Blog Archive: October 2016

Mastis Lake in Telšiai, Lithuania

30 October, 2016 | Lakes | 14 seen

Mastis lake is located in the town of Telšiai, Lithuania.

There is a dwelling houses located in the shores of lake Mastis, and seems there is a nice recreational area built closer to the Telsiai city center.

View towards lake Mastis

Captured from the parking lot of Guesthouse Sinchronas, we stayed here for one night in August, 2016.

Recreational area near lake Mastis

Probably you can rent some boat here and enjoy a lovely boat ride.

Guesthouse Sinchronas in Telšiai, Lithuania Review

29 October, 2016 | Hotel reviews | 16 seen

It was on the eve of my birthday (August 2016), and we decided to celebrate it in Vilnius, Lithuania. We took our Honda CRV car, crossed Latvia / Lithuania border through Priekule, made few remarkable stops at places like - St. Michael Archangel Church in Mosėdis, Idol Hill (Alkakalnis) near Salantai, Žemaitė Memorial Museum, Bukantė Manor Homestead and finaly we had a stop at Restaurant 'Porto' Near Plunge at which, eating our pizza and using booking.com we booked Guesthouse Sinchronas in Telšai for tonight's stay. 

As my birthday was coming, we wanted to book a decent (not luxury, but decent) hotel somewhere in this part of Lithuania, as it was getting late already. Guesthouse Sinchronas in Telšai promised to have 4 stars.

Well, huge was our disappointment, when in place of 4 stars we actually got a 2 stars with a minus. No don't get me wrong - it's a decent guesthouse, with clean rooms, roof terrace and kind of restaurant. It just lucks a normal parking lot, an elevator (guesthouse rooms are located in the third or fourth floor) and what the most funniest - in the bathroom it featured half cut SafeGuard soaps still in the plastic container). A very 4 star, right?

To make, it even worst we got a tiny queen size bed. As we arrived late, complained a lot, the restaurant on site was already closed, the only option to find some food, was Statoil petrol station about 5 minute drive away, to make things complicated, the receptionist at start didn't wanted to allow us leave guesthouse, as she has to lock guesthouse door and we will be locked out. I then replied, lady is this a guesthouse or students dormitory? We got our street food at Statoil, returned to guesthouse, slept well and left early in the morning. 

To make this situation clear, I would say following - the guesthouse is OK, but that nights shift lacked any elementary hospitality skills (Worst service in the Baltic countries for sure).

Night view towards lake Mastis

Guesthouse Sinchronas is located in the centre of Telšiai offering great views of the Old Town and the Lake Mastis. 

I installed a tripod and made few long exposures of Telsiai night view. The views are great!

Our room at guesthouse Sinchronas

It is said - The rooms are air-conditioned and come with free Wi-Fi. Featuring elegant, modern interiors and furniture made of dark wood, the rooms are equipped with a flat-screen TV with satellite channels. The private bathroom has a shower cabin and a hairdryer.

Telsiai Old Town

Small and lovely Lithuanian town.

Restaurant / dinning hall

Our free breakfast were served here. 

Guesthouse Sinchronas

The Telšiai Train Station is 1 km away and the Bus Station is 1.5 km from the guesthouse. The lake is just about 200 m from Sinchronas. 

5 Days In Georgia Itinerary List - Make Most Of Your Trip

28 October, 2016 | Living in Georgia | 182 seen

For the second time, I felt like a real tourist in Georgia.

Let me explain - I have been living in Georgia for more than 5 years, thus for the past two years I'm spending the Summer months in Latvia.

This year we were absent from Georgia for about 6 months, and when returned - we had no choice but to travel a lot across the country, as the friends of my partner joined us during our journey back home to Tbilisi. 

We booked our flight back to Georgia (Tbilisi) already at the start of August (back then I was still busy with brick-and-mortar things performing home remodeling works). Friends of my partner planned to visit Georgia for the very first time. Our flight was on the same day, on the same plane. Instead of a typical week of doing nothing, after return, we had a very busy first 5 days in Georgia.

Our story starts at Tbilisi airport, I had called before to my driver and asked him to pick us up at the airport, but as it might happen in Georgia, he was late for some 30 minutes, and I had a chance to listen to almost all taxi drivers tempting offers, promising to take us to the city center starting 50 GEL (TIP: the normal fare to pay for a taxi driver from the airport to the city center is about 30 GEL).

Day 1: Arriving in Tbilisi

We have a nice apartment in Tbilisi, and we kept it renting even during our absence, the chances are, if you are a newcomer to Georgia, you will need to find a hotel/hostel, I'm not a hotel export regarding Tbilisi, but take a look on following listings: Top 10 Boutique / Luxury Hotels in Tbilisi (Georgia)

We bought some eggs and sausages at the local Avlabari night shop, during our ride from the airport, and prepared fresh breakfasts at 5:00 AM, gosh, it was good to be home again. After breakfast, we had a sleep for a few hours as we agreed to spend the first day in Tbilisi.

The first sightseeing started at Tbilisi Old Town and of course Narikala fortress. From the fortress amazing pictures can be taken, so we spent here some time, and later climbed down for a lunch, which we had at, probably the most tourist place in the city -  Samikitno / Machakhela Restaurant on Meidan Square. I took our guests to another great Chebureki place, run by a lady from Belarus in the Abanotubani district - Sachebureke Abanotubanshi (Cheburek Cafe on Abanotubani)

A must-have activity during our trip to the Old to was to visit the famous Tbilisi Sulphur baths, so we agreed to visit them just shortly after our lunch. One hour at bathhouses will cost you about 30 GEL, and most probably will be enough. (I sometimes prefer to take 2 hours, but it depends).

Now, after bathing in healthy Tbilisi sulfur waters we took a street taxi and headed back to the apartment, to have some rest, as tomorrow promises to be a really long day! Oh, almost forgot - the tasty shaurma on Tamar Mephe street was a dot on I, for this evening.

Day 2: Borjomi, Akhaltsikhe, and Vardzia

Now, let me be clear - this trip is possible in one day, but it's recommended to plan at least two or even three days for this trip.

Our driver arrived early in the morning and we left for Borjomi, making a stop at a Jvari monastery. It was planned to visit Mtskheta also, but since we had a lot to drive today, we agreed to visit Mtskheta in the evening (we didn't make it after all).

The next stop is a Green monastery (skulls and bones). From here a short visit to Borjomi Mineral water park and a drive by the cable car.

The next stop is Akhaltsikhe town and visits the Rabati fortress (entrance fee 5GEL). Plan a few hours here, as there is a lot to see. Prior to Rabati, we ordered shaslik at the nearby roadside cafeteria - Sergo Duqani (trust me..the best shashlik across the country). The owners are simple and friendly people. If you will talk to them a little bit Sergo will make you a little chacha-tasting tour, for sure.

In about one hour's drive from Akhaltsikhe town, there is a Vardzia Cave Town - The caves stretch along the cliff for some five hundred meters and in up to nineteen tiers. The Church of the Dormition, dating to the 1180s during the golden age of Tamar and Rustaveli, has an important series of wall paintings. The site was largely abandoned after the Ottoman takeover in the sixteenth century. 

It was dark already, we ordered a few bottles of Georgian wine at a local restaurant near Vardzia (they have ridiculously cheap wine 15 GEL per bottle) and the funniest part of the trip started. We were back to Tbilisi around 2:00 AM, drunk and hungry. The best place to have a meal I insisted was restaurant Tiflis (Saarbrucken square). I have no clue how much we paid here, but we ate a lot, and our guests even started making Georgian tosts. Gaumarjos Sakartvelo!

Day 3: Mount Kazbegi and Gergeti Church

This morning started just as the previous (except a really little hangover) - our driver was at our place around 8:00 AM and we left for Gergeti Church, driving Georgian military road, making stops at Zhinvali Water Reservoir, Ananuri castle complex, and pretty impressive Russia - Georgia friendship monument. At the evening we had a nice Georgian style supra at a very good roadside restaurant near Natakhtari - see Chashnagiri Restaurant Review in Natakhtari.

In the evening before arriving at the apartment we made a stop at Tbilisi Mall to buy some ingredients for breakfast.

The head picture of this article is taken in the footsteps of mount Kazbegi, near Gergeti Church - let's name it - A walk in the clouds!

Day 4: Kakheti trip, Sighnaghi, Wine tasting and more

Today was a pretty cloudy day, and we didn't have a chance to see the true beauty of Kakheti (Alazani valley), but still, we had a route to do. I have crafted this route separately, see Day Trip to Kakheti in Georgia, we did basically the same route with some minor changes.

We took a lovely breakfast at some of the roadside cafeteria somewhere near Sagarejo, after which visited Bodbe monastery near Sighnaghi (bought some souvenirs here). The town of Sighnaghi was covered in mist, and we actually didn't see anything form the beauty of Sighnaghi, I bought a bottle of Georgian brandy and offered to visit at least Sighnaghi museum (Pirosmani works are exhibited here). After few sips of 10-year-old Georgian brandy - I discovered I really like this guy and his naive painting style.

Next stop - impressive wine tunnel near Kvareli, see: Wine Tunnel Near Kvareli in Georgia (Winery Khareba),  It features not only exotic manmade tunnel built in the rocks, but it also has a large territory offering interesting attractions related to Georgian heritage. Guests can book a wine tasting tour here and will be provided with best selection wines from winery Khareba. We took the guided tour for 7 Lari without wine tasting here. As we will taste wine in another winery - Kindzmarauli Corporation Wine House in Kvareli, Georgia (here for 8 lari is offered both wine tasting and a short excursion to the winery).

At this point it felt, it's too many impressions already and let's leave back for Tbilisi, but my good old friend - driver insisted let's go to the Nekresi monastery and after to Gremi Church (we had no option, but to agree). Thus we skipped Nekresi, as it was already getting late, and we got scammed a little bit after bought tickets for a minivan (there is a minivan service taking tourists to Nekresi) - we had to wait in the line for more than one hour - the weather wasn't the best, we were just too tired..and we just skipped Nekresi (don't be like us were, take Nekresi - it is one of the most beautiful monastery complexes in Georgia). 

From Gremi we headed to Telavi, making stop at local khinkali place Cafe Bari - Zodiako, just khinkali and beer served here. Cheap and tasty. A little bit neglected as well. Paid a short visit to Telavi market (really good market) and returned back home to Tbilisi. The driver was kind of pity we didn't visit Nekresi and wanted to show us something more (but trust me, our batteries were off - and all I could think about was getting back to Tbilisi and have some sleep), and then he proposed - would you love to see the tree? No!, we instantly replied. The driver lowered his shoulders, and did what a real Georgian man does - he took us to the Giant Plane tree in Telavi. Amazing.

Late in the evening we went to the delicious Azerbaijani restaurant Agha near circus in Tbilisi.

Day 5: Last evening in Tbilisi

In was actually planned to have a fishing tour today, but since our guests had a flight back home tonight, we canceled the fishing tour and decided to have a calm day in Tbilisi. For a fishing trip, it was planed go to Jandari lake.

On that day preparations for Tbilisi city festival Tbilisoba started. 

In the morning we left for Turtle lake, enjoying morning coffee at Intelligentsia Coffee Bar, after some time we left to another great Tbilisi restaurant - Racha, enjoying finest quality wines and mcvadi (grilled meat). From here on we catch a street taxi, returned to the apartment, had some rest and in the evening made the last sightseeings around Tbilisi Old Town. 

The bridge of Piece, Rike Park, are just a few to name.

Book an individual tour in Georgia now!

So here you go - 36 amazing places to visit in Georgia in just 5 days. See All about Georgia for more cool attractions or take a look, why Georgia is the most beautiful country in the World

Telavi Market (Buy Georgian Churchkhelas , Spices or House Wine)

27 October, 2016 | Shopping Venues | 19 seen

Oh, I love fresh vegetable markets, especially those located in Georgia. One of my favorite markets in Georgia is located in Telavi. I remember once I pulled our vehicle of the road near Gori, and we bough a box with tomatoes, see: Fresh Vegetable Market Near Gori Highway - amazing. In today's article I will provide some info about Telavi market, located in the region of Kakheti.

Make sure you check out other shopping venues.or see a full listings of my discoveries in Georgia: All About Georgia.

In fact, if I have a chance being in this area of Georgia. I'm trying to visit especially this market and buy some groceries for our household here. I love this market because of two reasons - it's much cleaner than those in Tbilisi (see Bazroba) and prices here can be twice as lower than in Tbilisi. Friends of mine who I have taken here, loves this market because of great walnuts and tasty Georgian churchkhelas. If you are a tourist in Telavi, and looking for some tasty souvenirs to take back home - Telavi market is a great destination, then. Churchkhelas, Nuts and wide variety of Georgian spices. 

Georgian churchkhelas for sale at Telavi market

The average price for a piece 2 GEL (as of October 2016). 

Churchkhela is a traditional Georgian candle-shaped candy. The main ingredients are grape must, nuts and flour. Almonds, walnuts, hazel nuts and sometimes raisins are threaded onto a string, dipped in thickened grape juice or fruit juices and dried in the shape of a sausage.

At Telavi market

Market is pretty clean and you can find almost everything here - starting vegetables, following spices and ending a really tasty meat. Kakhetian's know how to serve!

Dried plates made from fruit juice

What might looks as Armenian basturma at start, actually are some cool dried plates made from different fruits, apricots, for example. If honest, I hae no clue how to use them, but they taste great. Give it a try, ask for a tasting before purchasing.

Georgian traditional spices

Get your favorite Georgian spices here p barberry, sumakhi, cumin, adjika, swan salt, you name it.

Kindzmarauli Corporation Wine House in Kvareli, Georgia

26 October, 2016 | Tourism objects | 26 seen

Right here comes another interesting Georgian Wine House, with a super cool name - JSP Kindzmarauli Corporation Wine House, located in the Kakheti, town of Kvareli.

I must admit -  I had never heard of tis winery before, on the other hand I don't call myself a wine expert. Thus I can at least tell which is mine favorite Georgian wine - Khvanchkara. 

We arrived here from another winery, located just a few kilometers from Kindzmarauli corporation, see Wine Tunnel Near Kvareli in Georgia (Winery Khareba). My good old Georgian driver tried to convinice me, they are selling a tap Kvahckara wine here for 2 GEL per litter. It sounded fishy for me, but I agreed driver to take my friends and me to this winery. 

Variety of bottled Georgian wines

There is a small wine shop at the entrance of Kindzamarali wine house, where you can buy wine produced at this factory directly form producer. I asked, so - I was told you are selling tap Kvachkara as well, and got a nice reply - no Kvachkara is too exclusive wine to be sold on plastic bottles. It was fine with me and I replied - Thank's God! Kvahcnkara is too precious, lets keep this so way!

For a small price (about 8 lari, per person) a wine tasting tour can be arranged (offering 5 varieties of wine to be tasted). We were group of 3, and nobody actually wanted to taste wine today, but I had to insist and we delegated one person to actually give it a try. The rest of us (two) were offered to join the excursion after wine tasting.

Wine tasting room at Kindzmarauli Wine House

No Kvachkaras were given to try, just Kindzmarauli (from top end) and some other varieties of bottled wine.

The wine tasting took some 15-20 minutes (5 varieties of wine) and then the excursion started. We were taken to the wine factory and different marani's

Marani - Georgian Wine Cellar

Farmers make and keep wine in a special basement, called Marani, i.e. wine cellar. It is situated partially under the ground, which guarantees optimal temperature for keeping wine as long as needed.

Rivers of wine at Kindzmarauli Wine house

I actually tried - it's just water painted in red. But, pretty great effect, rigth?

Bottling process at winery

For me it was a surprise seeing peoples, not robots performing bottling process. OK, robots are probably filling in wine in the bottles. But for me it seemed - wow five persons at one conveyer.

Barrels for storing wine

Theming Drupal 8: How to Hide Site Name

25 October, 2016 | Drupal Development | 15 seen

I'm starting a new Drupal series - Drupal Tuesday, from now on - every Tuesday, Drupal related articles will be featured on my blog.(at least I hope so) 

It's not that I wouldn't had any previous Drupal tips and tricks, In fact I have more than 100 Drupal related articles already in archive.

Just recently I started working with Drupal 8, and since it involves a new learning curve even for me - I decided to refresh my skills and write down notes.

Let's start with a really simple issue - removing site name from Drupal 8.

What at start seems like a simple issue, might turn out to be a imminent problem. The truth is - it's super simple, but a little bit complicated if you come with a Drupal 7 background.

Let's hide site name the Drupal 8 way

For hiding site name in Drupal 8, we will need to go to the blocks structure (amazing, why I spent an hour trying to figure out why it's not under configuration section?)

Search for a block site branding (it should be in header section)

Site Branding Drupal 8

Click on the configure button:

Hiding Drupal Site Name

Under the Toggle branding elements uncheck Site Name. 

Amazing, Simple and Fast. I wish I had such simple tutorial before I spent about two hours trying to override Drupal template files.

Hope this helps, drop me a comment or contact if you need any assistance!

How To Recover Permanently Deleted Files (Canon CR2, JPG and more) on Windows

24 October, 2016 | Digital Photography School | 11 seen

In this article you will learn that not all is lost (in most cases), and it's still  possible to recover accidently deleted Canon CR2 files (I'm writing about Canon, as I'm writing from my own experience).

Here is my case study: I bought a new Asus laptop about a year ago, it did came with a 500GB built in HDD storage, the main purpose for this laptop was to perform some everyday computing and post-processing RAW images in Adobe Lightroom. If you are a photographer - you get the point.

It took me about one year - when I noticed I'm running out of disk space - most of my 500 GB disk space was occupied with images (Raw files), the photos kept rolling in, I was busy with my home remodeling works, and had no chance to visit city to buy an external HDD to make a backup of my image library, and for that moment it seemed a bit too pricey to buy a separate server (well what else a server architect could do, as to look for ways to build my internal/external cloud). For now I'm running few VPS on Linode spending about $100/mo. The disk space on all those servers combined, doesn't exceed 200GB, so to build a cloud on Linode for storing images only would cost me about $200/mo - too pricey, right. OK, there are other services for much cheaper price, but that's a topic of this article after all.

Anyhow - I started to delete some images I knew I will not need them in future, and I get some free space to upload new images. As I'm shooting mostly in RAW, one single picture weighs about 17-20MB, so it' s easy to run out of space in just a year. 

Then I realized - Adobe Lightroom is importing all CR2 files to a special folder (catalog), I'm post- processing all images and exporting them to other folder in already compressed folder in JPG format. So i actually don't need that Adobe Lightroom folder (Here a true-spirit Lightroomer won't agree with me, and fine with me - you are right), but in my case - That's a lot of space to be cleaned and roll in more pictures.

I did the magic - SHIFT+DELETE and I had extra 160GB of free space. Amazing. For about next 3-4 month' s I have a disk space and I don't need to worry about buying external HDD. Gosh, I felt so happy.

Then, this morning I realized - I still have few scenes not been post processed from that folder I deleted, and then the panic started - really valuable scenes - landscapes of Spain, Norway and more. Gosh I thought.

No, there must be a way to get my permanently deleted files back. The good news there are many ways of getting back your deleted files. As a lazy person I ended up with the easiest (still the riskiest way) - a little program for Windows Users - Recuva from Piriform.

Recuva can recover pictures, music, documents, videos, emails or any other file type you’ve lost. And it can recover from any rewriteable media you have: memory cards, external hard drives, USB sticks and more!

With help of Recuva I was able to get my recently deleted files back

.

Recovering deleted files on Windows

Recuva will work great if you have just recently permanently deleted your files. Here is the basics how this works:

Understanding Windows file deletion

When you delete a file in Windows, what happens?

Here's an example: You open Windows Explorer, navigate to C:\Files and highlight the file test.txt.

When you ask Windows Explorer to list the files in the C:\Files folder, Windows doesn't go through every file manually. Instead, it has an index of all the files in every folder that it can refer to - it's much faster. Windows Explorer uses that index to show you the names of the files.

Now, say you press the Del key. 

All Windows does is erase the test.txt entry from the index - not the hard drive. The contents of the file are still there, but you can't access it.

If only you could recreate that index entry so you could get at the file! That's what Recuva does.

When a file has an index entry (in something called the Master File Table (MFT), Windows makes sure not to overwrite the space on the hard drive where the file lives. Once you delete the file, however, Windows is free to use that 'blank space' for other files.

Eventually, if you add, copy, move or save enough other files, the contents of the test.txt file will be overwritten. The longer you wait, the harder it will be to recover.

Ironically, the shorter the life of the file, the harder it will also be to recover. Say you create test.txt at 9:01am and delete it at 9:10am. Chances are, it will be quickly overwritten by temporary files. Windows assigns the lowest MFT entry it can find for a new file. When you delete that new file, Windows marks that MFT entry as available. Since the MFT entry is a low number, Windows will reuse it as soon as new files are created.

How To Password Protect Your site with Nginx on Ubuntu 14.04

23 October, 2016 | Servers | 16 seen

I was working on a new customers website, and I was looking for ways to showcase current development stage to the client, meanwhile hiding contents from others. Sounds familiar? In this server series guide I will provide info how to set up basic HTTP authentication with Nginx on Ubuntu 14.04.

Most details for this article are taken from Digital Ocean's guide: How To Set Up Basic HTTP Authentication With Nginx on Ubuntu 14.04 with few minor adjustments.

As I'm serving more than just one domain from this development server, I had to take an extra step and configure following domain to be default on this machine, as I will provide just the IP address to customer. For setting up default domain on Nginx, see this article: How To Setup Ngnix Default Domain For Not Configured Domains or IP Address

Step 1 — Installing Apache Tools

You'll need the htpassword command to configure the password that will restrict access to the target website. This command is part of the apache2-utils package, so the first step is to install that package.

Step 2 — Setting Up HTTP Basic Authentication Credentials

be sure to check out the correct path for your ngnix config, and in place of USERNAME enter your desired one. You'll need to authenticate, then specify and confirm a password.

Step 3 — Updating the Nginx Configuration

Now that you've created the HTTP basic authentication credential, the next step is to update the Nginx configuration for the target website to use it.

be sure to replace reinisficher.com with your domain name

Under the location section, add following directives:

Save and close the file.

Step 4 — Testing the Setup

To apply the changes, first reload Nginx.

Now try accessing the website you just secured by going to http://your_server_ip/ in your favorite browser. You should be prompted with a following screen:

Nginx authentication screen

Congrats, you have just set up a basic HTTP authentication with Ngnix on Ubuntu 14.40. 

Sighnagi Museum

22 October, 2016 | Museums | 17 seen

The Sighnaghi Museum is located in the charming Sighnagi town, region of Kakheti, Georgia.

I have paid many, many visits to Sighnaghi, but for the very first time I visited this museum just at the end of 2016. It was cloudy day, instead of beautiful landscapes and street photography we were left with no option, but to visit a museum. Well, few weeks ago I familiarized with famous Georgian painters Niko Pirosmani works and life, I was so impressed that I even ordered an artist to paint a reproduction of one of the most famous Pirosmani works- The Fisherman (The work is still not ready)

Sighnagi museum

The Sighnaghi Museum was founded in 1947. The first exhibition opened on December 31st, 1950, comprising seven hundred artifacts. The Painting Gallery was founded at the museum in 1967, furnished with donations from well-known and beginner artists. Today, the ethnographic collection features five thousand artifacts, including textiles, copper and wooden domestic items, agricultural instruments, materials corresponding to viniculture, goldsmith works, different types of working instruments, and musical instruments.

The museum also contains a rich numismatic collection of about two thousand coins, among them ancient Sasanid Persian coins, and coins minted by Georgian monarchs Tamar, Lasha-Giorgi, and Erekle. Photo and documentary collections numbering around five thousand, and archeological exhibits are also represented in the museum reserves.

The Kakheti Archeological Research Base, co-existing with the Tbilisi Ivane Javakhishvili Institute of History, Archeology and Ethnography was founded in 1973. Its expeditions enriched the archeological collection of the museum. The Sighnaghi Museum joined the Georgian National Museum complex in 2007. The museum building was reconstructed, security systems were installed, new exhibitions were held, museum funds were supplemented, and the number of artifacts reached sixty thousand.  

On the second floor, visitors can find the permanent exhibition of the greatest Georgian self-taught artist of the late 19th-early 20th century, Niko Pirosmanashvili, often known simply as Pirosmani. The second floor also hosts numerous temporary exhibitions throughout the year. This hall hosted a Picasso exhibition in 2009 and a Western European exhibition in 2010. In contemporary Georgian history, the Sighnaghi Museum is the first museum to perfectly meet the Georgian National Museum Standards. Today, the museum represents a top-tier cultural, educational, and scientific institution. 

Ticket price: 3 GEL (as of 2016)

Gergeti Trinity Church

21 October, 2016 | Churches and Monasteries | 31 seen

Gergeti Trinity Church is a must have to visit destination in Georgia. The church is located at an elevation of 2170 meters, under Mount Kazbegi some 160 km North from nations capital Tbilisi.

I have visited Gergeti church for some 3 times during my stay in Georgia, and always have hired either Jeep (Lada Niva) or Delica cars to get to the final destination. Let me explain - the road until the Gergeti village is pretty fair, but from the village there is a really bad road heading up to the church, and not many will drive up in the hill with their own cars - on the other hand, once at the destination, there are many experienced drivers available with Delica or Lada Niva cars - taking you up for 50-60 GEL (per car, not person). On the other hand I have noticed many hikers there, and actually I wouldn't mind to hike next time to Gergeti church - as I believe it's should be one of the most amazing experiences. 

Here is a joke from our latest trip - nobody from four of us wouldn't agree to drive up not for 50 lari or 100 US dollars. 

Our Delica car

We hired this Delica car for 4 person group and agreed on price 50 GEL. Some drivers might ask 60 GEL, while others could agree on 40GEL (Prices as of October, 2016). The rumor has it - the municipality wanted to build a ropeway taking tourists up, but local population protested, as it's a pretty good income for taking tourists to the Gergeti church. As of now, there are no plans for constructing such ropeway - but let's agree, that would be awesome.

The ride takes about 15-20 minutes as the road is in very very very bad condition. Thus the distance is only about 6 km (I might be wrong)

Delica car rally near Gergeti church

Yup, the most popular car (right side wheel) in this area for sure. Previous time I remember more Lada Niva cars were here.

Gergeti Trinity Church

The Gergeti Trinity Church is built in the 14th century, and is the only cross-cupola church in Khevi province. The separate belltower dates from the same period as the church itself. Its isolated location on top of a steep mountain surrounded by the vastness of nature has made it a symbol for Georgia. The 18th century Georgian author Vakhushti Batonishvili wrote that in times of danger, precious relics from Mtskheta, including Saint Nino's Cross were brought here for safekeeping. During the Soviet era, all religious services were prohibited, but the church remained a popular tourist destination. The church is now an active establishment of the Georgian Orthodox and Apostolic Church.

Walk in the Clouds

Yup, following scenes are not rare in Caucasus mountains.

The church is a popular waypoint for trekkers in the area, and can be reached by a steep 3 hour climb up the mountain.

Gergeti Trinity Church

How To Setup Pretty URL's For Drupal 8

20 October, 2016 | Drupal Development | 22 seen

It seems just yesterday I wrapped a simple Drupal tutorial on how to enable pretty URL's for Drupal 7 site. Turns out already three years have passed. Time flies, newer versions of Drupal emerges, but the question remains pretty popular. I could point you to the previous article, but things have changed a little bit in Drupal 8, thus the principles stays the same.

Today I will provide a simple tutorial on how some (perhaps you) can enable pretty URL's for Drupal 8 site. 

One of the most common Drupal tasks is to setup - Drupal friendly URL's - friendly both for humans and SEO. In fact - friendly URL's have been one of the main SEO strategies for the past decade (at least).

Default Drupal path structure is like this - node/4803, which is nice - but if you would like to convert node/4803 to /my-awesome-title, you will need to download and enable Pathauto module.

• Download Pathauto module (with it's dependencies - Ctools and Token modules)
• Extract them to /modules folder 
• Enable Pathauto from Extend section (admin/modules)

Installing Pathauto module for Drupal 8

Once you are done with the technical stuff, visit Patterns page (admin/config/search/path/patterns) and click on the Add Pathauto pattern.

• From the Pattern type drop down menu choose: Content
• Path pattern: [node:title]
• Content type: Select all which applies 
• Label: Give it a nice name, for example NODE URL

Configuring Drupal 8 patterns

Click on the Save button, and lets proceed with generating new URL alias.

Click on the Bulk Generate tab (admin/config/search/path/update_bulk), and select types of paths to generate alias, in this case I have created the pattern just for Content, so I will check next to the Content. 

Bulk generate URL aliases

Click on the update and wait for URL aliases to be populated. Congrats, you have just enabled Pretty URL's for your Drupal 8 site.

Following patterns can be used (or browse through available tokens and configure your own)

• [node:title] - for Default path pattern
• topics/[term:name] - for default path pattern for all tags

Theming Drupal 8: How To Include the Facebook JavaScript SDK

19 October, 2016 | Drupal Development | 18 seen

That time have come - and I have started to officially develop my first Drupal 8 site - I won't go into details by comparing Drupal 8 vs Drupal 7 or Drupal 6 (as I think that's a topic for another article).

Today I will show how one (perhaps you) can include default Facebook JavaScript SDK library to your Drupal 8 site. I'm working on simple business website, which has a Facebook business page, and we want to include Facebook page plugin into site's sidebar.

For getting actual code, you must first visit Developers Central on Facebook and customize your Page plugin according to your need, next you must copy/paste two sections of code. First - include SDK library, second paste actual code to generate Facebook page plugin on your Drupal site.

Include the JavaScript SDK on your page once, ideally right after the opening <body> tag.

For pasting code into sidebar I'm going to use Drupal blocks section, but to actually get them working we must include JavaScript SDK library into theme. The principles for including library into Drupal 8are more or less the same as it is in Drupal 7.

Place this code wherever you want the plugin to appear on your page.

For this project I'm using a free Drupal Zymphonies theme. Thus the basics applies to every Drupal 8 theme. 

Locate the html.htnl.twig file (for Zymphonies theme - theme/drupal8_zymphonies_theme/templates/layout)

Copy code you get at developers.facebook.com, save file, right after the opening <body> tag, clear cache and you are done.

Hope this helps!

Russia–Georgia Friendship Monument

18 October, 2016 | Tourism objects | 215 seen

In fact I had to open a Wikipedia to learn the name of this place, as I mistakenly thought this is just some cool viewing platform located high in the Caucasus mountains, built by Soviets. Turns out it's not only built by Soviets, but bears the name of The Russia–Georgia Friendship Monument

Located on the Georgian Military Highway between the ski resort town of Gudauri and the Jvari pass, the monument is a large round stone and concrete structure overlooking the Devil's Valley in the Caucasus mountains.

Russia–Georgia Friendship Monument

This monument has been built in 1983 to celebrate the bicentennial of the Treaty of Georgievsk and ongoing friendship between Georgia and Soviet Russia.

Soviet design

Inside the monument is a large tile mural that spans the whole circumference of the structure and depicts scenes of Georgian and Russian history.

But what's cool - a spectacular view can be observed from this viewing platform:

Caucasus Mountains

For the history lovers - Treaty of Georgievsk

The Treaty of Georgievsk was a bilateral treaty concluded between the Russian Empire and the east Georgian kingdom of Kartli-Kakheti on July 24, 1783. The treaty established Georgia as a protectorate of Russia, which guaranteed Georgia's territorial integrity and the continuation of its reigning Bagrationi dynasty in return for prerogatives in the conduct of Georgian foreign affairs. By this, Georgia abjured any form of dependence on Persia (who had been the suzerains of most of Georgia for centuries) or another power, and every new Georgian monarch would require the confirmation and investiture of the Russian tsar.

This place is very cool to fly a drone around, see: Gudauri View Point from a drone flight

Zhinvali Water Reservoir, Georgia

16 October, 2016 | Lakes | 68 seen

Zhinvali, also Jinvali, is an artificial water reservoir located on the river Aragvi in Georgia. The building of the hydroelectric dam formed the Zhinvali Reservoir. The dam has been built in 1986.

You have probably noticed this perfect blue surface lake, if traveled to Gudauri or mount Kazbegi (Gergeti church) via Georgian military road. If not, and you are still planing your trip to this area, the chances are you will make a stop at Ananuri castle complex (which is located near Zhinvali water reservoir), but there is a small watching platform when approaching from Tbilisi - a perfect place for a group photo or as I prefer - landscape photography.

Zhinval water reservoir

We were on a trip to mount Kazbegi (Stepantsminda) and I decided to make a short 10 minute stop here, so I can experiment with a HDR photography

Zhinvali water reservoir

See also: Algeti Reservoir in Georgia

Tbilisoba (Tbilisi City Festival) 2016

15 October, 2016 | Living in Georgia | 14 seen

Tbilisoba or Tbilisi City Festival is an annual October festival which celebrates the diversity and history of Tbilisi, the capital of Georgia. If you are planing your first trip to Georgia - consider your trip here during city festival and try local cuisine and that awesome Georgian wine. 

Tbilisoba 2016 were held on October 15-16 in the streets of ..you are right - Tbilisi. As usual I took my camera and went for a photo walk, starting Rike Park, ending at the right embankment of Mtkvari. My best finds this year was: Dzin Chao food tent and mcvadi from farmers. 

Raft in th River of Mtkvari

There is a tradition to ride a raft during Tbilisi City Festival. 

Colorful balloons at kid zone

This year the kids zone were set at Rike park.

Tbilisoba was first held on October 28, 1979, and has since become an established tradition. The festival features open-air concerts of traditional music and dancing and various cultural events, centered on Old Tbilisi, the historical part of the city. Beyond celebrating the city's past and present, people from all over Georgia represent their region at the fair of the harvest and Rtveli. Awarding honorary citizenship of Tbilisi by the city government also occurs in the framework of Tbilisoba.

Aerial view of Rike park in Tbilisi

The festival was created at the initiative of Eduard Shevardnadze, then-the First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Georgian Soviet Socialist Republic, to honor the capital and counter attendance at religious events as part of his program to overcome "manifestations of nationalism" through introducing new "socialist traditions". The event became a celebration of the city’s 1,500-year history and had the unintended effect of engaging Georgians more intensely in their national history.The festival remained dormant during the civil unrest of the early 1990s. It was resumed in 1995 and has since been held annually, usually in the latter half of October.

Painted pumpkins

It's still few days before the Halloween night approaches, but you can grab your pumpkin here, and then  learn How To Carve a Pumpkin and Make Stunning Halloween Photos

Mcvadi being prepared

Tap Wine

Streets of Tbilisi during Tbilisoba

mcvadi at Tbilisoba's farmers market

The Bottom Line

One of the best ways to discover Tbilisi and Georgia in short amount of time, best from the farmers in the heart of Tbilisi. Don't miss you chance!