Cafe Mixail Malandrakis in Kalydonia, Crete
Cafe Mixail Malandrakis is located in a small village of Kalydonia, Crete in distance some 25km from Chania town.We discovered this place by accident, when, after checking out from a hotel room in Agia Marina (see: Vergina Beach Hotel Review, Agia Marina, Crete), took a rental car and decided to head in the direction towards Kissamos. it was still quite early, and we decided it would be a very good idea to have some morning coffee. As usual, it happens with such lovely roadsides cafeterias, at least for me, it always involves a lot of research work after, to find coordinates, names e.t.c to put this place on my World travel map. This time it involved usage of Greek transliteration…
Wandering In The Woods B&W Photography
For the second year in the row I agreed to go to the same forest and harvest mushrooms, instead of a catch of forest goodies, I spent a few days finding interesting, eye catching elements in the woods.Don't get me wrong, I did find some forest mushrooms (eatable), but compared to previous year's experience this was nothing much. See the same forest a year ago: Deep in the Forest, also see: Forest Mushrooms - Penny Bun & Red-Capped Scaber StalkI did find it interesting, once in the woods, for reason or not I tend to photograph with wide open aperture, probably because of limited light, but usually, I prefer tack sharp over bokeh. Once our forest wanderings were over, when…
How To Fix Mixed Content Errors From Disqus on HTTPS site
Today I noticed that SSL connection on this blog had errors due to “mixed content”, meaning HTTPS site was loading additional content that was served over insecure HTTP. After a little bit of digging in the console, I discovered that the issue was due to our Disqus comment plugin loading over HTTP.
I felt surprised learning that Disqus is serving HTTP content, and quickly googled, are there other webmasters complaining about this, and I found a few articles. What felt even more surprising was that this problem has been around since the end of 2016. See: Mixed Content Errors from Disqus on HTTPS Site
It turns out, Disqus is serving anonymous cookie over HTTP…
Mild Summer Evenings at Agia Marina Beach in Crete
We traveled to Crete, at the start of June 2016, after capturing mesmerizing postcards from Chania, we continued our route to Agia Marina, where stayed for about 3 nights at Vergina Beach hotel
After, we continued our trip deeper in Island, and at the end of this trip returned to this area for another 5 days
In today's Piece of Love series, pictures from Agia Marina beach
Rock formations near Agia Marina beach in Crete
From what we have seen from our upcoming travels almost all across Crete, Agia Marina was one of the most tranquil places, slow, pretty quiet, despite a lot of Scandinavian folks resting here. Swimming in these beaches - a real joy.
Sunset…
Red Dragon Restaurant Review in Platanias
Red Dragon is a Chinese restaurant in Platanias, Crete serving kind of combo tourist meals for IMHO bit high prices.Anyhow, as we booked a hotel room in a nearby Agia Marina town (which seems is a hotel area), then most of the dinning options are located in nearby Platanias.As previous evening we walked about 4 km to The Stones Restaurant, for this night we wanted something closer, Red Dragon was one of the first places we met in our route.Red Dragon restaurant in PlataniasI don't remember correctly, but it offers like EUR 25 combo meal for two persons (and seems that most places in area focuses on this price level for combo meals), as we had an appetite, we went for some shredded beef and…
Tampakakis Bakery in Agia Marina, Crete
Tampakakis bakery is a lovely place in Agia Marina, many pastries and tasty coffee available here. Tampakakis was closely located to hotel we stayed for couple of days in Agia Marina (Vergina Beach Hotel Review, Agia Marina, Crete)Fresh morning coffee and crispy buns guaranteed.Tampakakis Bakery in Agia Marina, CreteWide variety for morning coffee and affordable prices.Cookies, buns and bread at Tampakakis Bakery
SEO Results After Implementing Drupal AMP
About a month ago I finally managed to implement AMP for my Drupal powered blog. Now, a month latter I decided to take a look and see is there any SEO boost from it.
In the past 30 days traffic have grown my 13%, for the first time cracking 100,000 users milestone. Although, it's hard to say with a 100% confidence that AMP did it - I still will say - AMP is amazing and I would recommend to implement it for any type of websites. If still wonder what is AMP, here is a brief explanation:
The AMP Project is an open-source initiative aiming to make the web better for all. The project enables the creation of websites and ads that are consistently fast, beautiful and high-performing across…
The Stones Restaurant Review - Platanias, Crete
The Stones restaurant is located in Platanias, Crete. Located kind of remote / roadside. We visited this place on a rainy day, after checked in at hotel in nearby town of Agia Marina (see: Vergina Beach Hotel Review, Agia Marina, Crete). The walk was for about 4 km (each direction)This place serves traditional Greek and European cuisine, obliviously we opted for Greek salad as a starter. I wanted to order some mussels, but kind owner of The Stones restaurant told me they don't have mussels as this time, as they order only fresh mussels from Chania in the mornings. As it was raining that day, we were only guests for this evening.Outdoor terrace at The Stones…
Review of Mintos.com Peer To Peer Lending Platform After 6 Month of Investing
I've been investing on Mintos.com peer to peer lending marketplace already 6 months. In today's article, I'll share some of my key findings so farBefore continuing, please see Review of Mintos Peer to Peer Lending After One Month of Investing and Mintos.com Review after 3 month investing in Peer to Peer loans. There is one reason I'm investing here on Mintos - option to invest in Georgian Lari currency, as I've been living in Georgia for a while, I like the idea of having some of my money in the local market. See: Invest in Georgia - Peer-to-Peer (P2P) lending - Mintos.comBoth individuals and entities can invest through Mintos. Individual investors must be at least…
Perseid Meteor Shower Time Lapse Video / Photography - August 13, 2017
The Perseid meteor shower, one of the brighter meteor showers of the year, occurs every year between July 17 and August 24. The shower tends to peak around August 9-13.
The 2017 Perseids peaked on the night of August 12 and early morning hours of August 13. I was a little bit late to the party and decided to capture star trails on night from August 13 to August 14.
What was meant to be a star trail photography, actually turned out a lovely time lapse video.
I'm not an expert in astro photography, in fact I've done just one star trail photography before, see: My first star trail photography, a year ago. This year I was prepared technically better…
Vergina Beach Hotel Review, Agia Marina, Crete
This property is 1 minute walk from the beach. Set right on the sandy beach of Agia Marina, Vergina Beach Hotel offers free WiFi in all areas and air-conditioned accommodation with views over the Cretan Sea. It includes a beach bar and a cocktail bar.We booked this hotel at the start of June 2017 and stayed here for 2 nights, paying in total about EUR 106.As we hadn't yet booked a rental car here, for getting here we took a taxi from Chania bus station and paid a fixed price EUR 14, in case you are not willing to pay for taxi, you can take bus, it's really cheap.Room at Vergina Beach HotelVergina studios, suites and apartments are simply, yet tastefully furnished, with a private…
July 2017 Dividend Income Report - $124.51
Welcome to the third (#3) dividend income report, covering earnings I've made from dividend paying stocks, peer to peer lending (both fiat and crypto currencies) in July 2017. I started my wealth building adventure (portfolio) in January 2017 with a simple goal to invest $8,561 this year in several batches. First months of the year didn't generated me nothing much, but starting May it has started slowly pick up.Make sure you check out my previous two dividend income reports:June 2017 Dividend Income Report - $53.42May 2017 Dividend Income Report - $65.45In todays article you will learn both how much I've received in dividend income in July 2017, also…
Chania Bus Station
There is a cheap and pretty convenient way to travel to the nearby beaches and more distant routes in Crete from Chania town. Your journey will start at Chania bus station.In fact there is a bus service to/from Chania airport, with ticket price just about EUR 2 per person. The bus transport in Chania is cheap. I remember, once I paid about EUR 40 for a one way trip from an airport in Norway to the Oslo city center (see: Moss Airport, Rygge, Norway). Buses in Chania are cheap. We spent one night in Chania (see: Lithinon Studio Apartment in Chania Review), but for next couple of days decided to locate to Agia Marina beach (we already booked a hotel…
Lithinon Studio Apartment in Chania Review
Situated 100 m from Chania Old Venetian Harbour in Chania Town, this air-conditioned apartment features a terrace. The apartment is 100 m from Mosque of Kioutsouk Hassan. Free WiFi is provided .We booked this apartment in Chania for a one night stay at the start of June 2017. As we hadn't yet booked a rental car in Crete, we took a public bus from Chania airport to get to the city center and then using Google Maps navigation went some 10minutes from Chania coach station to find this place. Located on pretty silent Lithinon street, this place still is just a block away from lively Chania harbor, see: Postcards from ChaniaLithinon street in ChaniaThere is a dining area and a…
Taverna En Plo in Chania
This was a very long and tiring day, in the morning we left Tbilisi to travel to Athens, spent whole day there, and in the evening fled to Chania, Crete, after we checked in at out apartment in Chania, I took a tripod and we made a lovely evening photo walk.Our evening ended at this nice Greek tavern - En Plo on Portou street 20. En Plo seems is a quite popular tourist place, we hardly managed to get a free table here once we get one we spent a good time of waiting our order to be taken.En Plo tavern in Chania, CreteThis place offers a kind of typical Greek menu (Cretan) - wide variety of grilled meats and so on. We decided to stick with a platter for two for about EUR 35.Because of a…
Postcards from Chania
At the start of June, 2017 we traveled for a 3 week leisure trip to the island of Crete, Greece, and our first stop was lovely coastal town Chania. We spent a lovely night discovering local Cretan cuisine and I photographed a lot nightly scene, equipped with a tripod and long exposures, lovely.
That said - postcards from Chania!
Chania lighthouse
Lively Chania promenade with lots of cafeterias
About 18 months ago we visited the so called Italian Riviera - Portofino, see: Portofino - picturesque harbor village in Italian Riviera, now we can draw parallels with both coastal town - truly amazing for romantic escape.
Street vendors in Chania
Ah, those lovely ghost…
Athens International Airport
Athens International Airport "Eleftherios Venizelos", commonly initialized as "AIA", began operation on 28 March 2001 and is the primary international airport that serves the city of Athens and the region of Attica.It is Greece's busiest airport and it serves as the hub and main base of Aegean Airlines as well as other Greek airlines. Athens International is the 28th busiest airport in Europe.I had a chance to visit Athens airport, during a short connecting flight by Aegean Airlines from Tbilisi to Chania (see: About Tbilisi - Athens - Chania (Greece) flight by Aegean Airlines ) at the start of June 2017.Athens International…
Chania International Airport (Greece)
Chania International Airport, "Daskalogiannis" is an international airport located near Souda Bay on the Akrotiri Peninsula of the Greek island of Crete, serving the city of Chania, 14 kilometres (8.7 mi) away.Moreover, it is a gateway to western Crete for an increasing amount of tourists. The airport is named after Daskalogiannis, a Cretan rebel against Ottoman rule in the 18th century and is a joint civil–military airport. It is the fifth busiest airport in Greece and 8th in Balkan peninsula in terms of passengers. From 2010 to 2016 has a great increase about 100% in passengers arrivals. The airport is connected with many countries (about…
Postcards from Athens
Just like in the case of postcards from Istanbul, we had just a few hours to spend in Athens, Greece, between layover flight to Chania (Crete). Equipped with camera and adventurous spirit we dive in the narrow streets of Athens to discover it's beauty and visit some ancient sites.Square in AthensOne of our first stops in the city center arriving from Athens airport. Graffiti in AthensView towards AthensFrom distance Athens seems very similar to Tbilisi, the place from above picture reminded me some scenes from our hiking trips in Tbilisi near Turtle lake. See: Hiking in Tbilisi - Turtle lake (Kus Tba) - Vake ParkArcheological excavations in AthensStreets of AthensThere is a…
Ancient Agora of Athens
The Ancient Agora of Classical Athens is the best-known example of an ancient Greek agora, located to the northwest of the Acropolis and bounded on the south by the hill of the Areopagus and on the west by the hill known as the Agoraios Kolonos, also called Market Hill.It was at the start of June, when I first visited Athens, Greece during a brief layover flight to the island of Crete, see About Tbilisi - Athens - Chania (Greece) flight by Aegean Airlines. We had about 10 hours between our connecting flight, once we left Athens airport we took the metro to the city center and just explored, without any particular goal or something. We…