Blog Archive: July 2018

Ventspils is a city situated on the western coast of Latvia, on the Baltic Sea. Ventspils is one of Europe's busiest ports. It is also the city that honours the past, thinks of the future, and never stops working!  In today's Piece of Life series - postcards from Latvian seaside town - Ventspils.  Captured back in…

You can have a look at the city from the bird’s eye view from the 19 meters high viewing tower located next to the Ventspils Southern quay. When visiting a new place for the first time I'm always looking for some observation desk to make some great landscape photography, that's how I discovered this Venstpils viewing…

The Castle of the Livonian Order, which houses Ventspils Museum since September 2001, is the oldest preserved building in Ventspils, built in the second half of the 13th century (first mentioned in 1290). The castle was built as a convent-house type building with an inner yard and can be regarded as the oldest…

Rāmkalni is a popular recreational area near Murjāņi (some 60km from Riga), this place features a traditional Latvian Cusine restaurant/bistro The venue is on the edge of the Murjāņi-Valka road (A3) and in the Gauja River Valley. It offers Latvian and Western European cuisine, as well as a shop at which you can buy…

Miciņi has a very special place in my heart. I spent a good time in my early teenage years living here together with my dear granny. In fact, she was born here in 1929. Back in these days, a life buzzed in this area. Now, little has left over from the past glory - our family even doesn't own the land plot here. This…

Valmiera market is another market I've visited latelty in Latvia (See: Riga Central Market, Liepāja market and Kuldiga market).  Though I believe some could buy here goodies grown by local farmers, last time I visited this market (July 2017) all I could find was just flowers and plants. Valmiera market Residents…

Mazais Ansis is a popular roadside cafeteria/restaurant located some 15 km from Valmiera town (if driving from Riga). This place serves a traditional Latvian cuisine. When traveling to the Vidzeme region in Latvia, I love to take a stop here and have a lunch. Here comes my latest review back from Summer 2017. The…

When thinking about bathhouses the first thing that arrives in my head is the sulphur bathhouses located in Tbilisi, should they be located in the Abanotubani district or the old and neglected Kiev's bath.  Turns out there is not less interesting bath-house (though former) in Latvian Jūrmala - Former bath-house of…

Ķīšezers is a lake in Riga, Latvia, with a primary inflow of the Jugla River. The lake is 1,730 ha (4,300 acres) large, it has 2.4 metres (7 ft 10 in) of average depth and reaches 4.2 metres (14 ft) at the deepest point. Lake Ķīšezers is a popular recreation area both for locals and foreign guest in the Mežaparks …

Valletta is the capital of the island nation of Malta. A harbor city, Valletta preserves much of its 16th-century architectural heritage built under the Hospitallers. With its large array of shops, catering establishments, entertainment venues, and culture, Malta's capital has what it takes to capture people's…

The pontoon footbridge over Mill Lake in Kazdanga, Latvia is a recently built and opened for a public a really cool tourist attraction. Such tourist attractions seem is really gaining the momentum in Latvia, as in fact, this is already third such type of construction I've visited lately in Latvia. See: The Great…

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…

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…

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 Rethymno…

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 Talsi Reminds me panoramas…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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.…