Stoldolni rocks!

The reason why I didn’t say Ostrava rocked is because we actually didn’t manage to see much of the city. By the time we got there it was already dark and the next morning we went straight to the train station from the hotel, but fair enough, we didn’t miss the most fun part of the city – the legendary Stoldolni!

The trip to Ostrava started at 10:10 am by train with a bottle of Ukrainian pepper & honey vodka and some beers. Due to the recent snowstorm in Central Europe, the view out of the window was breathtaking.

But we soon got bored with the unchanged white field outside, so some of us moved the focus back to the cart party in the train. Upon request from the rest of the crew I have to post this photo here.

I honestly have no clue what happened since I wasn’t at that cart then, but I’d appreciate it if someone could tell us so that people won’t get the wrong idea of what Andelers usually do during the day.:-)

The snow and the wet dirty street didn’t seem to depress the alcoholically warmed-up players at all.

The party was of great fun, especially the Mr. & Miss Stoldolni 2005 competition (of course the success of this competition is mostly because of the excellent judges of whom there was an Andel representative – Moi.:)) Congratulations to Hong and Bina!

So thanks a lot to the Stoldolni tour OC, we had great fun. Wish all the Ostrava people a great success for the Stoldolni tour 2006, too. A tip to all Stoldolni tour 2006 participants is that if you want to win the questionnaire contest quickly, bring Kasper along! Our magic Kasper technique worked damn well, even though we didn’t win this contest at last, which was mostly because of the corrupted OC… :P

[proof of the fun weekend we had]

Christmas in Prague

Jeremy has a great post featuring Christmas time photos of Prague.

Krusovice Tour

Krivoklat Castle - Don't let the smiles fool you, it was damn cold!



‹understatement›Yah, there was a lot of beer at the Krusovice Brewery.‹/understatement›



Finally, the best part of the tour: the never-ending goulash and beer! Thanks Starosta for organizing this great reception event! (Photos courtesy Midori via Majka.)

Second-city skies open to Europe

“Budget airline Ryanair launches daily flights on direct London-Brno route.

The new service could also potentially triple the number of British travelers in south Moravia and significantly increase tourism revenues. Of the 7.9 million tourists who visited the Czech Republic last year, south Moravia received only 330,000 of them, or 4.2 percent. Most came from Germany, while a mere 10,000 came from the UK. The mayor's office in Brno registered only 180,000 foreign tourists to the city last year, With a population of over 360,000, the Czech Republic's second largest city has generally been off the map for foreign visitors.

So what's next? The airport director wouldn't say. New flights next year? "I hope so," he conceded.” (Prague Post)

So Brno before the massive tourists crash in? We are so there!

A laptop for every kid: The technology and business behind MIT Media Labs' $100 laptop.

Top 10 ways to write a great weblog post. via Life Hacker

Ctrl+F: The International Herald Tribune discusses how RFID technology is creating an internet of 'things' - a both exciting and scary prospect.

This year's first snow…

… is finally bringing us the white Prague.

[Prague - with or without snow...]

Entertainment programe samples in Prague - Tips for weekend visitors

Day 1 Friday – 19:00, Ballet “Onegin”, at Národní Divadlo (National Theater)
The venue is great. Over 100 years old, this theater is still running very well, and it’s unbelievably cheap to see a show. 80 crowns for an opera and 60 crowns for a ballet – that's even before a student discount!

Day 2 Saturday – 21:00 ish, party, party, party! Birthday party for Hania and Geri last weekend, and Goodbye party for Vika yesterday...

Before the party (when all were still sober)…


After the party (where angels dwell) …
So you yourselves figure out the part in between… :)

Give Peace a Chance

PRAGUE, CZECH REPUBLIC - World peace initiatives were dealt a major set-back Friday morning when the Canadian delegates to Global Village were informed by AIESEC Praha officials that their waffles with real Canadian maple syrup would not be welcome at next Tuesday's annual event.

"We are deeply saddened by this unexpected turn of events," said Canadian spokesperson, Erik W----, reading from a prepared statement Friday afternoon. "We will need to evaluate our options going forward eh."

Michael Simmons, professor of Canada-Czech relations at the University of Chicoutimi, speculated that those options might include import duties on Czech goulash. "I don't think that we will see any retaliation against Czech beer though - let's not get crazy here."

Talks to bring the Canadian waffles to Global Village had started earlier this month in hopes of repairing some of the damage to Canada-Czech relations that resulted from Canada's support of Australia during the "baked goods" incident of September, 2005.

"We thought that we were making some real progress in the talks eh but then the Czechs go and pull this. We really do not understand what this is aboot."

Indeed questions remain regarding the Czechs motivation for implementing the waffle ban. While the official statement issued by AIESEC Praha spokesperson, Miroslav A------ cited safety concerns, skeptical analysts continue to speculate as to the true motivation behind the ban.

Developing story...

Halloween Party

Check out Vika's blog for more great photos from the Halloween party last week!

When Google meets vegemite and peanut butter...

“I Typed ‘tofu oranges cauliflower', And My Computer Concocted a Meal.

Google, the almighty Web search engine, is my encyclopedia, dictionary, shopping mart, even private investigator. So it seemed natural to type in "Cambodian tapioca noodles" and see what recipes Google could rustle up. And rustle it did.

Cooking is basic: Simply plug in your ingredients and the word "recipes," press Google search, then wait for the results to pop up. The engine will scour reams of Web sites -- from the expected (Food Network's http://foodtv.com/ ) to the obscure ( http://acupuncture.com/ ) -- for recipes that incorporate your desired foodstuffs. With its infinite repository, Google can find recipes for unconventional food pairings or exotic products that might stump most cookbooks. Indeed, it was a piece of salmon and a bunch of Swiss chard that inspired Judy Hourihan to enlist Google's assistance three years ago.” (full article)

So I recalled what we had in our three kitchens and typed “vegemite peanut butter spaghetti recipe”, and Google gave me a pretty promising idea of what our dinner is going to be like, even vegemite haters like Andre or peanut butter haters like Vika would find it worth trying. Andelers, pick one and let’s practice our new unstoppable Google cooking techniques.

All you Economist readers might be interested to know that the Wall Street Journal Online is free this week.

Saturday party!

Dear All,

Finally we are getting old! Yuppie!

We’d like to invite you for our birthday party!

When? On Sat, 12th of November, at about 8-9 pm
Where? Andel, Lidicka 37

As always – if you’d like to get really drunk, please take some alcohol with you

Geri S. and Hanna M.

Just in case (if you will have some ‘logistic’ problems): +420 776 322 946 (Hanna)

Hotel Andel

Things are hectic in the best way possible. True to it's reputation, Andel attracts visitors like you wouldn't believe. Over the past two weekends, no less than 24 visiting nomads have passed through the door of our humble little flat. Yeah, it can be hectic and we can't always play the best host, but we're always happy to see new faces. This weeks crop comes from Mexico, Venezuela, Germany, Brazil and Japan. Erik had the bright idea to get a guest book, and I wholeheartedly agree. I think over the last three months it's safe to say we had at leas 50 visitors. Serious bragging rights. Unfortunately we have no proof, only a random assortment of drunken party pictures. Remember, some advance warning is always appreciated. When all the "permanent" residents are here, we have 11 people in 6 rooms. We look forward to seeing your bright, shining, travel-weary faces on our doorstep.

Cheers from Club Andel,

Jeremy

Andel...place where you come as stranger and leave as family

Props to Danka for the sweet comment, however it’s not always the case if the stranger and the family don’t speak the same language, for example when you are ordering in a pizza with a strange foreign name and a language that you just thought you spoke well…

A cold Sunday night a couple of weekends ago, we were bored and hungry so we decided to trust the new yellow page that our beloved landlord just gave us. We randomly picked something called Pizza Go Home and dialed. I spent the next 10 minutes trying to make them take down my last name and our address, which round up to less then 10 letters – and that exactly is the problem. They just don’t understand how a person’s surname can have only 2 letters, and of course I couldn’t be bothered to further explain that we don’t even write Chinese names in Latin letters! It was after they assumingly got the name and address right that we realized their pizza was extremely expensive and the delivery would ridiculously take an hour. So we cancelled the order, said “Thanks. Bye.” and hung up.

An hour later, my phone rang. I picked it up, and someone said, “Hello this is Pizza Go Home. Is it Miss &%(% at address %$^*^?” Lovely, they got us pizza that we didn’t order and had a name and address that were completely mispronounced… could be lovelier if they didn’t want us to pay and they could speak more English than the following words.

-“Our driver, with your pizza, in front of your house, now.”
-“But no, we did not order the pizza.”

The repetition of these two lines by different people in all possible languages lasted for another 10 minutes according to my call summary, and ended up with them disconnecting the phone. So Pizza Go home went home, and I guess I’m now on the top of the blacklists of all pizza delivery services in Prague (but I don’t worry since they obviously don’t have the right name). In this case, the stranger came as a happy money collector and left as an angry Andel hater. So much for exotic order-in experience in Prague!

Hello World

Andel is live.