Ajka+Andrej

School has started

Fri, 15 Oct 2021 21:21:43 +0000

School has started again, this year with Dominik. He proudly walked to school with his bag and a school cone almost larger than himself. He quickly figured out where what is, how it works with lunch and that he can play outside during breaks. He likes doing his homework right after the school and it is better to leave him alone until he is finished and then quickly check it with him.

Cairn of Stefanik

Thu, 09 Sep 2021 22:07:21 +0000

At the last moment and out of the summer season, we went on another trip, to the cairn of Štefánik. The weather was wonderful. We only missed the train that regularly goes up to the cairn from Brezová pod Bradlom during the season but we promised our children to come here sometimes again. The children were captivated by the size of the cairn and the beautiful view from above. Finally, after a few steps down the forest, we came to the Bradlo cottage, where we sat down for a coffee / Kofola with a cake.

A walk to Korlatko

Thu, 09 Sep 2021 21:25:11 +0000

Beautiful weather, not too hot. We were thinking about some short trip before lunch. Everyone agreed to go to the ruins of Korlátko. We somehow packed our backpacks longer than the trip itself. To get there, we set off on the way to Rozbehy, from which we turned onto a forest path and in a while we were already climbing ruins. Quite a few parts were repaired and new organic toilets appeared.

Family holiday after long time

Wed, 08 Sep 2021 15:20:34 +0000

At the end of the holidays, we finally managed to travel to our family. Almost traditionally and with great joy, the children helped with cooking of tomato sauce and harvesting the potatoes. They rode on a tractor with harrow and all the time played outside. It was no longer very warm, we skipped swimming this year, but the children discovered in the store a sticker magazine about interesting places in Slovakia, which they were very interested in.

Wildlife park in Poing

Wed, 25 Aug 2021 21:48:22 +0000

After a long time, we went on a trip to a nearby park. The kids were thrilled to finally make the trip avoiding sitting at home due to Corona. The weather forecast was terrible with rain, but that didn’t spoil our mood. Equipped with raincoats, at the end we had wonderful weather. It rained for a moment and then at the end heavily as we were running to our car, but everyone was satisfied and pleasantly tired.

Summer full of activities

Mon, 23 Aug 2021 15:44:22 +0000

The end of July was busy and more demanding, because in the school, they tried to catch up with all the tests to get enough grades, but we still managed to spend a lot of time on the bikes with the children. We discovered playgrounds in neighboring villages and tasted ice cream everywhere. Dominik was symbolically thrown out from kindergarten. Olivia spent an evening full of reading at school. In Biergarten, a small farewell event was organised for Olivia’s teacher, who teached them the first two years and then the holidays could begin.

Dominik is six

Thu, 01 Jul 2021 21:34:22 +0000

Dominik is a bit older again. He still likes to cuddle, but especially when he needs something or wants to complain that someone has hurt him. He started playing guitar. He is mostly lazy to practice what his teacher tells him, but he always has the guitar in his hands and plays. At the end he can play everything as needed in class and he catches chords as if he was born with it.

Ready for school

Thu, 25 Mar 2021 16:48:22 +0000

Dominik is looking forward to school. The most to the school gym, playground and twice as long holidays as in kindergarten. And he also likes breaks and school trips. And after my exploratory look, he added that he would also like to learn a lot. He always has many questions and is interested in many topics from the ocean and its inhabitants, lithospheric plates to the formation of mountains and trenches.

Short winter

Sun, 28 Feb 2021 18:23:19 +0000

This winter was somehow short, although of course it is not over yet and maybe after a short spring break it will snow again. But at least it snowed and the children were in the garden at every opportunity, building a house with a tunnel, which was nice and big in the end. Too bad that it melted so quickly. We did home learning much better than during the last lock down in April.

Olivia is eight

Sun, 28 Feb 2021 12:10:19 +0000

Olivia wanted warm and sunny weather for her birthday because she wanted to celebrate in the garden. This year, her wish miraculously came true. Spring came somehow earlier and we suddenly had 17 degrees for a week. We uncovered the trampoline, picked up scooters and inline skates, and we went to watch the birds. The birthday cake was a chocolate one in the shape of a heart and with butterflies exactly as Olivia wished.

Snow creations

Sat, 16 Jan 2021 07:39:19 +0000

Our front yard is covered with snow and our children plays there everyday. First, they built a snowman. Then they enthusiastically shoveled snow into the garden so they could build a house. We helped with shoveling a little bit, but they built it by themselves. Breaking the ice also seems to be a fun activity. And last week we spent several afternoons sledding on the local hills.

Marry Christmas and a healthy new year

Sun, 27 Dec 2020 22:30:23 +0000

The Christmas holidays started a little bit earlier in a very good mood, because Olivia’s quarantine ended and she could go out again (it’s really great to have a garden). The children picked a wonderfull tree and they also decorated it beautifully. We “caught” carps and a pair of trouts for dinner at a local fishmonger. And a bit at the last minute, but I still managed to bake waffles. We spent Christmas building houses and tracks for balls, and we eagerly read new books.

Autumn variety

Sun, 20 Dec 2020 21:56:23 +0000

Except for one quarantine at the end and the earlier Christmas holidays, the beginning of the school year was ordinary (well, without considering wearing the face masks). Activities for children also started, except for the swimming course, so we were going swimming on our own until they closed the city swimming pool. At home we did some gardening. We also did a lot of trips on bicycles to the villages around to get to know our surroundings better.

Long holidays

Tue, 08 Sep 2020 20:48:23 +0000

This summer, our kids went on vacation as soon as the holidays began. First to one grandparents, where they conserved everything the garden had given them and also celebrated Dominik’s name day and Olivia decorated a delicious cake for him. After a long time, they swam in the swimming pool and continued swimming in a lake with their another grandmother and grandfather. They played on all the playgrounds, Olivia learned to travel across a horizontal ladder hand over hand great.

End of the school year

Fri, 31 Jul 2020 21:57:19 +0000

And the end of the school year is here. We spent a big part of it at home, but every time it was possible to go to the school, Olivia was very happy to go. At the end, children received a bunch of colorful awards and a four-page evaluation of the work during the year. And they also got homework for holidays, which Olivia was very happy about - to breakfast an ice cream, to climb a tree, to build something from the sand, to stay up until sunset and so on.

House beds

Mon, 27 Jul 2020 21:28:17 +0000

We came up with a new project with our kids. We drew together, calculated how much wood we need and went to buy it together. Then Andrej sawed it and cut it and the children helped to drill holes and to assemble it. And finally, house beds were created, well actually only house frames, but the joy was great. We will also sew some walls and windows for them, so that there is something to do while we are at home :)

Dominik is five

Sat, 04 Jul 2020 22:07:19 +0000

Dominik grows and grows. He talks non-stop from morning till evening. He knows everything the best and he is able to explain how the things work although he has no clue. He is still such a cuddle bear, he likes hugging and kissing but on other hand he can be very unapproachable and stubborn and won’t do anything what someone else wants. He wanted a skateboard a lot for his birthday.

A little bit of school

Wed, 27 May 2020 22:22:28 +0000

Olivia goes to school this week. So I dusted off my sewing machine and sewed some children mouth masks. Somehow, time is changing, it is no longer “I have to go to school again” but rather “Hooray I can go to school!”. Half of the class had a school last week, half now and only three school hours per day, but it is so much better than nothing. They don’t have time to do everything, they have to do the rest at home, but Olivia somehow doesn’t mind at all and does everything without complaining.

Still at home

Thu, 16 Apr 2020 17:46:28 +0000

We have been home due to Corona virus for five weeks. We went through a phase of enthusiasm but also a phase of why I have to do homework and Dominik doesn’t have to. Working and doing all the school tasks at the same time is still a challenge. It was good that there was a two-week holiday break and some time off in the meantime. Somehow, I feel like I’m not properly at work nor with children.

Olivia is seven

Thu, 05 Mar 2020 22:56:28 +0000

Olivia celebrated her seventh birthday. Firstly, children sang her a birthday song on a pony riding course, then she got a special birthday drink in a restaurant and after holidays she celebrated with her friends at home. After a birthday cake, they searched for a treasure together, they made keychains and ended the celebration with pizza. For school, we prepared muffins and decorated them together. She still likes climbing and swimming.

Icelandic ponies

Sat, 29 Feb 2020 23:27:19 +0000

Olivia wanted to ride a horse for some time ago, but in addition to all the activities we have, it seemed impossible to me. So sometimes we went to ride a pony and, as I led him, I was hoping he was lazy enough to run away. Then, in the autumn, we discovered holiday courses with Icelandic ponies, which, in addition to being cute, walk so that it does not burden the spine.

Dominik on skis

Fri, 14 Feb 2020 21:30:19 +0000

Last year Dominik was doing quite well, which roughly means that he managed to slow down and make small arches on the slope in the children’s area. Olivia learned to ski with the ski poles and she was skiing great, what we were really happy about. This year, Dominik could also join the ski course in Ostin organized by kindergarten. But there was not so much snow, so they were only in the children’s area all the time.

Little chefs

Tue, 14 Jan 2020 22:46:19 +0000

Our lovely children got picture cookbooks for Christmas. With their help, they are able to cook everything by themselves. I only helped them to find the needed ingredients. They already tried to make mini pizzas, muffins, sponge cake, baked potatoes, salad, baked pasta and waffles. Everything was delicious! They enjoyed cooking and were very proud of themselves. Yummy!

First school day

Sat, 14 Sep 2019 22:43:19 +0000

A new school year began and Olivia became a Year One pupil. On the first day, she walked enthusiastically with the school cone and school bag to school. Olivia goes to 1.D class. So far we had more homework than her, but those she had she enjoyed very much. Reward for an active participation at school or for good homework are stamps on a special card. When she gets a certain number of them she may choose an extra reward (we don’t know what it is yet, but it motivates her greatly).

Black forest

Sat, 07 Sep 2019 11:44:19 +0000

It is said that the forest is called black one due to the color of the tree bark. It didn’t seem so black to us, but it smelled amazingly of mushrooms that we literally stumbled over, and there were loads of blueberries everywhere, so Dominik had a blue-violet mouth after each trip. We walked along a gnome path (about two hours in the forest), where we were looking for a capercaillie Anton together with two gnomes.

Dominik is four

Mon, 01 Jul 2019 20:41:27 +0000

Dominik became a proper kindergarten kid. His love for machines, whether agricultural, construction or trains, has not changed. He likes to disassemble things and then to repair them and build. Last time, he said he would like to be a builder. He is really full of surprises. With Olivia everything has its rules, with Dominik it just doesn’t work like that, he somehow always finds a way how to avoid them.

Istria

Fri, 28 Jun 2019 10:39:18 +0000

Istria is nice hilly and about as far away from us as Italy, so this time we decided to replace the sandy Italian beach with a pebble one. We stayed in the camping resort Lanterna near the town of Tar. The sea was clear, the beaches were well maintained (the algae were also cleaned up quickly after the storm) and there was a pleasant walkway along the beach. Everywhere was a wonderful shade of pine trees, so we spent practically all day on the beach.

Cave in Postojna

Wed, 26 Jun 2019 09:23:12 +0000

This summer I wanted to make the travelling towards the sea more interesting and so I walked with my finger on the map hoping to find something and I found a huge cave in Postojna, Slovenia. The city is nice, everything is being renovated there, tourism is obviously beneficial. In front of the cave, which is on the outskirts of the city, there is a large parking lot, a few restaurants and souvenir shops, but they close relatively soon (we walked out of the cave around five in the afternoon and everything was almost empty and closed, so we found a restaurant in the city center) .

Olivia will be a schoolgirl

Thu, 21 Mar 2019 16:48:12 +0000

Olivia will be a schoolgirl. I thought that we would buy a school bag at some point in the summer, but in February, there were flyers related to sale offers for school bags with expert advices everywhere and all the mums in the kindergarten held discussions about who had already bought a bag and where. Olivia was quite immune to it until last week, but then it somehow overwhelmed her. She said they would have a day in the kindergarten when they could show up with a school bag, and she wished her own bag.

I'm really tall

Mon, 11 Mar 2019 20:37:12 +0000

Last Sunday was very relaxing. Olivia spent three hours at a creative workshop in the morning and when she was back, Dominik fell asleep and slept till dinner time. The theme of the workshop was “I am really tall”. Each child created herself from the paper in the life size. And then they together described each created character in three words. For Olivia’s character they chose: lively, funny and happy.

Rainbow unicorn and dinosaur

Fri, 08 Mar 2019 16:21:12 +0000

Carnival time is successfully behind us. This year, Dominik enjoyed it properly as well. He enthusiastically said he wanted to be a dinosaur. It took Olivia a while to decide, but finally she ended up with a rainbow unicorn. In a kindergarden, they had a full day of games and competitions. Dominik watched everything with opened mouth and Olivia was excited that she could guide him. The next day, they went to the kindergarden traditionally in pyjamas.

Olivia is six years old

Wed, 06 Mar 2019 17:07:12 +0000

Olivia is already six. I wonder when she grew up so fast, not to mention that she is going to school in September. Compared to the previous year, she is somehow more sensible and we can talk to her at a different level. It’s also fun to observe what conversation techniques/tricks she uses while talking to Dominik, even better when she wants something from him. When she was five, she learned to swim and until last December it really seemed like she wuoldn’t improve anything.

At Christmas and now

Thu, 31 Jan 2019 10:11:12 +0000

At Christmas, we were riding bicycles and there was no snow at all. I secretly hoped that it would snow at some point during the holiday so we could go sledging but it was raining instead. On the Three Kings day, we suddenly had 50cm of snow. We were busy shoveling snow in order to get into the garage and children were looking forward to riding sledge all the way to the kindergarden.

At the airport

Sun, 28 Oct 2018 22:02:12 +0000

Recently, we somehow often ended up reading books about aeroplanes and airports, and so we though it might be a good idea to have a look at it closer. At the airport near to us, there is a park for visitors, so on one nice Saturday morning we set off for a trip. We were welcomed by children playgrounds, a pair of old planes, where we could go inside and a sightseeing hill which the departing and landing aeroplanes could be seen from.

Kindergarden kids

Fri, 26 Oct 2018 22:10:12 +0000

We have two kindergarden kids. Dominik joined Olivia in her lady bug group and he likes it very much. He enjoys music lessons and a big excavator in a sandbox. He already found a new friend, the same tractor enthusiast loving all the machines. Inspired by him, we sewed a tractor on Dominik’s gym bag and we bought slippers with the car pictures on them. The only thing Dominik resists is to sleep after the lunch.

Trips around Terchova

Fri, 24 Aug 2018 20:49:12 +0000

After two years, we travelled to Terchova again. We went to the town lookout Terchova heart (we learned it’s name later from a guide of the Terchova train) and it gives a wonderful view of the town and the surrounding hills. We made again a trip to Vychylovka, Dominik still enjoyed the historical train and the local sheep. Then we rode a cable car from Vratna uphill and hiked over the Chleb hill, Steny (Walls) and Poludňový grúň to the cottage on Grúň.

By the sea

Mon, 30 Jul 2018 21:03:18 +0000

We have already forgotten that we were at the sea, but Dominik is still talking about the big bucket pouring water into the pool. Finally, both our kids swam in the sea and were anxiously watching little crabs running at the bottom. Olivia took part in all creative activities (she made bracelets, paper fish and octopus, and she painted a litttle rabbit) and in the meantime, Dominik was exploring the swimming pools.

Dominik is 3 years old

Sat, 28 Jul 2018 20:57:12 +0000

Dominik is already three years old. When we congratulated him in the morning, he only frowned at us. He accepted the fact that he has his birthday first with a cake in the afternoon. But on the next day, he celebrated proudly and enthusiastically with his friends in the nursery. Two months ago he started to ride a bicycle. He cannot start riding by himself, but then he rides great and Olivia is happy as well, because we can finally ride together at about the same speed.

New in May

Sat, 26 May 2018 20:45:12 +0000

Firstly, we celebrated a May festival in the nursery. Chidlren helped to prepare and paint a maypole and they learned a new song. Then, on the day of the celebration, the maypole was errected, the children garnished gingerbread hearts, made a picnic in the garden and played. We made also a trip to the zoo in Munich. We only dressed lightly because of the warm weather and our memories of concrete surfaces without any shade in another zoo and we set off in the morning.

Creative Easter

Tue, 24 Apr 2018 20:31:12 +0000

While we were waiting for the spring, we spent a lot of time doing creative activities. Children painted and couldn’t wait when the easter bunny finnaly comes. Once again, we visited an animal park in Poing. I think we will make this a tradition, because it’s really amazing to see all the baby animals there. Then we spent the holidays in the field (someone takes his kids to the football match, someone to the tractor).

Olivia is 5 years old

Sat, 10 Mar 2018 14:06:12 +0000

Olivia is 5 years old. She started celebrating with her grandparents in the morning and in the afternoon, she enjoyed the chocolate birthday cake with her friend. On the next day, she successfuly finished her swim course. I have already sewed a little sea horse on her swimsuit. On the last lesson, the children swam in their pyjamas to find out what it is like to swim in the clothes. Olivia did it perfectly well to my pleasure.

Olivia can swim

Wed, 31 Jan 2018 14:06:12 +0000

Since October, Olivia goes swimming once a week. The goal is to get a see horse (that means, that she can swim 25 meters, she has the courage to jump into the water and she can dive and pull the ring out of the water). Last week, she managed to swim 25 metres.

Dominik is two and half

Sun, 14 Jan 2018 14:06:12 +0000

Dominik like singing. In the car, I always turn on a song he wishes and then he sings all the way home. Currently, he prefers to eat pasta in any form and corn. It’s similar to the time when he wanted to eat only bread or yogurt whole the week. Now he takes pasta from the fridge even for breakfast. Unlike Olivia, he first does something and then he thinks about the consequences.

Full December

Mon, 01 Jan 2018 19:54:12 +0000

In December, there was always a lot going on. I think that the first starting event was on Saint Martin’s day in November, when the gingerbread goats are used to be baked and the children are looking forward to lantern procession in the evening. Afterwards at home, we were still listening to the Saint Martin’s songs untill the new ones about Saint Nicholas came. In the meantime, the children began to open an Advent calendar and they also kept getting the small sweet surprises on all the courses.

Winter for a few days

Sun, 31 Dec 2017 23:21:12 +0000

This year, the winter has come only for a few days, but every moment we have made the most of it. Kids would love to shovel snow every morning and Dominik is excited about sledding (I think he does not remember it from the last year). And we built a lovely snowman. Your browser does not support the video tag.

Olivia takes pictures

Sat, 30 Dec 2017 22:35:12 +0000

We gave Olivia a small camera in the summer so she could take photos during her holidays. Dominik was excited to take pictures as well. So far, the biggest problem is to be patient enough to take tack sharp images, but a few nice shots have been made.

Summer memories

Tue, 03 Oct 2017 16:32:12 +0000

There was no time to write about summer holidays. But at least, I would like to post some photos now. Olivia wanted to mount a go kart with her grandpa and she drew a frame for it in the kindergarden. This year we managed to swim a couple of times in the swimming pool in the backyard, ride horses (I had to as well, because I was afraid that the horse was too big for Dominik) and we made a trip to Korlátko (about an hour of walking) and we walked through the Dolné diery in Vrátna valley.

Autumn holiday at the sea

Sat, 30 Sep 2017 21:13:12 +0000

This year’s summer holiday ended up as an autumn holiday. With September coming, itwas suddenly time for rain, wind and less sunshine. So I packed all the things like waterproof trousers, jackets and boots and we set off. We were outside all day long, even though it was raining. Dominik joyfully jumped in puddles and Olivia danced in the rain. With the kids on their bouncing bikes, we went through both parks (camping Italy and Union Lido), with stops on all the playgrounds.

Summer

Tue, 15 Aug 2017 21:13:12 +0000

We asked Olivia what season we have right now and she as usual didn’t want to answer straight away, so we asked Dominik what he thought about it. He looked and said:“Summer”. Olivia was quite angry :) Olivia now enjoys when she can help me. She always says:“You know, I’ll help you Mom, so you have more time to play with us.” And she makes a breakfast or dinner table ready, she prepares all ingredients for cooking and she chops and mix them when needed.

Dominik is two

Sun, 02 Jul 2017 20:30:12 +0000

So Dominik is two years old. He still loves tractors, trains and excavators. He likes when he has time to do his own things and no one disturbs him but he also started to play with Olivia and he follows her in everything what she does. Dominik learned to jump into the swimming pool, he is talking more and more.

Two-week holiday

Wed, 28 Jun 2017 20:23:12 +0000

One week off in the kindergarden and then one more in the nursery and so we went for holidays to grandparents. The children played on all playgrounds, they ate peas, currants, cherries and strawberries all the time. Dominik used to “drive” the tractor in a barn every day. After two weeks, they asked when we would go home and when we were arriving to our home town, Dominik screamed in the car “hoooome”.

Last events

Tue, 30 May 2017 08:46:12 +0000

Our Easter was one very enjoyable extended weekend full of trips. Only weather could have been warmer and less rainy. However, we visited the Wildpark in Poing and we palyed on the playgrounds. A week later, Olivia was still talking about Ivka and how she loves her and she asked when we would visit her again. This year we joined a local tradition and were looking for Easter eggs. “Mami, the easter bunny was here” was the reaction when she found the cooked eggs in the flower pots and the garden hidden by the grandparents.

In common and different

Mon, 20 Mar 2017 20:46:12 +0000

They are really different, but one thing they have in common, each pursues their own interests and follows them. Olivia is like a manager and her assertiveness has no boundaries. When I want to pick her up from the kindergarten, she first goes to all teachers to say goodbye with a handshake (I do not know where does it come from). The best is when we are talking about how to do something, she listens to everything and then she says, “You know what we do it this way …”.

Olivia is 4 years old

Wed, 01 Mar 2017 20:33:40 +0000

Olivia talked about her birthday since summer. She couldn’t wait till she would put four candles on her birthday cake, light them and blow them out. We celebrated together, with her friends, with the grandparents and finally in the kindergarten with cakes. Luckily, everyone has birthday only once a year :). Olivia got Cubetto (she calls him Kubo), a small robot to learn programming and improve spatial orientation in a funny way.

When there is a lot of snow

Wed, 01 Feb 2017 12:15:33 +0000

We planned to go somewhere for the winter holidays, but it snowed so much that we changed our minds. We are every day in our garden playing with shovels or sledding on the nearby hill. And I started introducing Olivia to skiing. First, in the garden just to learn balance on her own and then on the nearby slopes, but they seemed to be too steep. Then my friend recommended me a small ski resort for children.

Gym

Tue, 20 Dec 2016 20:32:42 +0000

I always try to take my children outside in any weather and every time I say we are going out they both rush to the door. But sometimes I just want to be at home, it’s raining, cold or dark early outside and then it is good to have a place where they can spend all their excess energy. So we made a gym in the basement. They can throw a ball there, slide, climb, boulder and chase each other.

Birds and ladybugs

Tue, 11 Oct 2016 20:32:42 +0000

A new school year started and Olivia finally became a kindergarten kid. Although she long longed for this moment, it took her a while to get used to a greater number of children and related noise, but now she is going to the kindergarten with enthusiasm, she brings home lots of drawings every day and she tells us what everything they did there. She also likes the music education they have.

Forest playground

Mon, 05 Sep 2016 09:42:52 +0000

In a small town Pöring, near to us, there is a large playground on the edge of the forest. I like it very much because it’s all in a pleasant shade of trees and you can play there even when it’s hot outside or raining lightly. There is something for everyone and it’s a favorite place for birthday parties or just for a picnic. The best thing is that the children go home completely tired every time:)

Vychylovka and Stará Bystrica

Sat, 03 Sep 2016 20:59:47 +0000

When the weather is bad, you need to find a place where it’s better and so we made a trip from Stefanova, immersed in clouds, to the historical forest railway and open-air museum of Kysuce village in Vychylovka. Our children were enthusiastic about the train, sheep and playgrounds and we enjoyed “živánska” in a local restaurant :) And after a pleasant walk among the wooden houses we stopped in Stara Bystrica to see the only astronomical clock in Slovakia.

Vrátna valley

Thu, 01 Sep 2016 20:59:48 +0000

We wanted to eat some proper slovak food specialties like halušky, pirohy and šúľance, relax and relish the nature and so we made a culinary trip to Štefanova in Vrátna valley. We made a trip to a cottage on Grúň and under Chleb and on every trip we found a playground or sheep, so our children were more than satisfied.

Dominik can walk

Sat, 06 Aug 2016 09:07:33 +0000

Dominik began to walk. He has already started doing the first steps about a month ago, but now he can walk longer, he tries it more often and he enjoys it more than crawling. Olivia likes to hold his hand and to walk with him and every time I pick him up, she reminds me that I can put him down because he is able to walk alone. Beside walking, he likes climbing the stairs, sliding and he can ride his toddler balance bike and he has already learned to control it.

Blond

Sat, 02 Jul 2016 14:59:31 +0000

Our small dark tan Dominik with blond hair and dark eyes is one year old. A week ago I would write that he is toothless, but now I discovered two teeth on the right side (not in the front as usual), and if another two same teeth grow on the other side, he will look like a vampire :). He likes walking and pushing a chair and he is able to push it even when Olivia sits on it.

In movement

Sat, 21 May 2016 22:06:13 +0000

Dominik is in that wonderful age when everything fascinates him and when he sees something new (i.e. the cows in the stable) he is able to watch it intently with a wide-open mouth. He also points his finger at everything, he likes playing with a ball (he tries to throw it over himself stretching his arms out or he rolls it enthusiastically through a Lego tunnel), he spents a lot of time in Olivia’s kitchen and he is fascinated by everything that does something i.

Olivia rides a bike

Thu, 21 Apr 2016 20:02:27 +0000

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Daily news

Tue, 19 Apr 2016 20:45:13 +0000

Dominik stands wherever possible, he stands up even though there is nothing to hold. And then he tries to get back down on the floor and he doesn’t like when he fells down. He likes playing in the sand and examining our garden and I’m very pleased that he doesn’t put everything he finds in his mouth anymore. On Olivia’s request, they sleep together in one room and it seems like they both enjoy it.

3 years old

Wed, 16 Mar 2016 21:10:41 +0000

Olivia is already a big girl and she’s going to school. In the morning, she’ll play there and she’ll learn to write, because she can already read and in the afternoon mommy picks her up. She keeps saying everyone that she is three years old and she shows on her fingers how much it is. We celebrated twice; once privately with a creamy berry cake and an easel and once with Olivia’s four friends (2.

Different

Wed, 24 Feb 2016 12:24:33 +0000

When she was as old as he she could already stand up, but she could wear the trousers he wears now when she was a little bit over a year. I find it generally interesting to watch them, how different they are. This year, Olivia actively helped to make her magical fairy costume for a carnival.

Because because because what?

Thu, 04 Feb 2016 11:23:48 +0000

That’s a question that I occasionally can’t answer or I simply don’t know what Olivia tries to ask me. She asks everything; who said what, how the things work, where is what and she also invents her own theories and enjoys them. And when she talks to Dominik, he enthusiastically responds “ba ba ba” and then Olivia tells us what Dominik wants :) It’s been about a week since our over ten kilo Dominik has moved.

Winter

Tue, 26 Jan 2016 20:22:45 +0000

This winter was somehow too short and now it looks again as in the springtime. We tried our best to make the most of it. Olivia tried to remember what the tobogganing is and Dominik trained it as well. Beside this, Olivia enjoyed the evenings of fairy tales, she began to “read” as others and she talks only about going to school.

Christmas craft

Sat, 26 Dec 2015 23:16:41 +0000

Last month we did some Christmas craft. Olivia paints enthusiastically, she likes making handprints (Dominik joined us as well and the brush tickled him so much :)), cutting the paper and gluing. So we did something creative every day and it looked somehow like this :)

All purpose milk

Tue, 27 Oct 2015 21:58:52 +0000

It has fascinated me since Olivia was born, how the nature works. Small wounds, irritated skin, red patches when sweating, sore eyes or small rash … there is no need to have a wound cream or drops, just use your breast milk and everything disappears quickly. I also successfully solved Dominik’s running nose only with my breast milk. Not to mention how enthusiastically he drinks and when he is full enough he smiles at me and he gently bites me.

Two of them

Fri, 09 Oct 2015 11:58:51 +0000

Time flies and you can’t do anything about it. Olivia has already learned it too. Only with Dominik, I feel like it flies at least twice as fast. Our “little” one is 8.5 kilos and about 66 cm big and he looks like 6 months old children, he only doesn’t move so much. We started going to the gym with Olivia again. She enjoys a trampoline and climbing on a bench the most.

Changes

Thu, 20 Aug 2015 11:49:28 +0000

I’m not sure what was a more significant change for Olivia, brother or moving to a new house, but in any case it slowly begins to influence her. She’s much more sensitive than before and we’re never sure how she responds. We haven’t had many opportunities to walk around the neighbourhood yet, but we tried at least a playground in the near forest and we met one wild boar. Olivia enjoys a ponies riding on a nearby farm.

He grows and grows

Mon, 20 Jul 2015 18:00:18 +0000

Domink grew by 3.5 cm in the first two weeks and he already weighs over four kilos. He begins to smile and watch what is around him. In the morning, we manage to prepare everything and go to the nursery with Olivia quite well. We still need to fine-tune the evening so that Dominik would sleep and I could undisturbed put Olivia into her bed.

We run

Thu, 25 Jun 2015 10:58:23 +0000

Lately, the best game is to run, no matter whether we are inside or outside. We take a break only while waiting for a traffic light. Besides running we play soccer or dance. Olivia likes to ride her balance bike everywhere. She is fast and lift her feet off the ground so I run and run after her. The best afterwards is to sit on the couch at home waiting for her to explain me what everything she cooks for me and let her bring it to me.

Bed

Fri, 08 May 2015 09:22:42 +0000

Olivia likes the postman or better to say she realized that the cool stuff can be delivered per mail. First, she got a duvet with a pillow (I think I give them to her this weekend), then nice bedding sets with pictures of teddy bears and owls were delivered and finally, she was waiting the whole weekend for Monday, when the postman brought her a bed. Now when the door bell rings, she runs to the door and says mail is here.

Barbecue, painting and so on

Wed, 06 May 2015 20:21:16 +0000

The grilling season began and this year we decided to actively participate in it. Olivia is excited about eating outside in the fresh air. She is also interested in everything our neighbours do. And when nothing interesting is happening, she draws with chalk on the balcony. She likes drawing in general and she can draw nicely a round face with eyes, mouth and nose and she is very enthusiastic about brush painting so we made a cardboard house together.

Autonomous

Fri, 17 Apr 2015 12:47:35 +0000

This year, we survived the Easter holiday :) I was cold (I don’t remember when I was so sick last time) and for Olivia it was too muchgoing on with too many people and after a week she wanted to go home. But she often sings “hej hou hej hou” because that’s whather grandfather and grandma sing and after a couple of days spent with them she can go down a slide forwards by herself.

Winter news

Mon, 23 Feb 2015 09:52:58 +0000

The snow is slowly melting and we’re looking forward to the spring, but I’m glad that we had so much snow and that we could sleigh, trudge through deep snow and make shoe tracks in snow. We learned to make “whoopee” sound by tobogganing and we watched the skiers on the slope behind our town, so now Olivia knows at least what I’m talking about when we read about winter fun.

When it's cold outside

Sun, 25 Jan 2015 07:26:44 +0000

After Christmas, Olivia is excited about her push bike, which we got from our colleague. First, her hands were shaking and we could see that she tries to mantain a balance with all her strength. At the beginning, we held her a little bit and helped her to master the curves. Now she can already get on the push bike herself, she rides faster and at the and of the hall she can ride backwards to the bathroom and then further on.

The Christmas holiday

Sat, 10 Jan 2015 13:56:05 +0000

Olivia started talking even more than before and we understand more and more. During the Christmas holiday, she was busy meeting loads of people, chasing cats in the yard and when there was snow we finally rode the wooden sled. The best of all was to shovel snow, then we couldn’t get her inside. And we tried to sleep and rest as much as possible. Your browser does not support the video tag.

Cavallino

Mon, 22 Sep 2014 20:28:34 +0000

We ended this summer with a trip to Italy. This time we were in one camping park near to Venice. On the way there we passed the Alps through many tunnels and after each tunnel Olivia said: “more”. The park was like a big village with lots of trees, nicely groomed and clean. There already were less people in tents and caravans, but the camping homes were quite busy. There were mostly families with children.

Last two months

Thu, 17 Jul 2014 18:50:05 +0000

We strengthen our immunity. I feel like one of us is always sick. Nevertheless, we enjoyed the hot summer days in the pool on the balcony, when it didn’t rain we were on the playground or otherwise we played at home. Olivia likes watering our plants on the balcony and she ate all our white currants (not to mention how much currants she ate at grandparents). Right now she is making another mental jump in her life and she learns to manage her emotions.

There she grows again

Sat, 17 May 2014 21:10:16 +0000

I’ve already been working for two weeks and it’s quite a nice change. Time with my colleagues flies away so fast in the morning and in the afternoon I enjoy Olivia and I try to concentrate only on her. In the morning she runs to children in her class laughing. Currently, she takes great delight in building towers from Lego building blocks, she likes reading books and last time I found her with a TV control in her hand pretending to be on the phone.

Just some notes

Sat, 12 Apr 2014 21:34:44 +0000

This week we were at home just the two of us. Olivia is getting used to sleeping in the nursery and I have the whole morning just for myself after a long time. In the afternoon, we practically are still outside. We take a moment to shovel sand into the bucket and the remaining time we’re trying to climb on everything around. Olivia became a great helper at home. She likes to be involved in everything I do - washing the dishes, stirring while cooking, wiping her highchair after eating, hanging bib on a radiator, water the flowers, vacuuming, sweeping, unloading things from the dishwasher.

Nursery

Thu, 20 Mar 2014 20:06:55 +0000

I started going to the nursery with Olivia two weeks ago and I’m still excited about this place and the people working there. They follow Montessori principles, children are in the group regardless of age (so they are like siblings, the bigger ones have to be careful not to hurt the smaller ones who are watching them with an open mouth) and can move freely in the building visiting other children.

Let's go

Tue, 04 Mar 2014 20:09:40 +0000

Olivia decided to start walking. Although she already took her first steps some days ago, yesterday she stood up without our motivation and went. Today she went on practising and now she is able to walk longer distance. And in last weeks, she grew up so much that I had to sort through her clothes and she is now big enough for her little quad and so she rides it cheerfully.

To read

Fri, 28 Feb 2014 14:47:34 +0000

Last year was great, but it’s a pity that it has passed so quickly. Among other things, we attended two interesting courses with Olivia starting when she was about four months old. One of them (here called PEKiP) was based on the idea of the Czech child psychologist Dr. Jaroslav Koch, who dealt with sensory and motor stimulation of children under one year. The main idea was that while we moms were talking about everything related to our babies watching them carefully, our children played naked.

One year old

Tue, 25 Feb 2014 21:23:46 +0000

One year ago our Olivia was born. It’s hard to believe that she was so small when I’m looking at her now. She already measures 75cm and weighs nearly 9.3kg. She always smiles and gives us hugs and kisses. Every morning, she gets up at six, we take her to our bed so I can breastfeed her, then she gives us a kiss, sits down, shows “done” with her hands and then points her finger at the door and says “ta” which means wake up, we’re going to play.

Parental leave

Wed, 05 Feb 2014 22:11:51 +0000

Again, we enjoy a common month of parental leave. I must say that it’s great because we have just right amount of energy for our little rascal. Olivia climbed down the stairs for the first time. It took her quite a long time, but we duly praised her for that and she smiled like sunshine. She learned to slip the wooden rings on a stick and she likes to take toys out of the box and then again put them back.

11 months

Wed, 29 Jan 2014 09:30:01 +0000

Olivia has six teeth and she likes cleaning them whenever she sees her toothbrush. And apparently thanks to them she makes funny faces. She claps her hands when I say “clap clap” and she dances when she hears music (and she tries to dance even when standing alone). She likes throwing a ball and then catching it climbing over everything that comes in her way. She can say Mom and show Daddy whenever she hears him or is looking for him.

Toothy week

Fri, 17 Jan 2014 21:36:33 +0000

Well, we really “enjoyed” last week. Olivia obviously found out that she needs other teeth after all and now it seems that they sprout out all at once. The top right one is already out. When I ask her to kiss me, she leans to me with an open mouth. She can put her hands behind her head and loves to play “baram baram buc”. When she finishes something or she doesn’t want to do it anymore she shows it’s done with her hands.

Sitting

Sat, 04 Jan 2014 22:18:44 +0000

Olivia finally sits while she is playing and it’s really nice to watch her. She can get angry when things go wrong and she turns her nose up at anything she doesn’t want. At her grandparents’ house she learned to crawl up the stairs. She also went four steps down upside down and then back up snarling that it didn’t go quite well. At home she already tried it sideways, so I think it’s getting better.

The first Christmas

Mon, 30 Dec 2013 10:45:48 +0000

I think Olivia doesn’t understand unwrapping Christmas gifts yet, but she likes their content very much. To my great joy she started to use sign language eg. the light is turned on, she finished eating and she is going to wash her hands, hand waving bye bye, how tall she will be and her grandma taught her to rotate her hand when she asked how she is. Successfully, she goes on a potty several times a day and enthusiastically watches flushing a toilet.

Box

Thu, 12 Dec 2013 22:03:09 +0000

I’m able to get our baby dressed only while she’s standing. I can force her to lie on her back only a very short time while I’m changing her nappy. Once she has a new one , she rolls over on her tummy, grabs the nearest toy and at the first opportunity she stands up. But she already gives us little hugs and kisses, so I cannot really blame her for anything :).

9 months

Mon, 25 Nov 2013 12:05:52 +0000

Olivia is fascinated by everything that causes some action i.e. switches, buttons causing the sound, she is very interested in the traffic lights and she looks curiously in the elevator. And when she is excited about something she squeals loudly (e.g. when she listens to her favorite music, when we go outside and then back home). Everything that moves is interesting as well like cars and bicycles. Recently, a painter was at our home.

Kids room

Mon, 11 Nov 2013 20:50:39 +0000

I recently painted a tree on the wall in Olivia’s bedroom to make it cosier. I painted with watercolors so I could wash it in the worst case. But it turned out pretty well so I maybe paint there some animals later on. We already thought about moving Olivia to her own room when she stopped sleeping in the bedside crib, but there were two things that discouraged me to do it.

8 moths

Sat, 26 Oct 2013 18:59:00 +0000

Among her friends, who she plays with, she is the only one who can stay, has a lot of hair and no teeth. She is going through another growth spurt and so it’s a little bit more difficult to put her in sleep. Most recently, we play hide and seek games and she laughs a lot and we all crawl throughout our home. Today, she was finally brave enough to crawl under the table and chair.

Books

Fri, 25 Oct 2013 11:46:26 +0000

In conversation, I found the most difficult to be able to look at the topic from the perspective of the other person, to learn to listen and see the other one positively. It’s called assertive communication and it has fascinated me for a long time. It’s difficult to learn but I have to say that Olivia is the perfect trainer. She cannot speak, so in this sense I cannot misunderstand her or be offended.

Discoverer

Sun, 20 Oct 2013 14:33:15 +0000

Olivia is not standing on her tiptoes anymore but the whole feet and she starts cruising. She just lacks some kind of a survival instinct, because sometimes while standing she stops holding the object with her hands and then she looks surprised when falling down onto her back. Once she stands up, she doesn’t really want to sit down. She only kneels or sits down when she is pretty tired and she cannot stand any longer.

On her feet

Sun, 13 Oct 2013 12:35:10 +0000

Firstly, it seemed like she would be slithering on her belly. But it somehow didn’t impress her and she began to crawl. And after a week, when I thought she would crawl faster and I’d chase her around the house, she began to stand up (she is a bit in a hurry, isn’t she?). When she is very interested in something she can get to it very quickly, but she has more fun with searching for things that help her to stand up.

7 months

Wed, 25 Sep 2013 19:49:01 +0000

Holidays finished and all our activities started again. Today we learned to jump/fall into the water and to swim with a swimming board. Olivia crawls nicely and moves quickly where she wants, especially when she is interested in something (like the laundry basket or slippers). We also started course for children. For the first hour, we took daddy with us to conclude his parental leave. In July, Olivia was one of the last ones, who began to rolled over and now she was the only one (except the one month older baby boy) on her knees and she crawled among the other children and put everything what she found into her mouth.

Some photos

Wed, 18 Sep 2013 21:48:01 +0000

Last two weeks, we were really active and we took advantage of the last summer days. Beside swimming and crawling in the grass on the hill behind our house, we went to see animals in the forest. Olivia looked at a family of a wild boar and deer and then she looked up and watched trees. And then we traveled toward grandparents. Olivia gained allattention and she started eating incredibly lot.

Half a year old

Wed, 04 Sep 2013 09:47:23 +0000

Olivia managed another growth spurt (together with us). From what I read, we bore this quite well. She didn’t lose her appetite, quite the opposite. She didn’t cry too much, just started to realise the distances and occasionally gurgled, when she saw me going away from the room. But she slept less. In the evening, she always woke up after one hour of sleeping full of energy and ready to play.

Active

Sat, 10 Aug 2013 13:42:06 +0000

Our little baby already weights 7kg. She smiles a lot and watches all carefully. When she hears me but doesn’t see me, she raises her head high and looks at where I am. Then when I suddenly peek out from behind the door she smiles from ear to ear. We taught her to blow, so now we can hear ppfff and fffuuu from the crib and when I look at her she is smiling at me with a questioning look in her eyes and four fingers in the mouth.

Baptism

Sun, 28 Jul 2013 14:36:20 +0000

Last week, we travelled with Olivia abroad for the first time. She was doing very well. She slept, played a bit, we had a little break on a blanket under the trees as well, just at the end she had enough, but so did all of us. We all dreamed about a cold shower. I was only worried whether this trip does not disturb her sleeping, but she slept even better than at home.

Rolling

Mon, 15 Jul 2013 10:53:28 +0000

Olivia began to roll on her belly a week ago. After an intensive weekend training with her grandfather and grandmother, she didn’t do anything else just tried to roll over and she was angry when it didn’t work. The next day she was rolling over and over on both sides. Rolling back to her back is more difficult, we train it but she rather falls than consciously rolls back. Basically it doesn’t matter, Olivia likes to be on her belly.

Name day

Thu, 27 Jun 2013 11:24:28 +0000

We celebrated the Olivia’s firstname day. On her behalf, thank you for all the congratulations. She spent the morning playing with her peers (they talked with their own language, they pulled and sucked together one long chain and some of them already were able to roll and the other watched them with interest :)) In the afternoon, she played at home. Andrej brought her wooden baby gym and she was really happy about it.

Twice as big

Wed, 19 Jun 2013 19:48:58 +0000

Our little one already weights 6110 grams and so she more than doubled her weight, which she had at birth. She began to play with her feet and clap them. Previously, she already managed to turn on her side, but that was more or less by accident. Now, she is trying it consciously and when she fails, she is angry with herself. The result of her effort is that she rotates around her own head in a circle.

Warm

Sat, 08 Jun 2013 21:49:06 +0000

We complained that it’s raining and cold and so on Wednesday it was suddenly about 15 degrees warmer and the sun is burning and we can only go out in the evening. But the great is that we don’t have to dress Olivia so much, she just needs to get used to the higher temperature. So far she only drinks a lot and is tired of it. Since Monday, she has been having fun lying on her belly again and so we encourage her to rotate.

3 months

Sun, 26 May 2013 18:32:53 +0000

She grows really fast. Sometimes I look at her in the morning and I feel like she grew overnight at least few inches up. And when cutting nails, I feel that while I’m cutting them on the other hand, they grow long on the first one again. She weighs just over 5.6kg and she recently puts her both hands in front of her together putting them all into her mouth. She started to drool pretty much, so I wonder, when she begins to lick everything around.

News

Thu, 16 May 2013 20:57:36 +0000

Olivia has over 5kg and my back is looking forward to doing excercises starting next week. She enjoys bathing and she recentlystarted screaming when we’re taking her out from the bathwater. Now I’m only waiting for that she holds her head properly and we go to the pool. I’m very happy that she has a relationship with Andrej equivalent to me (probably up to that hungry expression on her face) and whenever she sees him she smiles.

2 months

Tue, 23 Apr 2013 21:29:31 +0000

Our little Olivia is two months old. Actually, she is not very small anymore, she grew about ten centimeters up and weighs about 4.8kg. She smiles a lot, but she can curle her mouth as well when she doesn’t like something and she generally makes targeted grimaces trying to imitate us. She likes looking into the mirror and the windows, I think it’s because of the light. She got used to regular walks in a stroller and when the sunlight is disturbing her by sleeping she is able to stretch her cap under her nose.

Sweater

Sun, 21 Apr 2013 11:15:17 +0000

Well, beside the all my current activities I managed to knit againand Olivia got a new sweater with a hat. For such a small person it doesn’t take long to finish it and the outcome pleases meevery time(especially when other moms like Olivia and I can change ideas and patterns for new things with them :) ).

Month

Sun, 31 Mar 2013 18:02:07 +0000

It’s been over a month since Olivia lives with us. I must say that she changes herself in front of our eyes daily and she grows quickly. Some of her clothes are already small and we started using a new size of diapers as well. She learned to cry and express dissatisfaction and has an incredible appetite. She smiles often looking at us with her big eyes, she makes a variety of sounds with opened mouth.

Pregnancy

Mon, 18 Mar 2013 20:05:57 +0000

A little retrospective writing, but I felt I need to write about it. I thought that pregnancy and stress are mutually exclusive, but I think they attract each other. Fear is different, it seems natural to me. Whenever I didn’t feel well, the first thing that occured to me was whether the little baby in my tummy is well. But by stress I rather mean the feeling that I always had when I had to decide for something or to solve something from medical point of view and there were many of those moments.

Bathing

Thu, 14 Mar 2013 10:12:11 +0000

So we bathed our little baby for the first time. After a week, her umbilical cord fell away and we took her to the first walk in a stroller. We also somehow managed changing her diapers (an electric heater above the changing table is absolutely fantastic thing) and we only had to handle bathing in water. I expected many reactions, but not that she will be so satisfied. Our midwife came to help us and teach us once again some of those useful tricks.

Cradle

Tue, 12 Mar 2013 17:14:30 +0000

We had our first visit since there have been three of us and we got a wooden cradle. It found its place in the living room next to our couch. Our midwife was fascinated with it too when she saw it. I’m not sure how long it will serve us (when our dear child beggins to jump out from it), but now it’s great for napping throughout the day. Grandparents visited us for really very short time, but Olivia looked happy in the grandma’s hands and we felt very comfortable that we didn’t have to think about how is Olivia.

Belly

Tue, 05 Mar 2013 17:13:29 +0000

I wrote the below article last week, thinking that I have enough time to do some more photos of my growing belly. But somehow I didn’t manage it and our little princess is already in the world :) Well, we grow slowly. According to recent estimates, our baby has around 2.8 to 3 kg and falls well within the average size range, which makes me extremely happy. It’s only a shame that she doesn’t want to turn as other average children.

Olivia

Sat, 02 Mar 2013 14:40:05 +0000

A little bit earlier but healthy and satisfied :) I would like to introduce you our sweet little daughter Olivia. Birthday: 25.2.2013 18:15 Weight: 3020 g Length: 47 cm

Forester's house St. Hubertus

Mon, 31 Dec 2012 17:19:58 +0000

In the summer, enjoyable place for some beer and Bavarian food, in the winter a romantic place for Advent markets and walking through the snowy forest. First time, we were here cycling in the summer (the house is in the near forest about 2km from its edge) and we met there whole families on their trips relishing forest shade and the local atmosphere. Well, last time I accidentally found the program leaflet for the Advent time, so we parked nearby and we walked on the snowy road towards the stands with Christmas decorations and refreshments.

November Wallberg

Sat, 17 Nov 2012 07:48:17 +0000

There are already many articles about this hill on our web page and I need to say that it’s one of our favourite hill. But two weeks ago, we had such a nice visit, to my great pleasure longing for trips led by a almost three years old young tourist. And so we went on trips to many places and one of them was Wallberg. It’s clear to me that I wouldn’t be able to convince Andrej to go there otherwise (certainly not in November and not at all in that snow except the sledding).

New tenant

Sat, 10 Nov 2012 18:22:30 +0000

I already hadfelt like we travelled not alone on the plane to Mallorca, but it was just a feeling and I convinced myself that it’s rather unlikely to be truth. After our vacation, I was full of energy only about two days and then it went down rapidly. I slept everyday 12 hours, during the weekend even more but nevertheless I felt like a ghost. Every day in the morning, I got up terribly tired and at the work, I always received a nice careful compliment that I look horrible and I should do something about it.

Kaiserschmarrn (imperial smithereens)

Wed, 07 Nov 2012 21:51:31 +0000

We discovered this sweet meal at Wallberg. First time, we ordered it just to try what it tastes like (since then only on purpose :)). Then I looked for some good recipe and how to prepare it and now I use this slightly modified recipe from the LandLeben magazine. Ingredients: 220 g flour (plain one used for pancakes) 8 egg yolks 8 egg whites 400 ml milk (or in combination with whipped cream) 2 tbsp sugar pinch of salt butter to bake a handful of raisins (can be soaked in rum) icing sugar for decoration applesauce for dipping Instructions: Mix the egg yolks with sugar and salt.

Kampenwand

Sun, 28 Oct 2012 19:02:40 +0000

This was the only trip (not counting the local trips in the forest and cycling), which we managed to do during the summer. I planned more of them, but thanks to my incredible fatigue, I was glad that we were able to get at least here. Kampenwand itself is a rocky hill with a cross at the very top (the largest one in the Bavarian Alps), but the name is used to identify all the surrounding tourist area with lots of hiking routes, cottages and chapels.

October snow

Sun, 28 Oct 2012 10:48:48 +0000

Yesterday, it started snowing. The temperature dropped to zero and we were quite pleased that we changed from summer to the winter car tires last week. Children here are having autumn holiday next week, but they can already start writing about winter fun. Well, it is said it should become a bit warmer and I hope so. It would be nice to see snow again, but first in December.

Cala Ratjada

Sun, 01 Jul 2012 10:48:48 +0000

This year, we couldn’t decide where to go on holiday. My usual desire for trips became unbalanced due to the work fatigue and it was replaced by a new desire (very unusual for me) to go to sea on a beautiful sandy beach and at most to make a trip to some of the local restaurants for culinary specialties. Andrej couldn’t believe his ears (after all those years with me, he has experienced many things but he only dreamed quietly about such a vacation with me when we became a couple) and a sudden panic seized him, what we’re actually going to do there.

Spinach and ricotta tortellini

Sat, 12 May 2012 22:15:15 +0000

Last time I wrote how to make a pasta dough and I dreamed about the tortellini. Than I tried to make this lovely pasta again and considering a very tasty result, I bring this recipe to you :) Make the filling first, than prepare the dough according to the instructions here (this way the dough will not becomedry while you preparing the other things.), but use thickness 9 for the final dough sheet.

Sudelfeld

Sun, 11 Mar 2012 16:15:07 +0000

Yesterday, we went skiing again. This time we chose Sudelfeld ski resort. Our colleague told us that it is a little bit small and local, but less people know about it and therefore it usually is not so crowded on Saturday. The weather was absolutely fantastic, there were really not so many people and we were quite surprised when we found that it is not as small as we heard. In addition, it is a great place for skiing with children with lots of children’s short and mild slopes and help with all lifts.

Spitzingsee

Wed, 01 Feb 2012 21:37:24 +0000

Today, we went skiing to the lake Spitzingsee. The temperature dropped to -10 and predicted sunshine showed up just before lunch, but skiing was great. Good maintained slopes and only few people caused that we already had enough around the lunch and we returned back home quite tired. I didn’t took a lot of pictures, only one panorama after which I seriously had to warm up my hands. But I hope to fix that this summer.

Skiwelt Wilder Kaiser

Thu, 26 Jan 2012 22:37:22 +0000

We spent last two Wednesdays skiing in neighbouring Tyrol in the ski resort Wilder Kaiser. Every time we parked in another town, we went to the highest possible place by a cable car and then we skied cross over the hills everywhere where we could get by the ski lifts. The weather was absolutely fantastic and I took some pictures as well.

Pasta maker

Thu, 19 Jan 2012 21:12:51 +0000

Tortellini belong to my favourite dishes. I have even a very good recipe for stuffing, but when I tried to prepare it last time, it reminded me more pirohy than tortellini. The problem was in a dough, it was too solid and I couldn’t roll it thin enough as well. And so I said that I would have to buy a pasta maker at some point. This Christmas, a pasta maker appeared in our kitchen and so I began to produce pasta.

What the last year brought

Tue, 17 Jan 2012 22:20:08 +0000

It started with skiing and two good feelings. One of them was the prospect of a new year that we could finally live together (this wish came true) and the second one because I submit my PhD thesis and even defended it. Although, it took me a while till I really got rid of it, that feeling was priceless. We started going on trips to the mountains, which I missed incredibly.

Sledding

Thu, 29 Dec 2011 00:02:06 +0000

We went sledding during our Christmas holiday to relax and spend our time wisely :) Here are some pictures from the last year. This time, we set off earlier and so we basically had the whole track for ourselves. I tried to make some videos during the sledding ( on steeper sections it’s a bit shaky because I had to brake too). The experience was again absolutely terrific. In between, we refreshed ourselves in the panorama restaurant on the hill, warmed up on the sun and I took a panorama from that beautiful view around.

Nut sticks

Thu, 22 Dec 2011 23:23:45 +0000

This is one of those recipes, which confirmsthat beauty is in simplicity.It’s fast, easy and the result is very tasty. Thanks to my colleague’s wife for this wonderful recipe. Ingredients: pastry (ready to use sheet can be bought) 150g ground walnuts or almonds 75g sugar 1 egg Amaretto (almond liquor) Instructions: Preheat the oven to 200 C or gas mark 6. Prepare the baking paper (a rectangle that fits your baking tray).

Autumn

Mon, 21 Nov 2011 21:59:30 +0000

This season is actually already at the end, but it occurred to me that I still have some photos I didn’t show you. We walked again to the local tower and on its top, because it seemed to me that an autumn view might be worth it and I was right. ( You can see the summer view here.) Everything was so beautifully coloured. We just need to set off earlier because it becomes dark very quickly.

Apple-poppy strudel

Tue, 08 Nov 2011 23:05:56 +0000

A strudel is one of my most favourite cakes.The best thing about it is that it can be prepared as quick as it can be eaten. Well, it’s a bit of cheating because I don’t count the making of a pastry. Making the proper strudel dough as my grandma used to make, by slogging it on the table and pulling it so that she got a paper-thin cloth, is only my secret desire, which I’ll be maybe able to fulfil at some point in the future.

Walking

Tue, 08 Nov 2011 21:21:14 +0000

I love autumn from several reasons. It’s not so cold yet, but also not so hot anymore and so you can wrap yourself in a warm blanket and relish a cup of tea. The weather outside is just amazing and stable and the sky can be unbelievably blue. And those colours … as we moved we travel about ten minutesto work through a forest and that is so wonderful look that fits well immediately after waking, but also to relax after work.

Behind the house

Thu, 03 Nov 2011 21:51:17 +0000

Behind the neighbour house is a narrow path that leads up to the hill. It takes around three minutes to get on the top where beautiful four huge trees grow. It’s charming view from here and with good visibility the Alps can be seen. It’s a great place where to go when you want so see a piece of nature and you’re to tired or just lazy to go anywhere further.

Chocolate-banana muffins

Tue, 01 Nov 2011 12:15:04 +0000

This recipe I have to spread further because it’s amazing. I got it from my supervisor’s wife in England. She made them for me and Andrej when we visited them during my graduation. I think we both felt in love with these great muffins, so here is the recipe: Ingredients (for 12 muffins): 2 and half small ripe bananas or 2 bigger ones 125ml sunflower oil 2 eggs 100g brown sugar 225g plain flour 3 tbsp cocoa powder 1 tsp baking powder Instructions:

Wiesn

Wed, 26 Oct 2011 18:54:34 +0000

Another Oktoberfest (or Wiesn as local people would say) behind us, and this year we didn’t miss it. Well, we didn’t join the official event in traditional clothes inside one of the huge tents, but we dived in the great atmosphere and we drank one litter of beer. We didn’t see the initial ceremony this year, because we weren’t in the mood to go to the town in a rainy weather, but we did spent some hours together with our colleagues drinking beer at Oktoberfest.

Macaroni with zucchini and tomatoes

Wed, 07 Sep 2011 20:39:43 +0000

When one is desperate, they make weird decisions. Thanks to that I somehow came to this recipe. Suddenly, we had a lot of zucchini and after cooking zucchini sauce, pancakes and potatoes with zucchini, I had no idea what to do with the rest of it. I slightly modified the original pasta recipe: Ingredients (for four persons): 1/2 box Barilla Maccheroni pasta 4 PL Extra Virgin olive oil 3 cloves chopped garlic 1/2 large zucchini (sliced with peeler) 3 big tomatoes chopped to cubes salt, ground black pepper to taste full hand of chopped fresh basil leaves grated cheese on top Instructions: Cook pasta according to instructions on the box (you cannot really overcook this pasta, it became our favourite in Italy few years ago and since then we’ve used only this one).

Wendelstein

Fri, 02 Sep 2011 22:18:46 +0000

Finally, we went on a tour we had already planned for early summer. Somehow, it always rained or we were not at home and so I could only study our route theoretically. But last week we had an ideal weather and so we set off on the trip in the morning. We parked next to the cable-car station just outside the village Osterhofen and then we hiked three hours and three quarters up the hill Wendelstein 1838 m (at least we thought so according to a tourist guide, in fact, we went up two and half hours).

Ebersberg

Wed, 31 Aug 2011 07:19:08 +0000

Recently, we spent some time searching for a new apartment and beside this activity we discovered various places where we haven’t previously been. We were fascinated by one such a district town at very first visit and so we went there during one weekend again to get to know it a little bit more. We already get used to the plane everywhere in Munich (I don’t count those few artificial hills there) and we were very pleasantly surprised by the hilly terrain of the town.

Officially Doctor

Thu, 28 Jul 2011 15:31:07 +0000

Two years agoI would havethoughtofgraduationas somevery nicebutunrealisticdreamand a week ago I was sittingin a large hall, wearing a gown and waiting for my diploma.But let’s start from the beginning. We wentto the university in the morning. I couldpick up thegown after eight o’clock,then we scheduledbreakfastora short walk, and about ten, we wanted togointo the hall,so we would settle half an hourbefore a graduation. But we found out that there were about 400 studentsgraduating at once andtwice as many relativeseagerlywaiting for opening the door in to the hall.

Azalea

Sat, 14 May 2011 11:13:06 +0000

With our last visitors, a new resident of our living room arrived. It’s a small tree or rather a bush called Azalea. I read that it’s the popular plant in gardens because it likes shady places, it’s able to survive down to -29 degrees and above all it makes all the dark corners beautiful. And when it blossomed, we understood. This plant is really charming.

Nature trip

Tue, 10 May 2011 22:19:25 +0000

Since urban tourism is quite difficult, and as we don’t want to destroy our visitors (we would like them to come again), we have always at hand some trip to nature. Neither last Saturday it was different and we went to our quite favourite place, on the hill Wallberg. Up and down we drove a cable-car, but then we hiked to the top of the peak (about half an hour). The chapel, which was reconstructed is already nice and finished.

Olympiaberg

Tue, 10 May 2011 13:11:51 +0000

We were already several times in the Olympia park, but we somehow never got to the highest hill there. To walk on its top is not really difficult, but either the weather didn’t work out for us, or we were already tired from walking through the town so we ended up just resting near the lake below. There is a nice paved walkway leading up to the top of the hill that is great view point as well.

In the city centre

Mon, 09 May 2011 13:57:47 +0000

Once again, we went to the town centre to show our weekend visitors (Andrej’s parents) how it looks like here and where we actually live. We travelled by all sorts of trains (S-Bahn and U-Bahn and tram), we walked through the shopping street and stores and we looked at the ringing tower of the new town hall at eleven. We overcame the altitude difference from a minus fourth floor of the underground to around 290m high tower in Olympia Park.

Congratulations

Mon, 02 May 2011 11:48:04 +0000

So we became the proud aunt and uncle not only of our beautiful niece Kika but also our newbornnephew Kubko.We would like to wish all the best to the happy parents. May all your days be happy and joyful. In this occasion I drew a little picture just for you.

Relax on the balcony

Sat, 30 Apr 2011 16:24:27 +0000

We were talking about buying something on the balcony last summer, especially when I moved a chair from a living room to the balcony and back several times. Something that would be used for sitting there in the morning to enjoy breakfast in the air and in the evening to drink wine in the shade. But we somehow had to address to many things and no time left to develop this idea further.

Easter trip

Wed, 27 Apr 2011 21:05:53 +0000

Last Friday we went to Easter trip. We had a beautiful warm weather, around 25 degrees and I saw a newspaper tip for a nice trip to a waterfall. I thought that in this lovely April weather everything is melting and so there could be a lot of water. After a small survey, I found two other even bigger waterfalls near the original one. From parking places it was up to 20 minutes walk to each one and so we decided to see all of them.

Walchensee

Thu, 31 Mar 2011 08:53:46 +0000

Last weekend, we went on a trip to the lake Walchensee. It’s about an hour from our home by car in a beautiful environment surrounded by the mountains. This time we didn’t go alone, but we took our visitors as well. The weather was amazing and was also pleasantly warm although, it wasn’t warm enough to melt all the snow on the hills above. Near the lake we took a cable-car and we travelled four minutes about 800 meters higher.

Defence

Tue, 01 Mar 2011 19:12:08 +0000

Finally, I have an explanation, why I and my dear Andrej had disappeared from Skype since Friday. I flew to England and Andrej was offline, so he didn’t have to explain where I was. On Monday I had my final oral examination for my PhD and so I spent a long weekend before it by consulting everything with my supervisors, preparing a presentation and reading again and again my work and related papers.

Garmisch-Classic

Mon, 31 Jan 2011 20:51:15 +0000

This is another option (not counting the Tyrolean Alps around the corner) to go skiing when you are in Grainau. And not only that. Cable cars operate here also in the summer and there is a wide variety of hiking trails offered by the hills. One of the black slopes was closed due to the preparation for the World Championships (5a on the slope plan), but we didn’t miss it at all.

Zugspitzplatt

Mon, 31 Jan 2011 07:53:43 +0000

I must say that this place is simply wonderful. We haven’t been to Zugspitze (the highest peak in Germany, 2962m), because we somehow couldn’t stop skiing in such a beautiful weather. But we agreed that we would make this trip in the summer. I’ve never really thought about the name of the peak until now, when I found out that you can go just below it by train (der Zug). This cogwheel train (Zahnradbahn) goes from the main station in Garmisch-Partenkirchen through three stops in the Garmisch classic ski area, then through Grainau toward the lake Eibsee and after a while from there it is lost in the tunnel (4.

Holiday in Grainau

Sun, 30 Jan 2011 17:53:46 +0000

This time we traveled only about an hour and a quarter by car from our home to the village Grainau. We wanted to ski and get to know our surroundings better. We stayed in a very nice and cozy house with a great breakfast (Gasthaus Geigener). The weather was quite good, we skied whole the week except the two days and my darling named our vacation week assembly. One snowy day, we made a train trip to the nearby Tyrol village Lermoos and then we went back to Garmisch Partenkirchen, where we found a great Italian restaurant for lunch and we saw the ski springboard and slopes for the upcoming World Championships.

A dumpling

Mon, 17 Jan 2011 11:08:45 +0000

Generally, a man, who has lived abroad for longer time, usually finds out that he lacks some food or ingredient, which he would otherwise get on every corner in his native country, but in a foreign country there is no rumour or even hearing about it. In England, I somehow got used to the fact that poppy seeds are considered as dangerous drugs, the proper bread could be found in a Polish shop, cheese selection was a little bit limited and the overall problem was to find anything not low fat.

Skiing in Laax

Mon, 10 Jan 2011 08:43:23 +0000

This year I made several New Year’s resolutions (I will sometimes write about them). One of them is to ski this winter properly. Before Christmas, we decided to visit our friends in Switzerland and we were going to look at several ski resorts near Zurich. But this plan failed, because during our planned weekend heat wave arrived from Spain and at 1100 m it was suddenly 7 degrees. Finally, we opted for the more distant, but higher placed resort Laax, where we were skiing at around 2500 m at a pleasant temperature just below zero.

Christmas

Thu, 30 Dec 2010 19:23:05 +0000

This year we decorated our first common Christmas tree. We bought lights, decorations and gifts together and we had an ideal Christmas atmosphere. We even found out that it is possible to buy a fresh carp here. Although we celebrated Christmas in Slovakia, we left two wrapped gifts under our tree at home, so we could unpack them afterwards. I was expecting anything but a sewing machine. I haven’t even dreamed about it (well, maybe I thought about it sometimes that it would be useful).

Sledding

Mon, 20 Dec 2010 15:11:07 +0000

Last weekend, we took advantage of a good weather after a long week of snowing and went sledding. We’ve already been on the Wallberg hill for hiking before. This time we used the cable-car on the way up and we sledded down the hill. We borrowed sleds each separately, but later we agreed that next time we’ll sled together as it requires an appropriate weight. Andrej was faster and he didn’t “fly” after each bump on the road.

Countess's cake

Sat, 11 Dec 2010 00:00:00 +0000

This recipe is from my mummy. I like apple cakes and pies in general, but this combines also some nuts, raisins ans cinnamon and it’s just really tasty. Ingredients: 450g plain flour 125g Butter/margarine 1tsp baking powder 200g icing sugar 4 yolks 1tsp lemon zest 1tbsp cacao powder Filling: 7 smaller apples, seadless 2tsp vanilla sugar 2tbsp granulated sugar 70-100g chopped walnuts 70-100g raisins ground cinnamon 4 egg white Directions:

Saint Nicholas

Fri, 10 Dec 2010 10:31:08 +0000

This year’s St. Nicholas evening we played an interesting game called A white elephant gift exchange with another about 40 people. There was St. Nicholas personally near the Christmas tree too obey the rules. :) Shortly, the point of the game is to bring some inexpensive (can be humorous) present nicely wraped. The bigger amount of people play the game is funnier. Everyone obtains one number that determines his present choice order and the same number are inserted into some bowl.

Walking in the park

Tue, 07 Dec 2010 13:55:03 +0000

Walking in the park in winter, especially when there is snow everywhere, is absolutely fantastic. Although only until the sunset, because then it starts freezing properly and it is better to hide even in the subway. As I haven’t been in Englischer Garten at the time of snow, we went there during the last weekend. Originally, we wanted to go sledging on the nearby hill, but the season was just opened and so we concluded that there would be too many people anyway.

Christmas markets

Tue, 07 Dec 2010 12:20:58 +0000

During the weekend, we went to the Christmas markets. There are quite a lot of them in Munich. Basically, each Munich neighborhood has its own market. We went directly to the Marienplatz in the centre. There were many stands decorated with green boughs and colorful lights. They offered many things, among others, wooden ornaments and toys, candles and Christmas hats. I was really impressed by one stand that offered all sorts of wooden things ( cutting boards, spatula, etc.

Crustless spinach quiche

Fri, 03 Dec 2010 14:04:48 +0000

This is one of those recipes, which are really easy to prepare and it is also a nice opportunity for the spinach to be spent :). I did many changes to the original recipe. However, I think there are still loads of possibilities for improvements and adaptation to different tastes. Ingredients (for 24cm baking form): general stuff 1/2 cup flour 1/2 cup creme fraiche (I usually use the whole 200g package) 1 cup milk (I use finely shredded potatoes for the richer version instead) 4 eggs butter for greasing to taste

Advent

Wed, 01 Dec 2010 13:24:15 +0000

After three years, this year’s advent is special for us. Finally, we don’t plan Christmas as a common holiday after long months, when we haven’t seen each other. We actually live together, enjoy snow and we’re not stressed whether I’ll be stuck somewhere at the airport due to bad weather. Finally, I got rid of the school and writing of my thesis (although I’ll certainly begin to think about my defense in the next year) and I started to enjoy winter.

Mushrooms

Tue, 12 Oct 2010 11:09:01 +0000

Finally, we managed to go to gather mushrooms, what we dreamed about all the summer. We dressed properly, put hats on our heads, equipped ourselves with baskets and knives and set off into the forest. Besides youthful mushrooms peeping out of the ground we found also lots of old, mouldy or dried mushrooms and we obviously came at the end of the mushroom season, but we still managed to gather a nice amount of healthy ones and when I consider three-hour walk through the forest, we were very satisfied.

Once again in Slovakia

Tue, 12 Oct 2010 09:01:14 +0000

Once again, we travelled to Slovakia to see our friends and family, to gather some mushrooms and to enjoy a feast in Cerova, but especially to go to the Andrej’s brother wedding. The wedding took place in Castel Pension in Mierovo. Although I don’t know how the old manor house looked like before, I think its reconstruction was really successful. I was especially enchanted by a garden, which despite its relatively small dimension looked very spacious and thanks to various nooks with a touch of autumn very cozy.

Oktoberfest

Wed, 06 Oct 2010 14:09:55 +0000

200th anniversary of the Oktoberfest is over and people in traditional costumes are slowly but surely disappearing from the streets and the subway, so people like us dressed only in jeans and T-shirt don’t look like tourists anymore. Although we haven’t been in the beer tent on the Theresienwiese, we didn’t miss parade at the launch of this year’s festivities. There were horse drawn carts with barrels of beer and venison, but also agricultural machinery and many brass bands.

Wallberg

Tue, 24 Aug 2010 13:22:01 +0000

This time we went a little higher on the hill Wallberg (1722m) and so we increased the elevation to 927m. To get there, we travelled around the Tegernsee lake, which looked beautiful from above. We parked next to the cable-car station and began hiking. Right at the beginning of our journey, we found out that the first cottage, where we wanted to go, was closed (on the winter version of the route) and so we decided that we would take it up with a bit steeper but shorter summer route.

Aphids

Fri, 20 Aug 2010 12:34:31 +0000

I know that these little critters are also part of nature, but when someone starts eating plants grown with love by you, it sucks. I recently wrote that we bought a few plants in our appartment. There was also basil among them, my very favorite ingredient in cooking. It was absolutely great, until aphids appeared on the leaves. Theoretically, I could simply spray it with some plant spray against them, but we bought it as an organic plant, so it came to me as a very strange idea.

Schliersee

Sun, 15 Aug 2010 20:58:24 +0000

So finally, we made one of our planned trips ( I have 37 more trips in my tourist guide :)). Although in Munich the weather was nice and sunny, 40 minutes southern by our car led to mountains covered by clouds. But it didn’t discouraged us and we set off on the path leading us around the lake Schliersee. The environment there was really beautiful. It is possible to rent a boat there and we also found the Wellness centre with a swimming pool, slides, sauna and so on.

Fruit muffins

Sun, 15 Aug 2010 00:00:00 +0000

Muffins are those cakes, perfect for guests, which are very tasty,look great and it’s very easy to bake them. I have two simple recipes that work great for me. One is from my English friend Kate and the other one is from “1 mix 50 muffins” book I bought in England. I use one of them when I have some frozen berries and the second one for sweet fresh fruit or dried fruit.

Rozbehy and Korlátka

Sat, 07 Aug 2010 13:35:28 +0000

Last weekend, on the occasion of the nice weather and a meeting with our parentsafter Christmas, we went on a small trip. It was pretty much only a nice walking within afternoon rest, but in the warm weather it was quite weary and I think more people from our group appreciated that the road back led through the forest. From Cerová we went on the winding road up the hill into a neighbouring village Rozbehy.

Potatoes and other

Fri, 06 Aug 2010 16:00:20 +0000

Since we have lived in Munich, we eat more meat, wholemeal bread, vegetables and fruit. On Sunday, everything except a bakery and Biergarten is closed and so on the way from the church we always enjoy the fresh bread rolls and when the weather is nice we spend the afternoon somewhere out in the park. Given the prevalence of organic and bio products in the supermarkets, it happens quite often that these kinds of fruits or vegetables or eggs from free range hens wander to our basket.

On the way to Slovakia and back

Fri, 06 Aug 2010 13:45:20 +0000

As a part of running in our new car we went to Slovakia. All the traffic jams somehow managed to escape or be removed, until we got to them. And given the rainy weather, we had no taste to stop anywhere making a break, so after six hours we arrived to our destination. Lights were turned on automatically, wipers as well as appropriate, Andrej pretty much just pressed buttons of cruise control until Bratislava and in the meanwhile I studied controlling of theair-conditioning andsurroundingbuttons.

Megi

Sun, 25 Jul 2010 15:51:32 +0000

nullSo finally, we have a new car, our Megi (renault Megane Grandtour). Currently happily relaxing in the garage, but we’ve already managed to drive a little bit pressing at least half of the buttons inside trying to figure out what they are good for :). Now, we only hope that it will serve us well and we will experience many safety kilometres.

Lake in the Olympia park

Mon, 05 Jul 2010 19:56:49 +0000

I’ve already written about the Olympia park, but that was in November last year and at that time there wasn’t any lake but the muddy place and some people who cleaned it. Fortunately, it’s the great place for visitors due to the high tower in the centre so we had a great opportunity to go there with our friends and see the actual lake :) There were many people running around or cycling, lot of stands with ice-cream or some sweet cakes and of course many people sitting in the bier garden.

Bavaria

Mon, 05 Jul 2010 13:17:59 +0000

This was one of my less fortunate trip ideas, but on the other hand I don’t regret at all that I was there. The question Where? is now on the right place … in the statue called Bavaria. Recently, we had a second visit here and after a day spent walking in the center and parks, we were thinking, where to go next. I read that there is a statue that was created and built as a symbol of Bavaria, it is 18 m high and it is possible to go in, upstairs and look around.

Strawberry field

Mon, 05 Jul 2010 12:31:16 +0000

We somehow found out that we have a strawberry field near our house. Just cross the street with a basket in your hand, pick all the big juicy sweet strawberries, pay to the lady in the booth and look forward to the strawberry cake :) That was our plan last saturday morning and it was successful. We had about five kilos of strawberries, but we managed to eat all of them and make a dream strawberry cake as well.

Surfers

Thu, 29 Apr 2010 08:04:31 +0000

We had our first visitors here last weekend. Our friends came to see us and of course all the beauties of Munich. On Sunday we went for walk to Englischer Garten. The weather was excellent, sunny and very warm. We choose a different path as the first time to better know the park for future visitors and we came to the stream Eisbach (ice stream). Well, we’ve read about one place in the park, where people use to surf, but we’ve never seen this place before.

Green friends

Sun, 18 Apr 2010 13:03:43 +0000

It was warm and sunshine weather yeasterday, so we went for a walk and finally finished in a huge greenhouse. We spent there a couple of hours and bought some green friends, which joined us in our home :) All of them should have (according to scientists) some sort of super power to absorb ill substances from the air in the room and make it better. I’m not sure how we could compare it with the previous air in our apartment, but our living room looks definitely better now :)

PS Portugal

Sun, 18 Apr 2010 11:46:20 +0000

There is something I forgot to write about Portugal. I brought two presents for my dear husband from this country. A little good luck rooster and a white Port wine. Well, the rooster should be black originally, but nowadays it is painted in many different colours. It is symbol of luck and justice when you fight for it and there is an interesting legend connected to one innocent Portuguese man who was released from hanging for crime thanks to a one rooster.

Porto

Tue, 13 Apr 2010 09:12:27 +0000

I would like to share my impressions from another country with you. I visited Portugal two weeks ago. I already knew that it is the lovely country as we went to Madeira for our honeymoon, but I found out that there is still so much to explore. My Portuguese friend also recommended me to go to south west coast for beautiful sceneries and relax, to relish sun and Atlantic ocean. So I consider it as a very nice inspiration for a future holiday This time I traveled to Braga for a Serious games conference and I spent several hours in Porto.

Laval Virtual

Mon, 12 Apr 2010 20:54:04 +0000

The reason why I came to Laval wasinternational conference about virtual and augmented reality with about 200 people. I’m not sure why this event was held in this town, somewhere in the centre of France in very countryside. It was something to think about even for French visitors, at least for those few who spoke to me in english. On the other hand, I wouldn’t probably have other reason to go there, so I suggest it was kind of propagation of this locality.

Paris

Mon, 12 Apr 2010 19:11:35 +0000

Finally, I visited Paris, the city considered as a one of the most romantic places in the world or at least in the Europe. Well, I’m sure I don’t need to go there to have a perfect romantic atmosphere, but it is a nice place, worthy of visiting. What I enjoyed the most were trees on each street and loads of small parks everywhere. Typical French buildings with little balconies with metal railings, small cafés with outdoor sections and of course bakeries with fresh baguettes made this town somehow special.

Recent videos

Thu, 04 Mar 2010 20:25:21 +0000

Here are some new videos I made from my application. Enjoy the baby feeding :) Your browser does not support the video tag. Your browser does not support the video tag.

Zurich

Wed, 17 Feb 2010 18:23:46 +0000

We were somehow tired enough not to go seeing night Zurich on Saturday evening, but I think it must be beautiful. We went there the next day and I really loved the atmosphere of that city. If there wasn’t any snow, I think we are in one of the coastal towns somewhere in Italy (possibly in France, but I’ve never been there). There were many narrow streets and nice colorful buildings with wooden shutters.

Bern

Tue, 16 Feb 2010 19:18:58 +0000

After Friday traveling, chatting and walking among lovely Swiss houses in our surroundings, we went to a capital city - Bern. It’s quite small but very cute and there are bears all around :)Well, I mean pictures, symbols and statues in the shape of the bear. There are many nice historical buildings and arched underpasses with small shops everywhere. There are loads of Italian restaurants, shops with chocolate and pralines and of course shops with watches.

How we went to Switzerland

Tue, 16 Feb 2010 17:37:05 +0000

Our friends “chrobaci” invited us to visit them and we simply couldn’t say no :)After a long working week, Andrej took two days off, we rent a car, checked on a google map how to get there, packed some things and set off a journey. We turned on a navigation and as it showed approximately good amount of kilometers and time of arriving, we relied on it.We came to Bodensee lake (which is really huge) and when we suddenly left the highway and stayed on the right side of the lake in Germany, we started thinking if the navigating is right.

Only 1:15h per person!

Tue, 09 Feb 2010 13:09:50 +0000

Do you also know that great type of advertisements, which always offer something with words “from … " ? Than you think about it more or you read that small letters at the bottom of the flyer and find out the conditions under which you will belong to the group of happy ones with that great price only “from” :) And so it occurred to me to write something similar. Would you like to relax, get out from your very well known place and spend i.

Before and after

Mon, 08 Feb 2010 15:47:19 +0000

Well, I think we settled down. We still miss some furniture like a sofa, but otherwise we can say that our home is finally livable :). The christmas time was wonderful, we met our friends and family again and eventually we spent some time with our little cute niece. But beside relaxing, we also thought a lot about decorating of our new apartment. When we finally came home, we spent a week by tidying, mounting the furniture and unpacking all the things we had.

Calendar

Thu, 04 Feb 2010 13:02:05 +0000

Well, creating of this calendar is a long story and I really mean long. The main problem was I couldn’t find any way how to link all the pages together, so it would look like a proper calendar. Finally I found the way how, but that is another story and a lesson for the future. If you think about companies, which offer a creating of the calendar and your only task is to send them pictures, forget about it.

5th of November

Wed, 03 Feb 2010 20:58:39 +0000

Well, I know that this date was quite long time ago and you probably don’t even remember it, but British people used to say “remember, remember fifth of November”. And there is a special reason why, which I found funny, when I first heard about it. A long time ago, in seventeenth century, several catholic conspirators including Guy Fawks (the main “hero”) wanted to destroy the House of Parliament in England.

Winter

Sat, 12 Dec 2009 20:20:42 +0000

My lovely husband sent me again several pictures from our flat surrounding and honestly, I was a little bit jealous. I wish I were there and could build a snowman :)That narrow path is going toward S-Bahn.

Home

Sun, 06 Dec 2009 17:20:02 +0000

Well, home is a special word. This word should denotes the place where you feel comfortable, where you have all your belongings and possibly you live there with your loved ones. It is that nice place where you go after work, where you return from the vacation or visit. After more than two years of living in England and travelling I have things everywhere, my family, husband and friends are on different places and mostly not very close to one another and I am not sure where I felt the most comfortable.

English garden

Wed, 25 Nov 2009 21:52:41 +0000

To be honest, I have no idea why this park is called Englischer Garten (English garden). Maybe because it is well-adjusted with properly cut lawn and pretty paths. It’s one of the world’s largest public parks and it’s also obviously very popular for relax and walking, doing some sports or just for sitting and reading a book. This park actually reminded me the Central Park in Manhattan, but this one is even larger.

Where to go with visitors

Wed, 25 Nov 2009 15:42:01 +0000

We were thinking about where to go in Munich. We had a nice weather and 3-days ticket for travelling, so I took the map and was looking for some interesting places in the wider centre of the Munich. Since I wanted to take some impresive pictures, we went to the Nymphenburg castle. Well the castle is really impresive, but I’m not sure about the pictures. As it is the beginning of the winter, all the statues were covered by the wooden boxes, fountains were not working and in general it was obviously a good time to repair everything.

Munich

Tue, 24 Nov 2009 21:45:07 +0000

I have never been to Munich before and I feel those few days I spent there weren’t enough. I love the historical flair of this city. There are no high modern glass buildings preventing the sun shine to the street, but low stylish buildings with sloping red roofs. There are loads of bakery and little kiosks with pretzels everywhere. Since I love to ramble marketplace, what I have probably inherited from my daddy, I was unbelievable happy to see one directly in the city centre called Viktualienmarkt.

A trip toward lakes

Tue, 17 Nov 2009 06:46:59 +0000

Finally, after two and half months, I and Andrej have been together again and as we got the car for a couple of days, we decided to go for a trip somewhere. However, the parking in Munich is not the best idea and we wanted to use the car more useful, so we drove toward two lakes near Munich - Starnberg See and Walchensee. Starnberg See is the second largest lake in Bavaria.

Pub quiz

Mon, 02 Nov 2009 18:17:38 +0000

Well, I don’t celebrate Halloween, because firstly it’s an American feast and secondly I think that All saints day is about something else and we have much better tradition of thinking about our relatives. As every year, I honestly completely forgot about it, when someone knocked on our house door. When it was repeated second time by another little cute child dressed as a little pumpkin, my house-mate went to shop and bought a bowl full of sweets and candy.

IKEA lighting seminar

Sun, 25 Oct 2009 15:50:05 +0000

I attended another IKEA seminar. This time, it was about furnishing with light, from needs to task solutions. First, I though I would miss the beginning of the seminar because my train was delayed as usual, but I finally managed to be on time and I relished nice English breakfast at the top floor of IKEA. We had very nice presentation about the role of light, different light sources and examples how to use light in different rooms for various purposes.

Remembrance

Fri, 23 Oct 2009 13:37:46 +0000

I was looking for some photos in my huge database of pictures :)and i found several interesting pictures, which have probably not been seen by anyone except me and Andrej and which remain me a lot of nice things. They are all somehow related to our wedding. As I came home just one week before our wedding, I could only listen who send a new wedding card with best wishes. Therefore, when I was in Slovakia I put all of them together so I could also see them.

The Autumn

Thu, 22 Oct 2009 20:11:27 +0000

To say “it’s autumn” is not really up to date information, especially when at some places in Slovakia is already snowing. But I think this part of year is the most beautiful in England with the most stable weather as well and I couldn’t help myself taking some lovely pictures. Above the fourth tree from right side in the second row of windows is approximately the place where I work :).

Bradford

Thu, 22 Oct 2009 18:48:52 +0000

I visited another English town, called Bradford. I spent around three hours by travelling by train so I had enough time to find out more about the cathedral, shopping centres, main square and the University of Bradford where I went for conference. The town was quite nice and I had good weather as well (surprisingly :)). The only thing I didn’t expect was that I felt a little bit like I was in Near East as I met many Arabic guys and I saw many specialised shops with clothes and food typical for that countries.

Rockefeller Centre

Thu, 22 Oct 2009 16:49:04 +0000

My two friends were in New York at the end of September and it remained me that I have two more panorama pictures from the “big apple”. I took them at the top of the Rockefeller Centre. Although I need to say that I prefer the beautiful views from the top of hills not from buildings, these place was amazing. There were many people as everywhere, but we could move freely and took pictures of whatever we wanted.

Lasagna with minced meat

Sat, 11 Jul 2009 20:52:45 +0000

My house mate who loves cooking of pasta inspired me with a new mixture of spices, so I tried it in Lasagna with minced meat. Ingredients: 2 spring onions, chopped 1 onion, finely chopped 3 garlic cloves, minced 450g minced meat 350g tomato sauce 2 chopped tomatoes or some cherry tomatoes cut in half 200g eidam cheese, grated 12 pieces of uncooked Lasagna pasta black pepper, salt 1tsp of each - basil, fennel seeds, coriander, mint Bechamel sauce:

3D illusion

Wed, 08 Jul 2009 08:55:39 +0000

I had a lot of time to think about new features in the virtual baby project during the London expo. There were many people who tried the application and gave me a nice feedback. Well, I got some ideas how to improve whole thing. One of the biggest problem in the environment was that the user miss the depth, so it’s sometimes difficult to say where the spoon is in the space.

Trip to Zaruby hill

Mon, 06 Jul 2009 13:32:26 +0000

As we have been together again for a little bit longer time than usual, we decided to go somewhere for a nice trip. This time we chose mountains Male Karpaty with the aim to go to the highest hill Zaruby (768 m). And to make this trip more interesting, we visited ruins of two castles on the road. On Saturday morning we travelled to Plavecke Podhradie, where our trip began and after 20 minutes of hiking we could observe ruins of the first castle Plavecky hrad.

Philadelphia

Sun, 21 Jun 2009 20:26:42 +0000

Philadelphia is the town I could write about for hours. I really enjoyed this place. We spent there four nice sunny days and I don’t regret it. Well, there were two my ideas we could avoid, otherwise everything was great. First, I didn’t listen to my brother and I chose the hotel where we stayed. It was fine, the room wasn’t too big and continental breakfast turned to bagels and cereals, but the interesting thing about it was a room window, which was oriented to the interior of the hotel.

London expo

Sun, 21 Jun 2009 10:48:55 +0000

I went for three days business trip to London. It was really nice, sunny and quite warm weather, but I relished that only during the evenings because I spent whole days inside talking on exhibition. I have never gone by London underground before, so I was little bit curious about it. I started at Euston with the aim to go to the Excel exhibition centre, thus I spent under ground almost one hour.

I talked to prince

Fri, 08 May 2009 18:46:15 +0000

Well, it sounds like from fairytale, but I talked to real prince :)Prince Andrew, the Duke of York visited our Digital Lab to see what researchers are developing. He was very nice and smiling all the time. He watched all the prepared demos and listened to individual researchers. I helped to my supervisor to set up everything for demonstration and I stayed with him as crowd and support with no aim to speak about anything.

On the trip to USA

Fri, 01 May 2009 17:52:17 +0000

Finally, after a long time of promising, we visited Miško and Ivka in faraway America. We set off at four in the morning, so we could catch a flight from Vienna ( I’m really thankful that I have so great parents, that they got up so early and gave us a lift there). We flew with a very small planeto Dusseldorf, where we had a famous pretzel, coffee and I bought a big package of Haribogummibears.

Ikea seminar

Fri, 27 Feb 2009 16:09:57 +0000

As an Ikea family member, I’ve received an email about the kitchen seminar with free breakfast provided. I was wondering if I could learn something new, what would be useful for designing of our future kitchen, so I decided to apply for it. The seminar was on Sunday morning. The Ikea was closed, there were no customers at that time. There were just couple of people standing outside, waiting for one guy who opened the door for us.

England

Mon, 16 Feb 2009 22:28:40 +0000

I have already lived in for one and half year and I haven’t written anything about it yet. Well, I decided to write more about how it is to live in this country. First I need to say that it’s quite nice evergreen country with temperature around 15 degrees almost all the year. What is really fascinating, the weather can be changed several times over the one day. I have one warning for summer lovers; you shouldn’t come here :) But it will be a paradise for those who desperately love raining and clouds.

Apples in the dressing gown

Mon, 16 Feb 2009 14:56:42 +0000

My husband is not really very enthusiast for cakes eating and it’s sometimes very difficult to bake a good cake for him. Once we were skiing at Snow Paradise Velka Raca in Slovakia. It was lovely day, not too many people around and we were pretty tired and hungry, so we decided to sit down in one of the local buffet. We bought sausages with bread, tea and coffe and then we noticed cute baked “parcels” sprinkled with ice sugar.

Snowing

Wed, 04 Feb 2009 23:39:23 +0000

I love white winter especially white Christmas :) , but I couldn’t see any snow even at home last year. The winter in UK is usually quite mild with around 5 degrees above zero and it’s raining all the time. So I basically said bye to snow, when I traveled back to England after the Christmas time. At that time I didn’t know that I would have one week like in paradise.

bábovka (sponge cake)

Wed, 14 Jan 2009 17:37:34 +0000

Well, I promised to give some recipes to several people, so I’ve decided that it’ll be much easier to have a special category in blogs just for that :)The first one is more about baking than cooking, but I’m sure you’ll love it specially with coffee or hot chocolate for breakfast. The original name is bábovka and it is kind of sponge cake. It is usually baked in a round form with a hole in the centre, so the cake has a nice shape and it’s easy to slice it.

Hotel Orca Praia

Fri, 05 Sep 2008 23:43:53 +0000

After one week of living in this hotel we can recommend it :). It’s built in the rock so every room is turned towards the ocean. The funny thing was that they counted floors from zero to minus ten. Good advice is to not live lower than minus eight floor because these rooms are without the balcony and you can see trees right in front of your windows instead of the ocean.

Funchal

Fri, 05 Sep 2008 23:20:19 +0000

Funchal is the biggest town of Madeira and its centre was about six kilometers from our hotel which was walkable distance. There are many restaurants, shopping areas, museums and parks where you can spend lovely time. The only thing is that this town is a little bit noisy now, because they are building many hotels and block of flats everywhere. That was one of the reasons why to stay in a hotel in a quiet and peacefull place away from the town.

East Madeira

Fri, 05 Sep 2008 20:52:06 +0000

One way how to get known some part of this beautiful island is to go for a bus trip and travel across the mountains and along the coast. We saw so many beautiful things, untouched nature, traditional houses, completely different land in the north part and in the south. Once you go up through the layer of clouds after the forest, mountains appear before your eyes and you feel like in a paradise.

Videos

Thu, 04 Sep 2008 21:55:28 +0000

Since we planned to celebrate our wedding properly, we oganized barbecue one day before our big day. We started to drink as well to be in a good condition for the next day (i’m joking :) ). My lovely aunt took charge of preparing the meat (she is really good in it), but we couldn’t find the matches so Andrej’s father helped her with the fire (in not very traditional way, as you can see below, but it really worked).

Poseidon gardens

Wed, 23 Jul 2008 11:24:04 +0000

We went out on a day trip to Poseidon gardens in the middle of the week. We were little bit afraid of the hot termal water in the swimming pools in such a warm weather and we had also sunburn more than it’s appropriate in the hot water :) We had concern about the weather when we saw first time the only hill on the island covered with the grey clouds in the morning, but after breakfast, swimming in the pool and reading on the sun beds we set off for the trip towards the Citara beach and Poseidon gardens.

Trips through the Ischia

Wed, 23 Jul 2008 11:19:45 +0000

You can make as many trips as you want on this island and you will still find some other places where to go. I can say that one week is not long enough for it. If you like hiking you need to see the vulcan which is responsible for all the thermal springs around the island. The name of the vulcan is Monte Epomeo and it is still active but it is not seen outwardly (except the springs).

Honeymoon

Sun, 20 Jul 2008 19:07:31 +0000

We finally found the right place for our honeymoon. It is a wonderful tiny island in Atlantic Ocean, which belongs to Portugal. The island of Madeira is lapped by the waters of the Gulf Stream, so there is nice warm weather. There are beautiful botanic gardens, mountains and views of the ocean and many nice people with their own traditions. We spent there wonderful time in a hotel on a seaside near Funchal the biggest town of Madeira.

Wedding announcement

Thu, 10 Jul 2008 08:32:05 +0000

Here are our wedding announcements. The green one for boys and the pink version for girls :) Translation: We like each other, so we are simply getting married. 16th of August 2008 at 4pm in Virgin Mary’s roman catholic church in Senica (Slovakia).

Hotel Corona***

Mon, 30 Jun 2008 18:35:56 +0000

After a long decision making we decided to stay in this hotel. We booked it even in a sale through the travel agency so the price was really good. After arriving to the hotel we met a nice lady at the reception, who was willing to explain us, where is our room, when the time for the breakfast and dinner is and she also gave us a little key from the gate to short private path towards the beach.

Forio

Mon, 30 Jun 2008 17:46:39 +0000

This is the town were we lived in a wonderful hotel Corona, which we can only recommend. It is said to be the most visited place by tourists on the island. It has several beaches (we saw and tried all of them), nice centre, several churches and countless streets, which are worth walking. This town is also famous by wine production and amazing thermal park Poseidon gardens.The most famous church is Soccorso’s church devoted to Santa Naria delle Neve, which can be seen in the movie Avanti!

Evergreen island - Ischia

Sat, 28 Jun 2008 20:44:19 +0000

We spent a wonderfull week in Italy last summer. We decided to get known an evergreen thermal island Ischia and people who live there. We tasted several food specialities and relish thermal spa with plenty of thermal springs and swimming pools. The sun was shining, a pleasant wind was blowing when we rest on the beach and we felt like in paradise.This picturesque island could be also characterized by huge lemons and sweet grapes, which we tried several times.

Where and when?

Fri, 20 Jun 2008 19:47:55 +0000

You would like to congratulate us, breathlessly watch the whole ceremony, bite your nails nervouslly and wait if we will say correct names or just run into the church and shout some mysterious reason why we can’t be married and you don’t know where and when to come? Well, we have prepared this article specially for you and you can find here all the necessary information. We’ll agree with love to join our lives on 16.

Married

Fri, 20 Jun 2008 18:32:19 +0000

“We like each other, so we got married.” To be married or not? That’s the question :) and you need to answer it for yourself but after several weeks of marriage we can say that it’s even better than before. Andrej is only complaining that I drink his coffee, beer, wine or whatever and he always needs another one, but nothing else has changed :) We belong to each other and we’ll live happily ever after.