Akhtala Monastery in Armenia

24 September, 2015 | Churches and Monasteries | 26 seen

Akhtala monastery was our third and last stop during our short one day trip to Armenia, before returning to Tbilisi. Prior to Akhtala monastery we visited Haghpat monastery and Sanahin monastery. The truth is - our trip was made especially to visit Akhtala because of a barbeque festival was held here. I will cover some details (and photos) about that festival in some of the next blog posts, but today I decided to share some photography I captured here at Akhtala.

Just like Haghpat and Sanahin monasteries, Akhtala monastery is located in province of Lari in Armenia (close to Georgian border). However, unlike Haghpat and Sanahin which are plain Armenian Apostolic church elements, Akhtala shares some history with Georgian Orthodox church. 

Akhtala monastery

As you can see in the above image, monastery (church) is located on top of (inside) the fortress wall, turns out that the fortress played a major role in protecting the north-western regions of Armenia (Gugark) and is among the most well preserved of all in modern Armenia.

Uphill road leading to monastery complex

Since a barbeque festival was…

Sanahin Monastery in Armenia

23 September, 2015 | Churches and Monasteries | 27 seen

Sanahin monastery is located in province of Lori in Armenia, close to Georgian border. Sanahin monastery was second site we visited during our short one day trip to Armenia, just shortly after we visited Haghpat monastery.

I was so eager to master a photography using my DSLR camera and a tripod (it's damn hard to use a tripod in 30 minutes sightseeing tour) so I didn't actually paid much attention on history a local guides were telling about this place. After all I prefer to do Wikipedia search after or before, but not on site.

So it's all about photography this time, for the first time I have used Adobe Lightroom to edit (fine tune) my images, but unfortunately I was not shooting in RAW mode back there in Armenia, so all I have is edited jpegs.

Sanahin monastery in Armenia

The name Sanahin literally translates from Armenian as "this one is older than that one", presumably representing a claim to having an older monastery than the neighboring Haghpat Monastery.

Tourists at Sanahin monastery

As with Haghpat, Sanahin is frequented by an increasing number of tourists, due to its recent…

How To Recover Lost Password on Linode Server (SSH, Putty)

22 September, 2015 | Servers | 53 seen

Bad things happens time after time, and so did happened to me recently - after a longer pause I resumed work on a customers project, and I faced a problem - I had lost my password for accessing my Linode VPS. I must admit that I panicked a lot. Since this happened second time in a 3 years, I decided to wrap up a simple article to help me and others to quickly get connected back to our servers.

Interested in Linode VPS? You can actually have a Linode VPS starting as low as $10.00/mo

In this article you will learn how you can reset your password using Linode's dashboard, how to enter Lish Ajax Console for applying changes and how to change password using SSG for existing user(s)

So here are the steps to recover your password (gain back control over your server) using Linode Lish Ajax Console.

Login to your Linode account

Shut Down your Linode

​Linode offers to change your root password using Rescue tab, in order to change that password, your linode must be shut down

Reset Linode Password

Now you can reset your root password on Linode.

Now, if…

Haghpat Monastery in Armenia

20 September, 2015 | Churches and Monasteries | 31 seen

Haghpat monastery, together with Sanahin monastery, are placed on UNESCO's World Heritage List since 1996.

At the start of September we booked a one day tour from Tbilisi to Armenia, and I had chance to visit both Haghpat and Sanahin monasteries. Since this time I was less into history, more into photography, that's what I exactly did - I photographed both places. Today I will start with photography of Haghpat Monastery in Lori province.

Landscape at Haghpat monastery

Look at the fog! I really enjoy days like this - it's green, there are mountains covered in lovely fog.

Haghpat Monastery complex

The location of Haghpat Monastery was chosen so that it overlooks the Debed River in northern Armenia's Lori region. It was built, not on a peak, but halfway up a hillside on a site chosen to afford protection and concealment from prying eyes and also in response to a kind of monastic humility.

Chapel inside Haghpat monastery

Our group had only 30 minutes to do sightseeing at this place, so it was damned hard to set up a tripod, find that excellent …

Blog Monthly Online Income Report - August 2015 - $880.09

19 September, 2015 | Blogging | 45 seen

Welcome everybody to the 20th online income report of Reinis Fischer blog. In this post I will cover some info about earnings I have made in month of August 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. 

If you want to learn more about how to start a blog and make it successful - I recently started a blog post covering things that matters. 

In August my blog earned a total of $952.59 what is an impressive increase of 60.44% if compared to previous month (July) when I earned in total $593.73. 

• Daily earnings: $30.73

Technically speaking this August has been the best month this year, after month of February when I got $940.05. the only difference is  - in August I had more…

Gardenia Shevardnadze - Flower Garden in Tbilisi

17 September, 2015 | Shopping Venues | 71 seen

Gardenia Shevardnadze is a lovely garden of ornamental plants, located close to the Tbilisi Sea, where you can buy seedlings for your yard, balcony, terrace, home, or office. Or just enjoy a tranquil afternoon.

I first discovered Gardenia Shevardnadze back in 2014 while Cycling to Tbilisi sea and back

We have been returning to this place ever since. Sometimes with a tripod, sometimes not. Sometimes for macro photography, sometimes just to enjoy a good cup of coffee at the onsite cafeteria. If you are into photography, then you will enjoy Gardenia Shevernadze just as I did. 

Little Cafe at Gardenia Shevardnadze

Although this is a place where some can buy plants, it's a very popular place thanks to its cafe as well.

You might end your day not buying any plants at all, but you will definitely taste some cake at this lovely cafeteria crafted with many small details.

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 Plants at Gardenia Shevernadze

 Plants at Gardenia Shevardnadze

​Now this is a pretty good photo I managed to capture using some 5 seconds of exposure

At Gardenia Shevernadze…

Cirava Evangelic Lutheran Church

16 September, 2015 | Churches and Monasteries | 45 seen

Cirava Evangelic Lutheran Church is located in historical region of Courland in Latvia. Cirava church is closely located to Cirava manor complex, those of you traveling to Latvia and especially to Courland, it's woth to pay a visit to Cirava as well.

Cirava Church​

This massive church has been built in 1780-1781, and had been rebuilt in 1876 and 1888. The church is known for its exquisite Rococo altar, pulpit and organ. Read more (In Latvian)

Architectural monument

Cirava church

View to Cirava church from distance

Abandoned Manor Complex in Cirava (Latvia)

13 September, 2015 | Tourism objects | 25 seen

Now, this was a quite interesting experience discovering a small village in western Latvia (region of Courland) - Cirava.

I was so fascinated about this place that I decided to make two separate articles - one for the manor complex and the second for the church. Today I will write about the manor complex which actually seemed abandoned for me, but as it turns out it's actually sold to some Italian investor for about EUR 700 000 back in 2014. So seems this is money you should have in your pockets to acquire a badly managed manor complex in Latvia.

Cīrava manor from a birds flight during the golden hour

Cirava manor complex in Latvia

Originally built for blue blood German barons - rulers of lands which now are part of Latvia, this place has experienced a lot. So for example a forestry school and agriculture school during the Soviet times.

Tourism indication in Cirava

​You may find a museum, stadium, two schools, pond, a rhododendron garden and even a cemetery in Cirava village.

Old Dwelling house in Cirava

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The same…

Monument to the Sailors and Fishermen Perished in the Sea (Liepāja)

12 September, 2015 | Military Heritage | 22 seen

Although this monument in Liepaja (in seaside park) is dedicated to the sailors and fishermen perished in the sea I decided to add this place in military heritage category, because for me it kinda reminds something from Soviet military. Well actually this is a great example of Latvian architecture, as it turns out it's designed by local Latvian designers Alberts Terpilovskis and Gunārs Asaris.
Anyway - once in Liepaja, this place is a worth of visit.in case you are heading for a lazy walk on seaside park you will definitely notice this monument and hopefully enjoy views from its stairs.

View to the monument form park

Not the best picture I managed to capture here, too much light.

Monument to the sailors and fishermen perished in the sea

Pretty interesting installations on the pavement

Monument to the sailors and fishermen perished in the sea

There is an inscription on plate saying: 

Sing, sweet zephyr, gently, gently,
Carry not the waves ashore;
In the sea's tender depths slumber
My dear, beloved, brothers
 

View to the park 

Practicing Photography: Doing Night Shots - Tbilisi By Night

11 September, 2015 | Digital Photography School | 14 seen

Tonight was one, a really great evening, it was the first time I started to understand how ISO actually works. I took my DSLR camera, a tripod and a friend of mine and we headed to Zaarbrucken Square (Dry Bridge) in Tbilisi.

At start I was planing to make some photos at Rose Garden (I actually did) but latter, when post-processed, I understood  they don't look so interesting as images attached bellow.

Sameba Cathedral in Tbilisi by night

This is a pretty interesting picture, I got using a 30 second exposure, a tripod and kit 18-55 mm lenses. I believe from this vantage point it would be lovely to attach some other lenses as well. I enjoy two things in above picture - the traffic lights and mirroring effect on the water

Deda Ena park in Tbilisi

Now this picture is done using ISO 100

Deda Ena park in Tbilisi

At this point I started to experiment with ISO settings, the ISO in above image is 1600, but since I had no clue which ISO should I set here, I did it on Auto mode. Should I mention that with naked eye it was impossible to see any monument here at all. Just amazing…

Most Popular Value Deal Hotels in Barcelona City Centre

11 September, 2015 | Hotel reviews | 5 seen

I probably wont be too original by saying that Barcelona for me is among the most desired travel destinations. I first time headed here back in October 2014, and was so impressed of this city that I even created my Barcelona Travel Guide. Although back then we traveled by a rental car and we had an option to stay at cheaper but more remote locations in Barcelona Read more: Hotel Hesperia Sant Just in Barcelona Review), my suggestion to you is, if you truly would love to experience Barcelona stay at city centre, enjoy a morning coffee at Rambla, walk around Gothic quarter and etc.

In this article I have listed few hotels in Barcelona that are located in city centre, are for pretty affordable prices, so you can enjoy truly your Barcelona experience.

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This boutique hotel offers a gym and a rooftop chill-out terrace with a swimming pool and wonderful city views. It is located 100 metres from Barcelona Cathedral, in the historic Gothic Quarter.

Each elegant room at the Barcelona Catedral Hotel features wooden flooring and air conditioning. Rooms have free Wi-Fi, a laptop safe and flat-screen TV with international…

How To Fix "Server has a weak ephemeral Dillie-Heffman public key" For Jboss Server

10 September, 2015 | Servers | 55 seen

A few days ago a customer of mine experienced an error by not being able to access his management system on intranet I built a few years ago. The error we got was following:

What basically means:

If you see this error, it means that a secure connection can't be established because of outdated security code on the website. Chrome protects your privacy by preventing you from connecting to these sites. You won't be able to visit this page using Chrome.

I spent some time to figure out what all is about, and since the software we were running on intranet was installed with just a few clicks (apt-get install ...) and compiled from source. And turns out it all the thing was running on Jboss server, since I'm not very proficient in Jboss or Tomcat it took me some time to find a solution.

After all I followed the advice on Google Support:

You have a few options to fix this error in Chrome:

• Enable ECDHE and disable DHE (preferable)
• Use a 1024-bit (or larger) Diffie-Hellman group for the DHE_RSA SSL cipher suites
• …

Liepāja Seaside Park and Blue Flag Beach

10 September, 2015 | Tourism objects | 25 seen

I'm continuing my Latvia travel guide notes I have taken (photographed) at start of the June 2015. This time I visited a lovely Liepaja Seaside Park and Blue Flag Beach. 

Map of the Liepaja seaside park

According to the official Latvia Travel guide - This is the Latvia's largest dendrological park, now extending for about 50 ha, was gradually developed from 1870 to the early 20th century. The park boasts more than 140 different species of trees and shrubs.

Drums in Liepaja

Liepaja is famous of being a Rock Capital of Latvia, and there is no surprise of seeing a huge monument of... drums.

Wooden boardwalk heading to sea in Liepaja

Blue skies and letters of Liepaja

Wall art: I love Liepaja

For the guests' comfort, public bathing facilities or a Kurhaus, and luxurious summer homes were built, tennis courts were laid out, and a fountain was installed. The baths have not survived. The Seaside Park today invites for a pleasant stroll; there is also a stadium, a tennis court, a concert garden “Pūt, vējiņi!”…

Asus X552M Laptop Review

8 September, 2015 | Gadget Reviews | 894 seen

For a long time I have been making laptop reviews, since yesterday I bought a brand new ASUS X552M laptop on a local Georgian Carrefour shop I decided to describe my first impressions and a few photos of my new best buddy. This model I believe is only available in Europe, for North American customers I believe there is an ASUS D550MAV or something.

I could probably buy this one or even a better one for even a cheaper price on Amazon (and that's the thing I'm actually recommending to others) but since I just returned to Georgia I needed a quick solution, and by saying quick I mean - right now!

So I went to a local shopping place - Tbilisi Mall and bought the best I could get.

Please note this article contains links to Amazon by clicking on links on this page and by making a purchase on Amazon site, I will earn an affiliate income from that.

Asus X552M in the box

Pretty slim suitcase actually

Lovely cover of ASUS X552M

Although I must admit that cover gets greasy pretty fast (unless you are working in gloves)

Rear view of ASUS X552M

…

Doing photography in Tbilisi

7 September, 2015 | Living in Georgia | 1 seen

Not much words today