stastny novy rok...happy new year

zaha hadid

I had to prepare a report about one industrial building or complex of buildings for one of my university courses. And I ve found out really interesting architecture - architect studio of Zaha Hadid. This womnen was the first architect-women that got the Pritzker price which is something like Nobel prize among architects. This price is given every second year and Hadid was the winner three years ago. One of things which I read about her and which sounded really interesting to me was that before she went to architecture universities she got a degree at Mathematics...:-)

http://www.zaha-hadid.com/

christmas time

It is almost the end of December and I am still alive :-)) I managed to survive doing shopping two days before Christmas (that means that half of czechs were in shops at the same time), I survived all visits of family and all food and cookies. I am really happy about that :-) It is not easy to have Christmas in Czech - acording to our traditions we prepare sweet cookies at home and it is usual to make more sorts of cookies to show the rest of your family how good you are...

I am not so ambitious to be among the best cooks :-)) Anyway we prepared some cookies with my sweet small sister, decorated nice christmas tree, exchanged presents and spent some nice days together...

13. 12. party in PM bar

Somehow, the end of semester is again here :-(( Among the last presentation were slovenian guys and my russian roommates, so I had to come to see them... And especially the russian presentation was really cool and funny.

But, I felt there really sad... I mean, I know I was erasmus student and I enjoyed that time a lot but anyway... I think I know a lot of foreign students here but sometimes I feel strange among them. All the time new people, you just get to know them and they leave. Like one of my russian roommates, she had to leave to Krasnojarsk to do her diploma. And my own roommate will leave soon as well and everything comes again - meeting people, talking to them sometimes, trying not to fix on them a lot...

15. - 25. 11. madrid

I ve just skipped two months in writing this page when I was slowly getting used to czech rules and my university study... Since I have come back I am "active" member :-)) of our International Student Club at my university, which gives me opportunity to be among lot of interesting people... not only foreign students who are coming to spend their exchange program here but I was lucky to meet lot of nice czech friends as well.


At the beginning of October I ve applied for Athens course. It is kind of exchange program, maybe more like workshop... You go abroad for one week, you attend course which you choose and except that you can spend some time out of Prague. My first choice for Athens course was Milano because of interesting topic of their session. Unfortunately more people thought that this course sounds really great and I was chosen to go to Madrid. This capital of Spain was my second option and the course was called River Restoration Systems...



I enjoyed that ten days a lot. I didnt have to think about any duties for university, for ISC, it was nice break :-))

23. 9. back to prague

After my erasmus study and lovely summer I had to come back to Prague and back to my university study... I expected the reality but I felt really shocked and depressed at my first lessons of steel and concrete structures :-((

Lot of my friends felt sad and lonely when they had to leave Ljubljana and their Erasmus stay. I was almost first when I had to leave to Croatia but I didnt feel so lonely, I had quite a lot of work and my job was dealing with people. But I felt so strange coming back to school. Of course, I was attending classes in Ljubljana but more time I spent there just working on project - no calculations of structures, not so strict teachers, more enjoying,...

june, july, august, september... working in croatia

I got great opportunity to stay this summer in so nice country like Croatia is for sure... Lot of sun, sea, many experiences. I decieded to try to get a job of a turist guide maybe one year ago. I was sure that it wont be so easy because my branch of study is totally different. I made guide exam, wrote lot of emails with CV to many travel agencies, was invited to one interview and after two months got job in Biograd na Moru, on croation cost... like fairy tale :-)


After almost for months I was full of new experiences but the experience I appreciate most was the possibility to work with people... To find out that is not like being at school, talking to people I like and spending time with friends. That I have to manage to communicate and to work with people I havent chosen and that this kind of job can be sometimes really hard. On the other had there are lot of nice and kind people and it is so nice when you hear that somebody can appreciate your effort and verve :-))


Anyway, I spent great summer seeing lot of nice places...

writing again...

Hola... after few months I decided that I should maybe start to write my notes again... I was thinking that staying in Prague is not so full of expreriences and great moments and that there wont be things to write about... but I want to share some of my thoughts and pictures anyway :-)) And is not so boring as I thought...

26. - 27. 4. rainy croatia

... under construction

see the pictures at My Photos on yahoo.com

25. 4. international dinner at K4

... under construction

see the pictures at My Photos on yahoo.com

21. 4. picninc at gregor

14. - 17. 4. my friends came!! :-)

My friends from university came to visit Slovenia and we spent nice time traveling not only in Ljubljana, but we went to see the caves, the slovenian coast, the lakes under the moutains... I took them to slovenian tourist places :-) but not only there.





They dont have such a faces because of our trips...:-)) They just enjoy maybe tenth acid drop :-))

4. - 9. 4. switzerland

Last few days I had really nice time - with Petra and our dear swiss friend Jela :-) She shown us her town (Thun), Lugano, Zurich,... It was nice and now I feel relaxed and happy - just time to go to do something for school :-)

We left Ljubljana on Tuesday early morning and drove towards Milano, swiss borders and Lugano. There we stopped for few hours and went to see the city. The lake and hills around are really nice but the town itself didnt amaze me a lot. That time was there a lot of cranes, lot of buildings under construction - probably to finish them till the season will start. The day was sunny and really warm so we got first spring sunburt on our faces :-) In the evening we arrived to Jelas home to Thun.

Next day we wanted to visit Bern which is close to Thun but the weather wasnt our friend that day. It was raining and later snowing quite a lot... april weather. But as Petra is big fan of the new architecture, she knew there is Paul Klee Zentrum in Bern. So we went there, to see Paul Klees work and to admire the building designed by Renzo Piano.

On Thurday and Friday we stayed in Zurich. First day just with Petra, so we saw some pearls of modern architecture :-) and part of the center. On Friday Jela shown us the historical part, her university (really nice) and we had nice time again.

The last day, Saturday we spent in Jelas home town, Thun. We went for a walk along the lake (high moutains around...), to the center for sightseeing and shopping :-) Except the one raining day we were lucky and saw just sun in the rest of days. I liked our trip a lot! :-)) thanks Jela! :-)


If you want, have a look at my pictures - the link to my photos is on the right side of this page...

1. 4. graz, austria

After one month of trying to make a trip to Graz we finally managed and on Saturday went there! We got up early, left Ljubljana around 8am and after more than 2 hours we were in Graz. It was nice sunny day and we felt like in spring :-) There is even more "green" in Graz, more turists and more modern architecture than in Ljubljana. We visited the historical center and in the afternoon went inside the Kunsthaus. I can the visit of this building just recomend to you - inside is really nice and clever done and the view from the "bridge" at the top of the building is really nice.
After we went to the Mur Island, where we stayed sitting and enjoying the sun and getting a power for our last target - the castle hill. We wanted to walk but after comming under the stairs we saw strange cave and went to see what is that... and it was a lift inside the mountain! Nobody from us have never seen such a lift so we had to take it up :-) We were there in few seconds. Later we walked slowly down to the center waiting for the dark and lights. We wanted to see the Kunsthaus again, because the fasade is changing with lights. So we were succesful in waiting for the dark and saw light spots on the fasade changing the face of Kunsthaus - interesting idea to make it like this.
The whole day was nice and I hope that all of us enjoyed like me :-)

26. 3. sunday in cloudy ljubljana

24. 3. nassfeld

Nassfeld - the austrian skiing center in Karnten. More than two hours of drive far from Ljubljana. I went there with Gregor and his friends. The place is large, you can really enjoy lot of slopes, lifts and funiculars . And because the weather was quite warm (but withnout sun) and the snow heavy like in spring I could really feel my legs :-) I had great opportunity to hear slovene "Ljubljana" language - you just need to know lot of bad words and thats it.

And one important thing I will not forget next time for sure, to take ID or passport out from Slovenia!

23. 3. theatre - mladinsko gledalisce ljubjana

Petra choose next play that we went to see, this time to Mladinkso gledalisce in Ljubljana. The play was called Fragile and was about immigrants in London, about their stories, problems,... The most interesting thing at this play was the way of performance. When we entered the theatre we went down - there we got cushions to put them on wooden benches and took our seats. We could see the white projecting screen in front of the stage and in front of the screen there was a lot of strange things like lights, cables and other technical staff. Then the performance started and I didnt know where to look at first - because the main action was shown at the white screen where two scenes were mixed together. The one scene were actors playing behind the screen and the second was the background which was filmed by using coullises in front of the screen. It was really interesting and really great! I liked a lot, I never saw such a performance before :-)

One thing was quite difficult at this performance, the languages. Because it was about people from differnet countries, they didnt speak just in slovene but as well in croatian, srbian, bulgarian... there were shown subtitles but anyway too many languages :-)

18. 3. drama, skiing

On Monday, Jela called me if I dont want to join her and go to the teather in the evening. Because I werent there before I was looking forward to see the play in the Slovene National Theatre (Drama Ljubljana). Ok, I didnt expect any huge stage but the building inside, the auditorium and the stage are really small, we are in Ljubljana :-) In one line there are just 12 seats! The play was called Smoletov vrt, was little bit about slovene nation and I really liked it. It was funny to hear that in Mestna hranilnica you really dont get meat (meso) neither food (hrana) and other jokes connected with slovene language or nation. I was nice surprised after the end and have to say that was my pleasure to see it.


Although the weather wasnt suppose to be nice we decided to go skiing to Krvavec once more. This time Leticia and Gerrit went as well, skiing second time in their live :-) We came to parking place, all around us just fog and I was thinking that this time we really wont have problem to park a car and enter the "gondola" lift. When we were going up, still in fog, our slovene fellow-traveler told us that there is going to be sunny up the hill. It was great new and we could feel that the fog is getting lighter and lighter. We left gondola still in fog, Leticia and Gerrit rented their staff and we took another lift up the hill and... the sun appeared!! We were like in heaven :-) Everywhere under us just fog and cloudes. I saw such a pictures from Krvavec before but to see it by myself was really great.

We skied the whole day on the sun, took some sunburn and had nice day. It was so nice to be on the sun again...:-)

8. 3. kamnik and smartna gora

Because of the new snow and sunny weather in last few days we wanted to enjoy such a great ski conditions and decided to go to Kravevec. All of us were looking forward and dreaming about skiing and laying on the sun beach... But the same idea had probably the whole Ljubljana :-(( When they asked to leave our car at the lowest parking place under Kravavec (there is a lot of them) we decided not to join standing in queues and 'guzvanje' on the slopes. We were sad but we could do nothing... We went to see place called Velika Planina but this area works just only at weekends.


But the day was so nice and sunny that we decided to go back to Ljubljana and to walk up the Smartna Gora, favourite rest-place of Ljubjana people... On the way back we stopped in Kamnik, small town under moutains and took pictures of the sweet scenery with Kamnicke Alpy.


To walk up the Smartna Gora wasnt really easy, I think we took up the way for hikers :-)) But the view from the top of the hill was great. We stayed there laying on benches and enjoying the sun more than one hour and than walked down. That was much more funny than the way up because the snow was melting and very slippery, we finally skied - on our shoes :-) The days was really great and it was just a pity that so much people wanted to ski, hope next time they will stay in their offices and classrooms...

7. 3. ...march - snow and euro come

Around 30 cm of snow during one day... I would love such a new - before the christmas time :-( But when you are waiting for the spring and looking forward to leave your cap and scarf at the bottom of your wardrobe, than such a new won't make you really happy... There was snowing all the sunday but what was really surprise for me - next day were the streets mainly cleaned and I could even walk at the pavement here in Bezigrad! :-)) but when I was coming back from the school all the pavement was occupied by cars... welcome to Ljubljana - cars everywhere :-)

One europian thing came to Ljubljana - EURO... The Slovenians will start to pay with this money at the beginning of year 2007. The change can't come immediately so at the bills you have to see the price already in euros as well - from the beginning of March 2006. Than most of the menus look like this one from Lovec :-)

3. - 5. 3. Get To Know Each Other

Kranjska Gora again - drinking, talking, dancing, sleeping and this time lot of rain as well :-))

28. 2. carneval parties everywhere

I came back to Slovenia after almost two weeks and was expecting the beginning of spring - but that was really big mistake... There was even colder than in Czech that time :-( So I tried to ride a bike at -8°C and survived it :-)

Just next day after coming I spent all the whole day at school listening to management lectures in slovene! I think I mainly understand spoken language but that is really differnt than folling some lecture. We went with Petra from the faculty really tired...

But this day was the carneval day here in Slovenia, so everywhere were parties and lot of people in crazy costumes. I went to Dominika place just for a while and saw nice devils, clowns,... Because I was quite tired after the way to Ljubljana and after that first day at school so I had no power to dress myself as well... So next time :-)

17. 2. liberec and "the sport ball' in my village

We went to Liberec (a city in the north part of czech) with my dear sister to see there the University and to find out more about the study programs there. The faculty of Textile had "the open door day". Later we went to the center and had great lunch in one of the local pub.



When we come back to Krasna Hora (the name of the village where is my home) we were quite tired but later we decided to go to our culture house for "the sport ball" :-)) The name of that ball doesn't mean that you have to be an athlete to enter, you even don't need to have costume of football player, you just need to have a the ticket :-)

My home village is not really big (800 people), so at this ball I met quite all of my friends, former schoolmates, rest of my family :-),... I was afraid of people asking me all the time how is it in Slovenia but it wasn't so bad and later I was really happy that we had decided to come there :-)

15. 2. guided exam done!

The guided exam was the reason why I went to Czech... I was quite afraid about it because I didn't have enough time to study. And to go threw all the history of czech countries in one day was not enough as well :-) But I had good luck in getting questions so I passed that exam! :-))

Now I have an exam, I got certificate, I could work like a guide but I don't have any practise - so looking for job won't be really easy... we will see :-)

7. 2. skiing at krvavec

We made really nice break in our project-days and went with Lenka, Martin and Anja to ski. Krvavec is the closest ski resort from Ljubljana, you need just half an hour of drive (if you don't forget to go on highway :-)). It wasn't our first time at Krvavec but as the last time we liked it there. Not all of lifts were working but not to many people was skiing anyway. The slopes were quite tough and frozen in the morning but after midday even the sun looked out from clouds and the view all around was magical - tops of moutains with white covers, little bit foggy skyline and later on that sun...

Katka with her family came to spent one they of their ski-holidays there and it was nice to talk to her after some days (she already left Ljubjana). And because we are in small Slovenia we met there another erasmus people and my slovene "buddy" from Prague which was really surprised that I am able to speak slovene :-)

5. 2. parties and projects

Last days are all the time quite the same - parties during nights, sitting at computer during days... From courses that we took with girls at the faculty of architecture was just one exam. Maybe two weeks ago but I guess that results we can expect in next month :-) Nobody is in hurry. There is just one course left, interier design, but the final exam is really terrible - to design shop for soft drinks and fast food in the ugly underpass from National Gallery to Tivoli park. And than the whole year project... better not to think about it.

I think I really got used to be with people quite all the time. When I should stay in the evening alone in my room I just think that something is wrong... And when I don't go out three or four days I feel really strange :-) There was good-bye party in house of Polish girls and in house of Portuguese guys this week. Just I wouldn't like to clean this pleaces next days...;-)

And I bought train ticket to Prague - for 14. February. I will take there one exam and in ten days will go back to Ljubljana. Hope there will come better weather to Czech before I will arrive because -20C is really cold. So looking forward to meet you at my home or in Prague :-)

29. 1. Saying Good Bye...:-(

Except one exam on Tuesday I spent this week with friends. This one was the last for lot of them...:-( It's strange when you see and feel that people are leaving, one by one... Five months is quite a long time for getting used to somebody and to miss him now. Of course I know that new people will come and there is as well few of them staying all the year. But I will miss a lot coffees with friends from my dormitory, all people closer to me left Bezigrad for their homes.

I am sure I will see lot of you again and my dear new erasmus friends, don't forget that you should visit Prague! I think that is better to see this beutifull city with "local person" in order not to get mad from other turists and enjoy the city even more. After this summer, I am looking forward to be your guide:-)

23. 1. "Smucanje v Cerknu"

Instead of studying and dull staring in my "architecture-of-the-city-ebook" I spent this freezing sunny day on the slope...:-) With Gregor (special thanks for driving), Anja and Martin. This time we went to Cerkno which is less than one hour of drive far from Ljubljana. According to the leaflet is this ski center the most modern one in Slovenia. It's true that comparing to Krvavec you will use few "Doppelmayer" lifts here :-) The slopes are quite wide and not so steep like in Krvavec, the wiev all around is great. And probably because of Monday there wasn't a lof of people, so really nice spent time.

Slovenes consider their ski centers small and their weekends or holidays spend usually in Italy or Austria. But in czech travel agencies you would be able to find an offer of one week stay here :-) For us is it still bigger than our centers and what is more important - you don't spend half of the day waiting in queues.

22. 1. 2006 About...

It's January and half of my Erasmus stay is going to be over. Most of my friends are leaving Ljubljana these days so I decided to write little bit about things here, how it goes on without you... And I will be really happy to hear about you from time to time :-))