April 2015

Update: Originally I visited Skrunda - 1 in Summer 2015, Skrunda -1 is closed for public visitors in 2022 Skrunda-1, also known as Skrunda-2, is a ghost town and former Soviet and later Russian radar station located 5 km (3 mi) to the north of Skrunda, in Raņķi Parish, Kuldīga Municipality in Courland region of Latvia. It was the site of two Dnepr radar (NATO designation "Hen House") installations constructed in the 1960s. A Daryal radar was being built there before the collapse of the Soviet Union. Skrunda was strategically important to the Soviet Union as its radars covered Western Europe.…

Latvia is a land of old manor houses and palaces, they dates back from the times when German nobles ruled this territory. A lot of manors one (perhaps you) can find in a historical region of Courland. I found this interesting Snēpele manor during a trip back from Kuldīga town. Since I'm eager to improve my photography skills, I did find just another reason to add a new post on my blog.  Snepele manor  I made a lot of shots of this manor by hand (not using a tripod) and just this one made it to you.  The outhouse near Snepele manor Road Sign to Snepele Manor As well a bus stop  - probably…

Bangert's restaurant is kinda a new restaurant located on the banks of river Venta between Old Brick Bridge and the Venta Waterfall on Pils street 1 in Kuldīga. I first visited this restaurant last summer and found it a really great. So on the lovely Springs Sunday when I was doing some photo-shooting near Venta river banks I insisted we should visit this restaurant again so just I can add it to my blog and show it for you. Restaurant Bangert's in Kuldīga Wood carved naked lady at Bangert's restaurant Interior at Bangert's Restaurant Working hours for Bangert's Restaurant Interior at…

The Venta rapid forms a widest waterfall in Europe. It's located very close to Kuldīga town centre in Latvia. See: Flying Fish over Venta Rapid in Kuldīga I took my DSLR camera and decided to master my photography skills, couldn't say it improved drastic, but here is the thing I was told by a good friend a professional photographer:  If I may say try and get lower angles on the waterfall. Popular idea is to stand in the water if its shallow and not too cold. And if you don't mind to get wet I didn't listened this time to this advice  View to the Venta Waterfall through the Brick Bridge…

Brick bridge in Kuldīga over the river of Venta according to some sources is the longest of its kind bridge in Europe. I believe nobody actually pays attention to the lengths of this bridge instead I believe the reason everyone enjoys it - it just looks great. Since it looks great I spent some time here to improve my DSLR photography, I actually made here some 180 photos, but just 5 have made it to you.  Brick bridge over Venta River in Kuldīga Turns out river Venta is a kind of popular place for local fisherman, I met many of them today. Bridge over Venta River This bridge is opened both…

Seems this place is out of the business in 2021, instead there is a liquor store Bistro Elvi is a restaurant-style catering place offering a home-style cuisine, today I will speak about one located in the town of Skrunda.  Bistro Elvi in Skrunda town is located in a local shopping centre also called Elvi and actually is part of Elvi chain. Close to this bistro is located Skrunda bus station, were buses from Rīga and Liepāja makes a stop. Elvi Bistro in Skrunda Solyanka at Elvi Bistro Solyanka which actually is a traditional Russian soup, is one of the most popular soups at Latvian Bistro…

Some Latvians prefer to call Bakery Lāči a top notch place for foreigners to visit. So I decided to visit this place and make some short review of it. This bakery is located outside the capital Riga and you can reach it by driving route A9 (which is a highway connecting Riga to Liepāja) - in case you are up for a Courland tour, you can make a stop here and enjoy some local brunch/lunch and/or to buy Lāči bread. And don't be surprised if a Latvian brings you a gift from Latvia exactly the Lāči bread. This is the phenomena I never could understood truly, but hey this article is not about that,…

Iļģuciems is one of the oldest neighborhoods in Riga. History of this neighborhood dates back to the early 13th century. Back in 1236 a small manor was built here and given the name of Hiligen geest hove (Heiligen Geist Hof) in English meaning - "Holy Spirit Convent", from which latter originated name Iļģuciems in Latvian - at first Hilgzeem, then Ilgezeem and finally Iļģuciems. Unfortunately less has left over from those days. In our days much of Iļguciems is dominated by Soviet-style block house architecture, with rare 19th centuries wooden houses. I took my DSLR camera and decided to…

Bakuzi cemetery (Latvian: Bākūžu kapsēta) is located in region of Courland (Latvia) in parish of Rudbarzi, Skrunda Municipality. The history of this cemetery dates back to at least to mid 18th century (I found old grave cross with dates of 176o-ties). I believe back in those dates some German nobles were buried here. In history of Courland and Latvia German nobles plays a major role.  The cemetery is really small - I doubt there are more than 100 burials on this cemetery. Frankly speaking I was not expecting to ad a cemetery as a tourist object on my blog - but hey - what's wrong with that?…

Riga International Airport, also know as RIX is a largest airport in the Baltic states located in capital of Latvia. Airport is located some 13km distance from city centre of Riga. I was agreeably surprised by noticing it was quiet and still here at Riga airport comparing it to Tbilisi airport.  I decided to add a few photos taken at Riga airport travelling with two cats on board. Cat just landed at Riga airport Two cats just landed at Tbilisi airport Parking lot at Riga airport airBaltic banner at Riga Airport Riga airport is a main hub and base for airBaltic aircraft-carrier. About Riga…

Tbilisi aerial tram is just in recent years built cable cars in Tbilisi connecting Rike Park (or more precisely Europe Square) to the fortress of Narikala. It eases your travel up to the  Narikala fortress in huge. Prior to this cable car the one and only way to get to Narikala fortress was just by climbing up in the hill. For some that climb can make a lot of troubles. View from Narikala footsteps to Tbilisi city You can get a nice and lovely access for views like in above picture taking aerial tram up to the Narikala Fortress. In above image: The Bridge of Peace, Rike Park and Presidential…

The Flea market near Dry Bridge in Tbilisi is an interesting place to visit,  just to look on old Soviet time relict's, starting medals, belt buckles from Soviet military, ending movie posters of famous Soviet day films. As well you can find here a lot of old tableware (some might be even antique). Most of the items you will find here is pretty much useless but they still can give you some fun if bought as an souvenir. Well that's why we call it a flea market right? On the lovely afternoon at the start of April I went to Saarbrucken square to buy a minced meat (they have one of the best meat…

The other day we took again our bikes and made a pretty lovely night ride in Tbilisi. From Old Tbilisi to Didube and back. For some reason my GPS tracker (MapMyRide) didn't worked properly, it missed at least first 2 km from this route. Another thing to mention -  I have a pretty bad camera for night vision shots back at the time I didn't know how to shoot night photography the right way, please don't judge too hard my shots of nightly Tbilisi. Speaking from cycling's view of point - this route is pretty easy and it's hard to call it a real workout, speaking from Tbilisi by night view of…

Rike park is a landscaped territory located close to the Tbilisi Old Town. You can enter Rike park either crossing the pedestrian bridge of Peace or from the opposite side using stairways from the Avlabari district. There is an aerial tram in the territory of the park which will bring you up to the fortress of Narikala.  The Bridge of Peace The Bridge of Peace is a pedestrian bridge used to enter Rike park from Tbilisi old town, in the opposite side at the park you can climb down or up stairways to or from Avlabari district of Tbilisi Aerial tram station at Rike Park You can take an aerial…

Entrée is a popular chain of coffee bars located in Tbilisi which serves great coffee, pastry, sweets and even bakes a bread. Today I will write about Entrée located on Agmashenebeli Avenue 86 (close to Marjanishvili square) in Tbilisi. As usual for taking photographs I'm using my Samsung phone and using Instagram (then taking them from Instagram and adding to posts - you can read a blog post on how I turned my Instagram account into a photo blog Sandwich bar at EntréeSalad bar at EntréeDesert bar at EntréeMacaroon at EntréeMmm,…

Some time ago I noticed some website has copied my content including all texts and photos. I immediately contacted the website owner with a request to take down this copy/pasted content. This simple approach worked this time and indeed my content was taken down.Although in next morning I found another website has just copy/pasted my content with text and images, again I contacted them with requset to take my content down, because of I have not given such permission to re-publish my contents and photos.On the other hand I truly understand - if you want to protect your content, don't put…

In this Drupal modules review post series  I will demonstrate how one (perhaps) you can schedule Drupal posts (nodes) by using a little and neat module: SchedulerDrupal out of box doesn't offer such functionality (Frankly speaking I would love to see that in Drupal core, because have seen this for WordPress CMS already some 8 years ago).I believe a scheduling feature is a must have for many pro-blogger's, semi-pro blogger's and even amateur blogger's.The reason I'm using scheduled posts function is simple - Already for last 18 months I'm publishing at least one article per day (holidays…

For many hearing a name of Natakhtari first associations might be related to those tasty Georgian lemonades branded under 'Natakhtari' name. Well, turns out Natakhtari actually is village located in Georgia's region of Mtskheta-Mtianeti, pretty close to nations capital Tbilisi. This village is advanced enough to have pretty sold restaurants located here, and today I will wrote about one of them - Chashnagiri Restaurant. This restaurant was recommended by a friend of mine, and recently by doing together a short Jvari monastery - Château Mukhrani tour (Be sure to check those posts and learn how…

In this Drupal tutorial I will show how one (perhaps you) can add a default image for Open Graph to be used in case no image has been attached to a node. Open Graph functionality for Drupal is handled by by Metatag module. Make sure you have downloaded and enabled this module.Open Graph is protocol used to pass meta data from your website to Facebook, and not only. I will not dig deeper in details about protocol itself, you can find more information here: http://ogp.meI'm using Open Graph to display custom image added to a node when shared across many social networks (Facebook and Google…

Once upon a Time in Odessa is a biographic TV series about Mishka Yaponichik a Jewish gangster from Odessa. This film is made by Star Media. Babich design. Film is spoken in Russian, English subtitles are provided. From creators Mishka Yaponchik was an Ukrainian gangster, Jewish revolutionary and Soviet military leader. Artistic and witty, his bold crimes played out like mini dramas but Yaponchik, always calculating his next move, also had a generous nature. He held huge feasts for the whole population of Odessa, giving money and food to orphans, the homeless, the unemployed, newlyweds as…

Château Mukhrani is a winery located in Mukhrani village, Mtskheta-Mtianeti region (somewhere between Mtskheta town and Natakhtari village), Georgia . Idea to head here first arise to friend of mine (another expat)  living here in Georgia.  Friend of me pre-booked a guided wine tasting tour at this place. On a rainy Saturday morning, after a short visit of Jvari monastery we straight headed to Château Mukhrani. During this tour I learned a few interesting things and facts about Georgian wine making, but most of the time I was practicing my DSLR photography (again with help of my friend).…

Welcome to my monthly blog income report. This is the 15th report so far.I'm doing those report since start of 2014 and they (reports) help me track my online success or failures. I hope they can inspire others as well.About Online Income in March 2015In total I earned $619.17 what is a decrease by -34.13% if compared to previous month (February) when I earned $940.05$619.17 in a month equals to $19.97 per dayNow - a 34% drop in online income is a huge, there are two simple patterns I have found to explain why this drop happened: People have less money to spend online; I'm sending a wrong…

Anchiskhati Basilica is one of the oldest (if not the eldest) Georgian Orthodox church's located in Old Town of Tbilisi. The history of this church dates back to the 6 th century AD. Though I have visited it so many times, I haven't yet effectively photographed it. Recently I acquired a new DSLR camera and soon I decided to improve my photographer skills. A walk in Tbilisi is a great both for photo - hobbyists and professional photographers.  Now back on the subject: Anchiskhati Basilica: Shadow of Anchiskati Bell Tower falling on Basilica I'm proud of myself that I managed to capture this…

The Bridge of Peace in Tbilisi is a pedestrian bridge and one of the most famous tourist spots in the city. It connects district of Tbilisi Old Town with Rike Park over a river of Mtkvari. This bridge is relatively young, it was opened for public just in 2010. I first discovered this bridge back in 2011, when I first arrived to Georgia. Back then I rented a spacious room in unusual hostel in district of Avlabari, and my first days in Tbilisi I spent there. Just in my third day I decided to find where is that city centre located (I didn't done any planing back then, so I had even not a clue of…

The other day taking a walking tour around Tbilisi and by in-liking a new camera, after visiting Ancshikhati church (and taking marvellous photos there) my next photo stop arrived unexpected - meet Art Studio - Kon Tiki. A lovely and narrow street in Old Tbilisi (Ioane Shavteli street) On this street in distance of some 100-150 meters from Anchiskhati church is located art studio Kon-Tiki Welcome sign at Art Studio Kon - Tiki Here is the fun fact - We would probably have missed this charming place if owners of this studio wouldn't kindly and kinda in funny manner invited us inside. We were…

The other day I did took a camera I recently acquired and went on a long long walk around Tbilisi to improve my photography skills and probably reviewing some local place.  Soon after I finished shots on Rustaveli avenue I headed near Liberty square taking turn on Alexander Pushkin street. One of my first stops were a local Georgian boutique shops of Georgian cheeses, spices and even a liqueur (chacha) - Aristaues. Since I were more into a photography than buying something here I decided to add this place on my blog, and show you some pictures I managed to capture here.  In brief - I believe…

Jvari monastery is a popular tourist destination in Georgia, and I believe there are two reasons of that - first it's located close to the nation's capital Tbilisi and second it offers a really scenic views to nearby city of Mtskheta and delta of Aragvi and Mtkvari rivers. Another reason to mention - the monastery is listed as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO. First time I headed here was probably back in 2011, since then I have visited this place for some couple of other times. Recently my blog got a new equipment - Canon EOS 1200D - and I decided it's best to start exploring a new camera…

I'm not a professional photographer and never have wanted to became a pro. For years I have used my good old Sony DSC H7 camera and never have complained much of it. Well the one and major issue with Sony DSC H7 - it doesn't take good night vision photos. You can find pretty much of photos I have taken on my blog's photos section. See: Photos Lately (for about a year) I have been using my phones (Samsung) camera even more than I have been using my hand camera. The reason is plain simple - sometimes it's much easier to take a OK quality photos with your phone instead of taking your equipment…

Factory 27 is a kinda avant-garde restaurant located on Zandukeli street 27 in Tbilisi. European style cuisine is served here. We have heard of it before on some local Facebook groups and many users called this place as must have / best of the kind in the city. So on a lovely Sunday's morning at the end of March we decided to head here and try it ourselves. Our first problems arise  - we had no clue of precise location of this place. Sitting at the McDonald's on Rustaveli street I connected to Wi-Fi and started to search for directions. After I found it's location I entered coordinates and we…

Welcome to my monthly blog traffic report, this is the 18 traffic report so far.I'm doing both traffic and income reports to measure were I was, were I am and were I am heading to. Those reports keep me track my progress (or bounces), and hopefully can give a lesson to you as well.What I have done in MarchMarch was pretty crazy month - in total I posted 66 articles what is a personal best so far (Previous time I posted so much was back in October 2013, when I just launched my blog). The reason I decided to increase my blog post count is a plain simple - I believe it helps to give a SEO boost…

10 years ago I first landed at the Tbilisi airport and for the first time took a step on Georgian land. That happened on April 1st, 2011 - I like this data - it's known Worldwide as a Fool's day.  With this article, originally I was celebrating my fourth year in Georgia. But now, the article has grown to one of the most popular about travels in Georgia.  Book an individual tour in Georgia now! In this list I have listed 16 must see / must do places while in Georgia which I have personally visited and/or have taken action.