Blog Archive: July 2015
Guest House "Garīkas" in Latvia
Although this post should probably go into hotel review category, taking into consideration that I haven't stayed here overnight I'm listing this place under tourist attractions. And here are few reasons that made me think that Guest house Garīkas is worth not only of (perhaps) a lovely stay but as well for some good landscape photography. At first - Garīkas are famous shitake mushroom growers in Latvia, secondly they feature a lovely watch tower here and third... they have a cobbled driveway. Guest house Garīkas is located in Courland (region of Latvia), Skrunda district, parish of Rudbārži - some 150 km away from nations capital city Riga.
Wooden inscription…
Bandžēni Farm
Now, some of you already of you know my love of different agricultural farming things, like once I visited a dairy farm in Georgia, then I visited a fish farm (again in Georgia), this time I visited an agricultural company in Latvia - meet Bandžēni farm.
Bandžēni farm in Courland
Greenhouse for seedlings
Greenhouse for tomatoes
Seedlings
Gazebo at farm
Now, that's for sure - a decent farm must have a decent gazebo
Gazebo at farm
..built on artificial island and connected to mainland by a lovely wooden bridge
Bandžēni farm
In a shor conersation I made with the owners of this farm I learnt they manages some 500 ha of land here, of whom around 200 ha are lakes (…
Cafe Bordertauna Close to Saldus
Cafe Bordertauna (Bordertown) is located in the Novadnieku parish in distance of some 3 km from Saldus city. I visited this place after a Kutaisi - Vilnius flight and then Vilnius - Mazeikai transfer. At time I visited cafe Bordertauna some local banquet were held on site and kitchen was closed, the only chance to get something was from salad bar.
Cafe Bordertauna
Cafe Bordertauna
Billboard is saying - tasty, fast dinner
Salads and a soup at Cafe Bordertauna
The Bottom Line
Pretty good place for hungry ones traveling by Mazekai - Saldus highway, you can always get something here.
David the Builder Kutaisi International Airport
Kutaisi airport or David the Builder Kutaisi International airport is a major hub for entering (or leaving) Georgia for cheap. It's mainly served by low-cost airlines Wizzair and connects Kutaisi with Vilnius (Lithuania), Warsaw, Katowice (Poland), Budapest (Hungary) and some other airlines offering flight to - Kiev, Minsk, Moscow and I believe to Istanbul as well.
Kutaisi airport, sometimes referred also as Kopitnari airport is actually not located in Kutaisi but in distance of some 20 km from Kutaisi, the best option to get to Kutaisi city from this airport is by taxi (such drive should cost some 20-30 lari / $9-$13/ EUR 8 - EUR 12) or you can catch a Batumi - Tbilisi…
Hotel Edemi Review in Kutaisi, Georgia
Before arriving to Kutaisi I didn't search for any hotels online to book, just because of... it's Georgia. And in Georgia you can find a hotel once you are on site, and the best of all - I really like bargains, so...after we arrived at Kutaisi (we had a plane in next morning to Vilnius) and just left our Tbilisi - Kutaisi marshrutka opposite to McDonald's I was lucky enough I met a familiar taxi driver Nugzar.
In short I explained that I would love to get to the Kutaisi Old Town, and if he could recommend some reputable hotel for under 100GEL per night, that would be excellent. Nugzar suggested Hotel Edemi in the heart of Kutaisi Old Town, and here we were: meet hotel…
Tbilisi Central Railway Station
Tbilisi Central Railway Station is a major transport hub in Georgia, serving many domestic and two international routes: Yerevan (Armenia) and Baku (Azerbaijan)Originally built in 1872, Tbilisi Railway station has undergone various architectural transformations, and currently serves as a combined railway station and shopping mall. The current station building looks like some grand Chinese pagoda made in concrete.Tbilisi Central Railway stationMajor rail lines from Tbilisi central station: Batumi ( with stops at Gori, Khashuri, Kutaisi, Zestaponi), Borjomi, Sadakhlo (Marneuli), Gardabani, Tbilisi airport, Nikozi (Gori), Zugdidi and Poti. For complete map network…
Riga International Coach Terminal
Riga international coach terminal or bus station is a major traffic hub in Latvia and Baltics. I last time visited this place and used Riga - Vilnius coach transfer and then departed from Vilnius to Kutaisi. This coach terminal is situated in the heart of city, close to the Old Riga and Riga Central Market. In fact I was surprsided to learn that here you can make really interesting landscapes.
Riga International Coach Terminal
View to St. Peters Church in Old Riga
Iron Bridge, National Library of Latvia and coach terminal
Very interesting perspective
View to the Riga Central Market
About Riga International Coach Terminal
The coach terminal has been built and put…
Dali Cafe & Art in Riga
Dali Cafe & Art is located in Spikeri quarter in Riga, I visited this place at night before leaving Riga (right next on the corner from this place is Riga bus station) and headed to Tbilisi (a long way, via Vilnius and Kutaisi). The night I visited Dali Cafe was the Eurovision song festival night, and folks gathered here of watching it.
Dali Cafe in Riga
Located in one of the brick houses of Spikeri quarter
Interior at Dali Cafe
Menu at Dali Cafe
We order some coffee and a beer and in total paid some EUR 10.00 - a little bit above average to Riga prices, but pretty ok
Paintings at Dali Cafe & Art
You wont find here as much from Salvador Dali, as you could …
Spikeri Quarter and Promenade in Riga
Spikeri quarter and promenade is recently renovated neighborhood in Riga and it has all chances to become a very popular tourist spot in Riga. This place is closely located to Riga Central market (I will write about in anytime soon), Riga International Bus station, Railway station and of course Old Riga.I visited this place for a very short time prior to waiting a bus to Vilnius (Lithuania) and then heading to Kutaisi (Georgia) at the end of May, 2015Spikeri Quarter in RigaThis quarter is one of the city’s epicentres of events and cultural festivals like White Nights, Staro Riga, Riga City Festival. Spikeri Quarter in RigaPromenade at Spikeri quarterA very lovely view to that…
Dzintari Concert Hall
Dzintari concert hall is popular throughout Latvia as a place where concerts and other events are held, where outstanding artists have been performing for almost for 70 summers now.I discovered this place by accident during my cycling Jūrmala ride. I stopped my vehicle in front of this place just to rest and decided to photograph this venue site as well.Here is what I got:Water fountain in front of Dzintari Concert HallEntrance gates at Dzintari Concert HallDzintari concert hallI really enjoy its wooden architectureCultural monument - Dzintari concert hallAccording to the inscription on the plate - in this building back in 1986 happened a USSR - USA delegate meeting - Chautauqua…
Cycling in Jūrmala (Bicycle Tourism)
Welcome to another cycling series post - this time about cycling in Latvian beach resort city Jūrmala. Actually it has been a while when I last time sat on my bicycle back in Tbilisi, Georgia.
We headed to Jūrmala city just shortly after the 3rd Eastern Partnership Business forum which was held in Riga. We stayed overnight at the lovely hotel Dzintars in Jūrmala and got a free bike rental at our hotel.
Bicycles we used back there in Jūrmala were more some hipster style (not professional) but it was a fun. I didn't used any tracking devices to track my route, but instead I made some great pictures of Joma street, white sand beaches and a stage of…
How To Setup CKEDITOR For Drupal Website
In this tutorial you will learn how to setup a CKEditor for your Drupal website + how to enable a few very neat modules - like IMCE for Image upload, Spell checker and Word count.
Since the beginning (almost since) I created my blog (www.reinisfischer.com) I have been using TinyMCE text editor for creating and editing blog posts. But lately I have found that CKEditor might be somehow a bit better text editor for my blog. I'm not against TinyMCE, just CKEDITOR seems a bit better text editor.
What is CKEditor?
CKEditor is the far superior successor of FCKeditor. The editor has been rebranded and completely rewritten. It is now much faster (the code has been optimized), loads…
Responsive Learning Web App - sales.wilsonlearning.lv
Recently I was contacted by a long-term customer (Wilson Learning Baltics) with a request to build a responsive web learning application for their business needs. This was quite an easy task for me, in fact I have been built a similar web app for this customer some time ago already. I was provided with an example site on global learning portal, see it here CSP Mobile APP and asked to localize this app into Latvian. In fact all the localization task was already done and I was provided with one large .docx and .pdf file (.pdf just a mirror version) with all texts translated, so it was my turn to build this app from scratch and add content on it.In short this web app teaches 4 very…
Hotel Dzintars Review in Jūrmala, Latvia
Dzintars hotel is located in Latvian beach resort city Jūrmala - very close to the nations capital city Riga (some 30 minutes drive).
The reason I chose this hotel is plain simple - my brother works as a concierge here (family ties) and this hotel is among cheapest available in Jūrmala (and by saying cheapest I mean - it's a value deal)
I first visited Dzintars hotel back in 2014 or 2015 and since then have stayed here several more times.
Hotel Dzintars in Jūrmala
Guest can enjoy a free parking on site
Meal at Hotel Dzintars restaurant
A really tasty and affordable meal here
Bike rental at hotel Dzintars
I don't know about rental prices, we got a free ride (thanks to my…
St. John's Church in Saldus
Some time ago I visited a lovely town Saldus (located some 100km from capital Riga), one of the main sights here is a church - St. John's Church of Saldus. As usual I took my camera and made a few shots here.
The altarpiece at Saldus St. John's church
Author of this altar painting is made by J. Dering (19th century). Read more: Churches in Saldus
Saldus St. John church
This church building is the oldest building of the town and the first stone made church in Saldus built in 1615, but re-designed by Wilhelm Neumann and rebuilt at the end of 19th century.
Marketplace near church
During my short visit here - Saldus city festival were held
About Saldus St. John's…
How to Specify a Vary: Accept-Encoding header Nginx
The other day I visited tools.pingdom.com to test performance for my blog (the one you are currently reading) and I did fine I have a two bottlenecks:
Remove query strings from static resources
Specify a Vary: Accept-Encoding header
I managed to handle query string issue for static resources and then I headed to find a solution for the Specify a Vary thing. Since it's not a Drupal related issue I did some search regarding Nginx and I soon found excellent solution on stackoverflow.com
How to Specify a Vary: Accept-Encoding header Nginx
Inside the server { of the domain/subdomain that you want to set it, add
sudo nano /path/to/domain/sites-available/yourdomain.com…
The Evangelical Lutheran Church of Skrunda
History of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Skrunda dates back to 1668 as stated on official Skrunda municipality website. I took my camera and went to memorize this place.
Skrunda church
Bell tower of Skrunda Church
Back view of Skrunda Church
Burial near Skrunda church
According to the inscription on the cross - pastor Johann Daniel Goldmann is buried here
Skrunda church
I hadn't a chance to enter this church (ups, doors were closed) but according to Skrunda municipality the pulpit and the altarpiece of Skrunda church were installed at the end of the 18th century, but the organ of the church was set up in the 19 th century. During the First World War,…
Skrunda Cultural Center
Right, I just made this name - Skrunda Cultural Center what is a direct translation from Latvian Skrundas Kultūras Centrs.
I wouldn't probably mention this place on my blog, but since lately I have been travelling around Skrunda a lot, I decided why not?! Another reason I'm listing this place here - you can get a free high-speed Wi-Fi internet here (at least I managed to get some).
Seriously speaking - Skrunda Cultural Center is a great place where locals gather to participate in different hobby groups, like singing, dancing, theater play (you name it) - and probably some major events are held here as well.
Right, show me the pictures buddy:
Conference hall at Skrunda Cultural center…
The Stender’s Bar&Club in Kuldīga
I believe soon I will have a complete list of Kuldīga restaurants, but prior that I would like to introduce you another interesting place in this charming Curonian city, meet The Stender's Bar & Club. Stender's Bar&Club is located on charming street in KuldīgaIts address is Liepājas street 3Menu desk at Stender'sMenu at Stender's BarInterior at Stender'sDaily dose of CokeServed with icePoster at Stender's RestroomYes, I even take my camera to restroomsOutdoor patio at Stender's placeOutdoor patio at Stender's placeOr me learning my cameraMeal at Stender'sMeal at Stender'sI must admit in photos this meal looks much better as it tastes. Well it tastes pretty good - but instead of…
Home Remodelling - How It All Starts
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…