Blog Archive: January 2020

We traveled to Lugano in Switzerland at the end of 2019.  Visit to Lugano officially adds marks 18th country on my travel map I've visited (since 2013) We arrived here from Italy's Lecco town using our rental car (Sicily car), a quick border check (without a real inspection) and we were inside Switzerland. Lake…

Located opposite a park in the historical centre of Riga on Hospitāļu street. Aparthotel Autosole offers to its guests 10 comfortable apartments and studios. We have been staying at this hotel several times, with the first stay being back in 2017 while the latest stay was at the end of 2019. In total, we paid USD 86…

January is almost at the end and it's time to look back on the previous year of blogging (2019), and no doubts -  take a quick glimpse of 2020 In today's article, I will reveal data behind the blog scenes - both traffic and income for the whole year of 2019. But before we dig into the numbers, here is the brief…

Ilia Lake is located near the town of Kvareli in the region of Kakheti, Georgia. First discovered back in 2014, while staying at Royal Batoni hotel next to the lake. Since then I've headed here several times. It was at the start of 2020 when I learned that this lake actually is manmade.  Ilias lake was formed in a…

Tremezzina is located on the western banks of Lake Como, right in front of Bellagio, and is the result of a recent merger of the comunes of Lenno, Mezzegra, Ossuccio, and Tremezzo. We discovered this picturesque Italian town during our about a week-long trip in Italy during the mid-November 2019.  According to Lake…

Lielupe Hotel SPA & Conferences by Semarah is located in a calm area of Jurmala, surrounded by forest and 400 m from the Baltic Sea. It features a spacious kids club with different games and toys. We booked this hotel in mid-December 2019, for a two-night stay and paid in total $257 for two separate rooms (as my…

It has been a great decade for all three Baltic states, and increasing minimum wages is just one good example of showing that. From humble EUR 238 in 2010 to still modest EUR 607 (Lithuania). That's quite an impressive growth in "just" 10 years.  For me observing minimum wages in the Baltic states has always been…

Rivendell, Eco-friendly hotel with wooden rooms and organic garden, is located in Borjomi. After discovering that we spend more and more time at luxury hotels across Georgia, we decided to return to the roots and instead of fancy 5-star hotels to choose a home away felling by choosing stay at guest houses/ family-run…

I've been investing in the Mintos.com peer to peer lending marketplace since the beginning of 2017, or it has been already 36 months or three years since I've been exposing my funds to this Latvian fintech platform. In the past three years, I've made a nice revenue of EUR 1,477.86 (before tax) and in today's article,…

I have a goal to make at least $1,200 per month for the next 3 months of the year in dividend income + selling options. Every quarter I create a brief income plan/goal laying out plans for the next three months. Last quarter (Q4 2019) I had a plan to take $1,000/mo from the financial markets, unfortunately, it didn'…

Fabrika Tbilisi is a stylish hipster place located on Egnate Ninoshvili street 8 in a renovated Soviet Era factory building,  Fabrika is the space for rebellious minds to create and share. Once a Soviet sewing factory has been revived and transformed into a multi-functional urban space bringing together enthusiastic…

If there is a good reason to visit Bergamo in Italy's region of Lombardy, then exploring the old town, city walks and architecture are the top 3 reasons according to Booking.com Another reason you might find yourself in Bergamo is if you are traveling to/from Bergamo airport and are looking for just a nice…

Welcome to the thirty-second (#32) dividend income report, covering earnings I've made from dividend-paying stocks and peer to peer lending in December 2019.Last December we spent some 10 days in Latvia, unfortunately, global warming has hit Latvia too and instead of snowy meadows and white fir trees, all we got was…

I'm 34 years old now and I have a goal to save one million dollars by the time I will turn 60. Just 26 years to go. I've been documenting my journey towards financial independence for the last three years already.In today's article, I will review the past year of 2019 and take a quick glimpse at the New Year of 2020.…

Keti's Bistro is another stylish  Tbilisi restaurant located on Tamar Chovelidze street 3 (opposite to hotel Stamba) My better part took me here just before the New Year 2020, and I found this place quite a chill.  We agreed to order here some steaks before going to the Christmas market opposite the Radisson hotel.…

4-star hotel Lenno is set in an elegant building just off the main road, and right on the shore of Lake Como, in the fantastic Gulf of Venus. There is free Wi-Fi. We booked this hotel in mid-November 2019, during our week-long trip to Italy/Switzerland and paid about $110 per night. We arrived here from the lovely…

In today's Piece of Life series, a brief photo story from the Christmas market held near Radisson Blue hotel Tbilisi.  To get here we took a taxi from our apartment to Keti's bistro. After finish steaks and Cokes we were ready to explore the market. The little one was excited the most. Christmas market in Tbilisi…

As every year I contribute to fireworks photography, 2020 was no exception, from our Tbilisi apartments balcony I made dozens of long exposure night photography. A sturdy tripod, ISO 400-3200, f stop 3,5 up to f11 and exposure from 4 sec up to 10 seconds. The magical beauty of night photography. Tbilisi fireworks…