Day 2
Not yet fully realising what it means to travel in Alpine countries (and what it is to sleep in a sheep stack) I was woken up at 3.00am by bells of sheep literally knocking on our / theirs doors. After some ‘discussion’ we prevailed and were let to rest additional two hours before watching sunrise over Alps and hitting the road.
Early morning we climbed back to place of our return, ascended Garsellikopf (2,105m) and Kuhgrat (2,123m) where we met first hikers going in opposite direction. Proud with our achievement we exchanged pleasantries and chocolates :) Little we knew that soon ascents of 2,100m peaks would become boring and not sufficient. Old adage of ‘with food grows the appetite’ was never truer :)
Quick descent to Sucka (1,402m) completed our first Via Alpina stage. After refilling our water bottles we continued to Pfalzerhutte (2,108m) – terminus of second stage scheduled for the day. Walking through marvellous alpine valleys (not yet boring for us), close encounter with horse herd high above usual habitat and completing murderous (in that time it almost killed me) climb of last kilometre made the gulash suppe and Radler taste incredibly delicious.
In order to use up as much sunlight as possible we continued in the direction of Schesaplana hutte (end of third stage on our list). First we had to crossed Gross Furgga (2,339m) pass which made me breath like someone with heavy asthma attack (my tongue licked its way through snowfields on the northern side of the pass :) ). Afterwards long descent to Schesaplana hutte(1,908m) awaited. It should be noted that marking provided on Via Alpina website (as of 11 July 2010) is incorrect and that kilometres stated are much lower (stage is long c. 14km instead of stated 18.6km).
On this very hut we met our first country woman – girl named Gabi who was working there during vacation. Briefly discussing our experience so far and plans for next couple of days, we briefly considered climbing Schesaplana peak (2,964m). Ultimately we abandoned the idea as mountains of same height awaited further on along the road. After brief some-kind-of-bath in cold water we zipped ourselves in sleeping bags.
Vertical meters (up only):3,196m
Distance: 32.158km
VA stages: R57 (partially), R58, R59
Day 3
Here comes another warning (specifically to our fellow budget travellers) for those travelling along Via Alpina. Breakfast at mountain huts are vastly overpriced (10EUR / CHF for two slices of bread, cheese, some marmalade and pot of tea). If you can bring your own supplies, which will suit your needs better than breakfast provided. If possible ask first whether breakfast are served buffet style (if yes go for it, if not eat your own crackers), otherwise it is highly advisable to book only sleeping place.
Anyway, after my first real mountain breakfast (although warned by my brother, I ordered one and paid dearly) we set off to Carschinahutte (2,221m). Trail led through valleys where we were kept company by marmots doing their morning hygiene. Fairly flat stage and Radler at its end was followed by steep descent to St. Antonien (1,420m) (in fact only my brother went there to refill our supplies in local shop as I, traditionally wasted after sharp descent, waited 200m outside of the village) we continued further on to Gargellen (Austrian village at the end of the third stage for the day).
We arrived to Gargellen fairly late after crossing St. Antonien Joch (pass at 2,379m on Madrisa round tour which follows ridges around St. Antonien) and very happy to find out that Gargellen is fairly equipped mountain centre with plenty of accommodation offered. Even better, in a true 21st century manner, tourist can find out all information through touchscreen provided on the wall of tourist office eliminating any annoying human contact :)
We spent the night in the cheapest option offered (EUR 35 per person). First time my brother had chance to experience my uf and ach sounds (he compared my movement around the room to 70 year old pensioner) which became more familiar during following days as we kept our mad tempo.
Vertical meters (up only):3,857m
Distance: 33.500km
VA stages: R60, R61, R62
Day 4
Following day after rich buffet breakfast we once again refilled our supplies in local Spar and continued along Via Alpina through mountain passes of Austria. First we crossed Vergaldajoch (2,515m) and then Mittelbergjoch (2,415m) both high enough to include snowfields along the way. Tubinger hutte (2,191m) was quick lunch stop (from now on I switched from Radler to Spezi as a sugar/energy provider) as we aimed to catch up with our plan for Via Alpina (at that time we were back three ambitious stages).
From Tubinger hutte through Hochmaderer Joch (2,505m) we continued in the direction of Madlener Haus (end of another stage). Unfortunately weather got into our way as storms from previous days (since Day 1 c. at 7.00pm and further on, storms raged on) increased streams through-flows to impassable levels (we did our best to take our shoes off twice, third time we were not lucky enough).
Unhappy but in one piece we abandoned hiking trail circa half a kilometre in front of Madlener Haus, descended to the nearest paved road and hitchhiked our way up to Silvretta reservoir and destination for the day. This detour and delay put the pitchfork to any attempt for additional stage.
Vertical meters (up only):2,463m
Distance: 26.200km
VA stages: R63, R64
7/26/2010
7/25/2010
Alpen Alpen uber alles! (vol. 1)
Here follows account of my trip with my small brother across the Alps of Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Austria, Italy and France. Originally we planned to follow Via Alpina’s Red trail from Liechtenstein to Brig Glis (c. 45 stages and c. 630km in 17 days) but as you will see later we abandoned the original plan due to lack of time (or better lacking physical conditioning) and decision to visit Jungfrau region instead.
Besides Via Alpina we planned to visit Chamonix and Mt. Blanc region as well as several cities of Switzerland (similarly to our previous trip to Spain where we explored historic and cultural sites in August 2008) masterfully balancing nature and culture during this three weeks stint. Unfortunately due to scheduling reasons (I had to postpone my flight one week later) we had to amend this plan to each individuals need. My brother visited cities and Mt. Blanc region week prior to my arrival and I plan to visit them (in the time of writing this post) after his departure.
What follows are short summaries of daily experiences including some data (certainly not vital). Kilometres walked and vertical meters ascended are based on guide printed out of Via Alpina website (some data as pointed out later are clearly wrong and / or misleading), maps we obtained during our trip and best guess / estimate I made based on them (particularly in later stage of our trip when we abandoned Via Alpina).
Please read on!
Day 1
Day before, I landed in Zurich and transported my sorry back, with overweight backpack on top of it, to Sargans where I met my brother. Afterwards we set off to Liechtenstein, our destination for a day. Day one of the uber-trip over the Alps started with half a day sightseeing in Vaduz and Schaan (city we stayed). I managed to see Kuntsmuseum and Landes museum (only worth to visit with Liechtenstein pass you can obtain for 25 Swiss francs – hereinafter CHF). Pass included visit and tasting in Hofkelerei (Liechtenstein’s monarch’s vineyards) and me milking the employees for all available information about growing wines.
Around 1.30pm we set off on our journey to the unknown and left low lands of Rhine valley for mighty Alps, their peaks and passes. Of course, we did not even set our feet out of township of Schaan and we made our first mistake. Instead of taking public transport bus (included within pass described earlier are fares for all public buses throughout Liechtenstein) to village of Planken we walked our way up. Later we paid dearly for time lost (especially me – the unofficial office rat on our two men team). After first 1,000 vertical meters I almost died reaching Gafadurahutte (point where we were about to join Via Alpina). After resting and drinking my first Radler of the summer we started off to Drei Schwestern (2,055 meters above sea level) and other peaks lying on day’s stage.
As usual all plans ended up worthless and due to upcoming storm we turned down in the pass just after Drei Schwestern and headed do the nearest waterproof looking lodge. It turned out to be sheep station with complete group of shepherd and shepherdesses. They were so kind to let us sleep in their barn (with two other unlucky hikers). To be honest, the very first night made an all star highlights reel of this trip as probably nothing can beat dry and comfi hay mixed with old sheep poop from previous months and a wakeup call of sheep bells (more on that later)...
Vertical meters (up only): 1,596m
Distance: 8.1km
VA stages: R57 (partially)
Besides Via Alpina we planned to visit Chamonix and Mt. Blanc region as well as several cities of Switzerland (similarly to our previous trip to Spain where we explored historic and cultural sites in August 2008) masterfully balancing nature and culture during this three weeks stint. Unfortunately due to scheduling reasons (I had to postpone my flight one week later) we had to amend this plan to each individuals need. My brother visited cities and Mt. Blanc region week prior to my arrival and I plan to visit them (in the time of writing this post) after his departure.
What follows are short summaries of daily experiences including some data (certainly not vital). Kilometres walked and vertical meters ascended are based on guide printed out of Via Alpina website (some data as pointed out later are clearly wrong and / or misleading), maps we obtained during our trip and best guess / estimate I made based on them (particularly in later stage of our trip when we abandoned Via Alpina).
Please read on!
Day 1
Day before, I landed in Zurich and transported my sorry back, with overweight backpack on top of it, to Sargans where I met my brother. Afterwards we set off to Liechtenstein, our destination for a day. Day one of the uber-trip over the Alps started with half a day sightseeing in Vaduz and Schaan (city we stayed). I managed to see Kuntsmuseum and Landes museum (only worth to visit with Liechtenstein pass you can obtain for 25 Swiss francs – hereinafter CHF). Pass included visit and tasting in Hofkelerei (Liechtenstein’s monarch’s vineyards) and me milking the employees for all available information about growing wines.
Around 1.30pm we set off on our journey to the unknown and left low lands of Rhine valley for mighty Alps, their peaks and passes. Of course, we did not even set our feet out of township of Schaan and we made our first mistake. Instead of taking public transport bus (included within pass described earlier are fares for all public buses throughout Liechtenstein) to village of Planken we walked our way up. Later we paid dearly for time lost (especially me – the unofficial office rat on our two men team). After first 1,000 vertical meters I almost died reaching Gafadurahutte (point where we were about to join Via Alpina). After resting and drinking my first Radler of the summer we started off to Drei Schwestern (2,055 meters above sea level) and other peaks lying on day’s stage.
As usual all plans ended up worthless and due to upcoming storm we turned down in the pass just after Drei Schwestern and headed do the nearest waterproof looking lodge. It turned out to be sheep station with complete group of shepherd and shepherdesses. They were so kind to let us sleep in their barn (with two other unlucky hikers). To be honest, the very first night made an all star highlights reel of this trip as probably nothing can beat dry and comfi hay mixed with old sheep poop from previous months and a wakeup call of sheep bells (more on that later)...
Vertical meters (up only): 1,596m
Distance: 8.1km
VA stages: R57 (partially)
6/29/2010
Nurturing the culture
This is a short post about unculturally cultural five days in Prague on a break of summer. I flew back to Prague on Friday (May 21) to satisfy my thirst for classical music and to attend at least some of the concerts of Prague Spring me and my brother bought tickets for. Basically out of the eight concerts I originally intended to see I managed to attend only four but luckily for me at least two of them were THE Concerts.
On Friday we had pleasure to listen to conductor / piano soloist Mr. Perahia and The Academy of St Martin in the Fields. As a typical uneducated eastern Slovak, I was so tired my head dropped every few seconds and I almost fell asleep during the best part of the performance (Concert for piano and orchestra in C moll, KV 491).
After nurturing (or torturing) our sight sense by attending screening of new Ridley Scott / Russel Crowe vehicle – Robin Hood (incomparably worse than good old Gladiator) we attended concert of Bayerische Rundfunk Orchestra (‘BRO’) which is according to some, one of the best ensembles in the world. Although half of the audience preferred to watch Hockey World Championships final game (congrats to Czech Republic as it won gold) this was a concert of the concerts. Mahler’s Kindertoddliche Liede were nice although not-understood appetizer for main course of Schubert’s Great symphony (No. 9 but depends on who is doing the numbering). BRO can claim that they awaken Schubert’s appreciation in me. Their rendition of his grandest symphony was pure pleasure and received standing ovation of a half empty Obecni dum.
On Monday we continued to broaden our horizons (in my brother’s words – ‘self-educate’) and attended Prague chamber orchestra performance. Out of the four concerts we attended, it was the most uninteresting (if someone like can say something like this) but still important piece of puzzle of overall Prague Spring 2010 experience. Last but most definitely the first concert among those I attended had almost everything - charismatic conductor, full count orchestra, world premier, exceptional soloist and many other attributes I do not know about. State Philharmonic from Kosice performed in a Czech premier concert for giora and orchestra of Peter Breiner (who was also conducting). What a pleasure! What a joy! The concert was so good and so much enjoyed by performers (ensemble, conductor and soloist), audience and everyone else that it received standing ovation.
Wonderfully played by a by-far the youngest orchestra we have seen this year it handily overcome performances of Mr. Gardiner and Czech Philharmonic Orchestra (as described in previous posts) or BRO. It should be duly noted that I am biased Kosice-born observer :) Second half composed of short Mozart’s concert and another masterpiece of Jean Sibelius (a selection from Kuningas Kristian II) performed by Kosice orchestra.
It appears that those culturally overdosed days in Prague had to leave some impression on me as I am writing this post just before boarding plane to Prague and c. one month after the above mentioned happened. Or maybe it’s just me trying to present myself as a intellectually deep person. In this case please take my post with huge pile of salt as it is well known that there are no intellectuals born in eastern Slovakia :)
On Friday we had pleasure to listen to conductor / piano soloist Mr. Perahia and The Academy of St Martin in the Fields. As a typical uneducated eastern Slovak, I was so tired my head dropped every few seconds and I almost fell asleep during the best part of the performance (Concert for piano and orchestra in C moll, KV 491).
After nurturing (or torturing) our sight sense by attending screening of new Ridley Scott / Russel Crowe vehicle – Robin Hood (incomparably worse than good old Gladiator) we attended concert of Bayerische Rundfunk Orchestra (‘BRO’) which is according to some, one of the best ensembles in the world. Although half of the audience preferred to watch Hockey World Championships final game (congrats to Czech Republic as it won gold) this was a concert of the concerts. Mahler’s Kindertoddliche Liede were nice although not-understood appetizer for main course of Schubert’s Great symphony (No. 9 but depends on who is doing the numbering). BRO can claim that they awaken Schubert’s appreciation in me. Their rendition of his grandest symphony was pure pleasure and received standing ovation of a half empty Obecni dum.
On Monday we continued to broaden our horizons (in my brother’s words – ‘self-educate’) and attended Prague chamber orchestra performance. Out of the four concerts we attended, it was the most uninteresting (if someone like can say something like this) but still important piece of puzzle of overall Prague Spring 2010 experience. Last but most definitely the first concert among those I attended had almost everything - charismatic conductor, full count orchestra, world premier, exceptional soloist and many other attributes I do not know about. State Philharmonic from Kosice performed in a Czech premier concert for giora and orchestra of Peter Breiner (who was also conducting). What a pleasure! What a joy! The concert was so good and so much enjoyed by performers (ensemble, conductor and soloist), audience and everyone else that it received standing ovation.
Wonderfully played by a by-far the youngest orchestra we have seen this year it handily overcome performances of Mr. Gardiner and Czech Philharmonic Orchestra (as described in previous posts) or BRO. It should be duly noted that I am biased Kosice-born observer :) Second half composed of short Mozart’s concert and another masterpiece of Jean Sibelius (a selection from Kuningas Kristian II) performed by Kosice orchestra.
It appears that those culturally overdosed days in Prague had to leave some impression on me as I am writing this post just before boarding plane to Prague and c. one month after the above mentioned happened. Or maybe it’s just me trying to present myself as a intellectually deep person. In this case please take my post with huge pile of salt as it is well known that there are no intellectuals born in eastern Slovakia :)
5/27/2010
Stranded in Bucharest
Seven weeks (not sure actually anymore) into my prolonged business trip to Romanian capital and I still feel a bit unfamiliar with Romania. Maybe it’s because I have not seen the country yet and my stay is so far limited to Bucharest. Maybe it’s because it is truly country on periphery of Europe where various cultures mixed over past two millennia. Or maybe it’s because it is true that as you travel east you travel back in time as well (right now it is Czech Republic and Slovakia in early 1990’s all over again). Anyway for those who are not ready to read long long post here is short summary: a) the more restaurants you visit the better chance you have eating actually well (shotgun approach recommended), b) dogs travel in packs and look alike but locals love them anyway, c) cars are everyone’s best friend, d) Bucharest is one city in need of London’s congestion charge, e) second dustiest city of Europe I had pleasure to visit, f) aah those woman :) Below comes the long version.
Eating
We had ‘pleasure’ to try number of restaurants around the city. Although all of the restaurants showed some flaw, average Joe would be satisfied in couple of them. Local cuisine is a bit heavy but all eateries offer variety of fish dishes on their menu which is positively awesome after beer and pork diet of Czech counterparts. Oh yeah, and there is that lemonade.
Among the best we had pleasure to dine at were; Le Bistro at Centerville complex (a bit pricey and got worn out after third visit) which can be found at the back of Radisson hotel, Harbour (with slightly overpriced dishes when considering quality) – an expat joint at Piata Amzei and French restaurant opposite to Dirty Harry’s pub at pedestrian city center. Nice trendy atmosphere can be found in local Hard Rock Cafe at city’s biggest park whose name I do not dare to guess.
Definitely best location to go out for dinner, couple of drinks and summer / spring walk is pedestrian zone between National Bank and Piata Unirii – also known as Old Town. In there you can find Irish pub on every corner and cocktail and cafe bars in between. All of the restaurants have summer gardens prepared as soon as the weather permits with the staff and overall atmosphere (of hip youth) making you feel that the legends about Paris of the east were actually right.
Wine
Hm, where to start? Coming in I did not have much expectation for tasting or even drinking any wine but as usual I was completely wrong :) Seems like winemaking in Romania is fairly big and as hopeful future winemaker (more on this in next posts) I felt obliged to try as much of local wine as possible. Of course business dinners helped greatly :)
Anyway, I have to admit that Romanian wine (especially Prince Matei merlot) is the second biggest positive surprise I stumbled upon here (the biggest are undisputedly women). Especially reds are wonderful and fully rounded (still talking about wine, for girls see below) to such an extent that they reversed my recent obsession with whites.
Cars and congestions
Completely different story is traffic in Romanian capital. Seems like every citizen feels urgent need to invest his lifelong savings into some new / old big / small piece of metal. And when doing so, he needs to notify everyone around and honks as much as possible, making streets noisy like a true jungle.
Truly to the free spirits of buccaneers, these pirates on wheels use traffic rules more like a guidelines than actual rules. Instead of facilitating traffic flow, local drivers and their driving style (every green light results in formula like acceleration only to break as hard as possible 100 meters farther) make awesome ground for enormous congestions Bucharest has to deal with every day. Congestions happen despite unusually wide boulevards with three or even more lanes in one direction.
I have to admit, there is unusually large number of fancy expensive cars (from Porsches to Bentleys and everything you can imagine in between) for a city with buildings literally falling apart. My thorough research into the matter resulted in various answers but clear theme emerged, stating that Romanians like to show off and the best way to do that is by buying a car. Of course, I did not understand why would anybody need to show off so much and especially when 80% of old grand villas in the city centre are falling apart piece by piece. Why not to invest into real estate? Here the answers were not that clear and ranged from: real estate is expensive and out of reach for ordinary man, to: in past we did not have enough cars and now we can buy it so we buy it, or: to show off is in our Balkan nature and we are who we are.
My friend (also Romanian and owing already two cars with his wife) asked me what I think Romanian man would do with EUR 20,000 which he won in lottery. My answer that he would immediately buy a car was incorrect. He would borrow another EUR 20,000 and buy a BMW :) Other people added that he would buy BMW and still continue to live in his crappy old apartment from 70’s.
Dogs
As you have already heard (I hope), Romania and especially Bucharest are well known for their dog population. This is just to confirm that all the rumours are true and not at all exaggerating. So called community dogs roam the streets either alone or in packs and citizens do not complain. Even more, they enjoy their company. Any attempt to get rid of these dogs met stark resistance (e.g. one of past majors tried to do that and now he ended up as a president). Local people feed them resulting in obese population (mainly in city centre) compared to outskirts shanty town cousins of industrial district. As killing them is deemed inhuman they are left to reproduce and multiply.
Girls, women and ladies
This is another rumour I can completely confirm. Girls in Romania are one of the most beautiful in the world. Dark haired, flirty and never far away from laugh, they are the one good thing which make anyone like show off nature of Balkan people. In this case it means they dress more carefully and with greater sense.
Dust and everything else
Besides passion for red fountains (no clue why) citizens of Bucharest enjoy flowers above all. I guess this is to enliven dusty environment they live in. After Moscow, Bucharest is the dustiest city (besides those desert towns around Taklamakan) I have pleasure to visit. Unexpectedly, without any desert in sight and flushed in rich Danube estuary, Bucharest is covered in veil of dust.
Most of my observations are affected by the fact that I have not been able to get out of the city and stayed for past two months within city proper. Even receptionist at our hotel expressed hope for me to “see other parts of Romania which are by far better than Bucharest” :)
Eating
We had ‘pleasure’ to try number of restaurants around the city. Although all of the restaurants showed some flaw, average Joe would be satisfied in couple of them. Local cuisine is a bit heavy but all eateries offer variety of fish dishes on their menu which is positively awesome after beer and pork diet of Czech counterparts. Oh yeah, and there is that lemonade.
Among the best we had pleasure to dine at were; Le Bistro at Centerville complex (a bit pricey and got worn out after third visit) which can be found at the back of Radisson hotel, Harbour (with slightly overpriced dishes when considering quality) – an expat joint at Piata Amzei and French restaurant opposite to Dirty Harry’s pub at pedestrian city center. Nice trendy atmosphere can be found in local Hard Rock Cafe at city’s biggest park whose name I do not dare to guess.
Definitely best location to go out for dinner, couple of drinks and summer / spring walk is pedestrian zone between National Bank and Piata Unirii – also known as Old Town. In there you can find Irish pub on every corner and cocktail and cafe bars in between. All of the restaurants have summer gardens prepared as soon as the weather permits with the staff and overall atmosphere (of hip youth) making you feel that the legends about Paris of the east were actually right.
Wine
Hm, where to start? Coming in I did not have much expectation for tasting or even drinking any wine but as usual I was completely wrong :) Seems like winemaking in Romania is fairly big and as hopeful future winemaker (more on this in next posts) I felt obliged to try as much of local wine as possible. Of course business dinners helped greatly :)
Anyway, I have to admit that Romanian wine (especially Prince Matei merlot) is the second biggest positive surprise I stumbled upon here (the biggest are undisputedly women). Especially reds are wonderful and fully rounded (still talking about wine, for girls see below) to such an extent that they reversed my recent obsession with whites.
Cars and congestions
Completely different story is traffic in Romanian capital. Seems like every citizen feels urgent need to invest his lifelong savings into some new / old big / small piece of metal. And when doing so, he needs to notify everyone around and honks as much as possible, making streets noisy like a true jungle.
Truly to the free spirits of buccaneers, these pirates on wheels use traffic rules more like a guidelines than actual rules. Instead of facilitating traffic flow, local drivers and their driving style (every green light results in formula like acceleration only to break as hard as possible 100 meters farther) make awesome ground for enormous congestions Bucharest has to deal with every day. Congestions happen despite unusually wide boulevards with three or even more lanes in one direction.
I have to admit, there is unusually large number of fancy expensive cars (from Porsches to Bentleys and everything you can imagine in between) for a city with buildings literally falling apart. My thorough research into the matter resulted in various answers but clear theme emerged, stating that Romanians like to show off and the best way to do that is by buying a car. Of course, I did not understand why would anybody need to show off so much and especially when 80% of old grand villas in the city centre are falling apart piece by piece. Why not to invest into real estate? Here the answers were not that clear and ranged from: real estate is expensive and out of reach for ordinary man, to: in past we did not have enough cars and now we can buy it so we buy it, or: to show off is in our Balkan nature and we are who we are.
My friend (also Romanian and owing already two cars with his wife) asked me what I think Romanian man would do with EUR 20,000 which he won in lottery. My answer that he would immediately buy a car was incorrect. He would borrow another EUR 20,000 and buy a BMW :) Other people added that he would buy BMW and still continue to live in his crappy old apartment from 70’s.
Dogs
As you have already heard (I hope), Romania and especially Bucharest are well known for their dog population. This is just to confirm that all the rumours are true and not at all exaggerating. So called community dogs roam the streets either alone or in packs and citizens do not complain. Even more, they enjoy their company. Any attempt to get rid of these dogs met stark resistance (e.g. one of past majors tried to do that and now he ended up as a president). Local people feed them resulting in obese population (mainly in city centre) compared to outskirts shanty town cousins of industrial district. As killing them is deemed inhuman they are left to reproduce and multiply.
Girls, women and ladies
This is another rumour I can completely confirm. Girls in Romania are one of the most beautiful in the world. Dark haired, flirty and never far away from laugh, they are the one good thing which make anyone like show off nature of Balkan people. In this case it means they dress more carefully and with greater sense.
Dust and everything else
Besides passion for red fountains (no clue why) citizens of Bucharest enjoy flowers above all. I guess this is to enliven dusty environment they live in. After Moscow, Bucharest is the dustiest city (besides those desert towns around Taklamakan) I have pleasure to visit. Unexpectedly, without any desert in sight and flushed in rich Danube estuary, Bucharest is covered in veil of dust.
Most of my observations are affected by the fact that I have not been able to get out of the city and stayed for past two months within city proper. Even receptionist at our hotel expressed hope for me to “see other parts of Romania which are by far better than Bucharest” :)
4/05/2010
Spring is finally here!
Winter is finally gone! Once again sky is blue, water is wet and new baseball season just began :) Yesterday marked begining of new Major League Baseball season and there is no better way to open it other than starting another chapter in the biggest rivalry in sports. Boston Red Sox played New York Yankees (a defending World Series Champion) at Fenway :) Forget football, hockey or basketball - baseball at American League East is what it is about for next seven months :)
Enjoy the spring!
Enjoy the spring!
3/28/2010
I did it! I did it! I did it! 2.0
Hehe today I am all giddy as for the fourth time I managed to run a half marathon (this time I successfully completed course of PIM). As a cherry on top I improved my personal best and run it in 1.39.23 (official) or 1.39.27 (my own measurement) depending on view :) Anyway, kudos to fellow runners from Deloitte (Peter, Dalibor, Garret and Miro) and my brother who again successfully beat me by almost six minutes (that little freak run it in 1.33.45). Besides terrible wind, weather conditions were ideal for runners and although course was a bit too up and down I enjoyed it pretty much - thank you!
3/05/2010
Springs of culture
Finally spring arrived to Prague and in its footsteps my mom for a short visit combined with conference she participated at. Upon her request we make arrangements for all three of us to visit certain cultural events. Events handpicked by my little brother were concert of Czech Philharmonic Orchestra (with Sir John Eliot Gardiner acting as visiting conductor) and theatre play Hrdina Zapadu (written by Mr. John Millington Synge) in Cinoherni klub. This weekend with its loaded cultural program turned out to be ideal spring board for our eight concert marathon during Prague Spring festival (oh boy am I giddy about this :) ).
We were particularly delighted by tickets to Sir Gardiner concert as we previously fruitlessly pursued these for his Prague Spring performances. Czech Philharmonic Orchestra under his leadership played two Schuman’s symphonies (Concert piece for 4 horns and Symphony no. 2 C dur op. 61) and two pieces from Mr. Martinu (Symphony no. 6 and Frescoes of Piero della Francesca). Two and a half hour long pure delight of music put all three of us into completely different dimension. Of course, some mean individuals would be all too eager to point out that me and my brother drunk ourselves to this dimension as we drunk three and four pilsner beers during our dinner just before the concert – believe me (as I want to believe myself) it was not the case. Especially the Concert piece and its horns’ parts were particularly beautiful causing my mom to reflect on it and happily talk about it for the rest of the weekend.
For the first time I had also opportunity to see an artist who knows his value and is not willing to reward audience which does not value his performance. Especially during last part of the concert some of spectators were napping or their heads started nodding. Also during applause those who preferred to get their coats and jackets as soon as possible turned their backs to Sir Gardiner and orchestra hurrying towards the exits. Seeing this, Sir Gardiner turned his back in return and left the podium although half of us applauded while standing. Hats off for his courage :) Of course, more possible explanation would be that he was really tired after more than two hours of intensive physical conducting (and sweating from pure exhaustion).
On Saturday we decided to quench our thirst for theatre and experienced above mentioned play. Maybe a socially groundbreaking play in 1900’s and also winner of 2007 Radok Prize for the best production, we did not find it particularly funny or outstanding. Probably it is due to fact that we do not find couple of curses and middle finger that humorous...
Anyway, overall it was pleasant experience and some culture for all of us after long winter hiatus. Let the Prague Spring come!
We were particularly delighted by tickets to Sir Gardiner concert as we previously fruitlessly pursued these for his Prague Spring performances. Czech Philharmonic Orchestra under his leadership played two Schuman’s symphonies (Concert piece for 4 horns and Symphony no. 2 C dur op. 61) and two pieces from Mr. Martinu (Symphony no. 6 and Frescoes of Piero della Francesca). Two and a half hour long pure delight of music put all three of us into completely different dimension. Of course, some mean individuals would be all too eager to point out that me and my brother drunk ourselves to this dimension as we drunk three and four pilsner beers during our dinner just before the concert – believe me (as I want to believe myself) it was not the case. Especially the Concert piece and its horns’ parts were particularly beautiful causing my mom to reflect on it and happily talk about it for the rest of the weekend.
For the first time I had also opportunity to see an artist who knows his value and is not willing to reward audience which does not value his performance. Especially during last part of the concert some of spectators were napping or their heads started nodding. Also during applause those who preferred to get their coats and jackets as soon as possible turned their backs to Sir Gardiner and orchestra hurrying towards the exits. Seeing this, Sir Gardiner turned his back in return and left the podium although half of us applauded while standing. Hats off for his courage :) Of course, more possible explanation would be that he was really tired after more than two hours of intensive physical conducting (and sweating from pure exhaustion).
On Saturday we decided to quench our thirst for theatre and experienced above mentioned play. Maybe a socially groundbreaking play in 1900’s and also winner of 2007 Radok Prize for the best production, we did not find it particularly funny or outstanding. Probably it is due to fact that we do not find couple of curses and middle finger that humorous...
Anyway, overall it was pleasant experience and some culture for all of us after long winter hiatus. Let the Prague Spring come!
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