Home Remodelling - How It All Starts

6 July, 2015 | Home Remodeling | 9 seen

Recently my better part and I became a lucky home-owners, we went through a long and bureaucratic procedure to inherit a house in scenic place in a very remote country. The house is in a very bad condition and asks for a lot of investments - one of the primary things we are looking to do next - is to change a roof (it is leaky), to dig the well, draw in water and to connect to the electricity. Since it requires a lot of money and a lot of time I decided to start a new blog post series - Home Remodelling - to document progress.

Update: After a few years and a couple of thousand investment we lost ownership of this property and all the renovation works have stopped, instead we have a few other cool and interesting projects, see Home Remodeling for more

I will start with what we got. The pictures shown bellow are taken at the start of April 2015 and illustrates what we got.

Front view of our house

A small fish pond near the house

Backyard of the house

..and a skew shed

Old School electricity plugins

Apple orchard

Broken fence

Moss covering…

Širhans - Azerbaijani cuisine in Riga, Latvia

5 July, 2015 | Restaurant reviews | 108 seen

Širhans (Shirhan) is a lovely restaurant serving Azerbaijani cuisine located in the suburbs of Sarkandaugava in Riga, Latvia (Meža Prospekts 90).

I visited this place just shortly after a visit to Riga Zoo.

If you just like me enjoy Caucasian style cuisine you will enjoy this place. Although I must admit I'm very found of Georgian cuisine (Read my Tbilisi restaurant reviews) - this time I was pleased with Azerbaijani cuisine also. Thus take into consideration - to enjoy a real Azeri cuisine - you must visit land of fire. The local versions are usually adopted to local customer tastes.  

Restaurant Shirhan in Riga

Just take a look at this lovely tiger - as seen in the famous Mowgli series

Outdoor patio at Shirhan

Azerbaijani bread at Shirhan restaurant

Rye garlic bread

Well, this is a more Latvian thing rather Azerbaijani, but a good one

Meal at Shirhan restaurant

Restaurant Širhans in Riga serves both Caucasian (Azerbaijani) and European food. Prices at this place are a bit pricey. Don't try to order a…

10 Best Andorra la Vella Hotels

4 July, 2015 | Hotel reviews | 5 seen

Riga Zoo

4 July, 2015 | Entertainment | 89 seen

Riga Zoo is a city-owned zoo in Riga, Latvia. It is located in Mežaparks neighbourhood next to the Mežaparks park, on the western bank of Ķīšezers lake. Riga Zoo houses around 4000 animals of nearly 500 species and is visited by 250-300,000 visitors annually. 

Ocassionaly I love visitin Riga zoo, in this article some of my pictures and data when I visited Riga Zoo together with my mom at the start of May 2016

I took my DSLR camera with myself and captured more than 600 images here, just 17 survived to you my dear reader.

Entrance gates at Riga zoo

Riga Zoo is located in a lovely neighbourhood of Mežaparks. 

Flamingos at Riga Zoo

A camel at Riga zoo

A peacock at Riga Zoo

At Riga Zoo

Riga Zoo

Although it's forbidden to feed animals at Riga zoo, some little fella couldn't resist to feed this one with a carrot. Where did he got that carrot?

At Riga Zoo

Giraffe at Zoo

Secretary-bird at Riga Zoo

Now, I enjoyed this creature the most. From Wikipedia: The secretarybird or secretary…

Dobele Castle Ruins

3 July, 2015 | Tourism objects | 18 seen

Right, lets speak about a topic I like a very much - Castle ruins. Recently I visited Dobele Castle Ruins (Republic of Latvia) and spent here some 30 minutes trying to make some decent photos of this place. History of this castle dates back to the 1335 AD. But prior to that there was another castle (Read more at the end of this post)

Fortification walls of Dobele Castle

Fortification walls of Dobele Castle

Dobele castle ruins

Dobele castle ruins

Here I laid down in the grass and experimented with a photography. Personally I have found this technique gives me best photos in case I'm not using a tripod. Actualy I did use here a small gorilla pad tripod.  In a result I got a pretty interesting image (at least I believe so)

Dobele castle ruins

Again, the same technique

Don't climb up there

You can get a decent fine for doing that. The sign stands here from times Latvia did use Latvian Lats as its national currency. 250 Ls equals to some EUR 355.

Inside territory at Dobele castle

View to the Dobele town from Castle ruins…

Dobele Evangelical Lutheran Church

2 July, 2015 | Churches and Monasteries | 8 seen

I was surprised to learn that this church is more than 500 years old. Prior I learnt that I was even more surprised to learn that Dobele town has a lovely historical centre. This church is located just next to this historical centre.

I took my camera and tried to make some great pictures here.

Dobele Evangelical Lutheran Church

I believe all is said with just this one photo. Just marvellous.

Entrance at this church

Info table

This church is now already 520 years old

Back view

As usual in Latvian churches, the doors were closed (some construction works were held inside) and I hadn't any chance to photograph inside interior.

The Dobele Evangelical Lutheran Church is situated in the town centre next to the Marketplace. The church was built in 1495 of the order of Valter fon Pletenberg, Master of the Livonian Order. The church was rebuilt for several times, the tower steeple got its present look in 1907. In 1995, on the 500 anniversary of the church, a new roof was covered and the outer walls were painted. 

The Historical Centre of Dobele - Marketplace Square

1 July, 2015 | Tourism objects | 12 seen

Dobele is a small town located in historical region of Zemgale in Latvia some 60 km South West from nations capital city Riga. One thing a tourist should visit while in Dobele definitely is it's historical centre - marketplace square. In recent years this place has gone through some renovation and last time I visited it - it looked just amazing.

Well if you are hoping to see both old and new architecture, like it's for example in German city Bonn's marketplace, then no - you wont find here any skyscrapers. For some reason I got this feeling that time at this place has stood still from some 19th century.

Historical centre of Dobele

A tourist info board explaining history of this place

A fountain as central element here

I must admit a very interesting design for this fountain

Dobele Evangelical Lutheran Church

This church has been built on AD 1495

Fountains built in the pavement 

I used a gorilla pad and got a lovely angle

Dwelling house and a fountain

Speaking of this dwelling house - a typical Latvian 19th century dwelling house

…

Cafe 'Dzirnaviņas' in Biksti

30 June, 2015 | Restaurant reviews | 92 seen

Cafe Dzirnaviņas is located on the roadside of Riga - Liepaja highway in a small county of Biksti. This place serves a traditional Latvian cuisine for a very affordable prices.

Cafe Dzirnavinas

Menu at Cafe Dzirnavinas

As usual it might happen in local Latvian restaurants - a pork chop is a most popular meal. Prices indicated here are in EUR. Portions? Enormous!

A daily dose of Coca-Cola

They serves Coke with ice here (on request)

Bread kvass

Another traditional element from Latvian cuisine - a bread kvass

Pork chop

Boiled vegetables

Cafe Dzirnaviņas seems is a  very popular place among locals and foreigners I met here a few foreigners as well - Russians, Belarussians and even a noisy Estonian.

Food served here is tasty, portions are pretty large. Prices - very affordable. 

Top 5 Drones For Photography For Sale On Amazon

29 June, 2015 | Laptop Reviews | 13 seen

Few months ago during a hiking trip in an amazing Birtvisi Canyon (Republic of Georgia) I first started to "fantasy" about a drone photography. Back then, shortly returning from this trip I started to do some basic research on drones (what's popular, prices e.t.c.) and created the ultimate list of Best Drone To Buy in 2015. 

Now since I have been into a photography as well, I decided to take a closer look on drones for photographers / photography and here is what I have found: DJI Phantom still is the king among drones / quad copters. Either during last few months prices for drones have been dropped, either drones for photography are cheaper than Best drones. Anyway, please find the top 5 drones which are good for photography.

Please note this list contains affiliate links to Amazon.com, by clicking on links on this page and by making a purchase on Amazon site, I will earn an affiliate income from that. Prices for drones listed on this page is retrieved by using Amazon Product Advertising API and is updated daily.

DJI's Phantom quadcopter is the gear of…

Skrunda Bus Station

28 June, 2015 | Railway / Bus / Ferry | 32 seen

Skrunda bus station is a regional bus station serving local Latvian cities and town. It mainly serves Riga and Liepaja route, but you can get from here to Kuldīga, Kazdanga and other local routes. If you are heading to Skrunda by bus you can either hire some local taxi here or walk to the closely located Skrunda abandoned military town (Distance ~ 6km).

Speaking of this station building - for me it looks like a pretty standard Soviet time architecture built from a concrete.

Skrunda bus station

Platform at Skrunda bus station

Buses from Platform NR1 goes to Riga

Waiting room at Skrunda Bus Station

Bus schedule

Skrunda Bus Station

15 Value Deal Hotels in Sitges (Catalonia), Spain

27 June, 2015 | Hotel reviews | 3 seen

Rudzisu Stone

27 June, 2015 | Tourism objects | 11 seen

We discovered Rudzisu Stone (Rudzīšu akmens) by accident driving  some remote roads in Latvian countryside. What at start seemed an easy task turned to be a mini hiking tour. Although there is a tourist sign right next to the road some (perhaps you) will need walk to this stone some 500 meters (at least) from that road. You will have a chance to meet some snails, cross two wooden bridges, dive into a spooky forest in case you are up to for this mini hiking tour.

Here are approximate coordinates for this stone: Latvia, Kuldiga district, Laidi municipality, 300 m E from Snepele - Kazdanga road, in small gully 140 m N from Rudzisi.

Snails near Rudzisi stone

We met a lot of these small creatures here

A typical panorama of Latvian countryside

Well I believe the panoramas and little creatures (snails) makes 80% of a trip to Rudzisi stone

A forest near Rudzisi stone

Since I have been a lot lately into a photography I decided to make a good looking picture of forest.

A wooden bridge in the forest

As I said we made some extra 500 meters to reach this…

Berghof Restaurant Review in Dairy Manor, Sieksāte, Latvia

25 June, 2015 | Restaurant reviews | 15 seen

This restaurant is located inside the Dairy Manor Berghof complex. During my visit at this complex I had a chance to try a local delicacy like salmon tartar at this restaurant. I learned there exists a gadget called a tea timer while I enjoyed my meal here.

 Dairy Manor (Piena Muiža in Latvian) Berghof is located in the remote Latvian village of Sieksāte some 160 km from capital Riga. This manor complex serves a hotel, restaurant, museum and a lovely park. 

Outdoor Patio at this Restaurant

I believe some (perhaps you) will enjoy this patio in mild summer evenings. 

Indoor interior

Indoor interior

Indoor interior

Embroidered blanket

Saying Enjoy your meal!

Tea timer

Some interesting and for me unseen element a tea timer

Recipe book

The menu at this restaurant is accompanied with some interesting food recopies. The one on photo above indicates how to prepare an egg cream liqueur.

Indoor interior

Salmon tartar

Some pasta

My Germany and The Netherlands Travel Guide

24 June, 2015 | Travel guides | 6 seen

Back at the end of April 2015, we made a  lovely trip to Keukenhof's Tulip Gardens.

This trip started and ended at a remote German Frankfurt - Hahn airport. Although the total time for this trip was just 3 days we traveled a lot. You will find a few landmarks, a few restaurants, and a few hotel reviews in this article

Dairy Manor Berghof

23 June, 2015 | Tourism objects | 29 seen

Dairy Manor (Piena Muiža in Latvian) Berghof is located in the remote Latvian village of Sieksāte some 160 km from capital Riga. This manor complex serves a hotel, retaurant, museum and a lovely park. 

Bicycle parking at Berghof

Some (perhaps you) can rent a bicycle here and enjoy a lovely ride around this manor complex

Camper parking at Berghof

Dairy Manor Offers 17 well-equipped campers and daravan pitches and facility house, thus enabling travellers to spend holidays as close as possible to nature, at the same time having all comfort options of the Manor. Picturesque landscapes and pastures, centennial alley planted in the time of Baron, murmur of the leaves in the autumn inspire you to leave the city buzz and step towards the nature. To watch the morning dew in the rising sun, listen to the birds` warble, to please eyes with red deer on the pasture grounds of the Manor, or pet the little sheep.

Deers at Berghof

Sheep at Dairy Manor Berghof

Dairy Manor Berghof from back

A typical Latvian countryside

Sauna and pool inside Hotel…