Top Hotels and Apartments in Triopetra, Crete

10 November, 2017 | Hotel reviews | 6 seen

Triopetra in Crete, is among the most abandoned places I've traveled lately, if they wouldn't have a sea and a lovely beach, I would compare this place to the remote and almost abandoned desert village in Georgia, Udabno.

During our about one month road trip around the island of Crete, we stayed at Triopetra Notos hotel for one night on June 11, 2017. According to Booking.com website there are not many hotels located in Triopetra, but during our short visit here, I did found a few new construction sites in the area, which might mean - Triopetra could gain some popularity in the future.

Right now, there is nothing much to do or see in Triopetra, except get remote abandoned feeling and take some amazing sunset pictures.

Please note: hotels listed below may contain links to Booking.com, by clicking on links on this page and by making a reservation on Booking.com site, I might earn an affiliate income, at no cost to you.

This property is 1 minute walk from the beach. Offering accommodations with air conditioning, Triopetra Notos Hotel is located in Triopetra, just 38.6 km from Balíon. Rethymno Town is…

Hurma Cafe Shop in Tbilisi

8 November, 2017 | Restaurant reviews | 28 seen

Hurma cafe shop is a recently opened hipster style coffee house serving not only great coffee lattes, but also smoothies, delicious brunch and all day breakfast for a very affordable prices.

Located close to the Tbilisi Philharmony on Petre Melikishvili street 21 on the opposite side to the Tbilisi Hard Rock Cafe. This place is run by Russian/Ukrainian girls (at least that's what I understood). Despite being opened just recently, I noticed mostly foreign visitors here. Yeah, who I'm to complain, right?

That said, welcome to another great Tbilisi restaurant - Hurma cafe shop!

Menu at Hurma Cafe shop in Tbilisi

One of the rare places in Tbilisi offering Breakfast all day. Although I should mention that in recent years there have been a lot of improvement with brunch offer in Tbilisi. Prices for a brunch menu here are really low compared to other brunch places in Tbilisi. The prices will probably grow in the future, but for right now - enjoy!

Hipster style interior at Hurma Cafe shop

Looking for a rustic, industrial, kitschy place in Tbilisi? Come to Hurma Cafe shop.…

About Getting Residence Permit and Residence Card in Georgia

7 November, 2017 | Living in Georgia | 44 seen

Recently I was contacted by a blog reader asking about how to get a permanent residence status in Georgia, after buying an apartment in Tbilisi.

I decided to come up with a longer answer in a blog format, as I believe I will hear this question more and more, as Georgia is becoming a hub for expats from all around the World. For other readers questions please see: Questions and Answers section

The good starting point for getting more information about residence permit in Georgia is the official website of The State Commission on Migration Issues. See: Residence permit and residence card

Residence permit authorizes the right of a foreign citizen to enter and stay in Georgia or transit the territory of Georgia during the term of validity of residence permit. It also authorizes a holder to invite another foreigner to Georgia.

To obtain a residence permit, a foreign citizen must either personally or via authorized representative apply to any territorial office of the Public Service development agency, branch of the Public Service Hall or Community Centre, or apply online via the distance service of the Public Service…

Why Bitcoin Price at $7,174.50 ain't no fun, But I'm still buying it?

5 November, 2017 | Crypto | 56 seen

Bitcoin price has raised above $7,000 mark at the start of November 2017. It might sound like a great deal for the early day bitcoin investors, but for those who are opting in the cryptocurrency game just now, this might turn into a negative experience in the short term.

About 5 months ago I experienced my first FOMO (fears of missing out) and decided to invest in bitcoins (and few other altcoins). I quickly developed the so-called dollar-cost averaging approach and decided to acquire 3-4 altcoins once in a month until the end of 2020.

Remember your capital is at risk, never invest capital you cannot afford to lose!

I remember I bought the first bitcoins (satoshi's) for the price of about $2,700 in July. Now a couple of months later in November, I bought a few satoshis already at $7,100 price level. Bitcoin price has increased more than 2.6 times in just 4 months.  If you invested $10,000 in July, you are having about $26,000 in November.

Sadly I didn't make a 10K Investment in bitcoins back then, actually, my total net worth portfolio just recently has reached $10,000 value. Instead, I keep investing…

Minimum Wage Set to Rise in Baltic States in 2018

4 November, 2017 | Macroeconomics | 8 seen

During the past few years, there have been some positive improvements for raising the minimum wage in all three Baltic states (Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania). In 2018 minimum wage is set to rise in all Baltic states again. Estonia will a have a minimum wage of EUR 500; Latvia - EUR 430 and Lithuania - EUR 400.

That' s a pretty decent leap if compared with 2016, when minimum wages were set at EUR 430 in Estonia, EUR 370 in Latvia and just EUR 350 in Lithuania. See: Minimum Wage Set to Rising in All Baltic States in 2016

Despite a pretty decent increase in the Baltic States, minimum wages here are still among the lowest in the European Union. See: What's Minimum Wage in European Union 2017

During the past years I've been closely monitoring minimum wage developments in the Baltic states, here are few articles from history:

• Minimum wage in Baltic states
• Minimum Wages in the Baltic States 2015
• Minimum Wage Set to Rise in All Baltic States in 2016

Why do I care so much about minimum wages in the Baltic states? Simple, as I've been building dividend paying…

October 2017 Dividend Income Report - $72.97

2 November, 2017 | Investments | 15 seen

Welcome to the sixth (#6) dividend income report, covering earnings I've made from dividend-paying stocks, peer to peer lending (both fiat and cryptocurrencies) in October 2017. 

October was a very sad month - my dear granny passed away at the age of 87. Grandmother was like a mother to me taking care and giving advice in my childhood, teenage years and adult life.  My granny gave me first lessons in the finance world when I was like age  6 or something, she taught me about compound interests, deposits, bonds, and stocks. She was one of the smartest persons I ever know. I miss you a lot, our distant phone conversations in 3:00 in the morning...I miss you, and I know one day we will meet and play checkers again. Rest in Peace!

October, in terms of a passive income, turned out better, as I thought before, and generated me a dividend income of total $72.97. In fact, October now is the second best after the month of July.

Unexpected dividend payment from Estonian Nordecon (which I thought as one of the worst investments in 2017, just a couple of months before) helped to…

Audio & Video Transcription Service by Caucasus Translations

31 October, 2017 | Living in Georgia | 7 seen

Caucasus Translations is a professional translation and localization agency located in Tbilisi, capital of Georgia. The leader in the translation and content localization business in Caucasus and Central Asia. Agency employs more than 300 translators across the globe to provide cost-effective, accurate and native translation solutions for companies in almost all industry verticals in about 40 countries.

Today I'm glad to announce that here at Caucasus Translations Tbilisi department, there have been established audio & video transcription department.

As for the last couple of weeks, I've been involved in building office's infrastructure, configuring servers and setting up transcription software,  I decided to share few photos from this new department:

Caucasus Translations ready to assist with audio&video transcription service

The team of highly experienced transcription professionals works with the latest and top-notch software here. Confidentiality and data security are among top priorities here.

Lobby hall at Caucasus Translations

24/7 guarded building, with…

Why I'm not investing in Madara Cosmetics (MDRAUC)

30 October, 2017 | Investments | 26 seen

MADARA Cosmetics also known as MADARA, is a Latvian manufacturer of organic skin care products. The ingredients include biologically certified blossoms and herbal extracts from the Baltic region.

Since October 17, 2017, there is an ongoing IPO for Madara stocks on First North Baltic Share List. IPO will end on November 3rd. Also, there is a small hype with this IPO in Latvia and seems after this IPO will end, it will attract a lot of new first time investors to the Baltic stock exchange (Nasdaq Baltics), mostly from Latvia. Which is great, and hopefully more people will start to explore and invest in other listed companies.

As a strong investor in the Baltic region (Dividend-paying stocks and peer to peer lending) investment opportunities in Madara Cosmetics have been on my radar, probably since the Spring of 2017, when I first heard about upcoming IPO, planned for the Q4 of 2017

Once IPO was announced and I familiarized with the prospectus I had ambivalent feelings regarding investing in this company.

I did the most basic fundamental analysis I could - I asked to almost all…

How to Prevent Copying Files to USB on Windows 10

29 October, 2017 | Servers | 233 seen

Lately I've been working as a system administrator and helping out a lot to a small company setting up office computers. It involves purchasing office computers, setting up operating systems, configuring LAN and of course security.

As these are topics I face on my everyday working day (though i feel more server guy) - I decided to write down my notes, as with time, things can be forgotten.

Just recently we faced an issue on port forwarding to enable Remote Administration, see: How To Setup Port Forwarding for TP-Link Wireless Router (Radmin).

As company is working with sensitive information (data) - it was agreed - we should enable another layer of security - preventing copying files from HDD to USB devices.

In general there are several way of achieving this, as the rule of thumb here are the two most popular options:

• Using the Registry
• Using the Group Policy

For this tutorial I will stick with the Group Policy option (for other use, see this guide: How to enable write protection for USB devices on Windows 10)

How To Setup Port Forwarding for TP-Link Wireless Router (Radmin)

28 October, 2017 | Servers | 60 seen

In today's article, I'll share quite an easy tutorial on how to configure TP-Link Wireless N Router WR840N for a LAN to allow connections from the internet using Radmin software.

For the ease of this article, I will not cover in depths details how to configure Radmin, for that follow official guidelines (or leave a question in comment form). Today we are talking about port forwarding in router setup and firewall settings for Windows 10. Despite I'm providing details for TP-Link Wireless N Router WR840N, the further written should apply for the most routers.

Visit your routers admin dashboard, for TP-Link routers 192.168.0.1, log in with username and password (if default, then admin: admin)

Locate Virtual server, under Forwarding

Port forwarding on TP-Link Wireless router

Click on Add New:

Virtual Server

By default Radmin is using port 4889, if you are OK with that, enter 4889 in Service Port field, IP Address, enter your…

Webdesign Update for CaucasusTranslations.com Translation & Localization Agency

27 October, 2017 | Drupal Development | 13 seen

Caucasus Translations is a professional translation and localization agency located in Tbilisi, capital of Georgia. The leader in the translation and content localization business in Caucasus and Central Asia. The agency employs more than 300 translators across the globe to provide cost-effective, accurate and native translation solutions for companies in almost all industry verticals in about 40 countries.

Our corporation with Caucasus Translations agency started back in 2011. During the time I've helped not only to build a website but also have helped with configuring servers, applications and just recently building an office for their transcription department in Tbilisi. See: Audio & Video Transcription Service by Caucasus Translations

Frontpage of CaucasusTranslations.com

Originally, this website was built back in 2011 on Drupal 7 CMS. See: Website for Translation Agency - CaucasusTranslations.com

With latest redesign changes, responsive design was implemented.

The site is available in 5 languages (English, Georgian, Russian, German and Latvian) - and it can easily be extended to more languages.

…

How To Learn Night And Long Exposure Photography

25 October, 2017 | Digital Photography School | 14 seen

Night photography together with a landscape and HDR photography is one of my favorite photography techniques.

Over the years I have mastered my night photography skills from completely ruined and completely dark photography to tack-sharp and well exposed night photography.

Here is what I've learned during the past couple of years - a decent DSLR camera is highly recommended, though I believe you could achieve fairly decent results with a point & shoot camera. You will be truly amazed by results DSRL can proceed. Don't worry, an entry-level DSRL cameras are not expensive nowadays, you can perfectly start your DSRL journey under $500. In fact, for the past 2 years, I have been shooting with Canon EOS Rebel T5.

• Top 15 Best Selling DSLR Cameras 2017

A sturdy tripod, you could probably cheat around it, but to get a tack sharp images tripod is more than welcome. I'm using a MeFOTO Aluminum Globetrotter tripod, which can be turned into a monopod with ease (you can get one for about $250)

For learning more about Night Photography please read following articles:

• ISO Settings for…

Metis Tbilisi Restaurant Review

24 October, 2017 | Restaurant reviews | 28 seen

Metis is a French-Georgian fusion restaurant bar offering a twist of exotic flavor, centrally located in Tbilisi Old Town (Shavteli street 8). Seems that this Tbilisi restaurant has opened just recently (Summer of 2017), but it already has gained popularity among local Georgia expat audience. 

It was on a sunny Saturday afternoon after we finished some photo shooting at Sameba cathedral (see: Panoramic Photography From Tbilisi Holy Trinity Cathedral) we decided to visit exactly Metis. So we did.

I was pleasantly surprised to learn that Metis restaurant has a brunch menu from 10:00-16:00 for GEL 29. I remember the time we spent our Saturday mornings in Tbilisi trying to find the best brunch offer and here you go - a brunch menu from Metis in the heart of the city. Amazing.

Metis has an amazing rooftop terrace offering great views over the Mtkvari river - Sameba and the Presidental Palace building are clearly visible

Rooftop terrace at Metis restaurant in Tbilisi

This time they had a fish style brunch menu, kind of Caribbean cuisine brunch menu, fish soup, mussels,  rice and other goodies. 

…

Panoramic Photography From Tbilisi Holy Trinity Cathedral

23 October, 2017 | | 11 seen

Holy Trinity Cathedral of Tbilisi, commonly known as Sameba (Trinity in Georgian) probably is among the most known Tbilisi tourist attraction sites and of course, it's the main cathedral of Georgian Orthodox Church.

For me it's always been interesting to look at Sameba from two points of view - it's third highest Orthodox cathedral in the world and it symbolizes Georgian national and spiritual revival. See more: Sameba - Holy Trinity Cathedral of Tbilisi. Time after time, when inspiration arrives I head to the Sameba just to make interesting photos. Sameba is great for architecture and of course panoramic shots. 

In today's Piece of Life series - two panoramic shots from Sameba, made at the end of October 2017

Sameba

Stack together 3 handheld shots using Adobe Photoshop. See: How To Stitch Panoramic Photos with Adobe Photoshop (Photomerge)

Panoramic view towards Tbilisi from Sameba

How about you? What are your favorite places for photography in Tbilisi or your city? Leave us a comment!

Village of Kandanos in Crete

22 October, 2017 | Tourism objects | 47 seen

Kandanos is a town and former municipality in the Chania regional unit, Crete, Greece. We made a short stop here, during our latest trip to Crete in June 2017. 

The view in front of us was so amazing, that I decided to make some photography here. Back then I even didn't keep the record and didn't write down the name - Kandanos. Well, here is an interesting though I just made - it would be cool to handle international relations between Latvian Kandava and Cretan Kandanos. Just because, their names are so similar.

Probably the reason we decided to spend 5 minutes at Kandanos village central parking space, was following:

The village of Kandanos in Crete

Brilliant, right? Now, a couple of months later after this trip, when writing down notes about places we discovered, it was interesting to locate this place on the map, and read what Wikipedia and other resources have to say, about out this village, turns out it has a very interesting history to tell. We arrived here from Libyan hotel in Palaiochora

In the Greek and Roman periods, a city called Kandanos or Kandania…