Guesthouse Pirts Baudas

Guesthouse Pirts Baudas is located in Ilzenes parish, Aluksnes county. The property is 24.1 km from Alūksne, and guests benefit from complimentary WiFi and private parking available on site.

We booked this place during our day trip to Valka and the area. I thought this place will be much closer to Valka, but it turned out about a 2-hour drive…

Latvia |

Velēna church

The Velēna Lutheran Church is at the crossing of the Smiltene-Gulbene-Lizums roads. I would call this as one of the most beautiful churches in Latvia.

It's said the first built church here was a wooden church with a turf roof. This is where the place got its name from – Velēna (Torf). Visitors can still enjoy one of the most beautiful organs in…

Latvia |

One Day in Micini

Micini has a very special place in my heart - I spent a brief time, about two years here, back in the 90-ties, living with my grandmother. Back in the days - there was some life here - a farm with more than 100 cows, few families, and even a public bus twice a week connecting to Valka.

My relatives from gradmother's side have been living here for…

Latvia |

Cafe Papes Vēji

Cafe Papes Vēji is a summer cafe located next to the Pape channel in Western Latvia near the Pape Lighthouse.

This place serves traditional Latvian cuisine, and cold beer and some can buy smoked fish (apparently in the season)

I have been fond of this area for a few years already and first discovered this cafe about a year ago, now in Summer…

Latvia |

Listing Vilgāle apartment for sale

After some thinking, I decided to list for sale our Vilgāle apartment. 

I bought this apartment about two years ago in an online auction, paying about EUR 4,000. During the past two years, we have done some serious renovation with a total investment being closer to EUR 18,000. 

Today I bought my first flat on an online auction site

I…

Vilgāle Apartment |

Summer Cafe Kazbārs in Kazdanga

 

Summer café-bar “Kazbārs” is located next to the watermill in the heart of the scenic park of Kazdanga.

This place serves freshly ground coffee, Italian dessert affogato, refreshing soft ice cream (including vegan options), cold live beer, and vegan soups. 

Place is run by energetic couple from Riga, if you will be happy enough you…

Latvia |

How to Sell a Car in Riga / Latvia

We bought a used Mercedes Benz ML 400 Diesel car in Riga a few months ago. We hoped the car would suit us for the years to come, but in the end, the vehicle was faulty even before we bought it. So the car died (or almost died) - with the problem being - a timing belt, which needed to be replaced.

I asked to a few handymen how much it could cost,…

Personal |

Cafe Pāvilostas Enkurs

Cafe Pāvilostas Enkurs is located on Dzinstaru street 69 in Latvian Summer Capital Pavilosta.

they serve fish and chips, pizza, and traditional Latvian cold soup here. 

One of the best fish and chips I've tried in Latvia

Seems like a popular place in Pāvilosta, many tourists

Give it a try once in Pavilosta

Latvia |

Friends Hub village Guest house review in Vazisubani

Friends Hub village guesthouse is located in Vazisubani, near Gurjaani in the region of Kakheti, Georgia, some 2-hour drive from Tbilisi.

Oskars, the host, invited me to visit his new place at the start of May 2022. After a few stops at McDonald's, Sighanghi, and Bodbe monastery we finally reached Vazisubani, where we were…

Georgia |

How To Tile Kitchen / hallway floor

The time had finally come and I was ready to tile the kitchen and hallway floors at our Vilgale apartment.

A year ago I would say  - no way I'm going to do it myself, but here you go, I did it all on my own, with some research on Youtube and a lot of encouragement from friends who have done it.

As it is in our Tbilisi apartment - I decided…

Vilgāle Apartment |

New Investment Project - Summer House with Garden in Latvia

Welcome to another interesting project in the home remodeling series. - summer house with a garden in SouthWest Latvia. It turns out this is already the third, ongoing home remodeling project featured on the blog. Exciting.

This is the project my fiancee actually bought, without first seeing it - the price seemed very good, not to take this…

Summer Cottage - Jēči |

Pearl of Tbilisi - Gardenia Shevardnadze Flower Garden

Gardenia Shevardnadze is a lovely flower garden in Tbilisi, where you can buy seedlings for your yard, balcony, terrace, home, or office. 

The place is popular among photographers, tourists, gardeners, and enjoyers of life.

After visiting this place so many times, while living in Georgia, I wouldn't hesitate to call this place a Pearl of…

Living in Georgia |
Embedded thumbnail for Hiking Likani, Sunday school Rustavi

Hiking Likani, Sunday school Rustavi

Another awesome weekend in Georgia 🇬🇪- with some elements of offroad riding, hiking, camping, horseback riding near Likani station, and a few skulls at Green monastery Saturday.

Back to Rustavi scout center for a lovely Sunday with fellow Latvians. 

Our last weekend trip with VW Touareg. 

Living in Georgia |
Embedded thumbnail for Eagle canyon in Georgia

Eagle canyon in Georgia

The bear went over the mountain .. or last weekend we went hiking at the Eagle Canyon near Dedoplistskaro, Shopping at the Dezerteer market in Tbilisi, and exercising at Lisi Lake... another fabulous weekend has been put on our tapes and post-processed.

Enjoy the video and thumbs up!

Living in Georgia |
Embedded thumbnail for Sighnaghi & Vazisubani trip

Sighnaghi & Vazisubani trip

At the start of May, Oskars invited us to visit his new hut in Kakheti.

After a few stops at McDonald's, Sighanghi, and Bodbe monastery we finally reached Vazisubani, where we were greeted with traditional Georgian supra and a lot of chacha.

Now, there is one more cool place where they speak Latvian to visit in Georgia. Enjoy the video and…

Living in Georgia |

Notes from Tbilisi: Abandoned Military sites in Latvia / Estonia; Sold VW Touareg car; #2 Bitcoin newsletter

Good afternoon from sunny and hot Tbilisi. The weather was scorching today, reaching +32 Celsius.

The morning started with an interesting message to the blog's contact form - an Estonian person was asking some questions about military sites in Latvia, we exchanged a few e-mails and talked both about Latvian and Estonian abandoned military sites…

Living in Georgia |

International Scout Centre Rustavi

The industrial town of Rustavi, approximately 25 km southeast of the Georgian capital Tbilisi, offers a modern international scouting center.

The youth center offers space for a variety of indoor and outdoor activities. The facility is available for children and young people from Rustavi and offers comfortable and reasonably priced accommodation…

Georgia |

How to Fix "Unable to install bootstrap, bootstrap.settings already exists in active configuration"

As this was already the second time i faced the "Unable to install bootstrap, bootstrap.settings already exists in active configuration." problem i decided to share a quick and simple solution.

Background: I have faced this error when performing the Drupal 7 upgrade to the Drupal 9 version and trying to enable the bootstrap theme.…

Drupal Development |

Notes from Tbilisi: Caru.ge services our Car, new expats join language courses, PCR test

The morning started with the kiddo having a little fever (temperature 37 C). Decided to leave her at home and observe, as this Friday we have our first school concert. It would be very sad to miss. Sent a message to Ms. Nino.

Yesterday - the car just stopped working, or won't crank. Already for the third time, this year ordered caru.ge to service…

Living in Georgia |

How To Upgrade Drupal 7 to 9 (With Multilingual Support)

In this article, I will keep notes on how I upgraded the multilingual Drupal 7 site to a multilingual Drupal 9 site.

Turns out I had originally built this website on Drupal 7 more than 10 years ago and it already felt that the exciting website's look and feel is a bit outdated and we wanted to get a fresh look.

I thought it wouldn't do any harm…

Drupal Development |

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It has already become something of a tradition for us - escaping the cold during our daughter’s winter school break and trading grey skies for warmth, color, and a slower rhythm of life. Each year, we carve out about three weeks to leave Tbilisi behind and head somewhere sunnier. And more often than not, that “somewhere” turns out to be India.Our…

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