Eden Beach Hotel Review in Agia Marina

During our about a month-long trip around the island of Crete back in 2017, we stayed at Agia Marina twice -  for about 2 nights at trips start and about 5 days at the end of the trip. For the start, we chose Vergina beach hotel which was good and for the end, we stayed at Eden Beach hotel apartment  - which was amazing.…

Greece |

The Great Kemeri Bog Boardwalk

The Great Kemeri Bog Boardwalk is a popular tourist destination in Kemeri National Park, offering visitors a chance to explore the bog and its inhabitants.As we have been relocated to Latvia's Jūrmala for some time, we decided to explore nearby vicinity, and we started with nearby hiking trails. Ķemeri has many attractions to offer, sure The…

Latvia |

La Playa Taverna Cafe Ouzeri Near Rethymno

And again I must say - strange how it works - I almost missed coordinates for this place but with a little investigation from pictures and help with Greek transliteration and even Greek car plate registration table I was able to locate this place finally on the map.Meet La Playa Taverna Cafe Ouzeri Near RethymnoDiscovered during our…

Greece |

Postcards from Talsi

Talsi is a city in Latvia, I have discovered just lately. During the Summer of 2017, I had to spend here some time.During my stay, I discovered some amazing places, and have returned here for a couple of times more. In today's Piece of life series - postcards from Talsi.Postcards from TalsiReminds me panoramas from Germany's Mossel Valley, see:…

Latvia |

Early Spring 2018 in the Yard

Since early 2018 we have been relocated to Jūrmala resort town in Latvia. It was in early April 5th morning I decided to run my second 365 days photo challenge. I didn't sleep that night, I thought about making a cool sunset photography at Jūrmala beach. I actually did.Once we returned from the nearby sea to our yard - I decided to make…

Latvia |

Restaurant Istabas In Talsi Review

Restaurant Istabas in Talsi is among the best restaurants I've tried in Latvia lately, located on Liela street 31 in Talsi city, the restaurant offers great views of Lake Talsi .Istabas restaurant serves great European/American cuisine.First visited back in the Summer of 2017, since then have returned here for a…

Latvia |

Galaxy Iraklio 5-star Hotel Review (Heraklion, Crete)

Located in Heraklion's elegant district, this 5-star hotel offers 2 gourmet restaurants, a free wellness centre and a large freshwater pool. Luxurious rooms feature balconies with pool and city views.We booked this hotel for a one night stay back in the Summer of 2017 and paid about EUR 100. Top 5 star and Luxury hotels in…

Greece |

How To Fix "gzip is failing for js files" Nginx

From Drupal Reports status page I noticed gzip is failing for js files error

The web servers configuration will need to be adjusted. In most cases make sure that the webroots .htaccess file still contains this section "Rules to correctly serve gzip compressed CSS and JS files". Certain default web server configurations (nginx) do not gzip…

Drupal Development |

June 2018 Dividend Income Report - $147.44

Welcome to the #14 dividend income report, covering earnings I've made from the dividend-paying stocks (Baltic and European) and peer to peer lending (both fiat and cryptocurrencies).Last June turned out much better than I thought before, more precisely it turned better $40 thanks to the bitcoin lending on Poloniex.…

Dividend Income |

Postcards from Crete

It has been now over a year since we visited the Greek island of Crete, during the past months I've already documented many stories from this trip. In today's Piece of Life series - one of the last days on the island back in 2017.Town in CreteThe town is most probably Argiroupoli, as somewhere in this area we enjoyed a cup of coffee, see:…

Greece |

Talsi Evangelical Lutheran Church

On the top of the abrupt Baznīcaskalns (Church Hill) stands the white masonry Talsi church – the dominant of the old town.It was built in 1567 and later rebuilt for several times. A transept and sacristy are attached to a rectangular, elongated building.Talsi Evangelical Lutheran ChurchThe square bell-tower is attached on…

Latvia |

Another Year, Another Barbeque

It has been already a tradition to feature the first barbeque of the year at our rural country house in the blog. See First Barbecue Festival in Our Newly Inherited House2018 is no exception, and it today's home remodeling series a few photos from the early Spring 2018Grilling season has just startedLast year we bought an extra huge grillCat…

How To Embed YouTube video in Drupal 8 (CKEDITOR)

Now, there is one more reason I'm starting to enjoy Drupal 8, embedding YouTube videos in articles now are super easy, thanks to the simple and neat Drupal module - Video Embed Field

In this article, I will guide you through how to configure Drupal 8 built-in CKEDITOR to work with this module.

For another interesting YouTube…

Drupal Development |

How To Configure Trusted Host settings for Drupal 8 Website

In today's Drupal tutorial series I will talk about Trusted host settings, what they are and how to configure them.

In short, Trusted host settings protects against HTTP HOST Header attacks (prevent your site from thinking it is someone else).

Drupal 7 added a new feature into the core that is not user-facing directly but is sometimes called…

Drupal Development |

How To Redirect in Nginx all Domain Name Versions to https://www

As you might already know search engines (Google) sees www.domain.com and domain.com as two separate domain names. If you are not using 301 redirects (www to non-www or vice verse)you might get penalized for duplicate content. 

In Ngnix, there is a simple solution how to make such redirect happen, see: Ngnix Redirect To…

Servers & Config |

How To Update Drupal Modules via SSH (Putty)

To strengthen Drupal websites security I decided to disable one-click automatic module updates from Drupal dashboard, unfortunately, it makes it harder not even for bad guys to compromise Drupal website but it also makes it harder for Drupal devs.

Now, there are several options you might choose instead, composer being a top of them. But…

Drupal Development |

Tapping Birch Sap in the Backyard

Can't decide on a new hobby? Think about tapping birch sap in early spring. Depending on the region you are located and availability of birch trees you might even enjoy this drink - a birch sap.In today's article a few photos from tapping a birch sap in early spring in our backyard using Libertu Birch Sap Kit.You can purchase this kit at sula…

Securing Drupal Files and Folders (Chmod, Security Review, Hacked)

There are a couple of great helper modules for Drupal to learn more about failing security holes - Security Review and Hacked. 

Security Review

The Security Review module automates testing for many of the easy-to-make mistakes that render your site insecure.

Security Review runs the following checks:


Safe file system…

Drupal Development |

Kitesurfing Pāvilosta

Seems Pāvilosta is a popular spot for kitesurfing among surfers from the Baltics. It was on mid-June 2017 we decided to visit lovely white sand beaches near Pāvilosta piers when I noticed some kitesurfer gathering. Seems there was a good wind that day.As I was equipped with my gear and a telephoto glass - I made some photography…

Latvia |

Pesto Cafe Review in Kiev

Pesto Cafe is a popular restaurant chain located in Kiev, Ukraine. We visited branch located near the Independence square (located inside the shopping mall Globuss). Actually, that was the closest restaurant from our hotel room at Hotel Ukraine,Pesto cafe serves classic Italian cuisine for pretty affordable prices.View towards Independence…

Ukraine |

Latest articles

Berlin Brandenburg Airport

In April 2026, I had my first experience with Berlin Brandenburg Airport (BER) while flying the Riga–Berlin–Riga route with airBaltic. This was my first time using Berlin’s main international airport, and overall, it left a solid impression—modern, functional, and relatively easy to navigate. About a decade ago, I had the chance to travel through…

Germany |
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Mumbai & Goa / India Trip

It has already become something of a tradition for us - escaping the cold during our daughter’s winter school break and trading grey skies for warmth, color, and a slower rhythm of life. Each year, we carve out about three weeks to leave Tbilisi behind and head somewhere sunnier. And more often than not, that “somewhere” turns out to be India.Our…

India |