Ignis Brunensis

So I'm after some frustrating experiments with blogspot's upload function I found that it was a far easier route to just upload my vids to youtube and embed them. So I hope you enjoy the fruit of my efforts in posting these, though honestly it's not that different from a screen saver :p I'll have to take better videos in the future so stay tuned!

Last week was the start of the annual fireworks competition Ignis Brunensis, which might be the biggest spectacle in the Czech Republic outside of them cinching IIHF hockey championship on Sunday :) The atmosphere is generally filled with that mix of Summer carnival and the energy of students both high school and university sensing their Summer holiday is almost upon them. The weather has serendipitously held up during the nights of the show, while during the day there seems to be an extreme fluctuation between harsh thundershowers then blindingly sunny weather every couple hours.

Just a small snippet of the first actual show which lasted for about 20 mins, at a certain point I have to put down the phone and just watch the show :p

Old World Beauty

Haha I know I’ve been bad, and have not posted anything in 2 weeks! So to make it up I’ll put up a block of pictures I’ve been building up since my arrival in Brno. Hopefully this huge mass of photos keeps you returning to the blog for more ;)

The theme of the post is old school architecture of the city of Brno. Honestly, I used to get a little miffed at the previous occasions when European friends would recant tales of their visits to the US and their subsequent general disappointment at how ugly the cities they visited were. I always thought sure Western Europe may be packed with a few more famous landmarks, but in the end there all just cities like anywhere else in the world right? I can’t really speak for the rest of the European cities, but in my short time in Brno I am starting to understand how drab the cities back home can seem, where only the commercial real estate makes an effort to appear impressive, but rarely in a completely awe inspiring fashion.

While Brno certainly has it’s fair share of the modern, it is 2nd largest city in the Czech Rep after all, and its fair share of the ugly, the period under communist rule did not do any favors towards making any worthwhile contributions to the city’s skyline, it’s the old school buildings that really gives this otherwise typical city its WOW factor. By “old school” I’m referring to buildings that were built as late as 1920’s to as early as the 1600’s all perfectly encapsulating the architectural fashion of their respective eras despite whatever renovation must have been needed since their creation. The sheer amount of flourishes that adorn simple random buildings every time you turn on to a new street can really provide a highlight to your day. If you’re willing to take the time to notice something will always catch your eye, and give you the realization that a leisurely stroll through city center has revealed art.

Hope you all enjoy the pictures, but you really need to visit rather than be comforted by vicarious viewing from my simple 6MP camera phone :D











The dreaded camera phone self portrait shot, just to show that these are indeed my photos, and I'm very much alive with all vital organs intact :)

Chill weekend at home

Great day :D, saw Iron Man 2 a week before the rest of the US due to an earlier release in Europe. Yes, it's super awesome as if that was in any doubt, and the easter egg after the credits had me barely holding in my nerd boy giddiness....

Hugely crazy coincidence ended up meeting some random guy in the ticket line who was not only from America, but was on a business trip from Blue Coat systems in Sunnyvale, and on top of that he's a freaking Silicon Valley local having gone to Saratoga High, and dated a girl from Lynbrook (a good..15-20 years before I ever got there but still.) It's just crazy being on the other side of the world and meeting someone who prob lives 15 mins away from my home :D

And .... :D Great day

Pride and vanity rafting in Slovakia

This past weekend I gave myself a lesson in the penalty of vanity and pride. What should have been a simple weekend company rafting trip was complicated by my falling ill the day before I left. I had committed already to paying the trip's fees, and purchased gear specifically for the event so there was a huge part of me that refused to let that money go to waste by bailing on the trip at the last moment. The idea of having to sleep in a tent at 2C and rafting down mountain rivers did not phase me (pride) though in hindsight my experience with keeping warm in a tent is limited, and I had always taken a solo Kayak with very limited experience with operating a 2 man raft. Needless to say I aggravated my cold to the point, where I got through the days and nights on a combination of will power and constant shots of Czech family brewed alcohol, called Smilovitze, advertised as the Czech "cure all "by my co-workers. Still I managed to have an amazing time, and see some pretty cool sights, but I'm seriously going to need to take it easy for the next couple weeks to recover X.X








Slovakia's mountains in the distance are an impressive sight.






Shot of me by the end of the trip looking pretty worse for wear

Lastly need to vent...
First month anniversary of my arrival in Brno => shittiest day I've had in the Czech Rep thus far.
Things that made my shit list today >[
Retarded dorm managers and her anal complaining to every middleman (getting them annoyed at me >[ ) instead of just contacting me with what the f' she wants.
Almost getting hit by a car despite walking through the crosswalk WITH A CROWD OF OTHER people: file under you dont' have to be "asian" or a woman to be a terrible driver
Traveler cheques the most useless form of pseudo-currency the protection it offers is the equivalent of a credit card, and is accepted in even less locations (only accepted at banking institutions) :/
Incompetent bank tellers: If I give you a stack of 200 USD traveler cheques and say "Crowns" then give you another 200 USD stack and say "Euros" then I expect Crowns and Euros. Not take the second stack, and give me a conversion of 194 USD.. literally you took 200 USD from me and gave me 194 USD back....I understand a conversion fee, but they get applied when you're actually PERFORMING A CURRENCY CONVERSION, if I wanted US cash, I would have just brought US cash with me!!
FTL Komercni Banka!!

Friday Afternoon in Prague

This past Friday the CEO invited me to drive with him to a Expo in Prague. Though honestly since he was there to meet with clients, he only expected me to attend for about an hour, before letting me have the rest of the day to explore the city on my own ;) My first impression for the bulk of city was that it was just rampant modern urbanization with skyline completely congested with towers and multinational advertisements strung across the streets. But you reach the old quarter of the city, and it's practically a different world. The pictures I felt worth showing are from the Charles Bridge.









The bridge is such a tourist attraction completely bustling with foreigners, and it was the first time I heard native English speakers in the last 3 weeks (though it was British accents mostly.) It somehow felt odd, and I had a slight longing to try and have a conversation with them just so that I could once again talk at my normal speech tempo.






Views seriously don't get much better than this :D The rest of the photos I'll throw into an album on facebook.

I spent the rest of the afternoon attending a costume art museum, taking 3 course lunch for less than $5 at this lovely little restaurant up the hill, and found out during the car ride that my boss is an ex-head banging metal head (nose piercing and hair down to his waist as a teen), which is just shocking as now he's your typical laid back IT guy who loves his clean t shirt and jeans look :)

Also this week marked my first attempt at playing squash. Session was great exercise but my swinging arm was seriously sore for the rest of the week. I might have to stick with swimming, easier on my body :p

The rest of the weekend was spent with an absolutely solid group of friends, from Poland, who I met all the way back when I studying abroad in Korea. When they knew I had finally arrived in the Czech Rep they went out of their way to find a weekend to visit me. It's friends like that that make my world travels so addicting, and me completely grateful for the life I have, THANKS GUYS!

Denis Gardens (“Denisovy sady”)

Built on a hill leading up to the iconic St. Peter and Paul Cathedral (pictured below, I should have taken a picture from the other side from the bottom of the bare hill as seen from the center of town to really give the impression of how stunning it is. The side shown is cobblestone street that eases up from the other side of the hill) the Denis Gardens is amongst the best places to get a panoramic view of Brno. The large open space offers itself up as a local favorite for a romantic date regardless of the time of day, or just relaxing away a sunny afternoon. The combination of the occasional hobo, families, and a closed circuit camera system always in clear line of sight keeps the PDA at appropriate levels, (unless you have some serious exhibitionist urges...), proper level of PDA displayed by my tour guides Tereza and her boyfriend Karel (see panoramic picture 4, ;p)



The inside of this church is just amazing...I didn't take any pictures of the inside though. I'm not terribly religious, but sometimes I feel places of worship deserve to not be treated as a tourist spectacle...




Make shift panoramic, I'm too lazy to use a photo editor to combine the pictures together.






Great place to grab some drinks have picnic and hang out

Easter and green beer?

So despite decades of Communism, and a 50% atheist rate in the population Easter is a HUGE deal here compared to the U.S. While the devout in the US do have a set of traditions to follow leading up to Easter Sunday, for the secular portion of society there is almost no visible impact. Here on the other hand university students got off from school starting on the Thursday, and the Monday is a national holiday. Most of the city shut down, except for the foreign restaurants (thank you Asian restaurants), and the most commercial areas (the shopping mall was virtually undiminished in its services).

The entire week though has been a lead up to Easter with a special festive market set up in the town square, and constant rotation of traditional entertainment groups.










But most unique of all is probably the tradition that takes place the Thursday before Easter, where people partake in the consumption of something green as a symbolic gesture relating to continued life. In Czech fashion of course this tradition has manifested in the creation of a green beer! So that afternoon as a form of company bonding I had the pleasure of joining my coworkers at the pub to partake in a few ;)

Now many Americans, especially the cynical ones, will say well we do the same thing on St Patricks, and it's just food coloring in the beer. No company would brew a batch for a single day... Well STAROBRNO the local brewery does! With a secret addition of certain herbs for color and taste along with special distribution requirement that the beer be only served on the Thursday by its vendors. Why would the company do such a thing? Well if you think of the consumer base creating a 1 day batch probably isn't any different than their regular production schedule, and it's nice PR plus. For further marketing parallels consider the seasonal McRib at McDonald's.