the end of October 2014, particularly in the region of Catalonia. I hope it can inspire you if you are planning your trip to Catalonia. 

Our trip started at Tbilisi, went through Istanbul, and landed at Barcelona El Prat Airport (by Pegasus)

We booked a car from the Firefly office at El Prat Airport and our one-week-long adventures started. 

This trip took us from Barcelona to Girona, then to Roses and Cadaques, and then back to Figueras to visit World famous Salvador's Dali museum, then again back to Costa Brava. Superb hotels and even a 2-hour drive to Andorra.  Did I mention a stop at one of the most popular gay resorts in the world? 

Below you will find more detailed descriptions of places we visited:

Spain is a very budget-friendly country - we got the car for about EUR 68 for a week, for gas we spent approximately the same. Hotels ranged from EUR 40 - to EUR 130. 

I hope this guide could inspire you for your Catalonia trip. 

Amazon CPM ads review

9 December, 2014 | Blogging | 53 seen

I have been a proud Amazon Associate since this summer and during this time I have made some (as I think) pretty solid income from Amazon Associates program.

Nowadays for me it's hard to remember what impulse got me to switch to Amazon, because for more than 5 years I have been using Google Adsense only to try to monetize my internet assets. But I'm glad that such impulse happened.

Well - why I'm mentioning Google Adsense here? Simple - Amazon CPM ads (I will talk about them latter on this article) might be the real alternative for Google Adsense. I'm liking to look to both of Google Adsense and Amazon CPM ads as - set and forget tools to monetize your website. But difference is here - while you will get paid for clicks with Adsense, you will get paid for impressions with Amazon CPM ads.

Amazon CPM Ads is a display advertising program that enables you to show ads from Amazon and other premium advertisers on your web site(s). You will be paid on a cost per thousand impressions (CPM) basis for each ad impression served.

If you are an Amazon…

"Piena Ceļš Georgia" - Visit of Dairy Farm

6 December, 2014 | Farms | 25 seen

In my childhood there was a time I lived in countryside next to a cattle farm. They had around 100 cows and as for a child in a village were nothing else interesting is happening I spent pretty much time with cows though I never have milked a one.

Some time ago in Tbilisi happened Georgian - Latvian business forum were a guy from Latvia (Jānis Bērtulsons) made a presentation of his company in Georgia - a dairy farm - "Piena Ceļš Georgia". 

In Georgia there is a deficit for a milk, for a qualitative milk I mean. As far my understanding reaches it's made from milk powder.

Just naturally that I had a interest to get a fresh milk made from a real cow. So we negotiated with representative of this farm to make a meeting in more relaxed atmosphere in his farm.

Said - done! Today we visited farm where magic happens - not far from Tbilisi.

Though we didn't get any milk here, we tasted local brewed wine and chacha. It's Georgia!

Cow paddock at the farm

Speckled cow

House-dog

Cows

Vineyards

Seems that owners of the farm likes to…

Drupal module: Hierarchical Select

4 December, 2014 | Drupal Development | 18 seen

<p>Drupal module Hierarchical Select is a handy "must-have" module for sites that are heavily based on category terms and their childes. I have been using this module for some previous projects in combination with another, yet more simple module -&nbsp;<a href="https://www.drupal.org/project/shs">Simple hierarchical select</a>.</p><p>Though there are times second module suits more than first - I still prefer first over second.</p><h2>About&nbsp;Hierarchical Select</h2><p>This module defines the "hierarchical_select" form element, which is a greatly enhanced way for letting the user select items in a hierarchy.</p><p>Hierarchical Select has the ability to save the entire lineage of a selection or only the "deepest" selection. You can configure it to force the user to make a selection as deep as possible in the tree, or allow the user to select an item anywhere in the tree. Levels can be labeled, you can configure limit the number of items that can be selected, configure a title for the dropbox, choose a site-wide animation delay, and so on. You can even create new…

My Online Income Report - November 2014

3 December, 2014 | Blogging | 17 seen

This is already my 11 online income report. I'm making an income report each month covering earnings I have made solely in internet and in general with my blog.

Those reports keeps me track were I'm, were I was and were I'm heading to. I hope they can inspire some as well.

• In total I earned $704.00 , what is a 392.96% increase if compared to previous month ($142.81)
• $704.00 makes average $23.46 in a day

In brief - this November was a goldmine, it beat all previous best results and totalled in pretty serious $704.00. Well for some it might not sound a very serious amount of earned capital, but for me - this has been the best month so far.

It has been achieved by using two custom channels - Google Adsense and Amazon affiliates program - I will not get in details how each of the channels earned, I will just note that vast majority comes from Amazon affiliates.

Speaking of second (Amazon affiliates) - previous month was pretty slow, and combined brought me in $142.00, then I said following words:

Obliviously I started to wonder - why does income…

Blog Traffic Report - November 2014

2 December, 2014 | Blogging | 9 seen

This is already 14 blog traffic report, this time covering November 2014.

In short - November was a month of gainer, it beat all of my expectations.

Blog Traffic November 2014 (Data Source: Google Analytics)

• My blog got 9,096 unique visitors what is a 90.09% growth if compared to previous month
• It's 4,311 unique visitor gain if compared to previous month
• 9,096 unique visitors in a month makes average 303.2 unique visitors in a day. It's up from 154.3 in previous month.

Though these number might look modest for some, for me it's a great achievement, I not only cracked 5,000 goal I set previous month - I did setup a personal record so far. My previous best personal result was 5,988 back in January 2010.

When I started this blog, back in October 2013, I did set up a goal to crack 6,000 unique visitors per month in a year. Though it took me more than year to reach that goal- I finally achieved that. And it's important for me.

Now - I'm not willing to wait for another 5 years to beat my personal best, and right now it's…

Average Salary in European Union 2014

2 December, 2014 | Macroeconomics | 299 seen

A time ago I measured what is the minimum government set wage in European Union (EU). It turned out - the most minimum wage is received in Luxembourg while the least in Romania.

In today's article - average salary in EU for the year of 2014.

Update: Average Salary in European Union 2018