Happy New Year 2012
This Christmas it was the first time we celebrated in Olbramice. We all had a good time and lots of rest during the holidays.
Our Christmas tree in Olbramice
Merry Christmas to everybody and happy new year!
Kopřivnice, Štramberk, Pustevny
Last weekend my friend and colleague Martin offered me, whether I would like to participate on a trip. His friend Han was exploring Europe and stopped also in Ostrava for several days. They planned a short trip and had one place free in the car. Since I liked the idea of getting out to the fresh air, I agreed.
Sunday morning they picked me up at my place and we went to our first stop: the Technical Museum Tatra in Kopřivnice. I had visited it before, but since it had been a long time ago, I was very delighted to see it again. The museum has got a large exposition of cars, trucks, airplanes and some special vehicles, all produced by the Tatra factory.
When we had enough of cars, we headed to the town of Štramberk, where we climbed up to the castle and then to the top of the castle tower. Although the weather was not so good, the view was quite spectacular (see the pictures). From the castle we hiked to the opposite hill to see the cave „Šipka“. The cave was a place, where Neanderthal had lived many thousands of years ago. It is a place of many archaeological discoveries.
We all with the statue of Radegast
Next stop was the open-air museum in Rožnov pod Radhoštěm. Unfortunately,
we discovered it had been closed for the whole month, so we headed to Pustevny,
the most famous and visited resort in Beskydy mountains, instead. The
temperature was below zero with bad visibility, but we had to visit the statue
of pagan god Radegast anyway. One and half kilometre there and one and half
back, it was not so bad, even in that kind of weather (because it is a stand
with hot beverages right next to it 
).
The resort of Pustevny was the last stop, after that we went back home. I enjoyed the trip very much, saw many places I have not seen for some time and generally had a good time.
I got published!
It was not so long time ago when I had to create and defend my diploma thesis, I still remember the immense struggle that I had to endure while writing it. I am definitely not the type of person that can write novels just by taking the pen or opening the text editor. My writing speed could be measured in „days per page“ or so. However, in the end everything was all right, I defended it and successfully finished the university.
Much to my surprise, I received an e-mail through the supervisor of my thesis that LAP Publishing is interested in possibly publishing it. I contacted them and send them the manuscript. After several e-mails and polishing the final version for the print, I sent it awaiting the result.
Today I checked and the book is already available to buy. It is amazing, I am very happy now. Feel free to get a copy, if you are interested in the subject.
Running my first race
It was no more than two months ago I started with running. The beginnings were hard, I felt winded after several hundred metres, but with time I got more used to it and could cope with longer distances. My colleague from work, Vojta, talked me into signing up for a quarter marathon in Ostrava. The distance 10 548 metres was a big challenge for me, mostly because I had never run so long track before.
On the race day (last Friday) I felt ready. My target was simply to finish it, I did not care about time, just about beating the distance. The track was set up on the main street in Poruba, which was closed to traffic due to this event. Almost six and half laps on the almost flat tarmac seemed scary from the starting line, but I was in a good mood.
First two laps were hard. At first I had trouble maintaining my pace, it is
quite easy to chase someone faster, but to endure and not burn out while doing
that, that is another chapter :). From the third lap I found my comfortable
pace (although the meaning of „comfort“ was very shifted here). In my last
lap I was almost alone on the track, but I felt some surplus of strength and
ran faster a little, ending with exhausting finish with heart-rate near 190
(word comfort did not apply any more ). I finished with time 1:02:40, which was far
beyond my expectations. I was very happy about that, because my guess was about
1:20:00. I got a diploma and a participant's medal and went home.
The race was really a unique experience for me, the atmosphere was just great. For sure it was not my last one.
Hike to the Lysá mountain
Saturday was a very nice and Sunny day. I did not have any plans for the weekend, so I decided to go to the Lysá mountain, where I have not been for some time.
The journey to Ostravice, where the path starts, was quite ok, but I had to
change bus and trains three times. From Ostravice to the top I felt more like
in procession, not hiking. So many people decided the same program for
Saturday 
.
„I've made it!“
When I reached the top, I wanted to take lunch or something to drink. Queue of fifty people discouraged me to do so and old crackers and hot water had to do the job. I took some pictures and headed back down.
It was a very nice trip, the weather was good also, maybe too much sunny.
Generally, I was satisfied with the achievement of reaching the top. However,
next time I will choose a less crowded mountain .
Vacation in Sweden – part 3 of 3
After sleeping in the smallest hostel room I've ever seen, we went to explore Uppsala. Our first stop was on the outskirts of the city in the village of Gamla Uppsala with its old church and royal mounds. It made a nice place for the morning walk. We also ran through the museum there, but we had not much time, because we decided to see a lot of sights in Uppsala.
Returning to the city, first we went to the house and botanical garden of
Carl von Linné and continued through the museum of evolution to the tropical
greenhouse with many wonderful and sometimes poisonous plants .
When we had enough of Uppsala, we took a train back to Stockholm, where we
went to see the museums, we have not seen before. The all museums were together
in the same area, so it was comfortable to see them all. The first was the
Maritime museum where many nice ship models were shown in exposition. Next one
was the museum of sport, where we tried our strength, reflexes and balance.
Police museum was closed due to fire alarm, so we moved to the next one, the
museum of science with its 4d cinema. It was a lot of fun, being punched and
sprayed with water by the cinema chair .
Me and Old Uppsala mounds
After visiting all the museums in the area, we went to Skansen again. This time, it was fully open. We saw the marvelous shops and workshops and also the animals in the zoo, which is part of the Skansen. We stayed in Skansen until the evening and then went to the hostel.
On the second day we woke up late and headed for the boat that took us to the town of Vaxholm. We marched through the town centre very quickly and took a ferry to the Vaxholm fortress, where we visited another museum focused on the Swedish fortifications.
Back in Stockholm we had the last evening in front of us. We decided to
thrill ourselves in the amusement park, the Grona Lund. It was not worth to buy
a whole-day ticket, so we picked the roller-coasters and a haunted house and
bought tickets just for them. The roller-coasters were thrilling, I enjoyed
them a lot. The haunted house was a unique experience. Instead of being in the
carriage riding in the house, this one was special – you have to walk through
it. Everywhere is dark and from time to time a zombie jumps on you .
We took one of the last buses from Stockholm to Nykoping airport and slept in the hotel there. In the morning I flew to Warsaw and went home by train, Alina went straight to Vilnius.
Go karting with RAYNET people
My friend and co-worker Aleš is getting married very soon, so this Monday he
organised a small party. Food and drinks were present in a great quantity, but
the main attraction were certainly the go karts .
I was a racer, at least for a while
We all raced a lot: from the careful beginnings to the aggressive collisions in the end, when drivers were fuelled with beer and home-mode Slivovice. The party was awesome, definitely a success. Thanks again, Aleš.
Vacation in Sweden – part 2 of 3
The long postponed second part of the report from travelling to Nyköping,
Stockholm and Uppsala is finally here .
We started the day with early breakfast and walk in the Stockholm's Gamla Stan (Old Town) with its narrow streets and picturesque buildings. Almost all museums open at 10 o'clock, so we had plenty of time to go enjoy the atmosphere. Our first stop was the Royal Palace and its museums.
We decided to start with visiting the Royal Apartments. It was still too soon so we had to sit down and wait for the opening. During the wait we had a chance to see the changing of the royal guard. We walked through the apartments and continued to the Museum Tre Kronor. The museum is situated inside the cellars of the Royal Palace and it is a part of remnants of the old Tre Kronor castle, which was destroyed by fire in 17th century. The last place of interest in the Royal Palace was the Treasury, where the coronation jewels are kept. The crowns were really nice, just it was a pity no photographs were allowed.
The weather was very sunny, but not too hod, just perfect to walk outside. Our next stop was the Drottningholm Palace with its large garden (see the pictures). It is a private residence of the Swedish royal family and also an UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Drottningholm Palace
When we had enough of the palaces and garden, we took a bus back to Stockholm
and visited Fotografiska, a new gallery focused on photography. Some pictures
were really amazing, I have a lot to catch up, if I want to take pictures like
that in the future .
The day was not over yet, so we headed to the Kaknästornet, a high concrete lookout tower on the outskirts of Stockholm, from where we could see the whole Stockholm. In order to use the Stockholm card (free museums) as much as possible, we went to the Skansen, which was open to the late evening. However, all historical buildings and attractions were closed there, so we decided to come there again another day.
When we came back to the hostel, we were really exhausted and almost immediately fell asleep. The plan for the next day was uncertain, because it started to rain a lot. Fortunately, in the morning the rain started to fade away. We started with one hour sightseeing boat trip and then went to see the City Hall.
The next hostel we had had booked was in the city of Uppsala. We took a train
there (comparing the train quality to Czech railways, I felt like in a
spaceship, not a train ). Since it was afternoon, we did not have enough
time to do „proper“ sightseeing, so we just went to visit the Uppsala
cathedral and walked in the city centre.
To be continued…
Graduation ceremony
As I wrote before, I had finished my thesis and passed the state exam. Today it was the graduation ceremony, the final moment of my studies.
Before it began we went through a quick training session, in which they taught us, where to walk, what to do and all the stuff needed for the ceremony. Then they put caps and robes on us and the „real thing“ started.
Me and my classmates
The ceremony certainly had its pomp and was a decent way, how to say goodbye to the students that spent many years and went through all fun, hard work and trouble connected with the studies. I think we all enjoyed it and felt relieved we had made it that far.
Vacation in Sweden – part 1 of 3
Finally I have got some time to write about the vacation that I had in the end of May. Me and Alina planned to meet in Nyköping, Sweden and then explore the capital of Stockholm and city of Uppsala. Everything in eight days including travelling.
Enlarge map
The first day was almost entirely reserved to travelling. I started my
journey at 2:30 in the morning by train to Warsaw, where I had my flight to
Nykoping. The Wizzair flight was short and I even managed to catch some sleep,
despite the amount of advertisement served. When I landed, I took a bus to the
city and found the hostel. The procedure of accommodation was adventurous:
nobody was at the reception, so I called the service number. The woman told me:
„Do you see the keypad?“ – „Yes, I do“, I replied. – „Type the
XXXX and enter the room“. When I entered the room, I got similar set of
instructions beginning with „Do you see the safe on the wall?“ . That was how I got the room key. The beddings were
not provided so I called the number again, getting the response „Do you see
the locker in the hallway?“ . Nicely done.
I went for a walk to the city to take some pictures and find something to eat. I did not have to search long and McDonald's came to my path. First big meal of the day. Alina arrived quite late in the evening and since it was quite chilly outside, we decided to go to sleep and start exploring on the following day.
Harbour in Nyköping
Next morning we visited the city centre and took a train to Stockholm, where
we immediately bought Stockholm
card that entitled us to use public transport and enter almost any museum
for free 
. We started in the Museum of History and continued
to the Vasa Museum where the large wooden warship Vasa is preserved. From there
we went to the Junibacken
children's museum, which is the museum devoted mostly to Astrid Lindgren and
her famous fairy tales. Inside the museum there was a train ride through a fairy
tale land, which was really spectacular (no photographs allowed though).
Our first night in Stockholm we spent in Best Hostel Old Town, which was in a very good spot and quite cosy, considering we were in eight-bed room.
To be continued…