.kosice's hell

.time for a special marathon race has come. The last Saturday in August is dedicated to bike marathon in my home town. 90km long, 3000 elevation metres, it's not very suitable for holiday bikers ;).

After two years of rainy weather, today we had finally some sun (maybe too much, biker is never satisfied with the weather) and only a modest mud :)... Competition was really tough, as some very good bikers were present again. My main challenge was to survive and try to improve my time as much as possible. Mission was successful, even though I've had time only for some 1600kms this season :(. I finished 17th, with the time of 5:54:37, thus improving last years time by 50 minutes ;). Yeah, it's good to add, that last year it was really rainy and we raced ankle deep in mud...
Anyhow, take a look at all the things you get when you pay your start fee... Isn't it worth all the trouble ;)?

.to study&relax

.I'd never thought there is sooo much to know for the final exams :(. It's quite overwhelming, after 2 weeks of full day study I've got through 2 out of 6 themes (question domains) only... Still 4 weeks to go, so probably there's enough time left. Yet I'm so tired already :(. Oh, how I wish it was over...

I've found out that the most relaxing thing for me to do after a whole day of math and other study stuff is working and editing of images, adding some artistic impression ;). In the same time I'm learning a lot about what can be achieved with some powerful tools :). But enough of gossip, take a look at some (still very amateur) results:

.bad luck

.the time has come for one of my favourite bike marathons, Horal, taking place in Nizke Tatry mountains. Last year was successful, I finished 29th out of 200 and it was my best placement ever (not that bad considering that I'm a pure hobby rider and among the competitors are always also some professionals...).

This year the result was not that optimistic, due to a combination of many factors (some of them are my fault, some are beyond my powers to change ;) ). First of all, my physical condition is not that good (not enough km (approximately 1350km so far) , low frequency of training sessions). The weather this year is weird and of course it had to rain two days straight just before the marathon (it was still raining 30 minutes before the start). This resulted in really muddy and hard to conquer track. And because of the mud I've experienced also some technical problems with my bike (this is the first time ever on a competition). Both dérailleurs were so chocked with the dirt, that changing the gear became almost impossible (curiously only on the medium front gear, it just kept dropping the chain...).
I was quite desperate, because it was still some 30km to the finish :(. I've been considering giving up. Yet, I've not given up ;). I've made it through the finish line using only the gears, that were functional... The placement was not very good, but at least I've won over myself and technical bad luck. It still counts, don't you think :)? I was dirty but happy, like every good cyclist should be after finishing yet another marathon ;)...

.job acquired!

.great news, folks! The job I was applying for is at last mine ;). Today I've got a long awaited verifying mail. That means that from the October I'm officially a member of Illusion Softworks development team :). I'm so glad, that's the job I've ever wanted! Hopefully I'll also like it :).
This means that I'm staying in Prague for some more time (months, years, who knows...). Thus my search for an apartment is getting really serious and intense ;).
See you around someday! Now I have to go to celebrate these great news a bit :)!

.long way home

.I needed some rest after last quite eventful month. Furthermore, I need to start studying for the final thesis. And so I've decided to go home for a month or so... In addition to this, I have two bike marathons and one big family celebration planned in three weeks to come.
I was travelling by car (moving my computer, bike and some stuff) with a safety co-driver personalized by my little sister Sasa ;). As it is already a month, since I saw Lubica for the last time, some minor detour through Surany was carefully planned again :).
What to say about it? It was great once again. We had some nice time together, eating pizza, chatting and laughing a lot and later cooling down in the nearby pond. Luckily, I got drowned only once, as Lubka hasn't got the strength for more ;)... Swimming contest was further spiced up with some rain and a thunderstorm. It was a welcomed addition after such a hot day.
We drank some coffee and got a heavy gift consisting of home grown products :). However, then we had to go :'(. Road home was still too long. We reached Kosice at around 10 PM, without any accidents.

I guess, that's it, see you soon, Buba!

.thesis shipping

.finally, that day has come! I've bound my thesis and handed it in. This work is over then. Of course it was not without some problems...

To make me feel some adrenaline rush, lady at the faculty desk said, that my thesis was missing one line at the front page. I was speechless, nobody ever pointed me to that (there is not even a word in the official rules about the need to have topic in English and Czech both included). Yet, without this it couldn't be accepted?!
I had some two hours to rewrite that page, print it out, have the thesis rebound, hand it in and last but not least apply for final exams... Every place included in this short list is in the different part of Prague, to make it even more challenging.
But luckily, after 2 hours of running through the old parts of Prague (in front of the eyes of curious tourists) I did it all successfully. Never again...


Wish me luck for the final exams (18.-19.9.)!

.friendly visit

.the last week was really busy. My very good friend Janka (we met in Saarbrucken during my erasmus stay) was coming to pay us a visit here in Prague. I've not seen here since Easter holidays, so I was really expecting this event :).

Unfortunately the weather was playing a big negative part in this play :(. Very cold (17 degrees) and windy, cloudy conditions with drizzling rain are not very much favouring the sightseeing activities. Nevertheless, we did pretty much interesting stuff during the last 6 days. And what is the most important, we had a lot of fun.
Everybody who is in Prague wants to see the castle, Staromestske namesti, Orloj and Vysehrad. So we did ;)! First day was completely about visiting these famous places and taking a lot of pictures. Interesting thing to mention is that during the first days with rainy weather there were thousands of tourists everywhere, but for example on Wednesday on Vysehrad there was only a bunch of people, even though it was sunny and warm finally :). Anyway, Saturday was the day crowned with the most beautiful photos and a great time while taking them :). And as I was accompanied by such a nice girl we got a free entrance into some of the castle's exhibitions ;).
Because the day was not over yet, we went to a cinema to see a late night screening of La Mome (a movie about life of Edith Piaf). It was nice and sad... I like her music and so this was an interesting journey into the last century. It's worth seeing.
Sunday was reserved for two important things: visiting the Zoo and some evening jazz ;). The sky was clouded and very unpleasant, but we wanted to see some cute animals. Walking around the area, suffering from the rain and cold wind, we did take some nice pictures (lazy tiger, curious giraffe, funny possums, etc.), seen very human-like gorilla (laying her hand against the glass wall and looking at us with those sad and intelligent eyes)...
Evening was a bit of a risk. We'd found some jazz event (an absolutely unknown Czech band playing) and bought the tickets. Still it was really cool and we had heard and seen some 3 hours of really fresh and modern jazz combined with other styles. It was perfect and relaxing. Check some venues for Freetech band and give it a try!
I had to take care of some school stuff on Monday (printing thesis, etc.). But in the evening we had some time to visit a tearoom with my sister Sasa and Igor. It was fine, with Apocalyptica music playing in the background ;) and some good fresh green tea :). It's a shame that all the tearooms are closing so early :(...
The next day some castle road trip was planned ;). We went to Konopiste château and afterwards to Zebrak (ruined castle) and Tocnik, to see something completely different.
Konopiste is really nice, with interesting guided tours through the depth of the palace (Franz Ferdinand d'Este, assassinated in Sarajevo 1914, lived here). Tourists can see impressive collections of weapons and hunting trophies, as well as some exotic souvenirs from monarch's trip around the world.
Zebrak is on the other hand only a ruin. Yet it is more medieval and visitors can see surrounding nature and near castle of Tocnik from its high tower. It was nice and for free ;).
The last two days were dedicated to Vysehrad and the botanical garden. Finally some sun broke through the clouds and it was also warmer. We were both tired from the last days and so our pace was also slower. The only important thing was to enjoy the walks, views and sceneries :).
And that's it, Janka left this evening, the story is over. I had a good time and relaxed a bit before the study for my final exams.

Thanks for your company and see you again!