Blog Archive: March 2016
An ex-pat living in Georgia since 2011, I trade stocks, take photographs, work out at the gym, and many more. Here I write about travel, finance, and other things that might interest me.
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Chops by the River - Restaurant & Grill
Chops by the River restaurant and grill is now among my favorite Tskenti restaurants, and allow me to say among Tbilisi restaurants as well. Located in village of Tskneti this restaurant offers single priced grill menus and very pleasant atmosphere. I have heard of this place by some friend before, but the circumstances that made us actually to visit this restaurant was a little bit strange. As an active outdoor lovers we were off to hiking…
Drupal IMCE very slow on uploading images - here is how to fix
It has been about a year, since I noticed IMCE upload is damn slow when uploading images for my photo stories or just any other articles. For a very long time I was convinced that it's some cdn or JavaScript incompatibility (because sometimes, just sometimes IMCE upload worked just fine) It was until today, when it started to take more than one minute to properly load that modal window of IMCE upload. IMCE upload window I quickly realized,…
Postcards from Modena, Italy
Modena is a little charming town in the middle of Italy. Known as the birthplace of Worlds famous Ferrari car. We spent a few days in vicinity of Modena (during our recent trip to Italy), enjoyed a colorful facades of houses, narrow streets, a lot of prosciutto and of course great Italian coffee. Back at the time - I was tired of photography and made just a few random shots here: Colored residential buildings and window shutters in Modena…
Juliet's House in Verona, Italy
As testified by the coat of arms on the internal arch-way of the court-yard, this house belonged to the “Dal Cappello” or “Cappelletti”. The building, dating back to the 13th and renovated in the last century, features the balcony where Romeo promised his beloved Juliet eternal love in Shakespeare’s famous tragedy. I had a chance to visit World famous Juliet's balcony on January 2nd, 2016 - it was a very rainy and cold day In Verona Juliet's…
Let's Encrypt to fix HTTPS Certificate incompatibility with Windows XP and Google Chrome
It was about a month ago - when I successfully installed secure https pages for my blog, I opted for using free certificate provided by Let's Encrypt certificate authority. I first heard Let's Encrypt certificate authority from KeyCDN. It was super easy and fast to create SSL certificates for my Linode powered Nginx box. Unfortunately - just a few days later I noticed a deadly screen - Your connection is not private Your connection is not…
Number of Passengers served in Georgian Airports (2010-2015)
Civil aviation is slowly but for certain growing in Republic of Georgia. There were in total four airports in Georgia in 2016. Tbilisi International Airport, Kutaisi David the Builder International Airport, Batumi International Airport and Mestia Queen Tamara Airport. As a frequent air traveler I have used two of Georgian airports very often, Tbilisi airport and Kutaisi airport, I have been at Batumi airport but never have flied from there and…
New Design and Upgraded Security for Lari (GEL) Banknotes
On February 1st, 2016 the National Bank of Georgia issued upgraded Lari banknotes. It was mid February when first upgraded banknote ended up im my hands, I got it at local Procredit ATM. My first thought was that I have probably by accident pressed EUR account instead of GEL and have taken my money from EUR account, but then I realized it's a new upgraded currency. After I took the following photo I shortly spent it on groceries at local…
Guest House Hapi in Jūrmala
If there is a reason I will remember Hapi guest house in Jūrmala, then probably its green walls and super unprofessional staff attitude will be among top of them. Hapi guesthouse in Jūrmala We stayed here for one night back in August 2015 and ... I can not even express my disappointment in words how unprofessional and meanwhile expensive this so called guest house was. We paid about EUR 40 for stay in this place... EUR 40 is not much, I…
Lawn Mowing - The Never Ending Story Continues
Our roof works were still in the middle, and I noticed that grass have grown again. It was just recently when I trimmed backyard territory, but this time I decided it's time to completely trim all our land (about 0.57 hectares). I asked to our worker, could he handle this task in one day. He agreed, so in the next day - I took a day off from any home remodeling works, instead did some work for customers and photographed how grass is falling…
Failed attempt to complete Tskneti - Turtle lake hiking route
About a year ago I discovered very cool hiking route in Tbilisi, heading from Turtle lake to Tskneti town. The total distance for this route was about 7 km and it offered very spectacular landscape views. I have completed this route several times - last time together with my dad in May, 2015. At the start of February I decided to offer this route as a possible photo / hike route for Georgia Expat Photographer club members, but before that I…
Cafe Laboratory Review in Tbilisi
Cafe Laboratory is located at the top floor at the high end shopping and business center Merani on Rustaveli avenue, Tbilisi. I was doing some photography in Vere neighborhood, when I received a call and invitation from my beloved one, she insisted we should meet at this place, enjoy some cup of tea/coffee, also she knew I'm with camera so most probably something good for my Tbilisi restaurant review series might happen So I walked Rustaveli…
Restaurant Greppia in Verona
It was a very cold, grey and rainy day in Verona, when on the way finding Juliet's Balcony I realized it would be great to find some local restaurant, order some meal and what's important to warm up. I noticed a few signboards with direction arrows located around streets of Verona, when I decided to take the bait and actually followed those arrows. (A smart marketing from Greppia restaurant) Greppia restaurant in Verona We were not the only…
Rainy day in Verona
It was a damn cold, rainy and very grey day when we arrived to Verona, Italy. I was looking to photograph some nice looking pictures but found it very difficult to make any decent exposure today at all. Calendar told us it is January 2nd, 2016. We had made a long Italy trip and arrived here from Venice (where celebrated New Years eve). Our goal was to reach Juliet's balcony... We had not a single clue where actually in city it is located. …
Lurji (Blue) Monastery
The Lurji Monastery also known as "Blue Monastery", is a 12th-century Georgian Orthodox church built in the name of Saint Andrew in the Vere neighborhood of Tbilisi, Georgia. The popular historical name lurji ("blue") is derived from its roof, adorned with glazed blue tile. I first discovered this church by accident after went photographing another church (Russian Orthodox Church of St. John the Theologian in Tbilisi) and just on site I noticed…
Russian Orthodox Church of St. John the Theologian in Tbilisi
Church of St. John the Theologian (Russian: Церковь Иоанна Богослова) is located in Vere neighborhood, Tbilisi. Tis was already second Russian Orthodox church I have visited in Tbilisi. Read more about Alexander Nevsky Russian Orthodox Church in Tbilisi, and I know for sure there is another Russian church (at least in Tbilisi). I didn't enter inside this church, just tried to make some panorama photos here. Located at the end of L. Kiacheli…