.pf2007

Happy new year, everybody!!!

Let the year 2007 be a better one than the one we're leaving behind. May it be full of joy and peace for everyone, everywhere...

.first snow!

.ladies and gentlemen, we're proud to present you this season's first snow! We've waited a long time, however the wait is finally over :). It all began this morning. I woke up at half past eleven ;) (a little party with friends from high school on previous night...) and first glance from the window revealed some white areas around the house. White beauty, such important part of the winter for me, is still falling from the sky with unending intensity and the world is more and more silky and smooth :). Hopefully it'll stay like until the end of my stay at home. My wish of skiing is getting more realistic contours ;). So what to say at the end? Probably just "Let it snow, let it snow!"...

Let the winter be as nice as it should be and have fun in white fairytale world!

.christmas

.the time has come. The time for the most favourite of the holidays in practically whole world. The time for Christmas...
These days should be devoted to the peace, family gatherings and happiness. Yet last years have brought a little bit different view on this holiday. Commerce is everywhere, super sales for super gifts, etc. I do not really understand this because the gift is not the real purpose of meeting somebody. Gift can emphasize your love, care but not the quantity or price is what matters the most! It's a shame many people of today cannot see that...
So let us, at least for today, share a bit of love, attention and joy! With all the people who deserve it as a symbol of our thanks for their all year round care.

I wish you all the merriest Christmas filled with warmth of people's hearts!

.icy refreshment

.as I'm a hockey fan, today's match between HC Kosice and HC Nitra was an ideal way how to spend an evening... This game was quite important because it solved the mystery about who will celebrate Christmas as a league's leader. I won't conceal the result from you any longer because it's great :). After the win 7:3, we are still on the first place... HC Kosice forever!!! ;)

The hockey action was beautiful. Really fast game with a lot of shots, great goalie (on our side) and amazing goals (in their net). It has reminded me of old times, when our hockey club was each year fighting in finals. Kosice are well known for combinational hockey and today's goals were like from the great book of hockey :). I've enjoyed my time, thank you guys! Maybe the gold medals are again realistic this season, I'll keep my fingers crossed...

.sadness

Dry tears

Rolling down the face
Eyes not glowing
The flame has died
Lips one tight line
The time is wrong for smile
Heart beating slower
As if to cry…

.exodus, part II

.after a few days in Prague came a time for the final part of journey home (669km, Prague - Kosice with short intermission in Kezmarok). The time of departure was set to midday. Weather was not very pleasing but this is the thing we cannot influence... So far the car was not showing any new mechanical problems. But this was to change ;). We (me and Igor) were leaving the city in a small drizzle, temperatures slightly above zero, yet happy for being every minute closer and closer to our homes...
First problems (luckily also the only ones) appeared only after few kilometers on a highway. Eventhough the anti-freeze tank is full, the liquid was not sprayed on the windscreen (something has probably blocked the hose :( ), thus lowering the quality of work of wipers... Roads were dirty and wet and so wipers were used a lot. With this handicap I had to stop few times just to wipe the windscreen clean (it's even more distracting in the night with all the light from the cars driving in opposite direction). This made whole journey a lot more entertaining, we were luckily not involved in any accidents (while this was a really bad day on Slovak roads, 7 deaths, we passed along the worst accident, it wasn't a nice look :(... ).
This time I tried the north way across Slovakia (because of the needed stop in Kezmarok, Igor's destination). I have to say, it's much worse than south way. Lots of roadworks, traffic, etc. Last part was quite enjoyable (Poprad - Kosice, 115km), but that's mainly because I knew it and Kosice were really near ;). So finally I'm home!

I have to admit that this road trip had also it's beauties. There was an inversion in border region and frozen mist created amazing pictures in the landscape (this is the reason for the photo ;) )...

.friends, friends, friends

.this day was special. Special because I've met many friends, friends I've not seen for a long time. Friends I was used to see almost every day...

It all started a week ago with some icq messages. I knew I was coming to Prague and this was a great opportunity for a small meeting :). We've chosen date, time and place (nevertheless, as always not everybody made it there in time ;) ). We've met at some restaurant-pub called Prague-Munich (it was a coincidence but quite nice, in accordance to my stay in Germany and return to Prague ;) ).
Anyway, our crew consisted of a total number of 11 people! Good mood and good Czech beer (big difference, not like German low quality stuff ;) ) helped the atmosphere a lot :). We chatted about many different things (upcoming Christmas, work experiences and of course my opinions on Germany, Erasmus, etc.). I'd brought some Belgian pralines, hopefully everybody liked them. At the end of this eventful and entertaining evening came some minor problems with the paying of bill (according to the waiter our consumption was higher than we thought...). But this could have hardly ruined the positivity of our little meeting :).

.exodus, part I

.thus, the judgement day finally came. Trip back home was planned for today (at least it's first part, Saarbrucken - Prague, 670km). After some boring lectures and quite enjoyable lunch at mensa we boarded Clio and left campus.

Luckily, the weather is still very unusual and pleasant, roads were dry and relatively empty. I have to confess, I've feared a bit that some unexpected mechanical car problems will appear... But nothing like this happened and at 2100 CET we arrived into well known Prague :).

The only things worth to mention were many kilometres of roadworks in Germany (and incapability of German drivers to drive fast through narrowed road sections), quite amusing affection of Czech truck drivers to by-pass slower trucks with the same or lower speed (so the highway is blocked and slowed for 5 minutes...) and 'funny' customs officer on German-Czech borders. Our appearance was probably quite suspicious because we had to stop the engine, get out of the car, show every gadget from our pockets, etc. He was looking for drugs and other stuff... This is the first time something like this happened to me.

Nevertheless, Prague, be aware that we're back! :)

.car (adrenaline) adventure

.this couldn't have come at a worse time... On Sunday evening my car broke down. Suddenly the petrol started to leak from some hidden hole in the fuel system. I've noticed it by quick dropping of the fuel indicator and by a strong petrol smell inside the car (air-condition was turned on). I had to park in one village close to the campus. One glance below the car showed, that it had been worse than I'd ever imagine (petrol was trickling really quickly from the front part of the vehicle). Of course on Sunday no service shop was open. We are planning to drive back to Prague on Thursday afternoon, so the timing was really worse than bad :(...
Adventure continued on Monday, I've found Renault service close to my parking place, yet the question was how to get there (no fuel left meant I needed to find someone with car to pull me there). After some tries finally one friend (Honza, big thanks for helping me!) had answered my call and promised to come as quickly as possible. He was there some time after midday. Bad luck was still not loosing it's grip on me, i've discovered, that the pulling rope was left back home in Kosice :(. And so a small ride around city was needed to find a place where they were not only selling such things, but actually also had one to sell... After some time we were lucky and have bought the rope. Not that we had big experience with pulling vehicles and so the drive was not as smooth as it could have been ;). Nevertheless it was successful! Anyway, it had to be a funny sight: Czech car with cracked windscreen and missing wiper was in quite extensive rain pulling Slovak car without petrol :). Mission was accomplished, the car was in professional care and the problem was quickly discovered (crack in the fuel system tubing). As the flawed part was not on stock, it was due to arrive today...
Finally my short story is over, it has a happy end (a little bit sour, because prices for repairment work are so high in this country - spare part 50€, work 80€...). So far is Clio working without problems, testing drive was successful. Hopefully no other problems will occur and we'll be able to spend Christmas back home...

P.S.: the car photo is only illustrative ;)

.homesick

.maybe it's because of the weather, maybe because of the star constellation... Or maybe I've been on one place for too long. Anyway I'm feeling a bit homesick right now. Nothing pleases me anymore, nothing brings a smile to my face. I need a change, i need to go home! It's not very far away, we're going to Prague (and then home) next Thursday. I cannot wait to see people, I've not seen for almost three months now. I cannot wait to see my hometown, my family.

I'm counting the days left...

.atmosphere of Christmas

.the morning has welcomed us with a pleasant and warm weather. As we already have December and temperatures are still around 12!!! degrees, this was a great possibility to walk a bit into the city centre and the castle. There the concentration of people was greater than usual this week . All this due to the Old Christmas market, a very traditional event.

Lots of stalls everywhere, tons of people, all streets totally collapsing with the 'human traffic' :). People of all ages were enjoying the atmosphere, the small ones wanting the candies and other sweet stuff, the grown ones drinking alcoholic drinks of mysterious names ;). We tried it ourselves and tasted "Lumumba", a cacao drink with rum and cream, an interesting combination ;). Then suddenly the rain came and it was not fun anymore. A quick run for the bus saved our souls and we could relax in the warmth of our dormitory rooms and quietly enjoy the bought presents (hopefully they will conjure a smile on the faces of the loved ones...).

.meet Metz

.another intrusion into French territory was successful! Today's destination was a small but historically important town of Metz (123,776 inhabitants, founded in Celtic times). Situated not far away from Saarbrucken (78km), it is an ideal place to go after lunch ;). And so after some tasty pasta mixed with Monty Python show off we went. Fortunately, the weather was quite good and warm for this time of the year. Dry roads, blue sky and shining sun accompanied us on the way.

The city welcomed us with huge crowds of people, quite in contrast with what we have seen here in Saarbrucken (and Metz are even smaller...). Probably every living person able to walk was there :). Thousands of people shared narrow old town streets with buses and cars (lack of accidents was really surprising, everything was moving in some harmony). City is nice, cathedrals, old fortification and unstoppable all around buzz. We took some photos, walked around major sights and satisfied with the trip returned without hesitation back to our temporary home in the capital of Saarland.

More photos available here.

.sportsmen party

.yesterday brought a chance for something new and never seen before, downtown some super cool party was taking place...
Because this week was quite too boring, we didn't hesitate and organized a (very) little group of people to come with us (after some minor problems we lost two full time members of the crew and finally went down there only reaching the number 3: me, Janka and Igor). Also to be more precise, i drove my car because the possibilities of getting back from the city to the campus during the night are poor, practically zero like.
After reaching the Atomic club and seeing long queue at the front doors we slightly changed our strategy and went for a coffee to the close by Brasserie. Again the chat was most unusual and interesting, this time about philippine fighting style and Santa Claus riding a bike ;). It was already 0.30 am, precisely the time to rush for the Atomic once more. But nevertheless we found some time to ride the nearby carousel and took some excellent pictures :).
So finally we got into this famous club (to be honest, pretty average club in Prague context). Lots of people, loud music (some most recent super hits, for example everything from Nelly Furtado...), nowhere to dance and expensive drinks, that was the atmosphere of the night. After some troubles we found a free(!!!) table and settled down there. Mood was still great, very unexpectedly I was the one to make others laugh :). After some time our ranks were joined by Mihaela, who was expectedly also at this party ;). So enjoying the music (not everybody :) ), watching some competitions (as usual some drinking, singing contests, etc.) and dancing a bit the time went by really quickly. Some of us started to be more or less tired and so around 3.00 am we decided to leave and try to get as much of sleep as possible (this was not very successful in my case, tutorials in the morning and problems with falling asleep left me with only 3 hours of uneasy sleep).

I'm really tired and sleepy writing this so excuse any mistakes ;)...