Blog Archive: August 2015

Privatbank Offers Check Redemption in Latvia

29 August, 2015 | Investments | 16 seen

When it comes down to bank check redemption it's always a struggle to find a bank (at least in Europe) which offers such service. You may find my discoveries of finding a reliable bank in Republic of Georgia, when at the end I found Bank Republic.

In case of Latvia, you have few options, like SEB or Swedbank, but both of them require you to have an active bank account at their branches for at least 6 months before you can start such a simple bank operation like check redemption.

After a quick search I did find a Privatbank offers such service, for really affordable prices and really quick (if you can call it actually a quick) time. So it will cost you $35 for a check and 20 days to arrive money to your bank account, if you are not willing to pay $35, you can pay even less - $25 but then you should wait 40 working days for money to arrive at your bank account.

It took me some 20 minutes to open a new bank account at Privatbank, I did chose Branch in Liepaja and I'm very thankful to lady who serviced me - Tatyana, as I remember, if correct. She was even so kind that agreed to combine 2 separate checks into one, so I do not have to pay double bank commissions.…

Lux Express - One Of The Best Options To Travel Between Riga and Tallinn

26 August, 2015 | Railway / Bus / Ferry | 35 seen

At the start of this August I traveled to Estonian capital city Tallinn from Riga (Latvia) to celebrate my birthday and I had a few options to choose on how to actually get there - like, car, coach (bus) or plane (I believe there is a rail connection as well, but I also believe it takes some 12 hours to travel a short ~ 300 km distance)

The fact is as I believe it will be even cheaper or about the same to fly between those two Baltic Capital cities, rather to use a bus. But since I'm sick and tired of all these airport procedures, I decided we will use a bus leaving Riga International Bus Station.

Waiting for our coach at Riga Coach Station

Riga - Tallinn coach also goes through city of Parnu in Estonia

Lounge seat and Free Wifi at Lux Express coach

I had a chance to do some little Drupal development and of course to upkeep my blog. A lovely feature. For some extra EUR 7 you can have a separate seat and enjoy your ride. They serve a free coffee and tea at this coach as well. 

Tallinn coach station

If you are really for comfort and not in rush - you will enjoy Lux Express ride, pay…

Gretna - Small Town Close To New Orleans, Louisiana

22 August, 2015 | Travel guides | 30 seen

We arrived at Gretna, Louisiana back in Summer 2013, just before the July 4th celebrations, and we actually stayed at this small town close to New Orleans a week or something, just for one plain reason - accommodation here is much cheaper than in New Orleans. We spent our nights here at Gretna, while our days passed in New Orleans.

To get to New Orleans we used public transport - bus, we had a bus stop just right next to our motel. All the other "normal" people use SUV cars here for getting around.

I wouldn't say Gretna is a very tourist popular spot, but here in some grocery store, I met a salesperson who sang a very popular Russian song - Миллион Алых Роз (Million Alyh Roz) performed by Alla Pugachova. This sales guy was from Vietnam or something. 

The bridge connecting Gretna to New Orleans

Sun Suites motel In Gretna

We stayed at this motel for some 3 nights and then we changed motel because we got a cheaper price for a week-long stay.

Firework supplies in Gretna

It was some days before July 4th

Welcome to the city of Gretna

​Gretna Fireworks store in B&W

Gretna Fireworks Store…

Walking Around Downtown Atlanta, GA

20 August, 2015 | Travel guides | 11 seen

We enjoyed our stay in Downtown Atlanta for some 3 days (nights) back in Summer 2013. During our short 3 days stay here we visited World of Coca Cola Museum and CNN Center and did a lot of walking around city. 

As well I took a few pictures in Downtown Atlanta.

Downtown Atlanta, GA

Author of this blog captured at Rest in Downtown Atlanta

Cyclists in Downtown Atlanta

Seems Atlanta is cyclist friendly city and that is a good reason to return here.

Hard Rock cafe in Downtown Atlanta

Skyscraper in Downtown Atlanta

Hard Rock Cafe in Downtown Atlanta

Downtown Atlanta

Georgia Power

A lovely reminder of Georgia from our motel room - Georgia Power - A Southern Company

Downtown Atlanta is the central business district of Atlanta, Georgia,United States. The largest of the city's three commercial districts, Downtown is the location of many corporate or regional headquarters; city, county, state and federal government facilities; Georgia State University; sporting venues; and most of Atlanta's tourist attractions. Downtown measures approximately…

Inside CNN Studio Tour at CNN Center in Atlanta, Ga

19 August, 2015 | Entertainment | 32 seen

Turns out that Atlanta, GA is home not only for World of Coca Cola museum, but this city also hosts a CNN Center and you can actually book an inside tour here:

The Inside CNN Studio Tour is a 50-minute walking tour that descends 8 flights of stairs. Elevator assisted tours are available at 10:30 a.m., 12:30 p.m., 2:30 p.m., and 4:30 p.m. These tours tend to sell out quickly so reservations are highly recommended. 

Pricing: Inside CNN Atlanta offers a once-in-a-lifetime view of the global headquarters of CNN. Ticket price per adult: $16. More info: CNN Tour

I took a few photos here back in Summer 2013:

CNN logo at CNN Center in Atlanta, Georgia

Author of this blog captured at CNN center

Inside CNN Studio: World Globe

Flags of all Nations inside CNN Studio

Georgian Flag in the middle of this composition.

Get behind the scenes of Cable News Network (CNN), which is based right here in Atlanta, Ga. A 50-minute guided walking tour lets you peek into the newsroom, control room and much more. Be sure to keep your eyes wide open; there's no telling who you might…

Blog Monthly Online Income Report - July 2015 - $528.75

18 August, 2015 | Blogging | 43 seen

Welcome to another, already the 19th online income report. In this post I will cover some info about earnings I have made in month of July solely with my blog (www.reinisfischer.com). I like to call this phenomena - a smart passive online income. 

In case you are wondering why should someone publish online his/her earnings - the answer is pretty simple - I like transparency and these reports help me to observe my progress or bounces. Hopefully my reports can give some inspiration to you as well.

In July I earned in total $593.75 what is a slight decrease for -10.44% if compared to previous month (June) when I earned in total $662.96. 

Daily earnings: $19.79

July was another record breaker month and in total my precious blog attracted 26,063 users. I'm really looking to break a 1,000 user milestone per day in this (August) month.

In July in total I had 5 income streams that generated some income and two income streams (Linode and Bluehost) reported pending earnings.

I prefer to divide my income…

Blog Traffic Report - July 2015 - 26,063 Users

16 August, 2015 | Blogging | 9 seen

Welcome to the 22nd blog traffic and statistics report. Since the very first month of my blogging career I have created a monthly blog statistics reports and starting January 2014 a blog income reports. These numbers helps me stay focused, motivates and hopefully can inspire you as well.

Since this is already the 22nd traffic report, for me it feels kinda special - its just 2 more months, and my blog will celebrate it's 2 year anniversary. Read more how I felt like turning 1: Blog One Year Anniversary

July was another record breaker month and in total this blog attracted pretty decent 26,063 users - It;s already more than one forth of my goal reaching 100K users per month. Good to know.

Blog Traffic Report July 2015

• Last July comes with a strong 15.48% traffic gain if compared to previous month (June).
• Average daily user count: 840.74

By now I'm looking to crack the 30,000 users milestone, and I have a strong inner feeling telling that I will most probably crack this milestone this month (August)

Last July in total I published 39 articles, a lot of travel stuff, and a…

One Year After Being An Amazon Associate ($7,636.62)

15 August, 2015 | Blogging | 45 seen

I took me a lot of time to decide either to publish or not to publish post regarding my experience of being Amazon Associate after the first year, but since I like transparency (Read my monthly online income reports) and in fact in past I have done similar reviews, like I covered something about my earnings after my first year of blogging (Read: One Year Blog Anniversary) and my total online earnings in 2014, I decided well - it's OK to publish my findings of being an Amazon Associate after the first year.

I first opted in for Amazon Associates account back at he end of June 2014, and made first sale at the start of August 2014, so in this blog post I'm covering a time period August 2014 - July 2015:

Monthly Amazon Associates Income graph

In total for the last year period (August 1st, 2014 - July 31, 2015) I have earned in commissions from Amazon pretty impressive amount of money - $7,636.62, it is around $20.92 per day or $636.38 per month (equals to minimum wage in Portugal ($653) or average salary in Latvia ($667)

Now, that huge spike is made on December 2014, when I was surprised to learn…

World of Coca Cola Museum in Atlanta, GA

14 August, 2015 | Tourism objects | 14 seen

It was a damned hot day when we arrived to Atlanta, Georgia. After a few hour rest in our motel we decided to explore what's interesting nearby our location, and turned out that museum "World of Coca Cola" were among the closest tourist attractions. So we started to walk (don't walk when it's + 108 Fahrenheit outside). And here you go - some pictures back from 2013.

World of Coca Cola Museum in Atlanta, Georgia

Aquarium at World of Coca Cola

View to Down Town Atlanta

World of Coca Cola museum

Vending machines

Author of this blog captured at Coca Cola museum in Atlanta

The World of Coca-Cola at Pemberton Place® celebrated its Grand Opening on May 24, 2007. It’s the only place where you can explore the fascinating story of Coca‑Cola® – the world’s best-known beverage brand.

Thunderstorm in Downtown Knoxville, Tennessee

12 August, 2015 | Travel guides | 6 seen

We stayed in Knoxville for some 3 nights, since our motel was located pretty far away from Downtown Knoxville we traveled here by Public Transport (for a surprise they have a one). Since we didn't know much  (except Megabus is heading here) about Knoxville, we opened Wikipedia and learnt that a World's Fair has been held here in 1982. We decided to take a closer look of Downtown Knoxville and here is what we got: 

Thunderstorm in Down town Knoxville

Author of this blog hiding from rain in some cafeteria

Knoxville

Down town Knoxville, Tennessee

Down town Knoxville, Tennessee

After Knoxville we headed to Atlanta, Georgia, but it's another blog post.

Knoxville is a city in the U.S. state of Tennessee, and the county seat of Knox County. The city had an estimated population of 183,270 in 2013, and a population of 178,874 as of the 2010 census, making it the state's third largest city. Knoxville is the principal city of the Knoxville Metropolitan Statistical Area, which, in 2013, had an estimated population of 852,715. The KMSA is,…

Quaker Steak & Lube in Knoxville, Tennessee

11 August, 2015 | Restaurant reviews | 9 seen

Seems this place is closed for now, but back in 2013 we found it our second favorite place in US (after Chikie's & Pete's in Bordentown). Quaker Steak & Lube was located closely to our motel and when we went here, we were just impressed.

Quaker Steak and Lube in Knoxville

Live performance at Quaker Steak and Lube in Knoxville

Bike Night 2013

Tables at Quaker Steak & Lube in Knoxville

Author of this blog eating pork ribs

It would be sad to learn that this place is closed (in 2015), it was a great place, with great food (Best Wings in USA), awesome atmosphere and good prices.

Washington D.C. (Super Moon & Spending Night With Homeless People)

9 August, 2015 | Travel guides | 13 seen

What seemed to be one of the most interesting travel experiences turned out to be the worst travel experience and that happened in Washington D.C. back in summer of 2013 (I can actually recall it was June 22). While back in Georgia we had negotiated an accommodation in Washington D.C. using coach surfing - our host didn't showed up and since it was late night we stayed on street.

We have never tried coach surfing again. Well, I agree we could book a hotel, but since we arrived late in D.C. we decided to take the next Megabus bus and head furthermore into Southern States. We had to wait some 6-7 hours... in time of what we met a lot of soliciting homeless people, with one I even chatted for some 2 - 3 hours and in fact it was a quite interesting conversation, we talked about Soviet Space program, about China's economical growth e.t.c.

Another interesting phenomena happened that night - Super Moon. I took my humble camera and tried to memorize this night in Washington D.C. 

Super Moon in Washington D.C.

Lively street in Washington D.C.

Street musicians in Washington D.C. 

…

Streets of Philadelphia

8 August, 2015 | Travel guides | 13 seen

From my travel notes to the United States back in 2013. Just as from the World famous Bruce Springsteen song, we too experienced this lovely phenomena  called - streets of Philadelphia.

Update: I wish I was a better photographer back then, as all of the photos from that trip were taken using my old Sony DSC camera, and ... let's say they didn't pop out. Some three years latter, by writing an article on Geghard monastery in Armenia, I remembered Philly. All I was left, to browse for my old articles and take a help from Adobe Lightroom and fine tune my scenery.

Here are few things I can associate Philadelphia with - Penn Station (if you are traveling deeper into United states using rail or bus network, you will definitely use this facility), very Masonic city (here you will find Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania and a lot of Masonic symbols), very beautiful skyscrapers, tastiest coffee in the United States, and here I first time observed have noodles actually are prepared (at Philadelphia's Chinatown). Oh, and Philly cheese…

Manhattan - Island of Many Hills

6 August, 2015 | Tourism objects | 13 seen

Today by overlooking some old photos (taken in Summer 2013) I found some epic pictures back from my travels to United States, so I decided to add some photos I have taken there on my blog - and today I will add Manhattan. 

It was interesting for me to learn that "Manhattan" can be translated as "Island of many hills" from the Lenape (Unami) language. I didn't noticed many hills there, but a lot of skyscrapers instead.

Street musician in Manhattan's subway

It is interesting to learn that in New York you can (must) obtain some license for performing on the streets - as you can see from picture above - this musician is a musical saw player.

Manhattan 

Manhattan 

Times Square in Manhattan

Visit card of Manhattan - yellow taxi cabs

Manhattan

Manhattan is the most densely populated of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is coterminous with New York County, founded on November 1, 1683 as an original county of the U.S. state of New York. The borough consists mostly of Manhattan Island, bounded by the…

Staten Island Ferry - Free Tourist Attraction in New York City

5 August, 2015 | Tourism objects | 15 seen

In case you are looking for budget-friendly and interesting activities in New York - try a free-of-charge ferry service connecting Manhattan with Staten Island. Y

ou won't find much interesting in Staten Island (although you can rent a much cheaper apartment here like in downtown New York), but you will definitely enjoy views offered from the ferries deck, the best way to see Liberty Statue for free? - Staten Island Ferry!

Staten Island Ferry

View to Manhattan

Staten Islands Ferry's deck is a great place for photographers to take beautiful views of Manhattan, unfortunately back then I had only a simple bridge camera and best I could get was above seen picture. Also you can capture Statue of Liberty from ferries deck as well.

Author of this blog captured in action

The Staten Island Ferry is a passenger ferry service operated by the New York City Department of Transportation. It runs 5 miles (8.0 km) in New York Harbor between the New York City boroughs of Manhattan and Staten Island. The ferry operates 24/7.

The ferry…