Kiyashko's XPs

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2011-04-22T21:01:00.001+02:00

Blog migration

2010-10-10T13:31:00.004+02:00

This blog has been migrated to a new platform posterous.com and from now on you can find all the updates there.

Would be very thankful if you can follow me there as well and from my side I promise to keep it up-to-date with the events and things happening in my life (smile)

http://kiyashko.com/

Regards,

Viktor Kiyashko

Venice.Day 2-3

2010-06-29T21:35:00.012+02:00

We were back to Venice by 11a.m. and the first thing we did was to buy daily ticket for vaporetto (i.e. boat service). As our budget was a bit limited for the gongola ride, this was the substitute we got for the water trips around the city. And definitely it was worth it and fit 2 purposes - transportation and sightseeing ones.

The boat ride to the hotel place stop took around 40min and we were happy to see Venice from a totally different perspective. The main channel after we passed under Rialto bridge looked stunning and my sigma allowed me to take several good shots.

We got out next to Santa Maria della Salute which looked as magnificent from the land as it looked from the water. We dived into several streets and reached the street along the channel with the hotel booked for our stay. The room was simple but it had what had been promised and for what we had paid several euros on top - a channel view (smile).

In the nearby restaurant we had a pizza and a beer and walked all the way to St.Marco square across the main channel and following the sign and major tourist flows. We crossed the square and headed straight away up the Campanile di San Marco tower.

The views opened in front of us were breathtaking... Actually I think those were the best "city tower" views out of all my trips around Europe! You couldn't see the channels but the square and the city looked incredible...

and the Adriatics and islands and... and... and...

After all the incredible feeling of presence in an incredible city we walked along the shore and caught the boat to fulfil someone's very very stong desire...

We arrived to Lido di Venezia island and in 15 minutes were already on the public beach ready to have our first swim in 2010... Water seemed a bit not perfectly clean but perfectly warm but the feeling of being in Venice, lie on the sand and swimming in Adriatics was magnificent!!!

We decided not to go back to Venice straight away and caught the boat to Burano, one of the islands outside the city which was recommended by a friend of ours. Will skip this part here as this small island deserves a short but still a separate post (smile).

When we were back to Fundamenta Nuove it was already getting dark. We had a very tasty Italian dinner right next to the sea and walked back to St.Marco square.

The streets were getting empty and the square itself didn't seem very crowded in the evening, very different from all the top European tourist spots. The main concentration of people groups were in or around the outside restaurants which had the stage with musicians... And this was really cool. We sat nearby and listened for some time classic music which was the prefect evening "thing" and even more perfect was to move around the corner and listen to live jazz music, watch people dancing and watch the huge orange full moon...

When they finished playing we went for a walk around the night city aiming to final some nice place next to some channel to drink a bottle of red wine which I had bought on the Lido island. I guess that in the end all the positive emotions needed to be brought down somehow and the night Venice was the thing to do so. Nothing much impressive, almost no lights on the streets and no people, no loud places and nothing really special to do... It might have been that we had searched in the wrong places (smile).

But still the day ended perfectly as we found a great spot on the gondola quay next to the main channel and the bridge and there were even some lights on some of the building reflecting in the still sea waters. We drank the wine, talked a lot about life, how happy we were with it and with the fact that we had met each other, with the things we have in common (like travelling) and some things we see differently... Great moments!..

We didn't have much time to do anything before catching our flight back to Prague, so we just had a 40min. boat ride back to Piazza di Roma... It was early and the city looked a bit sleepy and foggy - a much nicer state than evening "nothingness" (smile).

We spent our last money on the coffee in a local place and on the souvenirs for friends and family. After an hour sleep in the bus we were already in the airport ready to flight away from all the great dreams we had in Venice... And those dreams were really sweet...

In Venice - Day 1

2010-06-28T16:41:00.013+02:00

I slept all the time till we landed in Venice-Treviso airport. Transfer to Venice took us an hour or a bit more. The bus delivered its passengers to Piazza di Roma, the biggest and the only "on land" transport place on the main Venice island. Actually, Venice is considered to have the largest "traficless" area out of all European cities which is pretty obvious considering the architecture and placement of the city.

As we had no place to leave the luggage and at first our backpacks seemed not so heavy, we decided to explore the main routes before heading to Bologna. First step during most of our travels was accomplished immediately at the nearest kiosk - we bought the map, second - getting enough strength for the city walk (i.e. getting some calories) - was fulfilled in the small park area next to the bus station. It was more than +30 °C (the exact weather following us during our all 3.5 stay in Italy), so finishing our Prague-made sandwiches and drinking some soda in the shade of the trees ,watching the pigeons and reading Ukrainian phrases on the trash bins: "..., I love you forever", seemed the perfect start of the journey (smile).

After all the preparations we started the walk in one of the most amazing European cities - through all the narrow streets and across all the bridges, seeing all the magnificence created here centuries ago. We explore little squares with the churches and fountains, found lots of arches and small bridges which led into the depth of the non-tourist routes...

From time to time we hit the bigger channels with water taxis and gondolas revealing the bigger scale life of Venice. We walked more along the narrow streets looking up to see the cloths handing on the ropes, seeing the flowers pots, the shutters, thinking how could anyone live in such an incredible place, spend the childhood, fell in love...

All the time we walked in Venice we fell like we were in some fairy tale, in past times... Partly this feeling was created by the absence of the tourist crowds which, I guess, were following one another on the main streets or just disappeared till the evening as the sun was completely outrageous (smile).

When we got on the main street heading towards Rialto - the most famous and the biggest bridge - we experienced a bit different Venice, hot, loud and crowded. What saved us was the view on the main channel from the bridge... It was stunning and breathtaking... but still we couldn't bare the sun for a long time and escape into the shades of the streets.

We walked more approaching St.Marco square. On our way we stopped at a small local place for a coffee and a small (really small - 0.2l) beer. The place also had a tap white wine which apparently was something very common for Italy and what we explored more and several in details later that and the next day in Bologna (smile).

St.Marco square was huge and full of light. Almost all the people were sitting on its perimeter in the shades not willing to cross it under any circumstances. We crossed it towards Basilica di San Marco but decided to leave all the "interior" sightseeing and climbing up the tower for the last days and headed directly to the Riva with its numerous shops and souvenir stalls, great views of the other islands and numerous gondola "parkings".

Tired by the sun we left the street and strolled into the direction of the other part of the island, along the wide channel and then the small ones, the Arsenal museum and some local wine shops. We ate some gelatto and rested on couple of squares, bought some souvenirs (better to do that in the first day of your trip while you still have the money) and took more photos of the incredible city surrounding us.

In the end we came to Fondamenta Nuove with its gorgeous view of San Michele cemetery (where Diagilev, Stravinsky and Brodsky were buried) on a separate island with a great architecture of the walls and tall cypresses inside. Unfortunately in the last full day of our stay we hadn't enough time to visit it which I'd definitely do the next time.

We had couple of pizza slices before heading back in the direction of Piazza di Roma to catch the train to Bologna. The streets were the same narrow and nice, the channels still looked charming and refreshing, but we were really tired to absorb all that beauty the same as earlier that day. What did bring us more positive emotions was a glass (still small) of a very tasty Italian beer and the view on the square with Teatro Italia.

Shcheglushka and Bologna

2010-06-27T16:41:00.000+02:00

Life in Ukraine is still a bit different from the average European one, but nevertheless it's great to realize that now young people have a lot more opportunities to travel abroad, to go for an internship, to study in prestigious European universities.

The reason we bought our tickets to Venice was the promise Yuliya had given to her closest friend Shcheglushka (aka Nataliya Shcheglova) to visit her during her studies in Bologna University. And, besides, this provided us with chance to see Venice, a place one should definitely visit once in his/her life.

The plan was simple - coming Saturday morning to Venice, spend a day sightseeing, catch the train to Bologna, meet Shcheglushka, go out together, discover Bologna on Sunday, party, sleep, catch Monday morning train to Venice, see the rest, travel to some island outside Venice, swim, spend a night in the hotel and catch a noon flight back to Prague on Tuesday. Anyways, was really great!

Planned - done (smile)!

After having spent an incredible day in Venice (posts coming soon), we caught a local train to Bologna where we were met by Shcheglushka. Straight from the railway station we headed to the city centre for an Italian dinner and wine. The place was very local and very cosy with the owner serving us the food and trying to speak to us with his very bad English (smile). Yuliya had gnocci, I had pasta bolognese and Shcheglushka has melon with prosiutto. What looked weird, tastes incredibly tasty! And sparkling house wine was cold and great in a hot summer evening in Italy (smile).

We walked a bit more around the city, got onto the main square which was very dark with lots of people and public film viewing, understood what needed to be seen the next day and caught the last bus to the student dorms. There we celebrated a bit more our arrival and went to catch some sleep before tomorrow's adventures (at least I was the first one to do that).

All the next day was dedicated to uncovering Bologna's charms. The city looked incredible! I was amazed to see so many walkways (porticos) and arches. They were everywhere, in almost each building, kilometres of them. Very handy if it rained and very atmospheric... Something very special which made Bologna so unique.

The impression after a half a day walk and climb on the highest tower was that the whole town was made of the same colour... Looked just amazing!

In the morning we had a coffee on the square next to a huge cathedral and uncovered the system how the Italian bars and restaurants worked - we were charged almost 3 times the original price for the opportunity to sit outside (smile).

We walked through many squares and along many streets. It was very hot outside and streets were not very crowded at all. Shcheglushka took us to the best local ice cream place... and we tried the best gelatto ever!

After more walking and at the beginning of the evening time we ended up in 2 places having "vino de la casa, bianco, uno litro" (or more...). The evening was hot and quiet, we were sitting outside in a small local restaurant having all the free snacks which were coming with great cold wine served in the jars... Life seemed great and so it was!

Close to midnight we ended up in the place which brought to perfection our Bologna/Italy experience - a true local pizzeria... What could be better!..

The morning was a bit hard, but we woke quite early and after saying "bye" caught the train to Venice to spend 1 more full day there - listening to jazz music at St.Marco square, taking the boat ride, swimming in the sea and visiting an incredibly cute Burano island...

And also in Bologna I was taking lots of photos of girls...

and even managed to get into the picture sometimes as well (smile)...

More June friends in Prague

2010-06-25T15:44:00.006+02:00

June has been a great month in regards to feeding "seeing friends" hunger.

I had the chance to meet my old AIESEC friend Sasha Demenko. He had been in Ukrainian AIESEC National Committee when I had just joined the organization in 2001. We had met several times during the conferences, he had come to Ternopil to provide us with all the necessary AIESEC knowledge. We had kept in touch when he had left for his internship in Latvia, had met when he had lived in Kyiv afterwards and had left for another AIESEC internship in Belgium.

Demenko came to Prague for his business trip. Actually he was here with the breaks for two or more week and we went out to drink beer two or three times. Two definite ones happened in Riegrovy Sady where we also watched The World Cup. The last time we were there, Germans were playing someone and the atmosphere was just incredible. Bundesteam won and most of people were really happy (smile). Agnieszka with her friends and Shrek also joined us for this occasion.

For the end of June we had our trip to Venice and Bologna planned. Evening before the departure we met Sashko Yakymchuk and Mariana P'yatkivs'ka, also an AIESEC couple with whom Yuliya had worked together and I just knew them very well (smile). As they came as part of the tourist tour, we had a very limited 1h to have a quick beer next to Vltava before seeing guys off for the boat tour.
Was quick but still really nice to see friends. As I had already told many time, Prague was a perfect place for that (smile).

Sonisphere Festival - The Big Four Tour

2010-06-19T23:08:00.011+02:00

I was following Metallica's tour schedule from the end of 2009 and was really excited to find out in February that they would be playing in Prague in June 2010. Also I found out that their tour was a special one as it was a "Big Four Tour" - tour of the big 4 thrash metal bands - "Anthrax", "Megadeth", "Metallica" and "Slayer". I hadn't been the fan of the rest 3 but was excited to be a part of such a unique show, so the ticket was bought straight away - ~100 EUR for the Golden Circle, a bit expensive for the Czech Republic but I decided to go for the maximum (smile).

So half a year later it was the time for me to experience the biggest music festival I had been so far...

On Saturday morning I went to the railway station and saw already a huge amount of fans trying to buy the tickets to Milovice, a small town an hour from Prague which had some small airport which had been chosen for such an event. It was great that direct trains to the place had been already pre-arranged, so I comfortable enjoyed an hour ride in full packed with metal fans train listening all the way to some German and Danish.

It's hard to describe how it is to be at such a huge event... I will just say that the amount of people was somewhere between 30 and 40,000. The area occupied by the festival was enormous covering a big part of the airport field.

Inside there were lots of food places, tents selling all kinds of music-related (and not really) stuff, lots of attractions, electric cars, "bunjee" ball, etc. Beer tents were all over pricing 0.5l for EUR 1,6.

There were 2 big stages and 1 small inside a tent. Straight away I went to the main one where all big 4 was playing. At the sport I discovered that my choice to buy more expensive Golden Circle ticket proved to be just great - closer to the stage and less people (at least it was so in the beginning).

First band I heard was "Devil Driver" from the US. Interesting thing that music I'd never listen at home or on my iPod, I'd still be able to listen and even enjoy a bit at a live concert (smile).
Closer to the evening it was the time for "Anthrax". I didn't listen to them before thought, of course, knew and heard about them, but the performance and music was really good. Very old-fashioned (and old) vocalist and good old heavy metal voice (smile).
The next were "Megadeth". For some reason, was not really excited about their performance, so just left the circle and went a bit further to lie in the grass and enjoy a beer.

Before "Alice in Chains" I ate some food and supplied myself with water and snacks to be ready to get closer to the stage way before "Metallica" started to play. During their performance I started to move closer to the stage while enjoying the music. Not my thing, but was quite OK. Also when getting food, saw the Ukrainian flag and got acquainted with a bunch of fellow countryman having come to the Czech Republic for this festival. Was great!

When it came the time of "Slayer" the Golden Circle area became incredible packed and I was lucky to find myself quite close to the stage and the first rows. "Slayer's" music was great and a very quality one though many more people enjoyed it more than I did (smile). Right behind me there was a Russian girl who knew all the lyrics and on the entrance of the circle I notices two heavy-rock biker-type guys with "Slayer Russian Fan Club" t-shirts.

When the time of "Metallica" came, I was quite tired of standing for more than 2 hours but when the show started all the tiredness vanished (though it was still coming from time to time). A friend of mine who was at the festival as well called it "festival of 3 bands and a great "Metallica" show". I wouldn't be so extreme but the shows "Metallica" has (experiences 2 so far) are incredible! They really know how to do it and are best in doing it! So whenever you are lucky to be at theirs concert you won't regret it and so didn't I!!!

I was standing just couple of metres from the front line and something like 10m from the stage having a perfect view on everyone there, seeing all the emotions on their faces (or lack of them at Kirk's) and just enjoyed the moment. "Metallica" played all the old good hit and several ones from "Death Magnetic" and "St.Anger" finishing traditionally with "Seek & Destroy". There were lots of small special things that made this concern even greater (like James playing with Lars on drums or mediators with Big 4 logos shown and thrown in the crowd).

It all ended at 1a.m. and the whole crowd started to move - some went back to their tents next to the place, some back in the town to wait for a train. I was lucky to have arranged my pickup and delivery to Prague by my colleague's father.

I was back home close to 3a.m. happy and tired. The greatest music event I had been so far!
Hope more like that to come (smile)!

Some more time with Friends

2010-06-12T14:08:00.006+02:00

Kesha and Dehtyarova were staying at ours till Saturday morning, so after I was back from Sweden we had still couple of days to catch up. Unfortunately, I still needed to be present at work during the business hours, so guys had time for themselves to wander around Prague with Agnieszka and alone, enjoy the beautiful weather and their holiday mood.

There were several cool things we still managed to do before they left.

Firstly, we had a great tortilla eating evening at our apartment with beers in a great company - Yuliya, myself, Kesha, Dehtyarova and Agnieszka.

Secondly, we went for "Sex and The City 2" film. Kind of a "couples' thing". Was not the best film ever but we had fun, especially Kesha and me, during the episodes with at the moments of Charlotte's baby-seater (smile).

Also on Friday we went to Riegrovy sady at Žižkov area, a cult beer garden with several screens where all kinds of sports were shown. As this was the time of the World Championship mania, we went there to join Shrek at watching some game (don't really remember now which one it was but, I guess, this is not an important thing in the end (smile)). We managed to find a place there (pure luck!) and had a great time enjoying the atmosphere and warm summer evening. Some didn't enjoy the game or, I mean, were not interested in it at all but the time together was really worthy!

And, as a finishing event, we ended up in our top favourite's "Al Capone" where we again had cheap six packs mixed with good'n'cheap cocktails. And as usual we had a small photosession in the red light atmosphere of the pub. Was fun and great time!

On Saturday morning we woke up early and said bye to Kesha & Dehtyarova... The incredible week of "Ukrainian invasion" and great time with friends was over... Everything has its beginning and has its end... This "everything" was breathtaking and it left lots of cool "brain" and photo memories (smile).

All Saturday and Sunday we spent alone, mostly watching films and doing nothing and we did enjoy it as well (smile).

Business Trip to Stockholm

2010-06-09T15:18:00.010+02:00

Couple of days before the wedding I found out that I was requested to travel to Stockholm the next week on business. I love travelling a lot and any other time would have been very happy about such a fact, but having quite a "eventful week" ahead and friends staying for another week in Prague made me a bit less happy about the upcoming trip. In the end, I had no choice and booked my Monday afternoon flight to Stockholm and Wednesday evening one back.

Maks & Ryabchuks as planned left on Monday morning continuing Eurotrip to Munich, Neuscwanstein, Venice, Vienna and then back to Ukraine. Kesha & Dehtyarova on Sunday night left for Vienna leaving me with a little less negative mood of leaving them in Prague.

After arriving to Arlanda and taking a shuttle bus to the hotel in Solna, suburb of Stockholm close to the DHL office, I immediately left the hotel and went to the city centre by a local train. Luckily, the desire of staying in the hotel didn't take me over (smile).

BTW, night view from my hotel room

I had been to Stockholm in spring 2007 for an amazing Scandinavian Chill-Out Weekend for National Committee member of Scandinavian countries. It was a great time with great people and I really do remember it well. Then I stayed for several more days in Stockholm working on the next Scandinavian Leadership Development Seminar before taking the night boat to Turku in Finland. What a time it was (smile)!

Anyway, I did remember Stockholm as a very nice city, blooming, green, relaxing, so it felt really great to be back.
After having arriving to the main station, I started to walk to the main island, Gamla Stan, with the Royal Castle and the old part of the city. I walked along the narrow street enjoying the nice though a bit chilly evening, passing by all the souvenir shops I remembered from my previous trip with lots of Swedish flags, big and small trolls in windows, lots of moose and t-shirt with 3 crowns.

I walked around the area getting into even more narrow street stopping for some time at the man square and remembering Lars and myself there having a stroll and, I guess, some cheap (for Norwegians) beer (smile).

Then I walked back to the castle which again reminded me that it had "a nothing special" appearance and through the Royal Gardens to familiar KFC and then back into the direction of Main Station.

Next to it I found a great Asian place and enjoyed some sushi and Asian food buffet before heading back to Solna. Was megadelicious!

The next morning I walked 20min next and under the busiest highway towards DHL office. Also passed a very nice lake, so the walk wasn't that bad in the end. I guess, I was still the only person going by foot that distance (smile).

DHL office appeared to be a very nice place and work-wise things were fine. Work is work. But certainly Swedish guys were really great to deal with. I had actually known this already (smile).

After work and hotel I got again on the urban train and got to the railway station where I agreed to meet with Anton, ex-AIESEC Sweden person and colleague of mine. We went to some steak restaurant nearby and enjoyed a good chicken breast with non-alcohol beverages (smile). I knew Anton as a very interesting person and so he stayed. After his work for some renewable energy company in India he moved back to Sweden, settled down in Stockholm, had pretty cool relationship and worked for a company which was selling the renewable wind energy and, actually, wind mills as well.

When Anton ran for his train, I stayed at the Central Station and waited for another person I had agreed to meet with - Roman Nagylyak, aka Zayets', aka Torquemada. We had met, I guess, 10 years ago as part of metal-gothic-rock gatherings in Ternopil. I was not an active participant but started to listen to "Haggard" and "Lacrimosa" that time and write my first "dark" poems. Then I had been meeting him from time to time though he later had moved to Kyiv and had had a great gothic wedding at Zbarazh castle in Ternopil region. If you live in Ternopil and you listen to same style of music, you'll definitely know the person, at least remember some parties together and lots of common friends. That's just how it is Ternopil.

And waiting time was filled out with some photographying of the "near station" objects.

Romko had a very interesting story how he ended in Stockholm. If you're interested, you can ask him some time. That evening we walked around Stockholm talking about lots of things mostly life and our experiences of living it. I actually was even playing a role of a guide a little bit as Zayets' had just arrived 1 week before and hadn't still got to know the city.

We walked to Gamla Stan and then back in a bit cold Scandinavian summer evening. Was really great to meet a fellow country/townsman and great evening it generally was!

I got back to the hotel and couldn't fell asleep for quite some time listening to the noise of road. In the morning I left early for the office, finished all the necessary things and took an afternoon flight back to Prague to catch up with my friends and my beautiful loving wife (smile).

Time X - Shrek and Michala's Wedding

2010-06-05T23:18:00.012+02:00

1. PrepTime

On the morning of the Day X I woke up earlier that I should have and went to the Hotel Yalta straight on Wenceslas Square where all the preparation action on bridegroom's side was happening. Michala has asked me to participate in it and to take some photos to memorize the process (smile).

I arrived at 11 sharp and took an elevator to one of the top floors. There I got into the sacred room where Shrek's was having his pre-wedding worries and time. There I met his cousin, younger brother and, at last, his dad who played the role of the supporters.

I'd like better to skip writing stories about those 1.5h as they were really nothing special in term of story-telling. We had a shot or two of calvados, Shrek dressed up, Mom stopped by several times to check up if everything was fine, suit, pink tie, cool socks and even cooler shoes. All simple and very manly. No special stories, but lots of pictures.

And also they had an incredible view from the balcony!

2. The Ceremony

Then I got into the minibus for the family and we all went to Vrtbovska zahrada where the ceremony was about to be held. Everyone else arrived just on time and it all started...

And in an hour time it all ended (smile). Things worth mentioning that the ceremony had mostly only close friends and families, no large crowds (as in Ukraine), the place was perfect, a nice garden on the side of Petřin hill with lots of green, small fountain and magnificent view over Mala Strana.

About the ceremony - was not very long, consisting of the traditional elements like speech of the priest (a unitarian one) about love and life, Shrek's and Michala's wows both of which were funny and full of great things about both, instead of traditional scarf guys used my present to Shrek on his birthday - scarf of "Zenit FC" from St.Petersburg, his favourite football team. Actually, lots of things were connected with football - wedding was planned just before the World Championship so Shrek could watch it, wedding cake topper (see photo), Michala mentioned Shrek's craziness about football during her wow and so did Shrek... A bit crazy but very funny (smile).

After the ceremony newly married couple went for a photosession and all of us walked to the party place, restaurant "Manes" just in the centre of Prague on Vltava river.

3. The Party

The party started at around 5p.m. and lasted, I guess, till 1a.m. I'll skip lots of details about it as it'd take too many words to describe. In short - really great time, the best of such a kind in 2010 for sure. Imagine all your close friends, warm weather, great city, incredible ocasion, great place on the river, good food, great music and plenty of Ukraine-produced cold drinks... What could we wish more! And we didn't as we all enjoyed this perfect evening together with lots of pictures been taken, lots of jokes, lots of great small things about the wedding and lots of small moments that made it special for us and for Shrek and Michala.

Thanks guys for being an amazing couple and all the best in your new life together!

Pre-wedding time with Friends

2010-06-04T23:28:00.000+02:00

The beginning of July was all about friends coming to Prague. Close and dearest who you always wait for and who you always happy to see. The reason for the mass gathering of Ukrainians in Prague was Shrek's wedding on July, 5th. In total we expected 12 people coming from Ukraine and 2 from Poland-Germany. But Czech authorities decided a bit differently and Udaff, Burzhuy and Geothe didn't get visa with the same set of documents as Nemesh, Ryabchuks, Kesha and Dehtyarova had and they got their visas to the Czech Republic...
There was a whole visa story behind, we fought bravely but in the end fell in battle with bureaucracy and stupidity of the Schengen embassy officials...

Most of people had 2 weeks in Schengen area to spend and first part of those was devoted to Prague. On Thursday evening Nemesh, Ryabchuk and Tanya came to my place after having driven for almost the whole day. The couch in the kitchen was already prepared for them and we spent couple of hours chatting and drinking beers and "Becherovka" - kind of a "Czech welcome package" (smile).

And so the crazy and amazing time began!

Actually it began a bit earlier when I picked up Agniezska from the airport and the night she spent at our apartment. A little bit more of the details about her will come in some later posts.

On Friday morning at 6.30 I picked up Kesha and Dehtyaryova at the railway station and an hour later I called a self-sickness day at work to spend more time and a very great day with friends. Unfortunately, Yuliya couldn't do the same coz of some important meeting.

Friday weather was very sunny and windy. We took a tram downtown and walked along Vltava watching swans and ducks, taking lots of pictures of the birds, the city and us (smile).

We strolled all the way to the Charles Bridge and met there Lehkyy and Emma who had arrived to Prague a day earlier. It was really nice to meet Lehkyy's French girlfriend whom we actually had never seen but heard for a couple of years (smile).

Then on the Old Town Square we split, some went to shop, some to have dark Krusovice (smile). When we got back together we went up the hill to Kralovsky letohradek to begin our walk at Letna park and catch some of the greatest views over Prague.

So there we were - at Letna park, sitting on the grass next to the beer garden and lots of other people who came here to enjoy great Friday afternoon. Some had beer, some "Kofola", some took video and pictures, some ate Czech beer food... It was a perfect moment with the best people and it was magnificent!

After having a great meal at my favourite's "Smichovsky Radnicni Sklipek" we returned downtown and went to Strelecky island to get some of the peaceful resting time.

At 10p.m. all of us came to "The Pub" for the foreplay before the next day's action (smile). The place was cool and perfectly fit for the planned beer drinking. The cool things except of the fact that you have a beer pipe on your table were that you could order food directly through the touch-screen system, you could also order the music to be played priced only 5 CZK per song (~0.20 EUR), big screen in the bar showed the consumed amount of beer for each table establishing a competitive atmosphere to drink more and get ahead of the others. Then the competition was taken to Prague level and then to the national level showing the amount of beers drunk by the people in Brno, Karlovy Vary or Tabor...

Unfortunately, as I had already mentioned, we had lost the most valuable and suitable players for that kind of competition to the Schengen visa system and that was why we were not very highly ranked even in our pub in the end (smile). But still we had a really great time that evening! Tons of fun and incredible moments!

To be continued...

Yuliya's Birthday Present

2010-05-31T22:51:00.008+02:00

Yuliya's present for my birthday arrived to Prague only on 30th of May though it was bought more than a month ago. But it was totally worth of waiting.

Sigma 50-150mm f/2.8 II APO EX DC Zoom Lens Kit for Canon.

My 2nd lens after fixed 50mm Canon EF f/1.8 II. I've ordered it from Amazon and it arrived to Yuliya's sister in San Jose, CA. Then it was picked up there by Abi, a former AIESEC trainee here in Prague, who work now for e-bay and was going to California for a business trip.

After having brunch with our friends on Sunday morning, still feeling a bit "hard" feeling after all karaoke (smile), we went for a walk to Letna park where I used the chance to try my new "baby".

I'm not a professional, so everything said below is only my perceptions and experience.

First impression - very heavy. After having my 400d with kit lens 18-55mm or 50mm, all the gravity laws seem to be very active (smile).

Other impressions - it's just great!!! Totally new things open when you start taking photographing with it. Zoom allows you to have a totally new perspective on the object and compose. f/2.8 allow you to be fast, in the situation with low light, create nice depth of field when zooming.

Especially zoom lens makes a difference when you have a panoramic view, that time at Letna park I had it over Prague and here's what I got. One shot was played a lot in Lightroom but I love the effect. All the others had a slight correction.

Summing up, I love it! Equipment does really make a difference and if you want to go further in your photographing skills and have financial resources for that - please do it!

Once again HUUUGE THANKS to my beloved for investing in my hobby! Hope Yuliya and most of my friends will be able to "feel" the effect from this purchase (smile).

Bachelor's Party and "Splean"

2010-05-30T22:37:00.006+02:00

On Saturday I decided to get some exercise and joined some friends playing football at Strachov. It was really great to play intensively for more than 2 hours and was even nicer after the game to join my colleague from Germany, Sebastian, for a later lunch in "Little Hanoi" area, i.e. huge Vietnamese market which looks more like a little city with shops, restaurants, wedding agencies, hairdresser's, pharmacies and other necessary facilities (smile). Duck with soup, vegetables and big portion of rice noodles was incredibly tasty.

Bachelor's party at the Beer Festival

Afterwards I headed home to change and hurried to Letnany area where the beer festival was held. Shrek decided to have his small bachelor's party there as in a week the "Day X" was going to happen (smile). Actually it was not a real party as wasn't organized by his friends and didn't have any attributes of one, but in the end there were many people, colleagues and friends of Shrek, present, different local Czech beers were decently priced and tasted great and we all had a really good time, including Shrek.

After all the huge festival tents were closed, I found myself in the taxi to the city centre where someone had booked a karaoke place to continue the party. Someone was stupid enough to celebrate something with the champagne and I had one more beer there after lots of beer kinds had been already tasted at the festival. All of that made me feel the urge to sing and I ended up with my favourite "Bohemian Rhapsody"... I don't know how I sounded then but sure nobody cared really much and I really enjoyed it (smile).

Ended up home not really late. Was interesting to tell Shrek some stories on following Monday (smile).

"Splean"

When Yuliya and I saw that guys were coming to Prague, we immediately booked the tickets and bought them at the same day. I can frankly say that "Splean" was the band that formed my music taste when I was a teenager. I remember how I had bought their "Granatovyj" album and listened it over and over again on my old tape-recorded made on the "Orion" plant on which my Dad and Mom had worked. Especially, I remember the moment when I was listening it loud when our class in school was going to the Carpathian mountains. Good times, good times...

The concert was at "Očko" club at which entrance I first time saw the queue. I didn't like the club a lot as it had a small stage not lifted above the ground which didn't allow people standing in the back to see properly the artists. But everything in regards to "Splean" and their music was just great! Before going to the concert I'd downloaded several latest albums and discovered really great music. Most of those was played at the concert together with several songs from my favourite "Granatovyj". "Splean" sounds great live! Sasha does his best and the atmosphere of the songs easily penetrates everyone present in the room.

Had tons of positive emotions after the concert! Very and very recommended for all the fans and people who like good Russian rock. Another great weekend it was (smile)!

Home Sweet Home (HSH). Part 2. Family

2010-05-16T16:45:00.014+02:00

Time spent at home was incredible! Won't describe my feelings as they are the same all the time I'm back to Ternopil'. All the space between my short cool meetings with friends was filled with my parents, nephew and relatives.

Saturday late evening and Sunday morning I spent with Yuliya's parents talking, eating delicious home-made food and talking about different things.

On Sunday morning after 3h travel from Frankivs'k to Ternopil' my family took me for a picnic to Ivachiv, a village 20kms from Ternopil with a huge lake and several areas for barbequing. Lots of food, "shashlyky", frilled fish, playing football with Sashko, searching for the dragonflies, talking with brother and parents...

On Monday Dad, Mom and I took Sashko and went for a walk in the Topilche park and around the city. Sashko and I had a tourist train ride next to the lake and later we had an ice-cream.
All the week when I was in Ternopil' the weather was very nice and city looked very green and very beautiful. It was the time of the chess-nuts blooming and thousands of trees made Ternopil' look the way I remembered and will remember its best moments.

On Tuesday my Dad took me for a fishing trip to Ivachiv lake. We woke up before 3a.m. and were at "his (my Dad's)" spot before 4a.m. to ensure nobody would take it. We started to fish only after 6 when it got a bit lighter outside and we could see at least something.
I must say that all of our effort was not in vain as the fish were biting really well and before 10a.m. we had almost full fishing cage filled mostly with rudds (aka "krasnoperka") and 3 or 4 crucian carps (aka "karas").

On Thursday we all went to the railway station to pick up Mom's sister (and my aunt) Ira who lived in Moscow region. It'd been quite some time since I saw her and, I think, more than 10 year since the last time she had come to Ternopil'.

On Friday Mom had her 55th birthday and we had a small celebration at home. Yuliya came to Ternopil', aunt Ira was there and some of Mom's closest friends. In the evening she went for another celebration with her other friends and I saw Yuliya off to Ivano-Frankivs'k.

Saturday was the last full day of my stay in Ternopil' and with our extended family which included relatives from Berezhany we went (again) to Ivachiv where later I joined AIESECers for AIESEC in Ternopil' 16th Birthday celebration.

In general things were going fine at home. Dad got a bit used to "not working" and pensioner status after he had left his job. After having worked for 35 years it was a bit hard for him at the beginning but it got better and he has a loving family who takes care of him (smile).

Mom's the same - kind and caring, easy-going and with a really great attitude towards life, always happy when I come home and always saying my visits were too short (which , unfortunately, is always very true).

Brother is doing fine as well, working really hard, earning not really much but in general the money are ok for Ternopil'. With the help of our and Ira's (his wife) parents they changed their flat for the bigger one, still at the same area, in the next building where Grandma used to live...

Grandma... it's been almost a year since she's gone. Somehow it's really hard to believe... I've visited her grave and tried to tell her about my life, how great it was, how happy I was and how I missed her. Was really "unusual" and a bit hard, but I will do it every time I'm in Ternopil'. Hope she can hear...

Sashko is just a lovely little boy - smart, very active and very loving. Adores his Grandpa and a little bit less Grandma (smile). Answering my question: "What do you want me to buy you?", he shrugged his shoulders and answered sincerely: "I don't know. I have everything".
Love him a lot!

The next trip home is planned for September or October and then, definitely, for Christmas time in January 2011. And only in between those travels other countries and places will come!

Home Sweet Home (HSH). Part 1. AIESEC

2010-05-15T15:21:00.015+02:00

9 days in May were cut out from our Prague's life and devoted to the trip home. My Mom had her birthday on May, 14th and, besides, it had been 4 months since Christmas time. Considering Prague is not very far from Ternopil and Ivano-Frankivs'k Yuliya and I don't want to keep "a between travel" duration much longer than that.

Our route was a bit complicated this time as we travelled overnight to Košice where we found that the bus to Uzhgorod had been cancelled. With one more girl from Ukraine we travelled to Michalovce, then got a taxi to the border where for 6 EUR we got into the car to get us through the border. Then Yuliya and I went to Mukachevo where we spent a lovely half a day walking around the city, having a nice lunch and sitting next to the Latorytsya river. Then we caught the train to Stryj where Yuliya's father picked us up and from where we had 1.5h drive to Ivano-Frankivs'k. The next morning I had a usual almost 3h trip from Franik to Ternopil. So only 7 changes on my way home (smile).

Usual and every time unique experiences of the family time will come in later posts. In this I'll mention all AIESEC-related things happened to me (smile). Mainly those were the 3 mentioned below.

1. Evening in "Koza"

Great evening with AIESEC in Ternopil alumni spent in usual meeting place - "Koza" bar. It was really great to see Valyus, Vuhasta and Olichka. I was positively surprised to meet Olichka's husband Mittul with whom we had spent a very quality Ukrainian style New Year time in Kyiv. Guys had had their wedding just couple of weeks before which, unfortunately, Yuliya and I had missed due to the planned home visit.

It was a really nice evening and nice talks. Everybody had his own life happening - Olichka was moving to Belgium, Vuhasta was waiting for her visa to continue her employment in Poland, Valuys decided to search for some other opportunities in Ukraine, but potentially in another city. Having realized this, I guess, we all strived for a great quality time that evening in "Koza" bar in our native and very dear Ternopil'.

2. Evening at Muzychenko's

The same time I was in Ternopil', one more a very close friend was there as well - Muza (aka Svitlana Muzychenko), a Ternopil'-born Lviv AIESECer, former President of AIESEC in Ukraine, and a very great person. She's now in Florida following her love and life. We communicate quite often but it's hard to replace with it a great evening spent at Muza's parents in Ternopil that beautiful warm May evening.

So the people who had a great time that night were - Muzychenko with Marcelo, Olichka who happened to have a birthday that day, Lara Muzychenko, myself and Penkivs'ky family who had one more person in their family since the last time I had visited them during Christmas (smile).

Lots of food, lots of drinks, perfect yard, weather and a very great bunch of people. Very very great bunch (smile).

3. AIESEC in Ternopil 16th Birthday

The last day of my May stay in Ukraine our family went to Ivachiv to celebrate Mom's birthday. By some chance AIESECers planned to have the 16th Birthday celebration of Ternopil Local Committee at the very same place thus making it possible for me to combine two events and had a really great last day.

Unfortunately, due to the fact of early travel the next day, I couldn't stay long, but couple of hours for me were enough to get back feeling of my LC, meet old friends and new generation of Ternopil' AIESECers.

I had a bit weird feeling to be the oldest alumni present there... but it was gone when I began to chair the boat race (smile).

Once again I understood that AIESEC-related part of my visits home is something I need to have and will continue having. And this one can't really be fully substituted with anything else, neither friends' visits to Prague nor my attendance of AIESEC conferences here.
The next experience is for sure coming during the next trip home which, I guess, should happen in September-October.

Porada

2010-05-05T22:05:00.000+02:00

As I've already mentioned several times - it's great to live in a great city (i.e. Prague) as it makes other people come here to feel its greatness. And when they do so, they let you know and you meet one evening and, may be, then for another and the feeling of doing so is just great (smile)!

Friday and Monday evenings were of those kinds when I met Andriy Porada, person who was heading AIESEC in Ternopil for two years when I joined the organization and person who handed over the LCP's (Local Committee President's) responsibilities to me. I remember the hand-over lasted exactly for 1 hour or so at his rented flat on Berezhans'ka street (smile).

But that's a history. The present consisted of a great evening in the city, we first joined him, his girlfriend and her brother at very touristy and Czech "U Medvidku" and then had a walk around before ending in "The Pub" in Prague 1, great place to try something special - a table with 4 pipes for the beer and electronic system of counting how many litres you drank. There were some other cool things about the place, but this would come later in some other posts (smile).

After "The Pub" all "guests" were tired and walked back to the hotel near Ujezd. As it was Friday evening, Yuliya and I decided to stop at our favourite "Al Capone" for a cocktail or too. I guess that was the reason we get to Žinany late in the afternoon (smile).

On Monday we met again around 9p.m. and we showed them another great beer place "Pivovarský Klub" at Křižíkova. We had couple of Czech local beers not usually found even in supermarkets and a nice pub chat time about our common friends, life, work, hops production and, I'm sure, something else less or more important (smile).

Great times in a great city!

First Weekend in May - Žinany.

2010-05-02T20:55:00.010+02:00

For the first weekend in May Yuliya and I were invited to Žinany, a very small village where Michala's parents lived. But as they were on some trip till Sunday, we were happy to accept invitation and spend some nice relaxing hours in countryside.

We arrived to Mrač, village couple kilometres from Žinany, in the early afternoon and walked for 20 minutes before meeting Shrek and Michala. Just before that we found a field full of dandelions and Yuliya made a wreath which was a thing from the childhoods of all the girls in Ukraine. And Shrek looked pretty lovely in it (smile).

The rest of the time we spent making fire in the yard, grilling some food - sausages, zucchini, corn, chicken meat - enjoying a glass (or several) of wine, rum and coke and, of course had lots of nice chats.

1 more thing we enjoy watching that evening - was Michala's parents' cat Phillip who enjoyed his cleaning procedures too much and then his "girlfriend"(smile).

We stayed up till almost early morning finishing rum and coke and something else, I guess, combining it with more talks and watching "Soldier Švejk".

The next morning after some breakfast we took a walk around the village. Small photos ession took place next and on top of the big rolls of hay. Was fun (smile).

Also took some shots with Shrek, Michala and the village road sign (smile).

Then more hours were spent by doing pretty much nothing plus a bit of cleaning, sitting in the chairs facing the sun, playing cards, crawling and trying to take a photo of flowers. I guess I looked really funny during those moments.

Michala's parents and future Shrek's in-laws came around 4p.m. and in an hour they took us to the railway station in Čerčany. Weekend had been really great, filled with no intense action or heavy thinking. Being out of the city can be really refreshing! Actually it's always very refreshing and we're happy we had such a chance on the first weekend of May 2010 in a small 12-house village of Žinany, some 40 kms from Prague, Central Bohemia, Czech Republic.

Norwegian Re-union. Part 2. Krivoklat Castle

2010-04-26T22:48:00.009+02:00

On Sunday Yuliya and I decided to take Norwegians for a day trip outside of Prague. Destination - Krivoklat castle, place we still hadn't been to and which seemed to be a nice spot to visit, especially after "Wanted" with Angelina Jolie (smile).

The trip consisted of 2 parts - regional train to Beroun and local to Krivoklat. Some people slept all the way as previous day was a bit tiring and some were watching the beautiful day and nice Czech countryside.

Approaching Krivolat we already saw the castle on the hill. When we got out at a really tiny old railway station, we stopped for a toilet break (and a beer) in a restaurant just under the castle. Then we got uphill and entered the castle which appeared to be a typical nice medieval castle with a big inner yard, restaurant there, some entertainments and a tourist shop.

We bought the tickets for a castle tour and apart of the reason that it was in Czech and guys needed to read English text from paper it was quite ok. Especially we like the Gothic chapel inside which was really splendidly decorated and looked really stunning. Some stories of the guide were also fascinating and I even remembered one after we were back to Prague which usually happened really rarely to me in regards to sightseeing things (smile).

The day was still incredibly sunny and great, so after the tour we found a table in the yard and had a small snack with a tasty Czech beer. Then we just sat and relaxed and it was a great time!

Before taking a walk outside the castle, we took more of the "jumping" pictures and those were really good. Had never made them before, but it's actually a great, funny and memorable thing to do with your friends - all you need is a bit more clear background and good camera with properly set shutter speed and aperture (smile).

Following the path leading outside the castle we found a couple of nice spots with a great "external" view on the castle.

Before heading back to catch the train, we stopped for a dinner in the local restaurant and had some local Czech food with a local Czech beverage (smile). Drawing conclusion, I can say that the we spent a really great day with friends and nice places around, the only negative part was a long, almost 4h in total, trip from Prague to Krivoklat and back. So the advice here would be - if you want to get out for the trip to some castle, still choose the famous Karlstein or not that famous, but really great, Konopiste chateau.

Norwegian Re-union. Part 1

2010-04-25T07:40:00.000+02:00

I've talked with Lars many times, I guess, for more than a year for him to come to Prague during some weekend. It didn't happen in 2009, but in 2010 he told me that I just needed to decide with the dates. End of April was picked up as the weekend X for a small Norwegian re-union in Prague. Universe appeared to be an interesting thing which made two Norwegians come for the weekend instead one (smile). Camilla, one of my VPX (Vice-president Exchange) from Bergen and successor in AIESEC Norway, appeared to start her internship in Zurich in Lars's team as well.

Guys came on Thursday eve. I picked them up in the airport and took home for a dinner prepared by Yuliya. They were tired, so we didn't do anything special, just drank several beer on the kitchen and had a nice chat.

On Friday Yuliya and I went to work while Lars and Camilla explored Prague. Weather was incredibly great and guys had a really nice time which I could tell from their pictures (smile).

After work we picked them up and went for a walk to Vysehrad, then walked next to the river and stopped for couple of drinks in several places around Narodni Trida. Later we met Maarika and had our last beers at "U Medvidku" in the small pub area.

Saturday sightseeing started with a tram ride to Narodni Divadlo, walk to Ujezd and then up the Petrin hill as the queue to get into the funicular was enormous.

Walk uphill was not an easy thing but it gave us an opportunity to enjoy a magnificent view over Prague and of Petrin hills with hundreds of blooming trees. It was a perfect spring day and perfect mood to enjoy such a great city as Prague.

From the Petrin hill we walked further to reach Strachovsky klaster (monastery) complex with a view over the city, then walked to Prazsky hrad in front of which we took couple of "jumping" pictures and were even photographed by young Turkish ladies.

Then - St. Vitus cathedral and a walk to Letna park where we had a cold beer (perfect thing in such a weather) and enjoyed our time doing nothing but lying on the soft green grass...

After meeting Yuliya who had enjoyed her longer sleep and quiet time at home, we walked to Florenc where we watched for some time a whole group of old Volkswagen cars.

Then we bought 2 bottles of wine and decided to taste it on Strelecky Island and enjoy our perfect moments of perfect Saturday evening. We actually did, but were accompanied only by 1 bottle as second followed the physics laws and just exploded when I tried to open it with a stick (corkscrew was nowhere around us). Anyways at least 1 fulfilled its purpose (smile).

After having a beer on the first floor of "Ujezd" pub (nice place for a drink, btw) we went to Andel area to eat some Czech heavy food, including veprove koleno (pork knee).

We were tired but the day was not over yet, so before getting on the night tram 53 we strolled around Prague's old town area and stopped for another beer at an Aussie pub not far from Prasna brana (Powder gate) where we enjoyed live rock music. Was great!

Sunday was all about trip to Krivoklat though in the end when we got to Prague we had a really nice time of some pubbing in "Pivovarsky klub" at Krizikova.

Great Sunday time at Letna

2010-04-18T23:40:00.010+02:00

On Sunday we decided to relax a bit and after long sleep and some usual work around the house we went to Letna park to join Augusto & Veronica for a nice relaxing afternoon.

Having lived in Prague for almost 3 years, you start to have certain places you like for different purposes - to have a drink, to go for a concert of the rock band, to dine out, to have some fast food, to buy some cool & cheap stuff, etc. Among parks the best for a walk (esp. evening one) is Vysehrad, the best for having a beer and enjoy a sport game on a big screen are Riegrovy Sady and for a chill-out time combining view over Prague and beer garden is, for sure, Letna park.
Here Yuliya, myself and lots of our friend celebrated new 2006 year, time when we first had got to know Prague and had fallen in love with the city.

Prague view from Letna - a bit of my new zoom lens & Adobe Lightroom

So this Sunday afternoon was all about lying on the blanket, chatting with Veronica & Augusto, having some sausages and hermelin from the beer garden nearby.

The weather was really nice, the spring was fully in power, the air - fresh and warm...

At Letna we spent couple of hours of total weekend pleasure. While lying on the blanket, I took advantage of the position and my 50mm f/1.8 lens and made some pictures of lovely Italian-Venezuelian couple.

Then we met Abi & Justyna, AIESEC Indian-Polish couple and headed towards Andel to our all time favourite Smichovsky Radnicni Sklipek for some tasty (and unhealthy) Czech food. Pork ribs there are incredible (smile)!

Klanovice Tree Planting vol.2

2010-04-17T22:36:00.010+02:00

On a nice spring Saturday Yuliya & I decided to join once again the DHL team in the common effort to do something good for the environment, i.e. plant more trees in Klanovice forest in Prague. As there was no limit on participants, we invited Maarika to spend a nice sunny day with us.

We met at Masarykovo Nadrazi (railway station) and took an urban train to Klanovice on the outskirts of Prague. When we got there, the weather was incredibly amazing, with cloudless sky and lots of warm spring sun in the fresh air.

This time we had a nicer area for planting, cleaner with easy ground to deal with. Our aim was to get into the soil as many oak-trees saplings as we could. So three of us started to do the job. Mostly I was doing the digging part and ladies were cleaning the ground from the fall leaves, planting the trees and ramming.

We had tons of fun and great time while actually getting lots of physical exercise. Planting another tree I even managed to find a small snake which made someone get scared and someone (kids) quite curious (smile).

Close to lunch we had a break for snack with traditional Czech white break - rohliky and some salami. Then we continued our work planting the saplings randomly where it was needed as we had finished the main area before that.

My numerical obsession started to show itself in the end as I wanted to get to the even number of trees planted. And we did - 80 saplings of oak-trees. Pretty good for such an amateur groups as we were (smile).

Traditionally after all the physical work we had grilled sausages and beer - a great thing after such events!

Then we went back to the railway station and got back to Prague. Maarika went home as she had another things planned for the day and we went for an ice-cream next to Masarykovo Nadrazi and then met Shrek before going to Letna park for a beer.

The day was great and it ended with a tasty "Staropramen", friend, great view over Prague and blooming magnolia trees.

Easter in Berlin. Day 2-3

2010-04-05T21:15:00.010+02:00

After coming back from Potsdam, we went back next to Deutsche Kirche and close to Museum of DDR to get for a boat ride along Spandau. It was cloudy and windy but not raining, not the best weather but bearable. The audio guides worked really bad and for some reason had much better text with more interesting details in Russian than in English (smile).

Berlin (as any other city) from the "water viewpoint" showed us more of its beauties and shared new perspectives. We passed Museum Island, went next to Bundestag, Railway station, some building called "Reagan's Smile", then next to Tiergarten and there we turned back. That was the time I went inside as all the sightseeing and "having new perspective" made me freeze (smile). But trip was great, all the details about Parliament quarter, bridges, Tiergarten, Hauptbahnhof were really interested and something I remembered even after coming back from the trip which happened really rarely to me (smile).

After getting back on the land we tried to search for some food and walked past the City Hall towards the Alexanderplatz trying to find some decent and warm place to have a bite. Also we tried to see if we could get on top of the TV tower but the queuing system showed that we could do it only in 2 hours, so we left it for some other Berlin trips (smile).

Then our minds changed and we decided to go not only for my birthday drink but also for a birthday dinner. Yuliya got some tips on the place and we left the centre by U-Bahn to reach some nice living area full of nice places for a drink and food.
The choice was excellent and we ended up in a great cafe/restaurant with a wide choice of drinks and nice food. My meat was excellent and so vegetarian meal of Maarika's. I'm sure Yuliya liked her stuff as well (smile). We drank a litre or 2 of good red house wine and left happy back for home.

And before we reached we also took a look at the ruined church at night - looked very impressive!

On Monday the weather decided to compensate for the weekend's failure to follow the raining forecasts and met us with cold wind and dampness. All the cafes around Zoologische Garten were closed and the only place we managed to find decent and open was McDonalds with McCafe on the 2nd floor. I must say it had pretty good stuff, at least my cake looked and tasted so.

After taking some pictures under apparently some famous "thingy" in Berlin (smile), we went to Brandenburg Tor and walked behind it to the Jewish Monument, a set of huge stones of different height.

Monument looked huge and it felt so, walking around it, seeing the people appearing and disappearing in the pathways was impressive. And the rain made it look really monumental. I did manage to take some photos which, to my mind, could show a bit of the mood of the place. So for attending this place, the rain was a perfect companion.

Then we followed the former "way" of Berlin wall straight to Charlie's Checkpoint. The thing I liked was that the whole length of the Berlin wall was marked by the cobblestones, usually in the asphalt. And those cobblestones led us through the streets, it was million times passed by the cars, with lots of them parked with their fronts in former West Berlin and trunks in East...

History is something you feel all the time in Berlin, it's rich and hard, it's something everybody knows, something humanity still needs to remember and keep realizing again and again.

At Charlie's Checkpoint we said bye to Maarika as she had her train earlier and got into a warm cafe for a cup of green tea and caffe latte. Luckily it stopped raining, so we walked back to Unter den Linden and then towards the flee market next to the Museum Island where I bought 50 Deutsche Marks of DDR with Karl Marx for my collection. Now the notes cost only 5 EUR.

It was the time for us to leave for the Hauptbahnhof to catch our train back to Prague. We spent our last money for souvenirs and had a last lift by the U-Bahn.

In the railway station we examined the exhibition of Berlin bears made by the representatives of different countries and were happy to find one from Ukraine with "silent Ukrainian night" motif. Some others looked nice and funny as well (smile).

Before getting into the train we walked around Haupbahnhof and examined its model which looked really impressive. And for sure so did the original (smile).

On the way back I mostly was embraced by Morpheus so missed all of the nice German landscapes.

And I guess I dreamed about the great time I had spent in those 3 Easter days...

Easter in Potsdam. Day 2

2010-04-04T20:32:00.005+02:00

On Sunday we decided to go to Potsdam. It was a bit cloudy but considering the forecast we were already happy as there was nothing in it but rain.

30min trip by U-Banh ended at Potsdam railway station from which we walked across the river towards the newly built cathedral and a huge construction area around. Cathedral was typical and really nothing special except of the ticket machine next to the stairs on the "2nd floor" to go upstairs into the dome. We decided not to.

In front of Cathedral there was a temporary installation about the construction project happening in the area aiming to restore some parts of the former architectural assembly. Spent no more than couple of minutes there but took some pictures outside of it with the red background and couple of Trabants advertising "Trabi tours" around Berlin.

The area we liked a lot was the Dutch quarter with lots of the typically nice buildings Reminded a lot Amsterdam. Lots of cafes and galleries made the area look even more attractive and the sun that appeared made the picture of Potsdam look almost perfect (smile).

Afterwards we walked through the Gothic gate and entered the village of Alexandrovka, consisting of two dozens of typical Russian wooden houses. Village was set up here by Russian immigrants coming to Germany after the Civil War. Actually I had read that Berlin could be considered the main city of Russian early 20th century immigration with Paris being only the runner-up.

The weather got a bit worse so we went back to the city centre, i.e. main Potsdam street and had a tasty kebab, typical German food (smile).

Then we made it into the royal caslte of Sans Souci, but, frankly speaking, I found nothing special about it. The only thing worth seeing was the Chinese summer house which looked really gorgeous.

Before heading back to Berlin we had some tasty ice-cream and bought some souvenirs.
In general Postdam was nice. Worth visiting if you have half of a spare day in the German capital.

But this day we still wanted to get on the boat tour and, by the way, it was my birthday, so Yuliya prepared a nice surprise for me later in the evening (smile).

Easter in Berlin. Day 1

2010-04-03T07:33:00.000+02:00

For the extended Easter weekend we planned a trip to Berlin. I had already been there for a short business trip couple of years ago, but hadn't seen much except of some Postdamerplatz views from the taxi, Hauptbahnhof and Branderburg Tor in the night. But I had indeed been at Cirque du Soleil performance (smile).

Traditionally we found an AIESECer there, Yuliya Khimchak, who agreed to host us for 2 nights, so Yuliya, myself and Maarika, an Estonian friend of Yuliya's, came to German capital on Saturday morning. Weather was great, mood as well despite of having discovered that I had made a mistake and bought two tickets for Yuliya to Berlin instead of return one (minus 50 EUR to the trips budget).

Our GTK (Get-To-Know) Berlin started from Potsdamer Platz where we met Yuliya. Immediately she approached us with the idea to swap the apartments for a weekend, so we gave her the keys and after having picked up Maarika at Zoologischer Garten, we went straight to Samoastrasse 8 to leave our things. Yuliya packed and with her friend left to Prague. Thus till Monday we had our own apartment in Berlin. Was cool (smile)!

Our walk we started from the square with half-ruined Kaiser Wilhelm church and having a China box next to it. Weather was incredibly great, church - a very impressive monument, lots of people and great mood.

We continued our walk past Zoologisher Garten, the Zoo, and walked through the spring Tiergarten, a huge park which used to have been a hunting area for royalty. Interesting fact which we heard later on the boat tour was that during WWII there had been a landing area for the planes and after it the lands were given to the people, Berliners (West), who had had vegetable gardens there.

The spring had just started in Berlin, so we didn't see much of the leaves but were happy to smell the aroma of spring park flowers.

We walked past the famous Victory column and past the memorial to Soviet warriors. After taking some pictures with the Brandenburger Tor on the background we turned left and went straight into the cafe next to big Berlin souvenir shop right next to Bundestag.
Yuliya and I had a tasty weiss beer and Maarika enjoyed the glass of white wine.

Then we walked a bit around the Bundestag, taking lots of pictures but not willing to stand in the queue to get under the glass cupola of the building. This part we left for some other time.

We walked a bit next to Spandau and returned to the Branderburger Tor. Then we walked along Unten Den Linden, the main Berlin street and turned at Friedrichstrasse. I liken public transport in Berlin and above-ground U-bahn seemed like a really great invention. We were travelling from one place to another between the buildings, across the bridges, next to the parks and squares. Such a travel unlike going by the underground somehow made us feel more a part of the city and add some more pieces of enjoyment to our trip.

Then we turned right and walked next to Spandau in direction of Museum Island. It was great to find a restaurant in which 2 years ago our Global Account Management GBS team had an excellent dinner.
Museum island felt big and full of construction. We knew that Berlin had one of the best museums in Europe but that part was not on our visit schedule (smile).

After Museum Island we went closer to see a huge Cathedral which in the absence of proper day light seemed very enormous and Gothic (though I guess it was a Baroque one).

We walked more towards the TV tower and got onto Alexanderplatz. There was some kind of fair happening there so we walked around the place a bit. It was getting darker and the hunger got into us at last, so we entered a big shopping mall next to the square and found a great food court with a decent variety of reasonably-priced food. Yuliya and I had some Asian all-you-can-put-on-the-plate food. Was delicious (smile)!

After we got back to Alexanderplatz, the city was already covered with darkness which was vastly scared by the lights of the buildings, shops, trade fair, city lights, etc.

We walked back towards the Red City Hall (Rotes Rathaus) which looked magnificent in the lights. Then back to the beginning (or the end) of Unten den Linden and all the way to the evening Brandenburger Tor.

The last piece of walking we did was from the Tor towards Postdamerplatz and Sony Centrum.
For all people a bit bored with old nice "gothic and baroque" architecture of such cities as Prague, Krakow, Vienna, German capital will for sure bring a new perspective.
Having had such a hard history the city owns an amazing variety of architecture from the old cathedrals to such masterpieces of modern architectural art as Sony Centrum.

So the last hours of Saturday we spent inside the Sony Centrum, walking around a bit and then enjoying a drink in one of several restaurants under the colour-changing cupola. The day was great and so our Berlin mood. And it got even better when we opened a bottle of French wine at home and had a nice night chat in the small cosy kitchen of the apartment on Samoastrasse 8.

Short Business Trip to Budapest

2010-04-02T07:32:00.010+02:00

Having worked for more than 1 year in the department which main area of work was cooperation with European countries, I wasn't even on a single business trip. Happenz (smile).

Big part of my current work was dealing with different things with countries in CEU, Nordics & Baltics regions, so at last that week I got a "go" to spend 2 days in Budapest solving some issues and speeding up some things.

As the crisis was still around, after I had seen Yura off at Florenc, I went to the railway station and bought return ticket to Budapest with the couch reservation.

The overnight trip to Budapest was OK, couch was quite comfortable, but still I felt a bit sick after good "kitchen" evening with Yura, bottle of Ukrainian liquid and pictures from the school times.

In Budapest I spent 2 days and 1 night before getting on the train and travelling another night back to Prague. Leaving the talk about work, Budapest was cool coz of 3 things.

First, I had a great dinner and out-of-work talks with my future boss and new team. Good restaurant and quality time to find out about people and the work I'd be doing soon.

Secondly, before heading back to Keleti on Thursday, I tried to gather all my Budapest knowledge from lots of the short and even shorter trip and went to Kossuth Lajos ter to walk next to one of the most beautiful Gothic buildings in Europe - Hungarian parliament. The weather was a nice-spring-evening one, so I walk along the river, crossed the Danube and headed to Moszkva ter to get back into the metro and to Keleti.

Thirdly, at Keleti I met an old AIESEC friend - Olya Meniovych with whom we managed to have a coffee/beer and a quick chat about life and common friends.

And I had a nice, not tourist view from my hotel room (smile).

Classmates Time (Mar 2010)

2010-03-28T07:31:00.006+02:00

On Tuesday or Wednesday after our Istanbul trip I got a facebook message from my classmate Yura Bryk who was asking if he could come to Prague. Yuliya and I didn't plan many things for the weekend as we just wanted to chill and spend "do nothing" time taking into account our planned trip to Berlin for Easter.

On Friday Yura was already in Prague. I met him early in the morning at Zelivskeho. I needed to live for work, so I left him at home with the keys, map and instructions what to see and to do in Prague.

So from Friday eve to Tuesday morning we had a quality "having guests" time. I took Yura to Hradcany and Prague castle, we watched a bit of the Prague marathon, walked a lot around Prague, had beers and sausages, chatted a lot, went out with our friends, had a great Czech meals in my favourite Sklipek, went to the club.

On Monday we went for couple of beers to the pub next to our place at Nusle, talked about life, plans and expectations, rest of the classmates and many many other things.
May be it was a mistake that after we came back home, we didn't go to sleep but continued our talks having combined those with quality Ukrainian beverages and looking through old pictures from school.

Next day was very hard, especially considering my business trip to Budapest by night train, but the small classmates' reunion was really great.

Enjoyed it a lot!

P.S. And Yura really loved Prague sausages (smile).

Istanbul Trip. Day 4-5. Asia & Saying Bye

2010-03-21T19:49:00.017+01:00

A Day in Asia

On Saturday we decided to take it easier with "heavy" sightseeing and followed the advice to go to Kadikoy area on the Asian side of the city. This time we changed our usual Yenikoy-Kabatas route and went to Besiktas to catch the ferry.
Cool thing about Istanbul is that the joy from a boat ride across Bosporus is part of public transport system (with price of only 1.5 lira, ~80 eurocents).

On the boat we had our usual morning tea and enjoyed the morning sunrays on the deck. Trip lasted for about 30min which allowed us to enjoy the views of European side with Galata tower, Aya Sofya, the Blue Mosque and of Asian Uskudar including "dear to us" Kiz Kulesi.

Getting closer to Kadikoy we saw several palaces on the hill, busy port area and nice building of
Haydarpaşa Gari (railway station) standing right next to the waters of Marmara Sea.

Once we got out, we went up the hill following the wide street full of jewellery shops. After having stopped for a glass of orange and pomegranate juice, we continued our walk further into Kadikoy area.

It appeared to be quite different from its European brothers being quite lively and nice and not touristy at all. Lots of shops and cafes, filled only with Turks, several Armenian churches, 1 Greek, several mosques of different style and architecture than in Karakoy or Eminonu. And the atmosphere of the place was more relaxed giving us the feeling that that was actually the place where people lived (unlike Taksim-Istiklal neighbourhood).

From the main street we got into smaller ones and found a small cafe to get some sugar before the further discoveries. Yuliya got her morning coffee and I enjoyed the tea in addition to two pieces of cakes. I'm not into the sweets at all, but cake I had tasted good (smile).

We walked back to the harbour and were positively surprised to find a very nice area with lots of shops, market stalls and restaurants. Still we decided to chill a bit by the sea and then to get back for a good Turkish lunch.

What we found was a park with an alley just next to the Marmara sea. The shore was of huge stones which made it the place a perfect spot to enjoy the view and relax after a long walk. Lots of Turkish were already doing it and we happily followed their example.

For Yuliya, water (esp. seas and oceans) is something magical. She enjoys it a lot and dreams to love some time by the sea. I'm not so emotional in regards to this, but being by the sea really bring something new, refreshing into one's body and soul. It gives you inspiration and outs some philosophical things into your head. I also do hope that some time we can live by the sea or an ocean....

We sat by the Marmara sea for quite some time, dreaming, chatting, watching the people, horizon, boats and ships, writing postcards and enjoy the great warm spring weather.

Then we got back to that area with lots of restaurant and found one with a table outside on the street. Both Yuliya's and my meals were huge and sooooo great... and even Efes tasted good (smile).

Then we walked around the area and noticed that it got very and very crowded with people occupying all the restaurants and bargaining in the fish and vegetables stalls. We bought boiled corn with paprika at some corner and headed back to the sea to enjoy more moments of peace (smile). For the next hour or so we sat on the rocks next to the lighthouse and life seemed so perfectly perfect!

When we got on the ferry to Eminonu, the sun already started its final daily journey behind the horizon, so the decision to watch it disappearing behind the hills of Istanbul from a comfy chair in the cafe at Galata bridge with a beer seemed great (smile)! And, of course, the "flying" fish was there too!

As it was our last full day in Turkish capital, Yuliya and I decided to fill a small sightseeing gap we had with a quick visit to Grand Bazaar. When we reached it, most of the shops were still opened though majority of them started to get closed which helped us in some cases to get the price "as for the last customers" (smile). Grand Bazaar looked big and the fact that it was very crowded did help to see its architecture, whole the variety of goods, shop owners talking and joking with each other. We bought some sweets, souvenirs and a scarf for Yuliya. All for a good "Turkish price" with a special discount for us (smile).

To meet Yalin and his old AIESEC friend at Istiklal, we caught a tram to Karakoy and got to Tunel by the oldest funicular in the city. Then we had couple of Sangria glasses with the crowd - Yalin, Robin, Bahaa and two Turkish ladies - and went for a dinner to one of the Istiklal side streets, the "fish one", with fish stalls and fish restaurants.

After the great dinner we re-united with the guys and followed thousands of Istanbullus in our efforts to find a place for a drink at the streets around Istiklal area. In the end Bahaa led us into a building where we took a lift to find ourselves in the bar on the rooftop! We sipped our drinks and enjoyed the chats about different things (one Turkish girl had lived several months in Lviv) while having gorgeous views over night Istanbul all around.

When most of people got cold, we went 1 floor down and continued the party in the main club room. Yuliya and I were quite tired after all the walking, so we escaped earlier than the rest by taking "a black taxi" called by Yalin.

Saying "Bye"

We woke up quite early on Sunday. Yalin and Robin were still asleep after the good night out, so we decided not to wake them up. Just left a small note with our "thank you" words. 1 more thing we did, once more caught a glimpse of the gorgeous view on Bosporus from the balcony.

21st of March was also a very special day as exactly 1 year ago, Yuliya and I had said our main "YES" in our lives (smile), i.e. we had a very small official wedding ceremony in small Czech town of Horni Benesov in Moravo-Silesia region. Specially for this occasion we brought a bottle of Italian wine which we had got a year ago from Shrek as a small wedding gift.

On Sunday we had only several hours before catching the bus to the airport, so we decided to find a spot in Yenikoy to sit by the Bosporus and open the bottle. (Un)fortunately we didn't find a suitable place which saved us from drinking before noon (smile), and we postponed this till being back home in Prague.

Instead we went to Kabatas to enjoy the last moments in this amazing city sipping sweet black tea next to Bosporus. Then we took another funicular to Taksim and had our last quick walk along the street buying some sweets and trying Turkish spicy hamburger and having a kebab lunch. Just before getting into the bus, we spent our last coins on fresh apple and carrots juices...

Our trip to an amazing city was over... But our discoveries of the world are definitely to be continued!

Istanbul Trip. Day 3. VERSPED (Very Special Day).

2010-03-20T23:42:00.000+01:00

The sleep was so sweet and short... But the new day and new experiences of Istanbul were waiting for us, so shortly after 8 we were again in the bus to Kabatas to start our new journey from there. That time we didn't take a tram straight away but decided to drink our morning tea next to the Bosphorus... The place was great, the weather was even better and the mood was on its rise!

Also we found a cool chair on the the embankment!

Tram took us to Karakoy where we found our tasty morning borek place. Then it was the time to walk on the top of Galata bridge. The thing about the bridge is that on its ground "floor" there're lots of cafes and restaurants and the first one is used for a usual bridge purposes, i.e. traffic. But there's 1 more peculiarity about the bridge. On both of its sides there're dozens of fishermen...

For those who don't know I'm obsessed about fish and fishing. Since I was 3, my Dad took me with him for fishing trips all over Ternopil region. When i was in school we used to do it almost every weekend, then not that often. When I'm back home, my Dad & I try to get out in the nature and that is always such a great time!

So, back to Galata bridge. On the top of it there were dozens of fishermen every day we passed through it, at any hour catching the fish from the Bosporus. And the best thing was that they really did catch the fish (smile). Each of them had from 5 to 7 hooks tied to the fishing line and usually they got more than 1 fish (or I saw 5 at the same time) when they got it out of the water... Amazing!..

After having spent some time watching all that fish-related stuff, we headed towards the Spice Bazaar for some "stall-shopping" and buying some spices for friends and family. Bazaar was not very huge (like Grand Bazaar) but it had 2 long roofed galleries with lots of the stalls mainly with spices, sweets and souvenirs.

We bought some tea and spices and stopped in a cafe around the corner for some fresh orange juice.

Then we went back to the square in front of Yeni Cami mosque and for 1 lira bought a plate of wheat from an old Turkish lady to feed the pigeons. Yuliya was feeding, I was photographing (smile).

The we decided it was the right time to climb the Galata tower as the weather was nice sunny, so the views over Istanbul should have been gorgeous. And so they were... of Istanbul and Bosporus...

It was a lunch time for so we found some corner place with kebabs and tried durum (rolled one) with fresh pomegranate juice.

Then for the 3rd time that day we crossed Galata bridge to get onto a boat for 1,5h Bosporus tour. It was a nice warm afternoon, we were tired but happy, full of positive emotions and very ready for more. And those were brought to us by a great time going along the Bosporus, getting under bridges from Europe to Asia, seeing all the mansions build on its side, mosques, palaces, passing boats and even an oil rig, thinking of a long history of the place, sipping tasty Turkish tea for 50 kurus, magining ourselves living here as well and having thousands more great-for-the-moment thoughts...

And the special day continued as we got out at Uskudar on the Asian side. Our friend had told us before that the best sunsets had to be seen from there. We walked a bit to reach the place from which the boat to Kiz Kulesi, Maiden's tower, was going.
It was 19th of March, the day when my dearest and best in the world Yulichka had her birthday (smile)!

And we celebrated in the cafe up the tower, having a bit dry but tasty red Tuskish wine, getting out on the balcony to watch the sunset over the European part with all its monuments, saying great and the most important things to each other and simply enjoying the LIFE! Amazing and unforgettable!!!

We got back to Uskudar to get some fish for the dinner and went to get on a ferry back to Europe. Managed to get Yuliya's favourite flowers as well (smile).

Despite of all the greatness, the day seemed to have been long and brought some tiredness to us. Still we made it to Sultanahmet to observe Aya Sofya and the Blue Mosque nicely lit, with lively fountain in between those and a crescent moon in the sky...

Then we got back to Kabatas and after 30min of waiting got into the bus going back to Yenikoy. There was a very little traffic that time, so we trip was quite quick with a fresh evening air getting into the bus though an open window and a glowing with city reflections surface of Bosporus...

this one taken from Asian side

Istanbul Trip. Day 2. Main Sights.

2010-03-19T08:01:00.006+01:00

2nd day in Istanbul was all about the main sights. First of all early in the morning we followed Yalin's advice and took a public bus from Yenikoy to Kabatas. Almost for an hour just for 1.5 lira we had the chance to enjoy the Bosporus behind our window... And it was so great and amazing... and the weather was incredibly great and sunny...

At Kabatas we caught the tram and went across the famous Galata bridge to Eninonu area. We got out next to huge Yeni Cami mosque and went in the direction of the Blue Mosque which was first place on our "to-see" list.

The area appeared to be quite lively with a massively nice architecture. As we hadn't any breakfast, we searched for a place to have a morning bite. The place we had found determined all our further breakfasts in Istanbul. That was a börek place. Börek is a type of baked or fried pasty made from a special dough filled with cheese, potatoes, meat or spinach (ones we tried). Tastes sooo deliciously, especially with ayran, Turkish sour yogurt-like beverage.

When talking about food, it deserves a totally separate post as Turkish people love to eat and they love to eat good food. It's sold everywhere, great & tasty, of different kinds, usually quite cheap (street one). Sitting outside watching people, sipping fresh pomegranate juice and having grilled meat with vegetables makes one enjoy so much the country... And we did enjoy it a lot!

The we walked up the hill towards Sultanahmet area which "host" all the main Istanbul sights - The Blue Mosque, Aya Sofia and Topkapi Palace.

Before going to the Blue Mosque we wandered around to see more of the area. It appeared to be very lovely, quiet and with a great view of Marmara Sea on the horizons behind the rooftops of the old buildings.

From outside the Blue Mosque didn't look any different from the rest of the mosques in Istanbul. Actually, I must admit, most of them looked totally the same which, after the diversity of those in Morocco, left me quite surprised. Yes, it was much bigger, situated on the top city spot and having 6 minarets instead of traditional 4, but still architecture-wise - impressive and same as the rest (smile).

The admiration of the place gets you when you enter it and see all the beauty of its interior. I'm not sure I can describe it properly, so let the pictures show a part of it. The Blue Mosque had an incredible lights inside which took all of its visitors' breaths away.

The next "giant to see" was situated just across the Blue Mosque - Aya Sofya (aka Hagia Sophia), once church, then a mosque and now a museum of the two religions and whole European civilization. The exterior was not of a splendour type, with lots of its parts being renovated at the moment, but the interior as in the case with the Blue Mosque, was so... huge, lightful and impressive. Huge writings in Arabic from Coran and mosaics of Christianity looked so harmoniously one next to the other.

We spent quite some time walking inside Aya Sofya, so were quite tired before hitting the 3rd spot - The Topkapi Palace. Before getting in, we strolled in the Gulhane park next to it. The weather was so nice... fresh wind from the Sea of Marmara... lots of flowers... blue-blue sky... and real spring!..

Topkapi Palace was nice - several yards, lots of buildings, rich history, amazing collection of jewellery and view over the Bosporus and Sea of Marmara... But we were tired till that moment, so we didn't enjoy it to the fullest and I, kind of, didn't regret it much (smile).

After Topkapi we went to grab something to eat and found a great local place with great grilled egg-plant with meat and eskender, meat with bread and tomato sauce (and surely smth else).

The we made all the way down the hill following Pier Loti street which appeared to be nothing special quite opposite to the recommendations people had made to us (smile) and then all the way up the hill passing a very non-tourist district full of shops, workshops, local stores, tiny mosques and hidden Christian churches.

Having left the area we found ourselves next to Bayezid Camii, another big mosque with a large square in front of it full of pigeons and students from the nearby Istanbul university. Grand Bazaar was just around the corner but we decided to leave it for the later time.

Instead we went back to Aya Sofya and on the street next to it found Yerebatan Sarayi (aka Basilica Cistern), an underground place/cistern used to supply Istanbul with water.
We liked it a lot - columns were miraculously lit and fish in the water looked so cool and quite usual for such an unusual underground place.

We went back towards Galata Bridge and found a nice spot with very comfortable chairs to rest for some time and catch the last sunray over Istanbul. People were catching fish above us, so it was "flying" just in front of our faces, Efes tasted somehow incredibly good (I guess all the walking could have been the reason), we were really happy about our first and so full with impressions day in the Turkish capital.

But the day wasn't over yet (smile).

At Karaköy we went up the hill to the Galata tower to enjoy its lights and power over Istanbul in the evening. Decided to leave the climbing for one of the next two days.

We walked more around the area and finally hit Istiklal street with its incredible evening/night life. it was time to get some more rest, so we went on the top floor of one building to find there cafe with an amazing view over the evening Istanbul and Bosporus. Cafe "Litera" had some higher prices but the view paid it all off (smile).

Then we met Yalin who was at some AIESEC alumni-MC meeting in AIESEC Turkey office situated right on the Istiklal street and we got into the metro at Taksim square to get to 4.Levent and from there to catch a dolmus (mini bus, aka marshrutka) to Yenikoy.
He was really amazed with all the sightseeing we had managed to accomplish during one day and so, frankly speaking, were we (smile). But more was definitely to come!

Istanbul Trip. Day 1 (Mar 2010)

2010-03-18T14:48:00.003+01:00

We wanted to go to Istanbul for already quite some time and March 2010 seemed to be exactly a good time for that - Yuliya was finishing her 1st assignment with DHL, so she could get the holidays, we had 2 important occasions to celebrate - Yuliya's birthday and our 1st anniversary of marriage (can't believe time flies so fast...) and I got a referral bonus for recommending such a valuable employee as Yuliya to DHL (smile). Also for 3rd week of March we found a good deal with Turkish airlines with EUR 201 return tickets.

Also we were lucky to get a local host in Istanbul - Yalin, ex-MCP of AIESEC in Turkey, and former trainee here in Prague, who together with his apartment made us enjoy much more our stay in this great city.

So we arrived to the Turkish capital on Thu, 17-Mar-09 in the evening. Two tiny negative things happened in the airport - firstly, we found out that visa for Ukrainians, for some reason, was more expensive than for other European citizens, secondly, they didn't want to let Yuliya in and wanted her to talk to the chief of police before I told them she was my wife. But those were probably the only negative moments during our trip (smile).

Straight from the airport we went to Taksim square and Istiklal street to meet Yalin there. As we found out Istiklal street was the main place for young and not very Istanbullus to walk along, have a drink or dinner during the weekend. On the nearby street you could find lots of cafes, restaurants, pubs, clubs, markets and anything else. Yalin said on the weekend up to 2-3mil of people could come to Istiklal. Quite impressive for Czech Republic scales (smile).

Istiklal street

one of the side streets, people are desperate to find a place for a drink (smile)

We had a quick snack in one of the restaurants and headed to Yalin's place in Yenikoy 45-60min from the city centre. When we climbed up the hill and entered the apartment, our first day impression of Instanbul raised on totally new level as main windows in apartment were facing Bosphorus...

morning view from our place of stay

Day 1 in Istanbul was short but we were ready for the day 2 to come. Main Istanbul sights were waiting for us (smile)!

A day trip to Tabor (Mar 10)

2010-03-01T12:08:00.000+01:00

At the end of February the weather started to play on the side of spring more than it had done during the previous 3 months. Heaps of snow, agelessly lying all over the city, melted in just 3 days and all the water somehow somewhere disappeared.

Yuliya and I changed our winter outfit for autumn-spring one and decided that Saturday, the first day of spring, was a perfect day to do the usual weekend activity which we hadn't done for quite some time - get out of Prague and get to know some cute small town in the Czech Republic.

From the list of possible options we chose Tabor, a place of the heroic deeds of Jan Zizka, famous Hussite warrior. Actually our knowledge of that time pretty much end here (smile).

One thing I like about the Czech Railways is that you can just get to the railway station 10 minutes before the train's departure (better 15 (smile)), buy the ticket for the necessary direction, jump into the carriage, sit next to the window and enjoy the passing views on the other side of it and, of course, the sound of the rail.

The trip to Tabor lasted about 1.5h. When we got there, the weather still was stunningly incredible which made us totally confident Saturday would be just great (smile).

From the railway station we took the direction to the city centre which was supposed to be the main "tourist-attractive" area, but the street next to the city centre seemed also very nice, clean and lovely.

But definitely the centre of the city indeed made Tabor appear to be a totally lovely small Czech city with lots of narrow charming streets around and other thing to see and enjoy.

Traditionally there was a nice Cathedral (and Zizka's monument in front of it) on the main square which we climbed to enjoy a panoramic view on the city from the small windows. As it was too sunny, I did fail to take a good shot of the main town part.

Also the great thing was that there was a small shop on the top of the tower selling different stamps, pins, postcards and old Czech paper money. We were a bit low on budget, but still I managed to get 20 crowns from 1926, and 2 different 50 crown note from Czechoslovakia times (smile).

We walked a lot around the centre and its labyrinth of streets enjoying a lot the weather and our choice of travel destination (smile). In Lonely Planet book for Czech Republic before the trip I had read that streets had been made so narrow in order not to allow different troops to get cannons and conduct a proper fighting. Made sense (smile).

Also in Tabor you can find lots of arches here and there passing which you will get to another street or area you totally didn't expect to find.

We stopped for lunch time in a typical Czech but still "touristy" place "U Svejku" and my average knowledge of Czech language allowed us to get cheap daily menu instead of highly priced offers. Felt a bit proud (smile).

We also went behind the city wall which separated the central area with the others of Tabor. Main part of Tabor appeared to be placed on the hill with a river in the valley below.

Also Tabor owns the first artificial lake "made" in the Czech Republic. It appeared to be quite big and was still 99.9% covered with ice. 0.1% was a small uncovered area with lots of ducks and couple of swans. Kids were feeding the birds getting lots of positive emotions from the fighting and all the chaos they made in the birds' family (smile).

Before heading back to Prague, we stopped for a drink in a nice pub just on the central square. Despite of somewhat high prices for meals in Tabor (or its central part), the beer remains cheap and great - 1 EUR for 0.5l of "Bernard".

We came back to Prague around 20.30 and spent the rest of the evening home relaxing and watching some series (guess those were last episodes of "Friends" and some film).

It was a great day! And even greater it stayed in our memories as the same weather didn't come to Prague for the next two weeks (smile).

Yes, and here's a representative picture of the day (smile!)

PetArt and Russian Punk

2010-02-28T12:02:00.006+01:00

PET Art

The weekend Vityok & Yulya were in Prague and wanted to have the time of their own, Yuliya and I decided to go to Prague Botanical Garden in Troja, just next to the Prague Zoo. Botanical Garden in Prague is really nice place in summer time where you can spend a great warm & sunny afternoon, in winter there's not much left to see, except the tropical greenhouse Fata Morgana.

PetArt exhibition was about making the art from used plastic bottles a part of nature, placing it amongst the life forms thus emphasizing the importance of recycling.
I think the idea was quite good and all the PET animals & plants found there place, especially great were dragonflies, crocodile and cactuses (smile).

Russian Punk

The other event in February which supplied me with lots of positive emotions was a concert of Russian punk band "Korol' i shut" (eng. - "King & Joker"). I wasn't a big fan of them like some of my friends, but I did like the music and very good funny lyrics they had. I'd been at their concert in Kyiv in 2005 and now was happy to get to one in Prague.

Again, concerts in the clubs are much more atmospheric and the fact that there were not that many people in Retro music club made it even better. Yuliya, me, Shrek, Michala were standing at the back sipping beer and enjoying the music. Guys played mostly the old songs which I knew quite a few lyrics from. They looked a bit older and more mature turning into more a classic rock bank (which they are) but not a young crazy punk one (smile).

The evening was great and I hope they can get more Russian/Ukrainian band in here, so this cultural aspect for us can be filled a bit (smile).

Feb Guests from Ukraine

2010-02-22T12:07:00.010+01:00

Following its predecessor year 2010 continues to bring friends to Prague (smile). And that is great!

Styopa & Masha

In the middle of December we were visited by Styopa & Masha, an Ukrainian AIESEC couple (smile). Styopa is from my native town of Ternopil and Masha is from Donetsk so together they make a very representative West-East relationships. They were both in Paris and had a stop-over for 14h in Prague.

On Friday eve I picked them up in the airport and took home for a dinner Yuliya had made. Then we went out to the city and after having had a very quick evening sightseeing tour in the centre and Old Town Square we dropped into several pubs for a good Czech beer and some long drinks.

Guys had their flight at 11.30 in the morning but still they decided to wake up at 6a.m. to get to see a bit of Prague. I was hospitable enough to say that I'd show them around if they were able to wake up.

We went to bed close to 4a.m. so when the alarm clock woke me up in two hours, I was not happy about my earlier commitment (smile). But Styopa&Masha were still asleep, so I decided no early morning walk in Prague was going to happen. I was a bit wrong and at 7a.m. Masha managed to wake Styopa up and make him to do the same with me as well.

All the beers consumed the night before made me not enjoy our morning trip by metro & tram towards Prague Castle but all of the negative stuff was gone when we got to Strachov Monastery complex.

The weather was a "winter perfect" type and allowed us fully to enjoy the beauty of the area and views over Prague. We did a usual walk toward St.Vitus Cathedral which was unfortunately closed, but we were lucky to get on the Golden Street which was open and free of charge at that time of the day.

Guys had half an hour more before rushing to catch the bus to the airport, so I led them back to Malostranska, then across the Manesuv most and straight onto the Old Town square. There we climbed the Old Town tower to catch an amazing view over morning Prague.

My all negative feelings about getting up so early were totally gone as the morning walk in a perfect winter sunny weather was so great and refreshing!

I was back home still before Yuliya woke up and managed to catch some of my lost Saturday morning sleep.

One thing that made me enjoy the fact living in Prague was the statement from Styopa&Masha that their wonderful feelings of Paris trip were confused by the beauty of the Czech capital (smile).

Vityok & Yulya

The other weekend in February we were hosting another Ukrainian friends, also Viktor and Yuliya (will call them Vityok&Yulya to distinguish from Viktor and Yulia, i.e. us (smile)), both ex-AIESECers and both from Yuliya's Local Committee and town - Ivano-Frankivs'k. Yulya was in Hungary for her development internship with AIESEC, Vityok came to visit her and both of them decided that spending a weekend in Prague was a worthy timespent. I bet it was (smile)!

Weather still was incredibly great, so that time Yuliya enjoyed a nice walk and views of Prague as well. We followed the usual tourist route and stopped for some tea/coffee to get warm.

One cool thing we bumped into was a "sea-gull feeding session" on the Charles Bridge. People were throwing some bread into the air and the birds were catching those. Managed to get some really nice shots (smile).

In the evening we hit several pubs before catching the night tram home.

The next day we gave the opportunity for Vityok&Yulya to enjoy themselves and have a walk in the city without our company. Instead we went to the Botanical garden for the PetArk exhibition. Was nice. More details coming soon.

To make staying in Prague for Vityok&Yulya sweeter we took them to "Cafe Louvre" for a chocolate cake. I'm totally not a person into the sweets but this piece of chocolate art is a must-eat in the Czech capital.

Anyone else planning to come? Our couch is always ready to welcome you (smile)!

Money - My New Hobby (smile)

2010-02-15T12:09:00.009+01:00

In the past years I travelled to quite a few countries and often brought some paper money and coins with me as souvenirs. All of those were put in a Lipton tea metal box and it was not until our visit to Museum of African, Asian & American cultures in Dec 2009 when I decided that it was the time to extend my hobby a little bit. In a small shop there I saw some of African banknotes and those were the bills (Kenya, Somalia & Zambia) that officially started my collection (smile).

During the last few months I found the place to get all of the collection attributes - album and different pocket-size pages for it, I discovered a place to look for the new items in my collection (which is a local Czech version of e-bay) and figured out what I actually wanted to focus my attention as to collect everything would be just impossible.

So the 4 main focus areas of my collection:

Money of Ukraine. Besides all the nostalgic feelings for the coupons in early 90s and first issues of hryvnya, it's extremely interesting to discover the money of early Ukrainian states in the beginning of 20th century. Notes were much bigger in size that time and some had a really amazing artwork with some old Ukrainian text about counterfeiting.

Money of Russia/USSR - a bit similar feeling and besides it's great when you understand what's written on the note. The one thing about Russian money is that there're so much of them, especially from early 20th century when all the revolutions were happening.

Money of Czech states - two reasons - the biggest supply & demand is present here, so you can fill your collection pretty fast, second - the main - Czech money are really beautiful - Czechoslovakia money from 80s are one of the most colourful and with a really great artwork, besides you can find on the notes the views you can see & recognize living in this country - like Karlstein, Tabor and, of course, lots of Prague castle views.

Money of the world (smile) - piece by piece I want also to have at least 1 piece of all the countries' banknotes. Actually I already have from 73 present & past countries with mostly Asian money. But there's no particular focus for me here just a desire, if I get one or friends bring me, I'm happy.

So it seems money got me pretty involved. The most important thing is not to forget about the real money and their present value which is lost when it's transformed in the items in my collection (smile).

I still collect some coins as well, but those are only from my trips and from my friends' trips. They keep being stored in the yellow Lipton tea box, so may be some time it'll be worth paying more attention to them as well (smile).

So if you happen to travel to some country, a good souvenir for me would be actually the money (smile).

P.S. Other than money, for 5 years I collect pins from different countries, but that is a very different story to tell.

1st Time Skiing

2010-01-24T11:58:00.006+01:00

We planned 2010 to be a year when we do lots of things we didn't do before (as any of the year(smile)). Even without the official 2010 resolutions on paper we knew to go (learn) skiing is one of them.

One of the ways to get something done is definitely to communicate your wish to the other people as they will ask if you did the thing or not and will help you in fulfilling it.

So in the end of January our Czech friend Fanda (aka Frantisek Kozisek), AIESEC alumni & a person I knew from my AIESEC international times, picked us up from our apartment in Prague 4 - Nusle and drove us all the way to Mominec, a small ski area 1.5h drive from Prague.

After having rent the skis, we took a 10min lift up the hill to start our Czech ski experience. For Yuliya it was the second time, so it took her 1 ride downhill to get more "professional", all the others she did very well and actually was enjoying it.

My case was a bit harder as my 1st ski experience in 2002 in Carpathians can't be counted in as it had been just a disaster of dozens of falls and walking down from the hill to the nearest pub with hot wine. The next day then I had gone straight to the pub (smile).

This time I wanted to learn a lot. Fanda & Yuliya tried to explain me what to do and how to balance the weight on my legs. But, you know, it's easy to say, not to accomplish. So during the 1st trip downhill I fell so many times with learning almost nothing that it really made me annoyed. Still I decided to skip the pub this time and continue trying. Second time was better as I started to get how all the "turning" thing works. 3rd and 4th were better as well.

Yuliya was always cheering me up and was quite surprised I made such a big step from zero.

I can admit I actually learning a bit how to ski, but still this first time didn't bring me any pleasure from skiing, the only pleasure was a moral one from the fact that I can do that and actually learned something (smile).

4 rides was enough for me so I spend the rest of the time in a restaurant having a hot drink and a good lunch waiting for two professional skiers - Yuliya & Fanda.

Great time! Hope 2010 will turn me into at least a bit of the amateur skier and I will get to the moment when I will enjoy a smooth ride down a hill (smile).

X-Mas time at Home

2010-01-10T11:57:00.016+01:00

Traditionally (and that's great!) Orthodox Christmas time was spent at home.

Same things in my home visit schedule - visiting relatives, godkids, going to the cemetery to see my grandma, grandpa & aunt, meeting with AIESECers, meeting with friends, solving some "can-be-done-only-in-Ukraine" issues, shopping for several "cheaper-in-Ukraine" things and some more.

The great thing in Jan 2010 was that my uncle with his family came to visit us. Last time they had been in Ternopil 17 years ago and I still remembered some moments from that time. My Mom has a sister, aunt Ira, who lives now in Moscow region and a brother, uncle Kolya (aka Nikolai) who's living in Mom's native village of Rubtsevo, 10kms from Ryazan', very old Russian city of 800,000 inhabitants which is 3h travel south-east from Moscow.

Uncle lives in Pshennikov's (Mom's maiden name) family house with Grandpa & Grandma and, of course, his family - wife Oksana and son - Vladislav (aka Vlad). Their daughter & my cousin Evgeniya (aka Zhenya) lives in Ryazan' with her husband Sergey and their small daughter Svetlana (aka Sveta).

That was a short genealogical part giving you some ideas of my roots (smile). Other details will come some time some time on this blog as well.

Was so great to have uncle & his family in Ternopil' - they are so different from my Dad's part of family, so... Russian but very great & simple people whom I love a lot. Was definitely interesting to host them in very Ukrainian part of Ukraine with all the elections stuff coming up, with a bit different view on Russian politics and incredible humour of "Kvartal 95" on TV (especially Tyahnybok's song (smile)).

Sashko, my nephew, grew so much and became a very serious (and sometimes not) young boy. He admires his Grandpa & less Grandma (don't know if it works the other way (smile)), and my parents admire him a lot, especially my Dad. Brother's family life seem to be quite good, he works hard but seems to enjoy it.

And again it was so unusual not to visit daily Grandma...

Spent half a day at Nastya's, met with current AIESECers to discuss some issues in the work of Local Committee, met & talked about some close-to-poetry-literature stuff with Yurko Zavads'kyy, met with my old AIESEC friends and had several beers, bought some books and some old USSR banknotes for my paper money collection (just started, may be will write a bit more about my new hobby), photographed a part of our family old photo album, did lots of other very & less than very important things which made my stay at home busy but very fulfilling experience.

I travelled to Ivano-Frankivs'k on Saturday afternoon to get for a small family celebration with Yuliya's family. Had a very nice family time as well.

Sunday morning was a traditional one filled with a great breakfast, travelling to the bus station, saying bye to all the family & ending with placing ourselves in a not-very-comfortable-but-cheap and-almost-the-only-way-to-travel bus to Prague.

Families' Trip to Lviv Region

2010-01-08T21:35:00.004+01:00

Living it two close but still different cities makes it a bit harder to work out all the family staff when you're back home. Yuliya spends most of her time in Ivano-Frankivs'k and I do the same in Ternopil'. Most of the time we travel back to Prague from Franik, so I get the chance to see her parents. But unfortunately it doesn't work the same for mine and our parents don't meet that often and they would really like to. At least, it seems so (smile).

This time we decided to organize a meeting somewhere in between our two cities. It didn't happen exactly so but we managed to agree to meet in Oles'ko, Lviv region. The place is special as it has one of the most famous castles in Western Ukraine and famous Polish King Jan Sobieski had been born there.

Frankly speaking the castle doesn't impress a lot as our country still needs some time to take care of its cultural & historical heritage. The view from the hill where it stands is great. The interior is a bit poor filled with some paintings, furniture, sculptures brought from Lviv. Actually it's no wonder as till later 60s or 70s nobody took care about the castle at all and it was in half ruined state. Good surprise was the quantity of tourists and several tourist shops on the bottom of the hill with decent Ukrainian souvenirs.

We also had a lunch in the restaurant inside the castle. While the interior was great, the quality & quantity of food for the price we paid was quite disappointing.

Anyway, those small things didn't disturb much the purpose of day -Yuliya's & my families' meeting. Except my parents, I had on my side my uncle & his wife from Russia. It had been actually 17 years since the last time they had visited us and I actually did remember that time.

They found things more exciting than Yuliya & me, but probably the lack of similar experience with Czech & European castles made this one.

On our way back we stopped at Pidhirtsi and were pretty impressed with what we saw. In Pidhirtsi we saw a truly beautiful cathedral in a very Roman style. I hadn't seen such in Ukraine but I had a lot in Rome. It wasn't in its best condition but still looked so different and so magnificent.

Straight on the opposite there was Pidhirtsi castle which actually looked more impressive that one in Oles'ko. It was in a bad condition as well but the renovation works had already started. People born in USSR may definitely remember this castle from "Musketeers" film. In it the castle served as the monastery in which Konstantsiya had been hiding and were she had been poisoned by Miledi.

Between castle and cathedral one could enjoy a walk along a beautiful winter alley and this was so great. Probably, the best "tourist" moment of the trip.

In Zolotchiv we split. My family went to Ternopil, Yuliya's - to Franik. Though short but we had a really great time combined with getting to know more of Ukraine. The last fact was very satisfying as now we're more discovering the world and when we had time to discover our own country we, for some reason, didn't do that.

Hope to catch up (smile)!

Visiting Friends (Jan 2010)

2010-01-05T21:33:00.010+01:00

Getting back home supplied me with a great opportunity to visit some old friends.

Kotsyubyns'ke citizens

With Vivchar & his family we hadn't seen each other for a year or so. So Jan, 2nd seemed to be a perfect after-NY day for getting out of the apartment and having more food & drinks together with talk with an old friends' company (smile).

8 of us fit ourselves into two cars and in the afternoon we were on the spot. Vivchar's family (and especially his wife Lesya) were already ready for such rare but dear guests, so we definitely didn't complain about food & beverages though I'd admit that nobody had strong drinks after all the celebrations on the previous 2 days (smile).

It was a great afternoon in a very friend-family circle. It was great to see Lesya and little Mar'yanka though she had grown up so much since the last time I had visited Vivcharyk.

it was also great to find out that they were waiting for another arrival into their young family some time in summer. Seems Siniy & Vivcharyk in this area were working for the rest of our gang (smile).

And talking about Siniy...

His family was another one to be visited, but that time in Ternopil. It had become already a great tradition to spend meaningful (smile) evenings at his place at Novyy Svit area (eng. "New World"). Tanya would always prepare great food and we (usually Kesha, Geothe with wife & myself) would always bring a bottle of good Ukrainian cognac.

His kid, Dima (aka Dmytryk or Dmytro), also had changed a lot though still retained his charming smile and ability to go to sleep by himself without any crying or asking parents to get him to bed.

That evening was another great one! Talks, stupid & serious, good laugh, good food & drinks. Tanya again didn't drink with us as they were having their "arrival" already in the end of January. And it was a girl! Probably, named Tanya as well as she was born on Tetyana's day in Ukraine. I actually still need to confirm that as Sasha couldn't tell me for sure as it was only several hours after his other happiest moment (smile).

Great times, best friends, great kids (smile)!